The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1884-05-27
Bill Nye on Flying Machines.


A long and exhaustive examination
of the history of flying machines en-
ables me to give briefly some of the
main points of a few for the benefit of
those who may be interested in this
science. [ give what l do in order to
prepare the public to take advantage
of the different methods, and be ready
at once to fly as soon as the weather
gets pleasant.
A Frenchman invented a flying
machine, or dofunny rs we scientists
wonld term it, in 1900 and something,
whereby he could sail down from the
woodshed and not break his neck. He
could not rise frsm the ground like q
lark and trill a few notes as he skim
med through the sky, but he could
fall of an ordinary hay stack like a
setting hen, with the aid of his wings.
His name was Besnier.
One hundred and twenty-five after
that a prisoner at Vienna named
Jacob Dagen, told the jailer he could
fly. The jailOr seemed inere1ulOus.
and 30 Jake constructed a pair of
double barrel umbrellas, that worked
by hand, and futtered with this ma
chine into the air fifty feet. He came
down in direct line and in doing so
ran one of the umbrellas through his
throax. lam glad it Is not the GUS
tom now to wear an umbrella in the
throaX.
In England during the present
century several inventors produced
flying machines, but in an evil hour
agreed to rise on them themselves,
and SO they died from their injuries.
Some came down on top of the
machines while others preceded
their inventions by a few feet, but the
result was the same. The invention
of flying machines has always been
handicapped, as it were, by this fact.
Men invent a flying machine and
then try to ride it and show it off,
and thus they are prevented by death
from perfecting their rolling stock
and securing their right of way.
| In 1912 Mr.. William Henderson
got out two-propeller machine, and
tried to incorporate a company to
utilize it, for the purpose of carrying
letters, running errands, driving home
the cows, lighting the Northern
lights and skimming the cream off the
Milky way, but it didn't seem to
complete very successfully with other
modes of travel, and 30 Mr.. Hender.
son wrapped it up in an old tent and
put it away in the hay-mow.
In 1853 Mr.. j. 81. johnson paten.
ted balloon and parachute dingus
which worked on the principle of q
ducks foot in the mud. use scienti
fic terms because am unable to ex-
press myself in the common language
of the vulgar herd. This machine
had tail which under great excite
element it would throw over the
dashboard as it bounded through
the air.
! Probably the biggest thing in its
way under this head was the revival
of flying under the presidency of the
, Duke of Argyle, the society being
called the Aeronautical Society O
Great Britain. This society made
{ some valuable calculations and ex
, periments in the interest of aerosta
ton, adding much to our scientific
, knowledge, and filling London witt
cripples.
In 1869 Mr.. Joseph T. Kaufman
, invented and turned loose upon the
people of Glasgow an Internal machine
intended to soar considerably in q
quiet kind of way and to be propell
ed by steam. 1t looked like the bird
J known to ornithology as the fyupitbe
crick and had an air brake, patent
: coupler, buffer and platform. 1t wa
intended to hold two men On ice and
rosewood casket with silver handles
It was mounted on wheels, and as i,
did not seem to skim through the ali
! very much, the people of Glasgow
hitched clothes line to it and useG
) it for a band wagon.
Rufus Porter invented an aria
dewdad ten years ago in Connecticut
where 90 many crimes have been com
mitted since Mark Twain moved there.
This was called the @raport, and look
ed like seed wart floating through
space. This engine was worked BY
springs connected with propellers