In the ottoman empire, which was the epicentre of all the great discoveries and inventions, Abbas Ibn Firnas made several attempts and he finally succeeded in one. His flying machine resembled the bird wings. The bird wings are the perfect flying machine which seldom fails. The wings are made in such a way that they can float in air. The bones in the wings are hollow from inside and feather upon them are soft and less dense to the extent that they can carry the weight of a bird without any difficulty. So, firnas must have studied them very closely until he ended up making his first flight machine. His first flight was a success. He flew in the air for a few minutes before he crash landed.
According to historians, this was reportedly the first flying attempt made by any man.
Ibn firnas was not just a flying man but his work list has some one inventions too.
1: In ancient times, time used to be measured very differently. Some people measured it with sand, some with shadows and some with water. Ibn Firnas designed water clock and called it Al-maqata, this device measures time with the inflow or outflow of the water from the pot. Some of these can be found in museums.
2: Glass, which is used in many things has been seen around since centuries. Since the day it was discovered, many attempts were made to make it look real-like and delicate. Ibn Firnas devised a mean to make it colourless. It is his invention because of which we see many colourless glasses around us.
3: He invented a glass planisphere, a device which is used to study stars and other objects. His invention was a value added in existing astronomy.
4: He also made corrective lenses, the glass which are worn on eyes, which we know as “lenses” today. So, the contact lenses are not the made of west but they are make of muslims.
5: his astronomy sense led him to make a mechanism with which he could simulate the motion of stars. He made a cain of rings which moved to give the movements of stars on heavens. This is one of the most impressive things he made.
6: Stone cutting, which is no pain today, was introduced by him. In his times, stones used to be cut and shaped in egypt. But ibn firnas made it easy for Spain by developing a mechanism for it.
7: His home is said to contain a place where he made people see stars, clouds, thunders etc. he did all that from his basement laboratory where he set some machines to produce artificial nature.
Abbas Ibn Firnas was not an ordinary man known to a few, but he is a famous man. On his name is a crater on moon, called crater Ibn Firnas.