1898 BUFFALO BILL WILD WEST CHROMOLITHOGRAPH ADVERTISING POSTER FOR SAMUEL CODY
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:4333236 |
Exceptionally rare and fantastic, original, 1898 Samuel Cody / Buffalo Bill Cody Wild West Show Broadside Advertising Poster for Sam Cody's Western Americana Theatrical Play about the Yukon Gold Rush titled "The Klondyke Nugget" featuring a portrait image of none other than Buffalo Bill himself ostensibly used by Samuel Cody with the "permission of the Hon. W. F. Cody / 'Buffalo Bill'".
This fantastic, chromolithograph Advertising Poster measures approx. 20�...�� x 30” and features a striking image of Buffalo Bill Cody dressed in his trademark fringed, buckskin clothing, wide brimmed hat and thigh high leather boots. Bill holds a Winchester repeating rifle by the barrel in his right hand and his left hand is squarely set on his hip. There are three overprinted gold gilt colored ink planchets at the bottom of the Poster - two are shield shaped and flank the bottom of the portrait of Buffalo Bill and the third is at the bottom of the Poster. Text in these overprinted areas reads simply "The / Klondyke / Nugget". Beneath these gold gilt areas we can make out some of the text that they and that text includes "Wild West Show" and "Printed by Permission of the Hon. W. F. Cody / Buffalo Bill". We have included below an image of the Photograph of Buffalo Bill Cody from which the portrait on the Poster offered here was taken - there is NO DOUBT that this Poster features a portrait of William F. Cody and NOT Samuel Cody!!!
We believe that this Poster with its portrait of Buffalo Bill himself, was originally used by Samuel Cody to advertise his traveling Wild West Show and to capitalize on the widespread fame of "Buffalo Bill's Wild West". In June of 1891 Buffalo Bill took Samuel Cody to court and enjoined Samuel from using images of Buffalo Bill as well as Buffalo Bill's name in promotional material for Samuel's Wild West Show (it also stopped Sam from using the term "Wild West Show"). Our guess is that Sam Cody had these Posters left over from his Wild West Show days and simply overprinted them for use as advertisements for his "Klondyke Nugget" theatrical production.
The Poster does carry the mark of the lithographer - Stafford Co of Nottingham, England - although it is partially obscured by the overprinting.
Samuel Cody’s American Wild West Show proved a dismal failure and in 1890 he took his act (and his family) to England where there were far fewer Shows of that type traveling the country. For a number of years Cody and his family presented various trick shooting exhibitions and Wild West Shows around the British Isles mostly in Music Halls and theaters. The idea for “The Klondyke Nugget” originated as a small show in Alexandra Palace in 1898 and evolved into a full-scale, popular melodrama. It featured trick shooting, knife battles, galloping horses, exploding bridges and an Indian war party. It became one of the most popular and lucrative touring productions of the period.
This fantastic, original, 1898 Samuel F. Cody Poster is printed on delicate poster stock of the period and is in excellent condition. The colors are bright and vibrant and the Poster is clean and crisp and beautiful with no staining, soiling, age toning, foxing, fading, or repairs of any kind. There is some wear to the overprinted, gold gilt colored, shield shaped planchets as can be seen in the scans below but otherwise this 110+ year Poster is well preserved and displays beautifully. The Poster has been linen backed using archival materials and techniques.
Be sure to check out this seller’s other auctions for other outstanding late 19th century, Chromolithograph Theatrical Advertising Posters which are also being offered for sale this week on eBay!!
