Jarrett, 1987

Jarrett, Philip. 1987. Another Icarus: Percy Pilcher and the Quest for Flight. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.

This book is about Percy Pilcher, a British/Scottish glider maker who followed on the patterns of Lilienthal. He worked with a person named Watson. He had celebrated successes. The book is tremendously detailed, concise, and carefully accurate. Appendix B discusses his ten patent applications. The text refers to a number of letters to or from Pilcher.

Scattered notes

• p84 helpful explanation of transitions in Vickers/Maxim companies: On Sept 15, 1897, "the Maxim and Nordenfeld company was taken over by Vickers, to become Vickers, Sons & Maxim Limited. Vickers, which had held a minority shareholding in the company, paid £1,353,000 for the artillery and ammunition works at Erith, Crayford, and Dartford. Owing to the lack of government orders and to 'eccentric' management by Maxim and Nordenfeld, the company had not fared well in the 1880s but had been made profitable in 1896 by Sigmund Loewe, whose appointment to the board had been arranged by Lord Rothschild. Loewe's business ability has been described as 'one of the most important assets which Vickers acquired' in the purchase, and Vickers was 'entirely ruthless' in taking only the people it wanted from compan ies that it bought. Maxim was 'effectively' eliminated from any position of influence." And it seems that Maxim "was required to remove his hangar from the company's ranges at Eynsford. Coupled with Maxim's poor finances following his experiments in the late 1880s and early 1890s, this brought his [aero?] work to an end. It also deprived Pilcher [of a] hangar [and of his] flying ground." (There are many footnotes in Jarrett's text to sources.)
• p 85 quotes Chanute on the Pratt truss, thus: "The cellules were 'all trussed together, with vertical posts and diagonal wire tires, this being probably the first application which has ben made of the Pratt truss to flying machine design'". The inner quote is from Chanute, 1897, Gliding Experiments, Journal of the Western Society of Engineers, says Jarrett on p209. (It occurs to pbm that the various participants who put diagonal wires may not have distinguished various patterns of diagonal wires from one another ; the Pratt truss is one of several diagonal patterns per en.wp.)

Original title	Another Icarus: Percy Pilcher and the Quest for Flight
Simple title	Another Icarus: Percy Pilcher and the Quest for Flight
Authors	Philip Jarrett
Date	1987
Countries	GB
Languages	en
Keywords	Percy Pilcher
Journal	Smithsonian Institution Press
Related to aircraft?	-1
Page count	226
Word count
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