WALKER, Thomas

A Treatise on the Art of Flying, by Mechanical Means

      Printed and Sold by Samuel Wood, at the Juvenile Book-Store, New-York 1814 - First American edition (first published in Hull, England, in 1810). Twelvemo. xiv, [15]-64 pp. Two wood-engraved plates. Cover title: Art of Flying.Original buff printed boards, neatly ebacked to style. Publisher's advertisements on rear board. Paper slightly browned, a few marginal stains. Pencilled signature on title-page, ink signature inside rear board. Overall, an excellent copy of this rare and fragile item. Housed in a quarter morocco clamshell case."This.is the first book printed in America on heavier-than-air flying machines" (Randers-Pehrson & Renstrom, Aeronautic Americana, 7)."Nothing appears to be known of the life of the author, beyond such meagre facts as may be gathered from his book. On the title-page of the first edition he is described as a portrait painter of Hull-where his book was published-and from the reference to himself (in the eulogistic dedication to Earl ) as an 'obscure individual', it is evident his reputation as an artist, or indeed in any capacity, was limited to a small circle.It is evident that Walker's book became more widely known in the author's lifetime than the author himself. In the second edition of 1831 which appeared at Bristol-whither Walker had presumably moved-under the new title of A Treatise upon Aerostation-an unnecessary, not to say inaccurate, revision-the author refers to copies having been 'taken into Holland, Germany, France, America, and other countries', while actual reprints were published in New York in 1814 and 1816.Walker's ideas on the practicability of flight as a means of aerial transportation were based (as stated on the title-age of his treatise) upon 'the natural principles by which birds are enabled to fly'. It is evident the flight of birds was a subject on which for many years he diligently read and observed-in his early life he dissected many birds and 'studied very minutely the mechanism of their wings, tails, and all the parts which they employ in flying'. On the evidence of his reading.he avers that 'no one has ever understood the natural means of flying' and he dismisses as 'childish whims' all attempts hitherto made with wings, whether of silk, leather, sheet iron, or other materials. Throughout the book he insists on the fact that granted the possession of the 'two greatest requisites' for flying, viz. 'wings large enough' and 'sufficient power to work them' the weight of a bird-or of a man-is not obstacle to the art of flying.In respect of his own scheme for 'artificial flying which, conceived on an analogous plan, was designed to overcome the difficulty of the insufficient strength of man's arms, and (as hitherto attempted) the unsupported weight of his body-he claimed, with that complete assurance which is rarely convincing, 'there cannot remain a doubt of success'. Walker admits that 'professional Avocations and other circumstances'-which is is safe to assume included lack of money-prevented him from making any such machine as he described on paper, and indeed the only experiment he himself records was confined to diminutive paper models. It should, however, be added that a contemporary.stated that Walker made a machine, but 'was unable to raise himself from the platform on which the car was placed'. Moreover the same writer, in a critical examination of Walker's ideas, demonstrated by mathematical calculations that the winds proposed and the device for applying manual power were wholly insufficient.In the 1810 edition two crude plans of the machine are given, and they probably convey the mechanical features of the design as clearly-or as inadequately-as the textual description. But between the first edition and the later one of 1831 Walker's ideas had in some respects become modified.and an entirely new design for the flying machine is given.One addition to the description of the machine as given in the 1831 may be mentioned, namely Walker's suggestion that if after a full trial his machine failed, the wings might be made to contain hydrogen gas