UDATE ON MATCH #5--LEAONARDO DAVINCI'S JOURNAL FOUND!
(Keep in mind...DaVinci would have penned this in
the last decade of 1500s...It's MIND-BLOWING!)

[link to www.economist.com (secure)]

FROM LEONARDO DAVINCI'S NEWLY DISCOVERED JOURNAL--IN HIS HANDWRITING:

IN RIVERS the water you touch is the last of what has passed, and the
first of that which comes: so with time present. But today a strange
visitor appeared suddenly in my studio, as from a large bubble in the
air. Inhabiting another time, he finds amusement in conveying people
to eras distant from their own, but in secret because this is forbidden
by his own people. He offered to transport me 500 years into the future,
provided I preserve his secret. The natural desire of good men being
knowledge, I agreed to his proposal.

At my host’s suggestion I must wear simple clothing. He will give out
that I am a philosopher who, living in seclusion for many years, prefers
not to speak. He has given me a rectangle of black glass, and a kind of
brooch worn on the ear that will render the speech of those around me
into my own tongue. If I clutch this glass rectangle closely at all times,
I am told, my appearance will not seem unusual.

By strange means that carry men instantaneously to various parts of the world,
without motion, my host has taken me to Shanghai, a city far to the east,
in Cathay, and to New York, a city far to the west, in the lands named after
Amerigo Vespucci. There are buildings of enormous height, made of glass
seemingly unsupported by stone or brick. Some are adorned with moving coloured
lights that create the illusion of a window to another place.

Far above these buildings soar many flying machines, conveying people and
goods. Unlike the ones I have seen in my dreams, their wings do not move like
those of a bird or a butterfly, but are fixed. The motive power is derived
from a kind of fluid, similar to naphtha. The machines must be fed with this
fluid, as a lamp is fed with oil, when they return to the ground.

In the roads between the buildings of these great cities are armoured carriages
in countless numbers that propel themselves without the use of horses. These
carriages too must be fed with the naphtha fluid. The parts that are not armoured
in metal plate are made of a strange material that is light and flexible, yet
strong, and may be formed in any desired shape or colour, and is also used to
make many other objects.

The lights adorning the buildings, and many other things besides, are fed not
by the naphtha fluid, but by a second fluid, invisible to the eye, that can be
conducted along metal wires, coated in the strange material. By means of this
fluid ovens can be heated without the need for wood or other fuel, and stairways
and metal boxes can be made to move, to convey people within buildings. This
fluid can also cause the sound of a lute, or another instrument, to be greatly
increased, so that its music can be heard even by a great multitude gathered together.

But most mysterious to me is a third fluid that flows invisibly through the air
and conveys writing and sounds and pictures between the glass rectangles,
allowing them to act as windows to other places, and to capture the sight
of things more faithfully than any painting. So wondrous is this power that
people gaze constantly at their glass rectangles, and at the images therein.
Painting is no longer the sole imitator of all the visible works of nature,
and just as the mirror is the master of painting, so too is this kind of mirror,
which fixes images in place.

We visit the land of California, to observe the flight of a machine that lifts
objects into the sky on a pillar of fire, and then returns to the ground;
and those objects it carries are thrown around the Earth so that they stay
aloft and circle its globe, as the Moon does. The inventor of these machines
has also created self-propelling carriages capable of moving without human
supervision. I wish to meet this man but my host fears he would recognise me.
For it seems my name and appearance are known, even in this time, and my works
are preserved.

It pleases me that many of my ideas have been brought to completion using materials
and methods unknown in my time, including a flying machine held aloft by rotating
wings, and an apparatus by which a man can breathe underwater. It pleases me also
that my paintings afford much satisfaction to mankind. Before returning me to my
own time, my host takes me to Paris, to see my portrait of La Gioconda hanging
in a place of honour. That reminds me: I really must finish it.
END OF DAVINCI'S WRITING (Note: This was translated
from Italian in the "World in 2019--Economist Magazine"
so grammar may differ!


O'sCookie

ABOVE is the Economist quote IN DAVINCI'S OWN WORDS
...BELOW is a cut-and-paste post from my current DaVinci
thread as we try to predict WHAT DAVINCI MAY HAVE AS
HIS "TAKE=AWAY 2019 INFORMATION"--WE THINK IT IS THE
INK DRAWING (also found in the same journal as DaVinci's
report on the Time-Travel experience!)