Samuel Franklin Cody was born Franklin Samuel Cowdery, on March 6, 1867 in the Great Plains of Iowa. His father had been a private in the Confederate Army and had trouble adjusting to civilian life after the war. Franklin left home at an early age and started work as a horse-trainer . He became a skilled horseman, breaking in horses and eventually progressing to working on the cattle trails across Texas. He later claimed that his name was Samuel Franklin Cody (adopting the surname of the famous Wild West Showman Buffalo Bill Cody) and that he was born in Birdville, Texas, in March 1861 to Samuel Franklin Cody Sr. and his wife, Phoebe. According to Sam, his father was a hero of the Texan and Mexican War and had served as an officer in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. He claimed his family were victims of a Sioux Indian attack. Whilst he, himself had escaped with only a gunshot wound to his thigh, he could only crawl away and watch as the family farm burned. In some accounts his whole family perished, in others his parents and sister survived, and sometimes his family was not mentioned at all. After he had crawled 9 miles to Fort Worth Military Hospital and had his wound treated, he decided to strike out on his own on the Western Frontier, where he worked as a horse-trader and cowboy.
By April 1888 Cowdery started work in the Forepaugh Wild West Show and assumed the name Samuel Franklin Cody, thus creating a connection of his own making to the famous cowboy William F. Cody, alias Buffalo Bill. Cody's acts included two-handed trick shooting and displays of his horse-riding and rope tricks. It appears he attempted to duplicate the hair style, facial hair and costume of Buffalo Bill and did a credible job of looking amazingly like the famous Wild West Showman. Failing to succeed with his own traveling Wild West Show Cody took his act to England in 1890 and set in motion a series of events that would lead to his becoming one of the most famous Aviation Pioneers in Great Britain. The first mention of Cody in England was at a theatre in St. Helens and shortly afterwards both Sam and his wife first wife Maud appeared in Glasgow advertised as “The Champion Pistol Shots of the World.” During the next few years Cody and his wife found work in music halls both giving displays of trick shooting. Perhaps their most unusual performance was given at the Olympia Skating Rink in a “Burlesque of the Wild West, ” performed on roller skates. The couple were often billed as “Captain Cody, son of the great Buffalo Bill and his sister.” Public Record Office documents describe how, in June 1891 Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Company and William Frederick Cody took S. F. Cody’s agent to court to stop him using the terms “son of Buffalo Bill” and “Wild West Show.”
During 1892 the double act grew into “S. F. Cody and Company’” and later to “S. F. Cody and Infant Son and Company.” Cody’s wife told her family back home in America that her husband had met an English woman with sons and she had taught them how to shoot. It is not known exactly when Maud was replaced by the English woman Elizabeth (Lela) King but it was Lela and her sons Edward, Leon and Vivian who, in 1893, accompanied Cody on his European tour. Subsequently Maud led a very sad life in America spending her last forty one years in the Norristown State Hospital.
By 1897 the family were back in England, still racing against cyclists, performing chariot races and acting out scenes from the Wild West. The family fortunes took a turn for the better when, in 1898, they ventured into the world of the legitimate theatre appearing in a ‘Wild West Melodrama, ’ an entertainment very popular with the audiences of the day, and written by Cody himself. The play ‘The Klondyke Nugget’ (see image below) was first performed in its entirety on 5th December 1898 and this “sensational American drama” toured the length and breadth of the country. The whole family were required to act and Cody usually played the villain – enjoying a very dramatic death at the close of the play. Other dramas followed Nevada, Viva A Woman at War, Calamity Jane but none achieved the same success as ‘The Klondyke Nugget’ (understandably so if you read them!). Cody now had the financial security needed to fund his ever growing interest in kites and he gradually began to reduce the time he spent on theater work while increasing that on kite experiments.Please see the short Biography which follows to get a better perspective on how this “Buffalo Bill Cody” pretender carved his own place in Europe’s Wild West Show and Aviation history.
A Bit about Samuel F. Cody and his many achievements including his widely acclaimed “War Kite“:
The tale of Sam Cody straddles two continents and two distinct eras. The Wild West of America, where he rode the same cattle trails as Buffalo Bill, played the same roulette tables in Dodge City as Wyatt Earp, and competed with Annie Oakley at sharp shooting; and the early days of the aviation pioneers which he shared with the Wright Brothers during which he contributed greatly to establishing the foundation of today's aviation industry leading to Farnborough, England becoming synonymous with heavier than air flight.
