Since you guy's don't seem to be taking my question seriously. I guess I'll just give you the answer. And thank you Rich for being the only that did, and you were close!
Dr. Saxton Pope is the correct answer. According to an article by Mike Cox "Texas tales" written Sept. 19/07 in some Texas News paper, he wrote the following.
"Readers of the March 2,1895 edition of the weekly Eagle Pass Guide surely paused over this short back-page headline: New Flying Machine.
New flying machine? Folks along the Rio Grande still considered the recent inauguration of through train service from San Antonio to Mexico City via Eagle Pass, a modern marvel of transportation efficiency. That a man-made device could sail through the air stood as a old fantasy even in the so called Gay 90's, but few in Texas gave it much thought and even fewer believed it would ever happen in their life time.
Saxton Temple Pope, a young Texan in California not only thought man could fly, he did. Or so it was claimed.
The 19-year old lived at Angel island, CA, where his father, Maj Benjamin Franklin Pope served as surgeon at the Army post there. Before his transfer to the Pacific coast, the doctor had dnoe tours of duty at various military garrisons in Texas, including Fort Clark at Brackettville. His son had been born in 1875 at Fort Stockton, when the major tended to Army and civilian medical needs on that remote installation.
Maj. Pope had been stationed at Fort Clark prior to his transfer to the West Coast. In fact, it was the Brackettville News that wrote the story on the flying machine built by the major's son. "Saxton's old schoolmates in Brackett are no doubt proud over his glorious triumph," the newspaper editorialized.
According to the newspaper article, the machine was tested a few days ago and carried the inventor a distance when a light brace gave way and the whole thing came to the ground. the test was satisfactory, however because it showed the machine to be capable of flight"
Having grown up on the frontier Army posts, young Pope presciently envisioned a military application for his invention- aerial observation.
Pope built his "machine" actually an un-powered glider, in a few weeks beginning in late December 1894.
The machine is simply a mechanical soaring bird, Pope told a newspaper reporter. There is no complicated machinery about it.
Resembling a bat, the plane had been fashioned with a hundred square feet of canvas stretched over bamboo. It weighed about 35 pounds and its two wings extended 22 feet tip-to-tip.
Behind the wings, which Pope described as horizontal planes, a fan-shaped bamboo and canvas rudder extended about 15 feet
This is set in a vertical position pointing upward at an angle of about 30 degrees. the article continued. This prevents the whole plane from swaying about and keeps the wings steady against the wind.
The rising and falling of the plane was regulated by changing the center of gravity. This is done by the movements of the body of the operator. The same natural principal which enables the buzzard to soar against the wind and rise and fall at will governs this machine.
When not in use , the plane could be folded up for easy carrying, the young inventor said.
Of course, Pope told the interviewer, one cannot expect to be as expert flyer with this machine all at once. It will require much practice and delicate skill to bring it to practical use.
Alas, the Fort Stockton boy did not go down in history as the inventor of the first airplane. But he did go on to demonstrate his skills in another field. Like his father, Pope became a physician.
While Saxton Pope enjoyed a successful surgical practice in San Francisco, he is remembered neither for his medical expertise or his early-day bat plane. It is his writing that has endured.
In 1912, while teaching surgical technique at the University of California's medical school, Pope treated ishi, a Yahi indian who had wandered down form the hills into Oroville, CA the year before. The last of his tribe, ishi became a ward of the university's anthropology museum.
Pope and the indian became friends and hunting companions, Ishi teaching the Texas-born doctor how to use the bow and arrow and go after wild game indian-style. Pope, mining Ishi for information on his culture and life, made a huge contribution to the world's understanding of the American Indian. Some of his more important books are Yahi Archery (1918), The Medical History of Ishi (1920) and A Study of Bows and Arrows (1923)
Ishi died of TB in 1916 and Pope follow him to the happy hunting ground in 1926
Hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did.
Bob
Topic: History Trivia ! (Read 1343 times)
