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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2016
No eighteenth century designer of flying machines surpassed Melchior Bauer in imagination and aerodynamic insight. Born on 19th October 1733 at Lehnitzsch, a village near Altenburg, he was the son of a gardener, Hans Bauer'1'. Little is known of his life, but in 1763 he went to London, where he sought patronage from the recently crowned King George III for the construction of a man-powered aircraft. According to his own account, he got no further than the official scribe who refused to copy out the submission, saying that even if he were offered £500 he would never agree to send such folly to the Court. ‘If you could do all that you claim,’ said the scribe, ‘you would certainly be the foremost and greatest man on earth.’ [1 r](2).