One of the biggest problems with a larger than life character like Cody is separating fact from fiction, especially when many of the 'facts' are contradictory and turn out to be myth and fantasy. Sam Cody's origins, before he arrived in England, are shrouded in mystery, even down to the fact that Samuel Franklin Cody appears not to exist but is believed be Franklin Cowdery of Davenport, Iowa, born 1867, one of a family of five children. Cowdery's father, a Union veteran from the American Civil War, deserted the family in 1875.
Sam Cowdery married Maud Lee in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and the name Samuel Franklin Cody appears on the marriage certificate (1889). Cody/Cowdery performed cowboy double acts with his wife Maud - demonstrations of rifle and pistol sharpshooting and horsemanship. Around this time, Cody was carrying out kite experiments for the US Government at the Blue Hill Observatory, Massachusetts. Finding little success with his own Wild West Show, Cody set sail for Britain in 1890 where he developed his own cowboy stunt show with his partner, Lela Cody, and her two sons. In 1892 they took the show to Europe. His wife Maud is believed to have joined Cody in Europe, injured herself falling out of a balloon. She was dispatched by Cody back to the US. Maud ended up in a lunatic asylum. Cody and Lela soon developed a common-law marriage and Lela, by general consent, was thereafter assumed to be his legal wife.
“Colonel Sam Cody” arrived in England at the age of 34 as a cowboy and Wild West showman. When his Traveling Wild West Show failed to pull the crowds he turned to other interests and activities, one of which was kites and specifically, large man-lifting kites.
In 1901 Cody patented a two-celled box kite following a similar design by Lawrence Hargrave, the main difference being that Cody added wings for lift. This was the basic Cody “bat” kite, of which there are many variations, it is considered by kite enthusiasts even to this day, to be one of the most beautiful kites ever designed. Cody's original aim was to provide a man-lifting system for observation purposes during the Boer War in South Africa, an idea later taken up by the British military.
A large exhibition of the Cody Kites took place at Alexandra Place (1903). In 1903, Cody succeeded in crossing the English Channel in a canvas canoe, towed by one of his large kites. His exploits came to the attention of the Admiralty who engaged him to look into the military possibilities of using kites for observation posts. Man-lifting kites were demonstrated to the Admiralty in 1903 and 1908. Cody, himself, gave demonstrations off the deck of the battleship HMS Revenge.The man-lifting kites were highly successful, Capt Broke-Smith RE and Leon Cody reached heights of 3, 400 feet in kites designed by Sam. The Army were sufficiently impressed to engage Cody as Chief Instructor in Kiting at the Balloon School in Aldershot (1906). Cody was charged with the formation of two kite sections of the Royal Engineers (these were later to form the nucleus of Air Battalion RE, later to become No 1 Squadron Flying Corps, then finally No 1 Squadron RAF).
In 1905, Cody built his first glider kite, a derivation of his man-lifting kites. These were first flown at Crystal Place. In the summer of 1905, from Jubilee Hill, Long Valley, Cody made his longest glide of 740 feet with a drop of 350 feet. The glider was not rebuilt following a crash. On October 5, 1907, the first military airship, “Nulli Secundus”, designed by Col. J. E. Capper, RE and Sam Cody, with themselves and Lieut. C. M. Waterloo on board, made a world record-breaking flight of 3 hours 25 minutes from Aldershot to London. After circling St Paul's, they attempted to return to Aldershot, but were defeated by 18 mph headwinds and forced to land at Crystal Palace.
In the same year, Cody turned his attention to powered flight. A 12-hp engine was fitted to one of his man-lifting kites, and with this lash-up “airplane” he was able to make a powered flight on Laffan's Plain. Following this success, Cody built a powered aircraft hoping to use the engine from the ill-fated “Nulli Secundus II” (in this he was disappointed, being forced to purchase a second Antoinette engine, and being evicted from the relatively well equipped airship shed). In this aircraft, entitled “British Army Aeroplane No 1”, Cody was able to make a series of very short “flights” during the months of September and October 1908. On October 16, 1908, the fifth “flight”, which ended in a crash, was the first officially recorded powered flight - a length of 1, 390 feet.
