JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
I came upon this small, rare item in the early aviation box here. Its the inaugural address establishing the Aeronuatical Society of Great Britain, the even held at the residence of the Duke of Argyll (Campden Hill) on 12 January 1866. The text is by James Glaisher, who was a significant experimentalist/balloonist in addition to running the Department of Meteorology and Magnetism at the Royal Greenwich Observatories for 34 years. The document is only 7×4 inches, but it winds up being quite dense (literalyl and figuratively), with about 800 words packed onto one side of this double-column sheet.
Gibbs-Smith, in his interesting and very useful Aviation, an Historical Survey states:
“One of the most important dates in flying history is the year 1866, when there was founded in London the Aeronautical Society (now Royal) of Great Britain. Although not the earliest society devoted to flying it
was by far the most important and. influential . It soon attracted men who realized that mechanical flight was ultimately possible, and who were determined to study and solve its problems.. From then on the main
development of aviation was to lie in the hands of scientifically or technologically trained men. The subject if flying…now took on a new seriousness…it now become a proper subject of investigation…”– p. 41.
The object itself does not appear in the OCLC/WorldCat, and so is extremely uncommon in this format, so I thought it would be useful to report on it and reprint it here. The original is also available for purchase onthe store’s blog.
