Ancient Airships.
John F. Winston
In the past I have reported on being given some reproductions
of ancient airships that were in the museum where I work. I
tuned into them and gave my verbal report about them. Two weeks
ago I was led to have the the pictures and information brought
out to me and I went through them again. I gave another verbal
report and told the person in charge that I believe that a person
made the paintings and they were renditions of the ancient
aircraftes that were seen world wide about the 1860s. This person
was a member of a group called the Sonora Aero Club and was
financed by a group that had unlimited funds.
I also stated that this craft was housed at an airport just
South of the Columbia, Calif. airport back then. The airport
that was used by the ancient aircraft is no longer in existence,
as far as I know. The person in charge of the museum said,
"That is the conclusion we came to also.
I had them make a copy of the material and they gave it to
me. It would be very hard for me to put this information on
the internet so hoped that something would happen so that the
information would be sent to me in simple text form so I could
put it on the internet.
During the next few days I found on the Internet three web
sites that contain most of that information and I have
stated them on the end of this part of the material. You
might like to look up this material because it does show the
paintings of the ancient crafts.
Here is the information I found in the web sites.
.............................................................
.............................................................
Subject: Dimension 1890s Airship Puzzle's Missing Piece
In 1899, Charles Dellschau, a grouchy retired butcher, began
to paint amazing airships. His intricate collages show shiplike
decks supported by striped balloon pontoons; they show
bright-colored helicopters and evil-looking striped dirigibles
outfitted for w-r; they show crews of dapper little gentlemen
accompanied by the occasional cat. Many pages are bedecked with
little newspaper clippings about aviation, and text in his weird
Germanic lettering celebrates the pure, unexcelled marvelousness
of the flying machines.
Nearly a century later, folk-art collectors hold the works in
high esteem.
A page from Dellschau's notebooks can fetch as much as
$15,000, a hefty price even in a booming market. A New York
Times reviewer said that Dellschau possesses "a charming style
that presages Monty Python"; the Village Voice called the works
"sweetly bizarre."
It's hard to say what the old man would have made of such
praise; he doesn't seem to have thought of himself as an artist.
It's not clear even whether he intended the notebooks for
anyone's eyes but his own. The drawings are crudely sewn
together with shoelaces and thread, and newsprint is glued on
the edge of each leaf as a spine. Watercolor airships occupy
both sides of the pages.
Taken at face value, Dellschau's collages document the feats
of the Sonora Aero Club, (JW Sonora, Calif. is the town where
I now live. I live close to Sonora.) a se-retive group
dedicated to the creation of "aeros," or flying machines. In
code, and bad spelling in both English and German, Dellschau
recounted how, in his youth 50 years before, he and fellow
club members gleefully ruled the skies of Gold Rush California,
piloting fantastical airships of their own invention.
Perhaps the notebooks' tales were merely fictions,
Dellschau's efforts to entertain himself. Perhaps the old man
had grown a tad deranged. Or perhaps Dellschau was actually
recounting the exploits of his youth, embellishing here and
there, but remaining somewhat faithful to the facts. Oddly,
that last supposition -- the strangest possibility of all --
seems the most likely. One line of thought even ties the
Sonora club to a rash of UFOsightings.
But untangling Dellschau's tale is a complicated matter,
one that involves penetrating many levels of s-crecy,
including that of the very people trying to solve his riddles.
The puzzle of Dellschau's aeros intrigues both art historians
and UFO enthusiasts. Not surprising, most of the hard facts
come from the art world.
Two years ago, William Steen, a mild-mannered frame
designer at the Menil Collection, pieced together documents
indicating the sketchy official outlines of Dellschau's life.
Steen modestly claims to be no scholar, but his four-sheet
chronology of Dellschau's life provides the most reliable
biography available.
Steen found the immigration record that shows Dellschau's
1853 arrival in the United States. The young immigrant told
officials that he was 25 years old; had been born in
Brandenburg, Prussia; traveled here from Hamburg and listed
his occupation as a farmer.
Steen uncovered Dellschau's letter of citizenship, which
traces his whereabouts to Harris County in 1856 and Fort
Bend County in 1860. Between those years, the historical
documents are silent about Dellschau's whereabouts.
And it's precisely during that gap that Dellschau claims
the Sonora club's exploits took place. So far, Steen has not
been able to locate documents showing that Dellschau even
lived in California in the 1850s. Nor do there seem to be
credible reports of unidentified flying objects in the area.
Dellschau rendered some comments in code. Apparently,
whatever it was that he had to say was too private for his
own notebooks.
But where the historical records are silent, the artist's
notebooks make noisy, extravagant claims. Dellschau
represents himself as the club's draftsman and scribe, rather
than as one of its inventors or fliers; he never draws
himself aboard an aero. He illustrates a remarkable number
of designs -- maybe as many as 100 -- for airships with
names such as Aero Mio, Aero Trump, Aero Schnabel and Aero
Mary. (There's even an Aero Jourdan.) All were powered by
a secret formula that Dellschau called both "supe" and
"suppe"; it could both negate gravity and drive the ships'
wheels, side paddles and compressor motors.
