One Hundred Years of Solitude

gave him a mechanical bear
that walked on its hind legs
on a tightrope, but he could
not distract him from his
obsession. He asked him what
had happened to the project
he had explained to him a few
days before about the
possibility of building a
pendulum machine that
would help men to fly and he
answered that it was
impossible because a
pendulum could lift anything