Cody's exploits came to the attention of Secretary of State for War Haldane. Demonstrating the foresight that politician and civil servants are renowned for, Haldane terminated Cody's contract, as he could see no future or military use for aircraft. Cody continued on his own. He was given his broken aircraft, and allowed to use Laffan's Plain for his test flights. Using his rebuilt plane, Cody carried passengers for the first time ( August 14, 1909) - Col Capper was the first passenger and Lela Cody was the first female passenger (both world records). Cody then made a world-record cross-country flight of 1 hour 3 minutes on September 5, 1909).
In 1910, using a newly-built aircraft, Cody won the prestigious Michelin Cup with a flight of 4 hours 47 minutes. In the same year, a different aircraft of Cody's design was the only British plane to complete the round-England race - finishing fourth with Cody at the controls. The aircraft that finished the round-England circuit, suitably strengthened and fitted with a new 120-hp engine won the Military Trials on Salisbury Plain in 1912. Cody won a prize of œ5, 000 and was able to sell his plane to the Government.
Shortly after these trials, Cody was recognized during a performance at the Theatre Royal and asked to give a speech from the box. He said he did not like war, but he would continue with his work on his weapons of war as he saw them as being the ultimate deterrent that would deter war. His sentiments had echoes in the words of the scientists who half a century later would work on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos to develop the world's first atomic bomb, ironically dropped from an aircraft. Many of these same scientists refused to work on the Hydrogen Bomb, which they saw as unnecessary and a step too far. Robert Oppenheimer, 'father of the atomic bomb', was publicly humiliated and disgraced for his refusal to work on the development of the hydrogen bomb, a decade later, at J F Kennedy's instigation, rehabilitated and honored, with the award of the Enrico Fermi Prize by President Lyndon B Johnson. Claude Eatherly, who commanded the path-finder aircraft that lit the way for the bombing of Hiroshima, who gave the order 'Bomb primary', saw nuclear weapons as a step too far. When the aircrews returned Claude Eatherly refused to take part in the celebrations, he did not want to be a hero. Later, when he denounced the US use of atomic weapons and spoke at public rallies, he was immediately, with the connivance of his family, certified as insane and locked away.
On August 7, 1913, Samuel F. Cody was killed in a crash whilst joy-riding across Laffan's Plain. His seaplane broke in half 500 ft above Ball Hill. Cody and his passenger, the cricketer W H B Evans, were pronounced dead on arrival at the Connaught Hospital. The funeral procession (his coffin was on a gun carriage drawn by six coal-black horses) drew an estimated crowd of 100, 000 mourners. He was buried with full military honors in the Aldershot Military Cemetery.
There used to exist at the end of the runway a tree, Cody's Tree, to which Cody used to tie his plane - old cowboy habits die hard. Overseas shipping is extra and cost will be quoted at bidders request. Massachusetts residents must add 6.25% sales tax. Please check out other early and interesting items offered by this seller on ebay. Click Here to See Our Items We Have for Sale in the eBay Gallery and Click Here to Add Us To Your Favorite Sellers List.
Important Notes about Shipping Charges: The amount quoted for Shipping & Handling is calculated by eBay and is equal to the EXACT amount charged by the Post Office plus a $1.00 "packing fee" - the $1.00 fee is our only compensation for the virgin packing materials we use on all of our professionally packaged boxes as well as our cost for the salaried help that does most of our packing - as I am sure you can see, we make NO profit on the Shipping charges and, in fact, our costs are usually greater than the $1.00 fee. Please contact us if there are any issues regarding the cost of shipping.ATTENTION FRIENDS!!!We are pleased to announce the start up of a second weekly auction by WALNUTTS-2.0!!! The next generation of NUTS have decided to take a crack at listing some of the hundreds of items that we have accumulated over the past 38 years.Click Here to See What WALNUTTS-2.0 is Offering in this week’s Ebay Auction!! Rest assured that WALNUTTS2 will be offering the same high standard of customer service and 100% unconditional satisfaction guarantee that you have found here in our weekly auctions. The "young'uns" will be starting off slow as they learn the ropes but we ask that you support them as you have supported us over the past 20+ years!!