One drawing tells the story of Adolf Goetz's Aero
Goeit, recklessly commandeered by an unskilled pilot; the
airship got tangled in a Sequoia tree, and the interloper
died of a broken neck. Another cautionary tale involves
Jacob Mischer, a pilot who went down in flames in the
Aero Gander; Dellschau hints that he was sabotaged by
other club members, who suspected him of using the aircraft
to make money by hauling cargo.
But most of the airships' flights were safe -- and great
fun.
Dellschau depicts his aviators enjoying hot breakfasts,
and delights in enumerating the ships' clever gadgets. He
often bedecked his watercolor paintings with little press
clippings -- from Scientific American, the Houston Chronicle
and an unidentified German-language newspaper -- that
recount air disasters; Dellschau called them "press blooms."
Against paintings of the Sonora club's successes, the
clippings seem intended as an ironic counterpoint.
Dellschau never seems to explain why the club worked
so hard to protect its se-recy, but he shows the members
going to great lengths to do so. By day, the Aero Goeit
was disguised as a gypsy wagon, so it could travel open
roads undetected. Dellschau writes that a club member was
banned from developing a machine because he'd talked to
outsiders. And of course, even years after the club
disbanded, many of Dellschau's own comments are rendered
in code.
Apparently, whatever it was that he had to say was too
private even for his own notebooks.
Often the drawings show the heroic Peter Mennis, pilot
of the Aero Goose and creator of the near-magical suppe.
According to Dellschau's notebooks, Mennis died in the
1860s, and without his secret formula, the club could
fly no longer and was forced to disband. In picture
after picture, Dellschau laments ennis's demise. "Peter
Mennis you are not forgotten," he writes in one; in
another, "no more suppe."
Could such wonders have happened? It's a difficult
question. If the club were as secretive as Dellschau
indicates, the California desert offered privacy. Sonora
was a Gold Rush boomtown, six miles south of Columbia,
now the site of the Columbia Airport. The airport's land
is isolated and flat -- ideal for testing aircraft
-- and is surrounded by mostly hilly terrain.
Dellschau's drawings show equipment that would have
been revolutionary for the 1850s: gliding keels,
revolving generators powered by a chemical reaction,
bendable rubber joints, revolving shear blades, even a
retractable landing gear. It was heady stuff, highly
advanced given the state of technology (the Wright
Brothers didn't make their famous flight until 1903).
But half a century later, when the old man actually
made the drawings, many of those technologies had grown
closer to reality.
The historical record of Dellschau picks up again in
1861. A certificate from that year shows that Dellschau
married Antonia Hilt, a widow with a four-year-old
daughter, Elizabeth. It's not clear where Dellschau
met and married her or where the family first lived
together.
In 1865, they were living in Richmond, Texas, a
haven for newly arrived Germans and Czechs. That year,
Dellschau signed an amnesty oath, swearing that as
a former member of the Confederacy, he wouldn't
oppose the U.S. laws that freed slaves. (W.M.
Von-Maszewski, the Texas historian who translated
Dellschau's journals, thinks he may have worked under
the Confederates as a civilian.) According to that
oath, Dellschau was a butcher. His height was five
feet three inches; his hair, auburn; eyes, hazel;
and complexion, fair. The one verifiable photo of
Dellschau bears out that description and shows him
to be a bit gruff and Teutonic, with a large,
round forehead beneath a line of receding hair and
with bushy eyebrows and a moustache that covers
his mouth.
Dellschau's wife, Antonia, bore him three children.
In 1877, tragedy struck: Antonia died, and their
six-year-old son, Edward, died two weeks later.
Census records show that Dellschau remained in
Richmond for a while afterward with his daughter
Bertha.
In 1889, the phone directory lists both Dellschau
and Bertha in Houston, living with Dellschau's
stepdaughter, Elizabeth, and her husband, Anton
Stelzig, a harness- and saddle-maker and the founder
of the Western clothing store that still exists in
Houston.
(JW These are the web sites that discuss the
ancient airships.)
http://www.100megsfree4.com/farshores/airships.htm
http://www.rawvision.com/back/dellschau/dellsc.html
http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1308.htm
Part 1.
John Winston. john...@mlode.com
John F. Winston
AVR
>
[snipped in disgust]
>
The first unwritten rule of usenet is that "Thou shalt not post
off-topic". Even a baboon that fell on its head when it was young should
be able to understand that means. But, unfortunately, you don't seem to
be able to.
This is alt.flame, you moron. Post flames. Like this one here. And
nothing else.
--
AVR
The Copeland-Leach Sewerpipe Entity
And that's John F. Winston, you idiot.
He posts thousands of "news" items to Usenet; on the other hand, there
are rumors going around that he actually responded to a post sometime
in late 2003, but as of yet the rumors are unconfirmed.
Thomas Hill
<arc...@lea.ch> wrote in Message id:
<aehcf0hi425369ocb...@4ax.com>:
>On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 12:21:28 +0530, AVR
><zulu_...@no.rediff.spam.mail.com> wrote:
[...]
>And that's John F. Winston, you idiot.
