George J. Higgins

[Liquid Amber]

One of his bows on the big auction site; cool looking.  Not a great deal of informaiton on Higgins; I have only three articles and a couple passages from other sources on him.  

An Aeronautical Engineer who taught at the University of Detroit prior to joining the Navy during WWII.  Retired as a Navy Capt.

Later Professor-Emeritus of Aeronautics, USN, Postgrad School, Monterey, Calif.

Articles by him in "Archery World," April 1969; "Ye Sylvan Archery," July 1929 and March-April 1930.

One of the early recurved/reflexed end short bow promoters; Roy Case got the idea from Higgins.

Anyone have something to add?

[Cody Roiter]

Well thats a nice bow.. I also dont know and thing on Mr. Higgins...

Cody

[JavelinaHink]

Cliff....thanks for sharing the imformation on Mr. Higgins, nice to know of the Michigan conection.

[Wade Phillips]

Cliff,

I had many old archery magazines with Higgins mailing labels on them. You may have gotten some from me when you were working on completing your sets of archery periodicals.

Years ago I received YSA size bound booklet which was owned by George J. Higgins. It contained the YSA articles that you mentioned plus several other interesting items...

Also bound into the spine was George J. Higgins article that appeared in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, "The Aerodynamic of an Arrow", July 1933

An article by C.N. Hickman, Ph.D., Velocity and Acceleration of Arrows, Weight And Efficiency of Bows as Affected by Backing of Bow. Oct 1929

An article by F.L English in a later publication "The Exterior Ballistics of the Arrow"

A 1933 letter from Dr. Paul E. Klopsteg to Higgins correcting some errors in formulas in Higgins' article, asking about Higgins shooting, and attendance at the National.

A 1933 letter from F.L English to Higgins discussing Higgins' article and correcting a formula in a recent "Archery Review" article by Rheingans.

Klopsteg's letter is a classic to the point letter.

[JavelinaHink]

That's cool stuff there.    

[Tox Collector]

Many years ago I wrote to Higgins to obtain a copy of his "Aerodynamics of an Arrow" that appeared in the Franklin Institute Journal.  He didn't have an extra copy but took the time to reproduce the article, bind it and send it to me.  As I recall, he also had a small collection of archery books.  He was a nice individual.

[Wade Phillips]

Tox Collector - Interesting how you acquired a copy of Higgins'  "Aerodynamics of an Arrow".

This is a photograph of the spine of the bound booklet with Higgins' letters from Klopsteg & English, the Vol 7 YSA, and the other items mentioned.

Although this the only YSA volume of Higgins that I acquired, I would assume that Higgins had the other volumes in his set bound into similar books. My personal sets of all old archery periodicals are bound, which is the simplest way to keep periodicals organized.

The only identification of ownership inside is his ink stamp "George J. Higgins".

 

[Tox Collector]

Wade -- nice binding -- great item for your collection.  After George Higgins sent me a copy of his work, I acquired a pamphlet from Clem Parker in which he had bound the three works [Higgins, Hickman & English] like yours.  The spine reads "Velocity and Acceleration of Arrows - Hickman".  

He also tipped in various ephemera relating to "Medal Day" [Wednesday, October 20, 1954] at The Franklin Institute where Clarence Nickols Hickman [co-author of "Archer the Technical Side"] was awarded the Wetherill Medal for his inventions in Rocketry, Telephony, Sound Recording, Archery and in other fields.

Hickman in a letter [dated Nov. 1, 1954]conveying the ephemera to Clem Parker stated: "I have just returned from Albuquerque where I worked for a few days.  It was nice there and I hated to have to come back.  I was hunting up state [Hickman lived in Jackson Heights, NY] with Jene Myers the week end before I left for N.M.  We did not shoot any birds but got lots of sunshine and exercise.  The boys in Alb. are getting ready for their deer hunt.  On the way out I called Mrs. Klopsteg on phone and find that Dr. Klopsteg has not only retired from Northwetern but will quit his Wash. job in Dec.  I am working on him to attend the National in Ohio next year.  Hope he does not take on any other job...."  

Hickman was a man of many talents.