Forgotten Past , livre ebook

Troubador Publishing Ltd - Andrew Vinken

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97 pages

English

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We've all been taught about kings and queens, great battles and the rise and fall of empires. The term historians have coined for this is 'history from above'. But what about the ordinary folk? What about almost everybody who ever existed? What about the places where no earth-shattering events have ever occurred?This book is comprised of fascinating stories and anecdotes throughout history, such as how a Bristol merchant may have played a part in giving America its name; why a First World War naval battle was fought in a jungle, and how Sir David Attenborough helped to solve a Victorian murder mystery.

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Histoire

History

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Publié par	Troubador Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	18 mai 2019
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781838599119
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	9 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0250€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Copyright © 2019 Andrew Vinken

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

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ISBN 978 1838599 119

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd

Dedicated to the memory of my good friend
Simon James Capey
1963-2013
Contents
1. Wright? Wrong!
2. The Train Now Departing
3. The Prince of Poyais
4. America – Amerigo or Amerike?
5. Who Killed Sir Edmund Godfrey?
6. Was King Arthur Part Italian?
7. The House That Sarah Built
8. Dan Donnelly’s Arm
9. The Unknown Child
10. The Memory of Water
11. Scratching Fanny: The Cock Lane Ghost
12. The Surprising History of Everyday Words
13. The Rise and Fall of Jean-Pierre Blanchard
14. The Remarkable War of Lance Corporal William Harold Coltman
15. Till Cash Us Do Part
16. The Nice Herr Goering
17. The Copper Scroll Treasure
18. Mark Twain: Hero of the American Civil War?
19. The World’s Worst Poet
20. Lord Loincloth and the Rumble in the Jungle
21. The Phantom Doggie of Logierait Parish
22. Was Lord Haw-Haw a Traitor?
23. Gordon Bennett, It’s Sweet Fanny Adams!
24. The Voynich Manuscript
25. Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm?
26. Oh, Sister!
27. What’s That Doing There?
28. Strange but True!
29. The Veil of Veronica
30. Hitler’s Second Book
31. Misadventures in Tudor England
32. The Regicidal Hermit
33. On Top of the World
34. The Mystery of Christie
35. The World’s Weirdest Wars
36. John Hampden: Father of Democracy?
37. Rest in Peace?
38. The Disappearance of Cora Crippen
39. John Stringfellow: The Father of Powered Flight
40. Sir David Attenborough and the Barnes Bridge Mystery
41. Wanted, Dead and Alive

Appendix 1 Images
Appendix 2 Sources
Introduction
I suppose I have always had a keen interest in history, but it was only when studying at undergraduate level that I realised what it was that really excited me about the subject. We’ve all been taught about kings and queens, great battles and the rise and fall of empires. The term historians have coined for this is ‘history from above’ . But what about the ordinary folk? What about almost everybody who ever existed? What about the places where no earth-shattering events have ever occurred? I realised that what interested me most were the people and places that did not make it into the school curriculum. The term historians use for this is ‘history from below’ .
Of course, we cannot know everything that has ever happened. In fact, what we do know is but a tiny fraction of everything that has ever happened. Nevertheless, it is the things we do know, but which have been largely forgotten, that this book is about. In what follows, kings and queens and famous places do put in occasional appearances, but do so in secondary roles. The stories I have included in this book are about people and places that, for the most part, do not spring readily to mind but which, partly as a consequence of their obscurity, form fascinating tales nonetheless.
So, if you too have an interest in things over which time has drawn a veil, read on and prepare to discover some history from below. I hope you enjoy the stories.

Andrew Vinken
Buckinghamshire, England
January 2019
one
Wright? Wrong!
The day of 26 June 2013 was a monumental one in aviation history. “Why, what happened?”, I hear you say. Well, I’ll tell you. But in order to do so we need to go back more than 140 years, to 1 January 1874. On this day, in Leutershausen, Bavaria, to Karl and Babetta Weisskopf, was born a boy by the name of Gustave. By the time he reached school age, he had developed a lively interest in flight. He built models that flew, and was even recorded jumping off roofs with homemade wings attached to his arms! Fortunately, he seems to have come to little harm.
Sadly, by 1887 both his parents were dead, and so young Gustave had to make his own way in the world. He trained as a mechanic and eventually found work on a Norwegian ship called The Gromund , sailing between Europe and South America.
Sometime during 1893, Weisskopf arrived in the USA and almost immediately anglicised his surname to Whitehead. He first found work with Harvard University, at their Blue Hill Weather Observatory, where, among other things, his duties included the testing of kites.