>
>He posts thousands of "news" items to Usenet; on the other hand, there
>are rumors going around that he actually responded to a post sometime
>in late 2003, but as of yet the rumors are unconfirmed.
Actually, it was mid 2001. He responded indirectly to a post from Jeroen:
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=Pine.BSF.3.96.1010615160620.28204C-100000%40shell.mlode.com&output=gplain
IIRC, he even followed up to Wiseman once, of all people.
±
And Bill Cleere.
--
http://www.geocities.com/snuhsite
From: Lionel <n...@alt.net>
Newsgroups: news.admin.net-abuse.policy
Subject: Re: [Request for comments] Proposed methods for minimising
abuse from anonymous gateways.
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 02:03:25 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <4s64e0t49icdrrg81...@4ax.com>
There is a *reason* why people have been increasingly abandoning Usenet
for web-fora, et al, & this sort of crap is a major part of it. I've
even considered it myself, & I'm a hardcore news-junkie. The levels of
personal, professional, & RL harassment people have been receiving in
rec.photo.* have been truly mind-boggling, & I'm astounded that nobody
has yet launched legal action against Google, the mail2news gateways or
their peers.
-------
/ \
/ \ /-----\
| (@) | | SnuH |
| (O) | \_ ___/
| / | ||
| \ /_ / //
\ \____/ / /
\ /
\_____,
Mike Colburn
message news:<cd2l5i$pug$1...@news01.intel.com>...
> John F. Winston wrote:
> >
> [snipped in disgust]
> >
>
> The first unwritten rule of usenet is that "Thou shalt not post
> off-topic".
Yep...just steps off the ol' short bus and already he starts waxing
pedantic. Well, push off Herr Zulu, cuz that's the Finn's job.
Besides, the following scorcher is evidence that pedantry in a flame
forum clearly isn't your forte.
> Even a baboon that fell on its head when it was young should
> be able to understand that means.
Gosh, I've always wondered why we don't see more baboons posting on
usenet. Perhaps they just can't seem to stay on topic? Yeah, that
has to be it.
Apparently, you didn't give your scathing rejoinder much thought,
Punchinello. A baboon would likely have a PC torn to pieces before he
could even figure out how to turn the fucking thing on. Then, he
*still* wouldn't have understood what he just did much less what
"off-topic" and "usenet" are.
> But, unfortunately, you don't seem to be able to.
No, what's unfortunate is that you are clearly new to this group,
otherwise you would have known John is regular poster to said group.
His eccentricities have been widely accepted (or more to the point,
ignored) much like we've all accepted/ignored the Jamesies etal and
the ongoing (and ongoing...and ongoing...and ongoing) alt.flame awards
fiasco or who's the resident
pedophile/netcop/homophobo/what-fucking-ever for that particular
week/month/whenever. Mr. Winston has been doing "his thing" for years
and, imho, is usually much more interesting than the usual handful of
tepid, dick-twiddling twats trying to raise the Himalayas with a
teaspoon in a fucking 8x8 sandbox. Then you blindly stumble into that
same sandbox wavin' a freakin' fork. Wonderful. You'll be a very
helpful addition, I'm sure.
> This is alt.flame, you moron.
Well, that certainly clears that up...thank you very much for pointing
out the oh-so-fucking obvious. Now maybe you can help us with what
those pretty colored lights mean at all the busy intersections in
town?
> Post flames.
PKB, you flameless, ass-dragging stump puppy.
> Like this one here.
Oh! Damn...just about caught fire! Whew...who turned up the heat in
here?
> And nothing else.
Thankfully.
Thomas Hill
Message id: <40F66A46...@hotmail.com>:
>Thomas Hill wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, 15 Jul 2004 08:48:44 GMT The Copeland-Leach Sewerpipe Entity
>> <arc...@lea.ch> wrote in Message id:
>> <aehcf0hi425369ocb...@4ax.com>:
>>
>> >On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 12:21:28 +0530, AVR
>> ><zulu_...@no.rediff.spam.mail.com> wrote:
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> >And that's John F. Winston, you idiot.
>> >
>> >He posts thousands of "news" items to Usenet; on the other hand, there
>> >are rumors going around that he actually responded to a post sometime
>> >in late 2003, but as of yet the rumors are unconfirmed.
>>
>> Actually, it was mid 2001. He responded indirectly to a post from Jeroen:
>> http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=Pine.BSF.3.96.1010615160620.28204C-100000%40shell.mlode.com&output=gplain
>>
>> IIRC, he even followed up to Wiseman once, of all people.
>
>And Bill Cleere.
I suppose I missed that one.
Soapy
news:q52gf0540aa0us0q7...@4ax.com
And Rev. Parsnip.
--
__ __ __ __ O O O
/ / | / | / | / | O o o
(___ ( |(___|(___|(___| o _____________o
)| )| )| ) o.;-----------./|
__/ |__/ | / | __/ // S O A P Y // |
|'-----------'| /
Smeeter #30-something jgs | | /
'-------------'`
"It's funny how the quality of the material declines when the Snuhbois
aren't around."
---- Cujo DeSockpuppet <cu...@petitmorte.net> in Message-ID:
<cbvdr9$63b$3...@blackhelicopter.databasix.com>