Breguet's Pre-1914 Challenge #130

[Varese2002]

Originally Posted by aerohydro

-----

I am, however, plumping for 1904. This is because of the only contemporary accounts I've found about the Bott's Flying Machine date from 1904. One of the accounts appeared in the September 10, 1904 issue of Scientific American. I have not been able to obtain a readable copy of the actual article, so do not know if the text could cast more light on the matter for us.



I am happy to shift the date back to 1903, but would like a contemporary newspaper account, or the like, to substantiate that as being the case.

Cheers,
Paul

Thanks Paul for all your research and effort in presenting this very interesting Flying Machine of Botts. It is a very little known machine.

I will try to get a readable scan of the SciAM article on the Botts' flying machine. Will be placed here when available.

About the dating of the machine, there are references to periodicals appearing in 1903.



The periodical is the Aeronautical World, Glenville, Ohio which appeared from 1902 - 1930. Copies are in the Library of Congress (at least of the copies about Botts).

Cheers and thanks for all the information about Botts

Kees

[Varese2002]

Originally Posted by aerohydro

------

As to the exact dating of the Botts Airship and when it was actually tested , one can take your pick of different options. One part of the PRHA website quotes January 1903, the This Point in Time booklet says late in 1903, the PRHA newsletter articles simply has it as being "sometime in 1903".

I am, however, plumping for 1904. This is because of the only contemporary accounts I've found about the Bott's Flying Machine date from 1904. One of the accounts appeared in the September 10, 1904 issue of Scientific American. I have not been able to obtain a readable copy of the actual article, so do not know if the text could cast more light on the matter for us.

I am happy to shift the date back to 1903, but would like a contemporary newspaper account, or the like, to substantiate that as being the case.

Cheers,
Paul

Having read the article of Wiliam L. Thompson on Professor Botts and his airship, I could only conclude that the Botts Flying Machine was completely destroyed in 1903 by force of a gale. It did not exist in 1904 anymore and Botts had stopped his flying odyssee completely.

SciAM was surely late in reporting on Botts in September 10, 1904.

A minor point certainly but the title of US Patent #688,584 is spelled as AIR-SHIP, probably Airship was then not settled down as a concept / word. Something for our linguists

Cheers

Kees

[aerohydro]

And, thanks to Kees, and to Steve of the Scientific American Past website, we now have a scan of the 1904 article. Here's a better view of the photo:



The text for the article is fairly dry, and unfortunately does not cast much light onto the story of Prof Botts or of his flying machine. The article ends stating that the Professor intends on taking his machine to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair and entering the aeronautical competitions there.

Kudos to Kees and Steve for the scan.

Cheers,
Paul

[aerohydro]

Developments on the Botts front.

A new article, "The Truth About Professor Botts", by James W Hayes, has just been printed, as part of a newsletter put out by the Point Richmond History Association (website). The article can be found on pages 22 to 24 of their Feb/Mar 2010 newsletter, which can be downloaded in its entirety as a PDF from here.

The article includes two significant details. One is that it's now known that Professor Robert Botts is a separate and distinct person to Barnet Nixon Botts, who was also an early aviation advocate. An earlier researcher had fused these two individuals together, believing that the somewhat shadowy Professor had been born Barnet Botts, and later changed his name. We know now this was not the case.

The other new detail is that the date of the Botts' Flying Machine being destroyed at Nicholl's Nob can be firmly dated, not to 1903, as some researchers had thought, but to March 1904, thanks to a newspaper article from at time.

Cheers,
Paul

[Varese2002]

Thanks Paul for this follow up to the Professor Botts story. I read the story with interest, but was somewhat puzzled by the full quoted text from the Albuquerque Journal Democrat from December 13, 1901. In the last sentence it gives

...denote nothing less than genius and the few friends he has here would not be surprised to learn that he has rivalled the feats of Santos-Dumont and surpassed the ambitious Whitehead.

I had not known that Whitehead [Weißkopf] was that well-known already in 1901 to get a mention in an Albuquerque newspaper.

Cheers

Kees

[aerohydro]

Well, by the end of 1901, Gustave Whitehead was gaining quite a media profile.

There is a nicely designed website at www.GustaveWhitehead.org that supplies details and transcripts of various contemporary articles about this controversial German-American. At the part of the site dealing with News & Journalism, there are no less than four different articles that date from 1901.

One is from "Scientific American", the other three are newspaper stories, including the infamous "Bridgeport Herald" report of 18 August 1901, which gave an account of the flights that Gustave Whitehead had supposedly made the previous week.

*****************

Speaking of the "Scientific American", for those who are interested, here is the full article on the Botts' Flying Machine, as it appeared in the issue for 10 September 1904:

Cheers,
Paul

[Rod_Filan]

Thanks for the update on the corrected Botts story. Great work Paul and Kees. And of course thank you to Steve at the Scientific American Past website(!)
-
Cheers

[aerohydro]

Hello All,

I'd forwarded the scan of the SciAm article - that Steve and Kees had done - to the Point Richmond History Association newsletter editor. This article has now been reprinted, in their Apr/May 2010 newsletter on pages 22 and 23.

The editor's referred to me as an "oddball early aircraft enthusiast", which I think is a bit harsh. He doesn't even know me, and he calls me an oddball?!?

Sigh,
Paul

[aerohydro]

A newly-found photo of the Botts' flying machine. This picture appears in the book "Richmond" by Donald Bastin (ISBN 0738528587), part of the pictorial history series that's put out by Arcadia Publishing:

Google Books - "Richmond" - page 29

Cheers,
Paul

[Varese2002]

A great picture of the Botts' flying machine, thanks for the view. It occurs to me that few of our artists are drawing impressions of pre-1914 aeronautical objects. The Botts' machine might be interesting to see painted in oil, preferably from another angle than available on the few pictures showing the machine.

Kees