Gustave Whitehead

In 1896, Whitehead found more gainful employment at the Boston Aeronautical Society, as a mechanic. In this capacity, he built a number of gliders and made a few flights in them himself. Around this time, he also gained an interest in the development of engines, and he eventually built several of his own examples. What followed was perhaps inevitable. Gustave began to work on the unrealised dream of powered flight. He constructed a number of prototypes, until…
On 14 August 1901, Whitehead took his latest attempt at a heavier-than-air aircraft, unimaginatively called ‘Number 21’, to a site near the village of Fairfield, about 1.5 miles outside Bridgeport, Connecticut. It had a wingspan of 36 feet and was powered by two engines. A 10-horsepower engine provided power to the wheels, to propel the craft to take-off speed, and a 20-horsepower engine powered two propellers for momentum in flight.

Gustave Whitehead’s ‘Number 21’

The world’s press had been invited and, at 5.02am, the contraption started to move along the ground, gathering speed as it went. Then, to the amazement of those in attendance, Whitehead actually took off! His first flight covered a distance of about half a mile, or around 2,600 feet. He then took off again, this time achieving a distance of approximately one and a half miles, or about 7,800 feet, at a steady height of around 50 feet. This momentous achievement, witnessed by numerous individuals, was front-page news around the world, with more than 130 contemporary newspaper articles reporting the flights.
Compare this, if you will, to the first flight of the Wright brothers’ ‘Flyer’, on 17 December 1903, during which Orville Wright achieved a distance of only 120 feet. Considering that the wingspan of a Boeing 747 is 196 feet, this is a somewhat underwhelming distance!
So, what is the problem? If Whitehead achieved powered flight in a heavier-than-air aircraft in August 1901, why do the history books record Orville Wright’s punier effort of December 1903 as the first occasion this feat was accomplished?
The answer seems to be photographic evidence. Sharp-imaged, good-quality photographs exist to prove that the Flyer flew. By comparison, only one very blurred image of Whitehead’s achievement was ever known to have existed, and that has since been lost. All that remains today is an even less clear image, included in a photograph taken in 1906 at an Aero Club of America Exhibition, purporting to show the original photograph as part of the exhibition. Unsurprisingly, a small section of a 1906 photograph depicting a blurred photograph is very blurred indeed, and is therefore inadmissible as evidence.

The Wright brothers’ ‘Flyer’

In later years, while never achieving the level of success enjoyed by the Wright brothers, Whitehead became a leading supplier of engines and airframes. In 1907, a flying machine fitted with a Whitehead engine, the construction of which had been financed by the United States Navy, was displayed at the World Fair in Jamestown, Virginia. Thus the first aircraft in US military history was powered by one of Gustave’s engines!
On 10 October 1927, Whitehead was repairing a car and was in the process of attempting to lift out the engine. Sadly, while lifting this heavy weight, he suffered a heart attack. Despite managing to stagger back into his house, the attack proved fatal. Gustave was 53 years old at the time of his death.
To date, two replicas of Whitehead’s ‘Number 21’ have been constructed: one in the USA in 1986, and one in Germany in 1997. Both replicas flew successfully, thereby proving the airworthiness of the original aircraft.
“So, what happened on 26 June 2013?” Well, I was just coming to that. A little earlier that year, Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft , the world’s leading authority on aviation history, having weighed the evidence, formally recognised Gustave Whitehead’s flight, on 14 August 1901, as the first manned flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft. Official recognition followed; and on 26 June, Gustave’s achievement was commemorated by an enactment of legislation signed by the Connecticut State Governor. So, it’s official: the first person to take to the skies in a heavier-than-air powered aircraft was Gustave Whitehead and not Orville Wright! How different his life might have been had he hired a decent photographer on that summer’s day in 1901.
two
The Train Now Departi