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Pretty old -- the Wrights played with something similar as children: https://www.wyso.org/news/2017-12-25/the-toys-of-orville-wright https://www.wyso.org/news/2

Pretty old -- the Wrights played with something similar as children: https://www.wyso.org/news/2017-12-25/the-toys-of-orville-wright https://www.wyso.org/news/2017-12-25/the-toys-of-orville-wri...

novosel 5y ago
Wright brothers were also quoted saying that they can make this table fly (the table where the interview was taking place at) if they could have a powerful enough motor at hand. This was, of course, after the first man flight was achieved.
hnbad 5y ago
Can I just point out how jarring it is to read "pretty old" followed by a mention of the Wright brothers, the last of whom died in 1948.
- Wingman4l7 5y ago
  Perhaps yes, but they were children over a century ago (and I strongly suspected these sorts of toys predated their time, anyway).
  - dhosek 5y ago
    That's the great span thing going on there. The house where my parents live has always been in my family had as its original residents my father, my aunt, my grandmother and my great-great-grandmother (yes, that's the number of correct greats there). The last of these was born before the establishment of the Austro-Hungarian empire in what's now the Czech Republic and was at the time the Austrian Empire. Family history in the old country is a bit murky so I don't have any dates for her ancestors, but she would have known people who lived under the Holy Roman Empire.
  - hnbad 5y ago
    Sure, but with a toy that simple I would expect it to be a lot older than just a century. But I guess it may be a cultural context thing: in my country some houses were built before Europeans even set foot in North America and the city I grew up in was literally founded by the Romans. Given how simple the toy is, I wouldn't be surprised to find out it dates back 500 or even 5000 years or more, even if it had to be re-invented several times in between.

3 ms·

Pretty old -- the Wrights played with something similar as children: https://www.wyso.org/news/2017-12-25/the-toys-of-orville-wright https://www.wyso.org/news/2

by Wingman4l7 5y ago

Pretty old -- the Wrights played with something similar as children: https://www.wyso.org/news/2017-12-25/the-toys-of-orville-wright https://www.wyso.org/news/2017-12-25/the-toys-of-orville-wri...

novosel 5y ago
Wright brothers were also quoted saying that they can make this table fly (the table where the interview was taking place at) if they could have a powerful enough motor at hand. This was, of course, after the first man flight was achieved.
hnbad 5y ago
Can I just point out how jarring it is to read "pretty old" followed by a mention of the Wright brothers, the last of whom died in 1948.
- Wingman4l7 5y ago
  Perhaps yes, but they were children over a century ago (and I strongly suspected these sorts of toys predated their time, anyway).
  - dhosek 5y ago
    That's the great span thing going on there. The house where my parents live has always been in my family had as its original residents my father, my aunt, my grandmother and my great-great-grandmother (yes, that's the number of correct greats there). The last of these was born before the establishment of the Austro-Hungarian empire in what's now the Czech Republic and was at the time the Austrian Empire. Family history in the old country is a bit murky so I don't have any dates for her ancestors, but she would have known people who lived under the Holy Roman Empire.
  - hnbad 5y ago
    Sure, but with a toy that simple I would expect it to be a lot older than just a century. But I guess it may be a cultural context thing: in my country some houses were built before Europeans even set foot in North America and the city I grew up in was literally founded by the Romans. Given how simple the toy is, I wouldn't be surprised to find out it dates back 500 or even 5000 years or more, even if it had to be re-invented several times in between.