Forum attic Item #2
 

http://inlinethumb37.webshots.com/34...425x425Q85.jpg
________________________________________________

Forum attic Item #2

As Ransom is searching his Attic I can present this special machine. The best description of this machine will get the right to enter another Attic item (after Ransom).

Kees


http://inlinethumb06.webshots.com/47...600x600Q85.jpg

__________________________________________________ ________
http://inlinethumb51.webshots.com/36...425x425Q85.jpg

Test
 

It is a testing machine for engines and or props?

It looks like a gondola that has not been completed.

Phil

A windwagon on a bridge in Paris.

Cheers

Actually it was a real aircraft, intended to fly, presumably with wings

Phil, it should be later a real aircraft, but they are riding on the streets. At that time (1910) there were no traffic jams :)

Great idea Rod about the windwagon, but the machine is reportedly riding in Berlin, prewar in 1910

Are there more contenders with original ideas what this can be? The most original or witty remark will get the chance to place his (or her?) own attic item :)

Then it is the skeleton or framing for a swordfish float in the up coming parade:D

That would explain why I couldn't match the guard rails or buildings in the background to any particular bridge in Paris.

This is a tough one.

Cheers

http://inlinethumb55.webshots.com/24...500x500Q85.jpg

The machine we see here rolling through the empty streets of Berlin was designed and built by the engineer Fritz Grawert who lived in Berlin, around 1900 - 1910.
Grawert was originally a ship building engineer who computed and designed ship screws. He became famous by the design he made for a propeller driven car (in german a Propellerwagen) and which he tested on the streets. Surely this is the machine in the picture.
In 1910 he obtained a German patent for a special species of engine (Kreiskolbenmotor). Unfortunately I could not obtain this patent as I do not have the (German) number and indexing of 1910 patents in surely non-existant. Perhaps there are Forum members who can help ?
Grawert designed and built a amphiby flying boat with a totally home made 50 hp engine. A biplane with folding wings, it could ride (just as the car) on its own strength to its first flight in October 1910 from the construction place to Tempelhof airfield. Afterwards it made a take off in the neighbourhood of Grünau (near Berlin). As far as I know no photographs / drawings are to be seen of this one.
Grawert died in 1916.

A search on internet revealed the following from issue 9 March 1905 of the NY Times page 14

Incidentally I liked the Windwagen term of Rod and as Salomo I pronounce him the winner. He has a right to search his attic and place an inetresting aviation-related item in the Forum Attic.

But I have found another interesting one to place first. Take your time to search the attic Rod ;)

Kees

http://thumb7.webshots.net/t/53/653/...7wmJTvC_th.jpg

This is the Grawert machine again as there are (were ?) problems with the viewing of the picture.

Here is the machine again in all its glory

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h1...02/Grawert.jpg

Kees