This would be cool!
Jul. 31st, 2010 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrsbrownDraco
Really good article here, describing the draco (dragon shaped windsock) in use in roman and byzantine armies. The pictures below are from Psalterium Aureum (c.883) and the Bayeux Tapestry.
Winged windsock (thankyou google translate)
The first documents to refer to use kites war: in 1326, in his book "De nobilitatibus" Walter de Milemete, you see a besieged city, with a kite that flies above and from which a ball is dropped incendiary; next three soldiers maneuver a winch which is connected to the cable restraint of the kite
Pennon Kite - Konrad Kyeser: "Bellifortis" (1405)
This is described here and the author goes on to say, "Manuscripts of this century describe the same basic parchment kite design with a cloth tail and three different bridling techniques."
Also, another picture of a medieval air mattress, from the same book.
Dragon kite (from http://www.drachen.org/journals/a07/History.pdf)
First published when Giovanni Battista della Porta was in his early 20s, the volume Natural Magick contained information on kite building. The 1558 book became one of the best known and most frequently quoted collections of natural wonders of its time. Following from Chapter 10 on mechanical experiments is Della Porta’s instruction on how to make a “flying dragon.”
The dragon is made thus: Make a quadrangle of the small pieces of reeds, that the length may be to the breadth, one and half in proportion. Put in two diameters on the opposite parts or angles, where they cut on the other. Bind it with a small cord, and of the same bigness.
Let it be joined with two others that proceed from the heads of the engine. Then, cover it with paper or thin linen, that there be no burden to weigh upon it. Then from the top of a tower or some high place, send it out where the wind is equal and uniform, not into great winds, lest they break the workmanship, nor yet to small, for if the wind be still, it will not carry it up, and the weak wind makes it less labor.
Let it not fly right forth, but obliquely, which is effected by a cord that comes from one end to the other, and by the long tail which you shall make of cords of equal distance, and papers tied onto them.
So being gently let forth, it is to be guided by the artificer’s hand, who must not move it idly or sluggishly, but forcibly.
So this flying sail flies into the air. When it is raised a little (for here the wind is broken by the windings of the houses) you can hardly guide it, or hold it in your hands.
Some place a lantern in it that it may show like a comet. Others put a cracker of paper, wherein gunpowder is rolled, and when it is in the air, by the cord there is sent a light(ed) match, by a ring or something that will abide. This presently flies to the sail, and gives fire to the mouth of it, and the engine with a thundering noise, flies into many parts, and falls to the ground. Others bind a cat or whelp (puppy), and so they hear cries in the air.
Hence may an ingenious man take occasion to consider how to make a man fly, by huge wings bound to his elbows and breast. But he must from his childhood, by degrees, use to move them, always in a higher place.
Below is a picture from the same Italian site as the Winged Windsock above. I think it's their interpretation of the kite.
I'm still looking for the reference quoted below;
In spite of their hostile origins, there is evidence that kites were used for play as well. A German illumination from 1405 shows a young boy riding on horseback while flying a kite. The manuscript itself describes how a kite should be flown, how the strings should be attached, and what it should look like. (Full article here.)
Really good article here, describing the draco (dragon shaped windsock) in use in roman and byzantine armies. The pictures below are from Psalterium Aureum (c.883) and the Bayeux Tapestry.
Winged windsock (thankyou google translate)
The first documents to refer to use kites war: in 1326, in his book "De nobilitatibus" Walter de Milemete, you see a besieged city, with a kite that flies above and from which a ball is dropped incendiary; next three soldiers maneuver a winch which is connected to the cable restraint of the kite
Pennon Kite - Konrad Kyeser: "Bellifortis" (1405)
This is described here and the author goes on to say, "Manuscripts of this century describe the same basic parchment kite design with a cloth tail and three different bridling techniques."
Also, another picture of a medieval air mattress, from the same book.
Dragon kite (from http://www.drachen.org/journals/a07/History.pdf)
First published when Giovanni Battista della Porta was in his early 20s, the volume Natural Magick contained information on kite building. The 1558 book became one of the best known and most frequently quoted collections of natural wonders of its time. Following from Chapter 10 on mechanical experiments is Della Porta’s instruction on how to make a “flying dragon.”
The dragon is made thus: Make a quadrangle of the small pieces of reeds, that the length may be to the breadth, one and half in proportion. Put in two diameters on the opposite parts or angles, where they cut on the other. Bind it with a small cord, and of the same bigness.
Let it be joined with two others that proceed from the heads of the engine. Then, cover it with paper or thin linen, that there be no burden to weigh upon it. Then from the top of a tower or some high place, send it out where the wind is equal and uniform, not into great winds, lest they break the workmanship, nor yet to small, for if the wind be still, it will not carry it up, and the weak wind makes it less labor.
Let it not fly right forth, but obliquely, which is effected by a cord that comes from one end to the other, and by the long tail which you shall make of cords of equal distance, and papers tied onto them.
So being gently let forth, it is to be guided by the artificer’s hand, who must not move it idly or sluggishly, but forcibly.
So this flying sail flies into the air. When it is raised a little (for here the wind is broken by the windings of the houses) you can hardly guide it, or hold it in your hands.
Some place a lantern in it that it may show like a comet. Others put a cracker of paper, wherein gunpowder is rolled, and when it is in the air, by the cord there is sent a light(ed) match, by a ring or something that will abide. This presently flies to the sail, and gives fire to the mouth of it, and the engine with a thundering noise, flies into many parts, and falls to the ground. Others bind a cat or whelp (puppy), and so they hear cries in the air.
Hence may an ingenious man take occasion to consider how to make a man fly, by huge wings bound to his elbows and breast. But he must from his childhood, by degrees, use to move them, always in a higher place.
Below is a picture from the same Italian site as the Winged Windsock above. I think it's their interpretation of the kite.
I'm still looking for the reference quoted below;
In spite of their hostile origins, there is evidence that kites were used for play as well. A German illumination from 1405 shows a young boy riding on horseback while flying a kite. The manuscript itself describes how a kite should be flown, how the strings should be attached, and what it should look like. (Full article here.)
