Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-28
FLEW OVER CHANNEL
IN 1751, It IS SAID
Old Letter Written in London
Tells of Trip in Machine
Like Modern AeropIane.
Foreign Correspondence OF The Star.

Orelgn correspondence OF The Star.
LONDON, July Is, 1910.
The feat of flying across the English
channel in an aeroplane has been hailed
as twentieth century triumph but it
is possible that Bleriots fight was not
the first Of it's kind. The archives of
the city of Bergamo in northern Italy,
contain letter written in London, Octo-
Der IS, 17o1, telling of a certain Italian
who made an aeroplane and actually flew
across the English channel in it, A
translation of this letter follows:
There is here a man of the most sur
prising talent that ever was seen in the
world. He says he is an Italian monk, a
native Of Civitavecchio, named Andrea
Grimaldo, and he is about fifty years old.
He spent twenty years in travelling in
eastern lands, wehere he devoted himself
for a period of fourteen years to construct
mechanics and mathematics could devise.
This is box of the most curious
workmanship and build, which, by means
or certain clock springs, rises in the air
with such lightness and rapidity of force
that in its flight it can make a voyage of
seven leagues an hour. 1t is made on the
model of a bird. The wings have a
spread Of twenty-five feet from tip to tip.
The body is made of pieces of cane con-
nected with parchment and feathers
The wings are of catgut and whalebone.
In the body Of the machine are thirty
wheels with two balls of brass and little
chains, which alternately wind up a
weight, and with the help of six brass
vessels filled with mercury, which run in
channels, the machine is maintained in
the desired equilibrium
Motion Was Regular.
by means of the friction of a steel
wheel and a heavq piece of loadstone
the whole is kept In very regular motion.
which lasts during an even and gentle
wind, because the machine cannot fly
either in total calm or in a high wind
''This prodigious machine is steered by
a tail seven hands wide, which is attached
to the knees and ankles of the operator,
and by stretching or drawing in his legs
to the right or the left he moves the ma
chine in whichever direction he pleases.
But he cannot remain in the air more
than three hours, and a break in the
mechanism would cause a fatal fall
Therefore he does not soar more than the
height of a tree or two: so also he has
only once ventured over the sea, and this
was from Dover to Calais. and the same
morning he arrived in London
The letter closes by saying that Girl
maldo had made flight in the park in
London. going as far as Windsor Lodge
and back again, in two hours.
Similar to Modern Machine.
1t will be noticed how similar in general
form was the aeroplane described in this
letter to those which are being used to-
day. 1t was, of course, impossible 80
years ago to imagine motor such as
those used today. for steam and electric
ity were still unknown powers. The vague
description of the mechanism suggests
clockwork. which would be the only arti-
fetal motive power possible in those days
1t would seem that Grmaldo's aeroplane
must have tapped it's wings like a bird
for there is in the description no sug-
gestion of propeller.
Aeroplanists of today will smile at the
naive way in which Grimaldo's flights are
described, for Tapping wings as a motive
power were discarded long ago. it hav-
ing been proved that no machine de-
pendent upon them could be practicable
1t is highly probable that Grimaldo actu-
ally made some short flights in and
around London in 1751, and that he said
he had flown across the English chan
mel, but it will be difficult to get any one
today to believe that he really did fy
across from France to England.