In 1907, a group of important figures watched Alberto Santos Dumont's experiments in a seaplane.
Period photograph, by the Rol photography agency, of a group of personalities observing Alberto Santos Dumont.
Some notes on the back, in French.
11.8 cm x 16.8 cm.
October 23, 1907, Paris region, on the Seine River.
Good condition of conservation.
Unique piece.
Assistance aux esseis de l'hydroplane Santos Dumont October 1907
Delagrange aviator Kapferer pilot de la Belle de Paris Don Jaime of Bourbon Captain Caddy Archiduc Salvatore Leopold d'Autriche Demarest of St. Antoinette
(There is one more person, on the far right of the photo, a gentleman whose last name is Mangin.)
By the end of 1907, aviation was taking off with the flights of American and European pioneers. Santos-Dumont abandoned the dirigible to build the "Demoiselle". But before that, he devoted himself to the No. 18, a seaplane. After testing on the Seine without an engine in late summer, Santos-Dumont installed a 50 hp engine, and then a 100 hp engine, before sinking it and nearly drowning.
This photograph is famous and has been reproduced countless times on postcards. It depicts a group of seven elegant men watching from a boat on the River Seine the exploits of Santos Dumont in his seaplane. The men in the photograph are as follows:
Léon Delagrange (1872-1910). Santos-Dumont made his last flight as a pilot in the Demoiselle on January 4, 1910. The flight ended in a crash, but he survived with only a few bruises. That same day, the pioneer Léon Delagrange died while piloting a Blériot.
Henri Kapferer (1870-1958) was a businessman with a passion for mechanics. He was a descendant of Henry Deutsch, the creator of the famous Deutsch Prize (1901-1903), which helped make Santos Dumont a celebrity in 1901 (I will soon present an exceptional document by Santos Dumont reporting this event!).
I have not yet discovered who Don Jaime de Bourbon, Capitaine Caddy, Demarest de la St Antoinette and Mangin were. But Archduke Salvatore Leopold of Austria (1863-1931) was a military man and scientist, heir to the European Habsburg royal family. He made his fortune patenting an engine for the Czech brand, Skoda.
I increasingly love photographs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Especially when they show Brazil or famous Brazilians. This is the case in this photograph, in which Santos Dumont does not appear, but all eyes are on him, admiring the little Brazilian, very brave. The photograph was taken from the pier and I was fascinated by the elegance and posture of these seven men. An amusing detail is a dog that appeared in the foreground at the exact moment the photographer activated his camera.