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This fantastic, chromolithograph Advertising Poster measures approx. 20�...�� x 30” and features a striking image of Buffalo Bill Cody dressed in his trademark fringed, buckskin clothing, wide brimmed hat and thigh high leather boots. Bill holds a Winchester repeating rifle by the barrel in his right hand and his left hand is squarely set on his hip. There are three overprinted gold gilt colored ink planchets at the bottom of the Poster - two are shield shaped and flank the bottom of the portrait of Buffalo Bill and the third is at the bottom of the Poster. Text in these overprinted areas reads simply "The / Klondyke / Nugget". Beneath these gold gilt areas we can make out some of the text that they and that text includes "Wild West Show" and "Printed by Permission of the Hon. W. F. Cody / Buffalo Bill". We have included below an image of the Photograph of Buffalo Bill Cody from which the portrait on the Poster offered here was taken - there is NO DOUBT that this Poster features a portrait of William F. Cody and NOT Samuel Cody!!!
We believe that this Poster with its portrait of Buffalo Bill himself, was originally used by Samuel Cody to advertise his traveling Wild West Show and to capitalize on the widespread fame of "Buffalo Bill's Wild West". In June of 1891 Buffalo Bill took Samuel Cody to court and enjoined Samuel from using images of Buffalo Bill as well as Buffalo Bill's name in promotional material for Samuel's Wild West Show (it also stopped Sam from using the term "Wild West Show"). Our guess is that Sam Cody had these Posters left over from his Wild West Show days and simply overprinted them for use as advertisements for his "Klondyke Nugget" theatrical production.
The Poster does carry the mark of the lithographer - Stafford Co of Nottingham, England - although it is partially obscured by the overprinting.
Samuel Cody’s American Wild West Show proved a dismal failure and in 1890 he took his act (and his family) to England where there were far fewer Shows of that type traveling the country. For a number of years Cody and his family presented various trick shooting exhibitions and Wild West Shows around the British Isles mostly in Music Halls and theaters. The idea for “The Klondyke Nugget” originated as a small show in Alexandra Palace in 1898 and evolved into a full-scale, popular melodrama. It featured trick shooting, knife battles, galloping horses, exploding bridges and an Indian war party. It became one of the most popular and lucrative touring productions of the period.
This fantastic, original, 1898 Samuel F. Cody Poster is printed on delicate poster stock of the period and is in excellent condition. The colors are bright and vibrant and the Poster is clean and crisp and beautiful with no staining, soiling, age toning, foxing, fading, or repairs of any kind. There is some wear to the overprinted, gold gilt colored, shield shaped planchets as can be seen in the scans below but otherwise this 110+ year Poster is well preserved and displays beautifully. The Poster has been linen backed using archival materials and techniques.
Be sure to check out this seller’s other auctions for other outstanding late 19th century, Chromolithograph Theatrical Advertising Posters which are also being offered for sale this week on eBay!!
Samuel Franklin Cody was born Franklin Samuel Cowdery, on March 6, 1867 in the Great Plains of Iowa. His father had been a private in the Confederate Army and had trouble adjusting to civilian life after the war. Franklin left home at an early age and started work as a horse-trainer . He became a skilled horseman, breaking in horses and eventually progressing to working on the cattle trails across Texas. He later claimed that his name was Samuel Franklin Cody (adopting the surname of the famous Wild West Showman Buffalo Bill Cody) and that he was born in Birdville, Texas, in March 1861 to Samuel Franklin Cody Sr. and his wife, Phoebe. According to Sam, his father was a hero of the Texan and Mexican War and had served as an officer in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. He claimed his family were victims of a Sioux Indian attack. Whilst he, himself had escaped with only a gunshot wound to his thigh, he could only crawl away and watch as the family farm burned. In some accounts his whole family perished, in others his parents and sister survived, and sometimes his family was not mentioned at all. After he had crawled 9 miles to Fort Worth Military Hospital and had his wound treated, he decided to strike out on his own on the Western Frontier, where he worked as a horse-trader and cowboy.
