Front matter of the published editions giving the years of composition, filed with the 1974 engineering analysis and its drawings
- Origin
- The text's own editions; a department of aeronautical and mechanical engineering
- Dated
- dictation 1918–1923; announced 1952; editions 1959 and 1973; analysis 1974
- Extent
- front matter 6; analysis 22 with drawings pages
- Status
- accepted
- Redactions
- The Sanskritist's name, at her request, for a reason stated in the story rather than concealed.
Chain of custody
Neither item was obtained from anybody. Both have been in print for decades. This newspaper's contribution was to open the front matter, which states the years of composition and the manner of it, and then to read the engineering analysis alongside it — two things almost nobody arguing about this subject has done in the same afternoon. We separately paid a Sanskritist to read the verses for period markers in the vocabulary; her report is held with this file and she asked not to be named, for a reason printed in the story.
Held by: They Buried, document room
Excerpt
[From the editions' own front matter] Dictated 1918–1923. The compiler's account is that the verses were delivered to him by a sage of great antiquity. [From the 1974 analysis] The geometries described have been rendered as drawings before assessment. The configurations will not generate lift. The descriptions reflect no understanding of aeronautics.
Transcribed by the data desk. Line breaks follow the original. Bracketed matter is ours.
Editor's note
Filed because this is the cheapest check in the vault and nobody runs it. The date that settles the question is printed in the book by the people who published the book. The document desk keeps a list of claims that fail on their own front matter and this one heads it.
Cited in
- They Dated The Ancient Manuscript. It Is Younger Than The Aeroplane.Deep History · Aug 10