Joan Sallas <sal...@gmx.net> wrote: >The model "Wurfpfeil" (dart to throw) was published in Hermann Wagner's Book "Illustrirtes Spielbuch f?r Knaben" (Leipzig: Otto Spamer, 1864. >1st edition, page 283
Thank you. I take it this is the earliest publication that we know of ... in Europe at least. If so then it is unfortunately fairly late. Sir George Cayley, for instance, had already flown gliders well before this date (if Wikipedia is to be trusted!). >However, children discovered very early the lightness of the paper, and frequently threw sheets of paper through windows of high buildings, as in the children school >"Pedagogium Regium" in Halle/Saale (Germany), where the folding of paper and napkins was in the pedagogic program since 1705 (73 years before Froebel's birth!). I asume >that children observed that a sheet of paper folded as a dart, fly better and farther. Playing Devil's advocate I wonder whether this assumption can be evidenced? Both unfolded sheets and paper balls might also be candidates here? I'm interested because I recall a conversation with David Lister about this subject in which he told me he could find no evidence that paper planes pre-dated similar constructions of wood and cloth ... though it would, of course, be nice to think they did! Dave