By April 1888 Cowdery started work in the Forepaugh Wild West Show and assumed the name Samuel Franklin Cody, thus creating a connection of his own making to the famous cowboy William F. Cody, alias Buffalo Bill. Cody's acts included two-handed trick shooting and displays of his horse-riding and rope tricks. It appears he attempted to duplicate the hair style, facial hair and costume of Buffalo Bill and did a credible job of looking amazingly like the famous Wild West Showman. Failing to succeed with his own traveling Wild West Show Cody took his act to England in 1890 and set in motion a series of events that would lead to his becoming one of the most famous Aviation Pioneers in Great Britain. The first mention of Cody in England was at a theatre in St. Helens and shortly afterwards both Sam and his wife first wife Maud appeared in Glasgow advertised as “The Champion Pistol Shots of the World.” During the next few years Cody and his wife found work in music halls both giving displays of trick shooting. Perhaps their most unusual performance was given at the Olympia Skating Rink in a “Burlesque of the Wild West, ” performed on roller skates. The couple were often billed as “Captain Cody, son of the great Buffalo Bill and his sister.” Public Record Office documents describe how, in June 1891 Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Company and William Frederick Cody took S. F. Cody’s agent to court to stop him using the terms “son of Buffalo Bill” and “Wild West Show.”
During 1892 the double act grew into “S. F. Cody and Company’” and later to “S. F. Cody and Infant Son and Company.” Cody’s wife told her family back home in America that her husband had met an English woman with sons and she had taught them how to shoot. It is not known exactly when Maud was replaced by the English woman Elizabeth (Lela) King but it was Lela and her sons Edward, Leon and Vivian who, in 1893, accompanied Cody on his European tour. Subsequently Maud led a very sad life in America spending her last forty one years in the Norristown State Hospital.
By 1897 the family were back in England, still racing against cyclists, performing chariot races and acting out scenes from the Wild West. The family fortunes took a turn for the better when, in 1898, they ventured into the world of the legitimate theatre appearing in a ‘Wild West Melodrama, ’ an entertainment very popular with the audiences of the day, and written by Cody himself. The play ‘The Klondyke Nugget’ (see image below) was first performed in its entirety on 5th December 1898 and this “sensational American drama” toured the length and breadth of the country. The whole family were required to act and Cody usually played the villain – enjoying a very dramatic death at the close of the play. Other dramas followed Nevada, Viva A Woman at War, Calamity Jane but none achieved the same success as ‘The Klondyke Nugget’ (understandably so if you read them!). Cody now had the financial security needed to fund his ever growing interest in kites and he gradually began to reduce the time he spent on theater work while increasing that on kite experiments.Please see the short Biography which follows to get a better perspective on how this “Buffalo Bill Cody” pretender carved his own place in Europe’s Wild West Show and Aviation history.
A Bit about Samuel F. Cody and his many achievements including his widely acclaimed “War Kite“:
The tale of Sam Cody straddles two continents and two distinct eras. The Wild West of America, where he rode the same cattle trails as Buffalo Bill, played the same roulette tables in Dodge City as Wyatt Earp, and competed with Annie Oakley at sharp shooting; and the early days of the aviation pioneers which he shared with the Wright Brothers during which he contributed greatly to establishing the foundation of today's aviation industry leading to Farnborough, England becoming synonymous with heavier than air flight.
One of the biggest problems with a larger than life character like Cody is separating fact from fiction, especially when many of the 'facts' are contradictory and turn out to be myth and fantasy. Sam Cody's origins, before he arrived in England, are shrouded in mystery, even down to the fact that Samuel Franklin Cody appears not to exist but is believed be Franklin Cowdery of Davenport, Iowa, born 1867, one of a family of five children. Cowdery's father, a Union veteran from the American Civil War, deserted the family in 1875.
