The July 14, 1904, issue recounted the story of an accident in a New Jersey steelworks. A plant employee was using a 20-lb sledge hammer to break a riser from a casting. During a swinging blow, the sledge's handle flew out of his hand and struck a nearby man on the back of his head, fracturing his skull. It then struck another man, splitting open his forehead. Finally, it flew through a window and struck a third man on the shoulder, breaking his collarbone.
Will man ever fly?
That issue also detailed one man's experience making a mechanized model of a flying insect. He wanted the insect to move, simulating flight, so he powered it with an electric motor and suspended it on a track. During a test, the model took off, striking the wall. Although the "insect" was demolished, the model maker noted that the experience "thoroughly convinced me that mechanical flight is quite possible without balloon attachments."
Apparently neither the author nor the AMERICAN MACHINIST editors had heard about the Wright Brothers' successful flight in Kitty Hawk the previous December.
