[Slowhand] Re: Think of the electric guitar as the Wright Brothers of music

[Fabio Dwyer]

>>Think of the electric guitar as the Wright Brothers of music -- without 

>>it, rock would never have >>gotten off the ground



Actually I'd rather not think about eletric guitar this way, since the 
Wright Brothers flying engine never got *off the ground* by itself; the 
first real airplane that could take off the ground without needing to be on 
the top of a hill was 14 Bis, by brazilian inventor Alberto Santos Dumont. 
By the time the Wright Brothers engine was created it wasn't recognized by 
the international flight assossiation as a real airplane since it was 
necessary to be able to took of the ground at the *ground level*, without 
any help of gravity, just with it's own resources. The first flight of 14 
Bis was realized in Paris, in 1906 in front of thousands of witness - 
another point taking on account in this case: there weren't any witness with 
real credencials in the Wright's flight. Alberto Santos Dumont killed 
himself after he realized that his invention, the airplane was used as a 
weapon in the World War I. He never capitalized his invention, he said it 
was a present to the world. He was also the inventor of the wrist watch (to 
free his hand while he was flying) beside many other inventions we use 
worldwide today, which is another difference between him and the Wright 
Brothers - what they invented beside an airplane that couldn't take off??? 
It is like inventing a car that need to be pushed to start it up, it's an 
incomplete car for the brazilian / french pattern of technology.

We're celebrating the centenary of the invention of the airplane in Brazil 
this year, which coincided with our first brazilian going to space, Marcos 
Pontes. A couple of years ago, George Bush, that wonderful guy who's trying 
to destroy world peace, witnessed a flight with a perfect copy of the Wright 
Brothers plane. It didn't work, of course. Dumont's 14 Bis was recreated in 
the past and flew extremely well. It will fly again this year! Bill Clinton 
already recognized Santos Dumont as the real inventor of the airplane while 
he was visiting Brazil a decade ago.

In this case, the diference between Santos Dumont and the Wright Brothers is 
a matter of marketing. Americans knew better how to sell this "truth" in the 
past, so the current generation take it as a unarguable fact, but the truth 
doesn't change anyway.

I don't have anything against US or americans (except Mr. Bushit), on the 
contrary - my mother is from Philadelphia - and of course the US gave so 
many incredible inventions to the world - sent man to the moon, created the 
internet and the personal computers between many other incredible stuff, but 
sorry guys, the airplane wasn't one of them. The Wright Bros. were important 
pioneers in aviation, but they weren't the real inventors of this jewel. 
That's not true and it's not a matter of point of view.

EC related topic? He wouldn't been playing very much outside the Surrey area 
if it wasn't for Santos Dumont (lol)

Cheers,
Fabio Dwyer

PS. Yeah, I know Les Paul & Leo Fender were the real inventors of solidbody 
guitars, it wasn't any brazilian...hehehe  BTW Les or Leo??? Or it was 
DeltaNick in his past life???
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