Sam Cowdery married Maud Lee in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and the name Samuel Franklin Cody appears on the marriage certificate (1889). Cody/Cowdery performed cowboy double acts with his wife Maud - demonstrations of rifle and pistol sharpshooting and horsemanship. Around this time, Cody was carrying out kite experiments for the US Government at the Blue Hill Observatory, Massachusetts. Finding little success with his own Wild West Show, Cody set sail for Britain in 1890 where he developed his own cowboy stunt show with his partner, Lela Cody, and her two sons. In 1892 they took the show to Europe. His wife Maud is believed to have joined Cody in Europe, injured herself falling out of a balloon. She was dispatched by Cody back to the US. Maud ended up in a lunatic asylum. Cody and Lela soon developed a common-law marriage and Lela, by general consent, was thereafter assumed to be his legal wife.
“Colonel Sam Cody” arrived in England at the age of 34 as a cowboy and Wild West showman. When his Traveling Wild West Show failed to pull the crowds he turned to other interests and activities, one of which was kites and specifically, large man-lifting kites.
In 1901 Cody patented a two-celled box kite following a similar design by Lawrence Hargrave, the main difference being that Cody added wings for lift. This was the basic Cody “bat” kite, of which there are many variations, it is considered by kite enthusiasts even to this day, to be one of the most beautiful kites ever designed. Cody's original aim was to provide a man-lifting system for observation purposes during the Boer War in South Africa, an idea later taken up by the British military.
A large exhibition of the Cody Kites took place at Alexandra Place (1903). In 1903, Cody succeeded in crossing the English Channel in a canvas canoe, towed by one of his large kites. His exploits came to the attention of the Admiralty who engaged him to look into the military possibilities of using kites for observation posts. Man-lifting kites were demonstrated to the Admiralty in 1903 and 1908. Cody, himself, gave demonstrations off the deck of the battleship HMS Revenge.The man-lifting kites were highly successful, Capt Broke-Smith RE and Leon Cody reached heights of 3, 400 feet in kites designed by Sam. The Army were sufficiently impressed to engage Cody as Chief Instructor in Kiting at the Balloon School in Aldershot (1906). Cody was charged with the formation of two kite sections of the Royal Engineers (these were later to form the nucleus of Air Battalion RE, later to become No 1 Squadron Flying Corps, then finally No 1 Squadron RAF).
In 1905, Cody built his first glider kite, a derivation of his man-lifting kites. These were first flown at Crystal Place. In the summer of 1905, from Jubilee Hill, Long Valley, Cody made his longest glide of 740 feet with a drop of 350 feet. The glider was not rebuilt following a crash. On October 5, 1907, the first military airship, “Nulli Secundus”, designed by Col. J. E. Capper, RE and Sam Cody, with themselves and Lieut. C. M. Waterloo on board, made a world record-breaking flight of 3 hours 25 minutes from Aldershot to London. After circling St Paul's, they attempted to return to Aldershot, but were defeated by 18 mph headwinds and forced to land at Crystal Palace.
In the same year, Cody turned his attention to powered flight. A 12-hp engine was fitted to one of his man-lifting kites, and with this lash-up “airplane” he was able to make a powered flight on Laffan's Plain. Following this success, Cody built a powered aircraft hoping to use the engine from the ill-fated “Nulli Secundus II” (in this he was disappointed, being forced to purchase a second Antoinette engine, and being evicted from the relatively well equipped airship shed). In this aircraft, entitled “British Army Aeroplane No 1”, Cody was able to make a series of very short “flights” during the months of September and October 1908. On October 16, 1908, the fifth “flight”, which ended in a crash, was the first officially recorded powered flight - a length of 1, 390 feet.
