The Problem of Manflight
Boston, Massachusetts: W. B. Clarke & Co 1894. First Edition. 20 pages. Faded yellow printed wrappers with illustration on cover. 8vo. INSCRIBED by Means "H. L. Mason, esq with the regards of James Means" at top of front wrapper. Small nick to foreedge of front wrapper, and pencilled line of music at the top of page 5. Otherwise clean internally. Very Good. Wraps. [26047]
James Means was an industrialist from Dorchester MA who left his shoe manufacturing business to focus on the new field of aviation. He published the Aeronautical Annuals of 1895, 1896, and 1897 with the hopes that the material printed there (often important reprints of difficult to find publications by pioneers in the field) would inspire others to investigate aviation. This pamphlet (which was available on demand for 10 cents in postage) includes a design for a soaring machine which could be used by readers to conduct flying experiments.
In 1894 the future of aviation was far from assured. But Means had faith - his pamphlet finishes with the prophetic line: "Aerial transit will be accomplished because the air is a solid if you hit it hard enough." Something that every kid who ever held their hand out the window of the family car while their imagination soared can appreciate.
"James Means is best remembered for his Aeronautical Annuals of 1895, 1896 and 1897, which communicated important information about the aeronautical thinking and experimentation of that time, as well as historical articles of significance....His publications had significant impact. Orville Wright, writing as the Wright Brothers, sent a letter to James Means in 1910 acknowledging the part that the Aeronautical Annuals had played in spurring and sustaining their interest in aeronautics...The devotion which James Means had to encouraging aerial experimentation and to documenting the work of others, as well as his own, has secured him a place of importance and respect among those who have pondered the history of flight." (flymachines.org)
Well represented institutionally, but scarce in the marketplace, especially signed.
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