In the essay “Technisation and Civilisation” (Theory, Culture & Society 12 (3) 1995: 7-42), Elias refers to pioneers of aviation including “Artingstore and Cayley in England, Ader and Pénaud in France, Fornalini in Italy (with a propeller-driven plane), and Otto and Gustav Lilienthal in Germany”.
There’s a problem with “Artingstore” and “Fornalini”. Who he, in both cases? I think they must be misprints (or dictating errors that were not picked up earlier), because nothing comes up under either Google or Wikipedia, which is unusual. (There are lots of Fornalini streets in Italy, but they look as though they may be names after a pioneer of lung surgery.) A quick glance at some lists of pioneers fails to suggest to me what the real names might be.
Are there any aviation history buffs among readers of Elias-I who can point me in the right direction?
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Everyone can ignore the above post, with the exception of one detail. With a lot of time and ingenuity (I’m writing this from the Cambridge University Library), I have managed to establish that the names in question were F. D. Artingstall and Enrico Forlanini (1848–1930). I haven’t been able to find any dates for Artingstall, however, beyond that:
1. In 1830 he built a flying device with flapping wings driven by a steam engine, which flapped itself to pieces before it could take off; and
2. He was (surprisingly) still alive in 1868.
It looks as though my hypothesis was correct, that Norbert dictated this essay to Jan-Willem Gerritsen, who misheard the names. But a mea culpa is necessary. I was responsible for editing the piece for publication after both Norbert and Jan-Willem died, and didn’t check these details. Now I’m re-editing it for the Collected Works.
Anyone know anything more about Artingstall??
Stephen