LILIENTHAL, Otto. "Lilienthal's Experiments in Flying", in Nature, 12 December 1894, pp 177-179, with four photographic illustrations; offered in the weekly issue of pp 169-192. Removed from a larger bound volume, with the scarce original printed wrappers (and ads). Nice copy. $150
Lilienthal was an international authority on human flight, and was known to many as The Flying Man, and The Father of Flight, because, well, he flew. And he flew more often and with more recorded/documented successes in his non-powered flying machines than any other aviation pioneer of the time. In fact, he had a major influence on the Wright brothers (though not necessarily for his experimental data, which they abandoned after a while to create their own in their wind tunnel), with Wilbur Wright saying: "Of all the men who attacked the flying problem in the 19th century, Otto Lilienthal was easily the most important. ... It is true that attempts at gliding had been made hundreds of years before him, and that in the nineteenth century, Cayley, Spencer, Wenham, Mouillard, and many others were reported to have made feeble attempts to glide, but their failures were so complete that nothing of value resulted." (From the Wikipedia article on Lilienthal.)
Lilienthal was well into making successful jumps/flights by this time, but would suffer his fatal fall in about two more years, dying August 10, 1896, after a series of 850' flights.
This is an early appearance of Lilienthal in English, and also includes the famous picture of him with his ornithopter.
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