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Did they really think this would fly?
Did they really think this would fly?
Item # 669276
May 09, 1885
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, New York, May 9, 1885
* 19th century flying machine ?
Page 5 has a fascinating print of: "Ayres' New Aerial Machine" with a related article: "A New Aerial Machine" with much detail on how this machine would work. It even notes: "...illustrations shows it very clearly and we believe that a machine constructed as here represented can do its work successfully...". Fascinating evidence of what the best minds of the 19th century envisioned in their quest for flight.
Half of the front page is an illustration of the: "Improved Mechanical Cotton Picker" and the balance is a lengthy article on it. Other scientific improvements & inventions throughout.
Sixteen pages, very nice condition.
AI notes: The Dr. W. O. Ayers Aerial Machine (1885) was an ambitious early attempt to achieve heavier-than-air flight decades before the Wright Brothers. Designed by William Orville Ayers, a physician and inventor, the craft was featured in Scientific American that year and described as a mechanically powered flying machine combining principles of both an ornithopter (flapping wings) and a dirigible (lighter-than-air control). The design featured a framework of lightweight materials supporting broad, paddle-like wings driven by a central crank mechanism—possibly powered by steam or clockwork—and a tail structure intended for steering and stability. Its inventor envisioned it as capable of vertical ascent, hovering, and directional flight, though no evidence suggests it ever flew. The Ayers machine reflected the inventive optimism of the late 19th century, when engineers and dreamers worldwide sought to solve the mystery of powered flight through mechanical ingenuity, well before aerodynamic theory was fully understood.
Category: Post-Civil War
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