Benjamin Franklin Invented Kiteboarding
Kiteboarding, it appears, was invented by none other than the indispensable Benjamin Franklin. Legend has it that one languid summer afternoon in the early 1700s a young Ben Franklin, "being desirous of amusing myself with my kite, and enjoying at the same time the pleasure of swimming," found himself and a plank he used for a float propelled across a "mile-broad" pond "without the least fatigue and the greatest pleasure imaginable." It was an activity he recommended, although the record fails to mention how many actually took him up on it.
posted by extra_chrisb at 7.7.05
1 Comments:
Kites originated in China thousands of years ago (two kite masters Kungshu P'an and Mo Zi flew kites as early as 478 BC) and have managed to remain unchanged until the modern time, when multiple line controllable kites were introduced by George Pocock in 1826. For the first time in history, instead of letting the wind fly the kite, a multiple line controllable kite flyer can actually pilot the kite on the sky. Click http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~et3m-tkkw/history-table.html for a chronological table of kite history and http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~et3m-tkkw/history.html for a bibliography related to history of kites.
20.9.05
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