I never saw anything like it in my life before! (an early flying machine?)

To start us off this week we have an intriguing photograph from the excellent Clonbrock collection. The Catalogue description for this photo is "Group of men observing an object that is out of range of the camera, large house and grounds in the background (Swiss 94)" which does not help at all. We could be in a university perhaps? Why are there no women in sight? What is that "object"? Where are we? What is the date?..And almost immediately, and based on inputs in particular from Fred Dean Snr ( /photos/abandonedrailsireland/ ) , B-59 ( /photos/66311327@N05/ ) and Niall McAuley ( /photos/gnmcauley/ ) , we had likely answers on all four. The general consensus on the "where" is that this is Trinity College in Dublin. And that the "who" therefore is "mainly students" (explaining the apparent mixture of interest and mirth). The "when" is likely 1894 or 1895. Leaving the "what" as being perhaps the most interesting: that the object is an early glider. Or its tail at least. Perhaps one based on a design by Otto Lilienthal ( Otto_Lilienthal ) . And likely connected to Trinity professor George Francis FitzGerald ( George_Francis_FitzGerald#Flying_experiments ) ........Photographers: Dillon Family..Contributors: Luke Gerald Dillon, Augusta Caroline Dillon..Collection: Clonbrock photographic Collection ( http://catalogue.nli.ie/Collection/vtls000315679 ) ..Date: Catalogue date c.1894. Perhaps 1895..NLI Ref: CLON1951 ( vtls000524063 ) ..You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie ( http://catalogue.nli.ie )

the clonbrock photographic collection luke gerald dillon baron clonbrock augusta caroline dillon baroness clonbrock dillon family national library of ireland bicycles thing men buildings bowlers top hat flying machine glider trinity college students dublin magnificent men in their flying machines lillienthal glider tail george francis fitzgerald experiment university college playing fields fellow fellows and chaps i say ireland history of ireland high resolution demonstration parade northern ireland

1870 - 1930

National Library of Ireland

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Public Domain