Cody's exploits came to the attention of Secretary of State for War Haldane. Demonstrating the foresight that politician and civil servants are renowned for, Haldane terminated Cody's contract, as he could see no future or military use for aircraft. Cody continued on his own. He was given his broken aircraft, and allowed to use Laffan's Plain for his test flights. Using his rebuilt plane, Cody carried passengers for the first time ( August 14, 1909) - Col Capper was the first passenger and Lela Cody was the first female passenger (both world records). Cody then made a world-record cross-country flight of 1 hour 3 minutes on September 5, 1909).
In 1910, using a newly-built aircraft, Cody won the prestigious Michelin Cup with a flight of 4 hours 47 minutes. In the same year, a different aircraft of Cody's design was the only British plane to complete the round-England race - finishing fourth with Cody at the controls. The aircraft that finished the round-England circuit, suitably strengthened and fitted with a new 120-hp engine won the Military Trials on Salisbury Plain in 1912. Cody won a prize of œ5, 000 and was able to sell his plane to the Government.
Shortly after these trials, Cody was recognized during a performance at the Theatre Royal and asked to give a speech from the box. He said he did not like war, but he would continue with his work on his weapons of war as he saw them as being the ultimate deterrent that would deter war. His sentiments had echoes in the words of the scientists who half a century later would work on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos to develop the world's first atomic bomb, ironically dropped from an aircraft. Many of these same scientists refused to work on the Hydrogen Bomb, which they saw as unnecessary and a step too far. Robert Oppenheimer, 'father of the atomic bomb', was publicly humiliated and disgraced for his refusal to work on the development of the hydrogen bomb, a decade later, at J F Kennedy's instigation, rehabilitated and honored, with the award of the Enrico Fermi Prize by President Lyndon B Johnson. Claude Eatherly, who commanded the path-finder aircraft that lit the way for the bombing of Hiroshima, who gave the order 'Bomb primary', saw nuclear weapons as a step too far. When the aircrews returned Claude Eatherly refused to take part in the celebrations, he did not want to be a hero. Later, when he denounced the US use of atomic weapons and spoke at public rallies, he was immediately, with the connivance of his family, certified as insane and locked away.
On August 7, 1913, Samuel F. Cody was killed in a crash whilst joy-riding across Laffan's Plain. His seaplane broke in half 500 ft above Ball Hill. Cody and his passenger, the cricketer W H B Evans, were pronounced dead on arrival at the Connaught Hospital. The funeral procession (his coffin was on a gun carriage drawn by six coal-black horses) drew an estimated crowd of 100, 000 mourners. He was buried with full military honors in the Aldershot Military Cemetery.
There used to exist at the end of the runway a tree, Cody's Tree, to which Cody used to tie his plane - old cowboy habits die hard. Overseas shipping is extra and cost will be quoted at bidders request. Massachusetts residents must add 6.25% sales tax. Please check out other early and interesting items offered by this seller on ebay. Click Here to See Our Items We Have for Sale in the eBay Gallery and Click Here to Add Us To Your Favorite Sellers List.
Important Notes about Shipping Charges: The amount quoted for Shipping & Handling is calculated by eBay and is equal to the EXACT amount charged by the Post Office plus a $1.00 "packing fee" - the $1.00 fee is our only compensation for the virgin packing materials we use on all of our professionally packaged boxes as well as our cost for the salaried help that does most of our packing - as I am sure you can see, we make NO profit on the Shipping charges and, in fact, our costs are usually greater than the $1.00 fee. Please contact us if there are any issues regarding the cost of shipping.ATTENTION FRIENDS!!!We are pleased to announce the start up of a second weekly auction by WALNUTTS-2.0!!! The next generation of NUTS have decided to take a crack at listing some of the hundreds of items that we have accumulated over the past 38 years.Click Here to See What WALNUTTS-2.0 is Offering in this week’s Ebay Auction!! Rest assured that WALNUTTS2 will be offering the same high standard of customer service and 100% unconditional satisfaction guarantee that you have found here in our weekly auctions. The "young'uns" will be starting off slow as they learn the ropes but we ask that you support them as you have supported us over the past 20+ years!!
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