- Looking for info on the baby dragon I found three more
articles which mention more than the Telegraph article. One also cites
from the letter which was found with the dragon. You might want to add
these extracts to the original article.
-
- I am also trying to get into contact with someone who
has access to the dragon to enquire about any examinations that have been
done. Should none have been done whatsoever I will try to change this.
-
-
- http://www.oxfordstudent.com/2004-01-29/news/12
-
- Dragon Pickle
-
- Interest amongst Oxford academics in what appears to
be a pickled 19th century baby dragon has led to a u-turn by the National
History Museum, writes Kate Busby.
-
- When first discovered and presented to the London museum,
the dragon, found in a sealed glass jar near Abingdon, was rejected on
the grounds that it was a suspected hoax. However, last Friday the Natural
History Museum said that it was interested in following up the find. Thiscoincides
with a positive response to the discovery from members of the university.
-
- The baby dragon, measuring around 30 inches, was found
by David Hart in his garage last week. The creature was then entrusted
to Hart's friend, Allistair Mitchell, who passed on the pictures to a contact
at the University. Mitchell stated: "I've shown the photos to someone
from Oxford University and he thought it was amazing. Obviously he could
not say if it was real but was extremely keen to do a biopsy."
-
-
-
- http://www.google.com./search?q=cache:n1l0WmQcdE0J:www.thisislondon.co.uk/entertainment
/art/articles/8795649%253Fsource%3DEven%25250Aing%25252520Standard+%22Allistair+
Mitchell%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-
-
-
- Enter The Dragon
- By Humfrey Hunter
- 3-6-4
-
- With tiny teeth and claws, a little tail and soft-looking
white skin, could this really be what it seems - a baby dragon?
-
- Highly unlikely of course, but this disturbingly realistic
model almost had the experts fooled.
-
- The dragon, suspended in a jar of what is thought to
be formaldehyde, is believed to be the brainchild of German scientists
who wanted to humiliate their English counterparts in the 1890s, when the
rivalry between the two countries was intense.
-
- Had they pulled it off it would have been one of the
greatest hoaxes of all time.
-
- However, according to documents found with it, the Natural
History Museum turned the dragon away, possibly because they suspected
it was a trick.
-
- It was then sent to be destroyed. But it appears a porter
intercepted the 2 1/2 ft-high jar and took it home. Now the dragon has
surfaced in an Oxfordshire garage.
-
- The papers say the porter was either a man known only
as Moredun, or a Frederick Hart - whose grandson David found the jar containing
the dragon in his garage last month.
-
- Mr Hart, 58 , from Sutton Courtenay, said: 'My father,
George, who is dead now, left it at my house when he moved away from London
about 20 years ago.
-
- 'I was not there when he put it in my garage so I never
really looked at it. It was just in the corner with a load of other junk
and I found it when I was having a clear-out.
-
- 'I had never looked at it so when I saw the dragon it
was a huge shock. I remember the crate it was in from when I was a kid
because it was in my dad's workshop.
-
- He just used to say the crate was fragile because it
had a glass container in it. But I never saw what was in it.
-
- I didn't know until recently and when I first saw it
I didn't know what to make of it. Such things don't exist do they? It is
very odd-looking.'
-
- Mr Hart, who runs a marketing services company, asked
his friend Allistair Mitchell to help him investigate the dragon's background.
-
- Mr Mitchell, 42, who runs a marketing company in Oxford,
said: 'The late 1800s were a time of intense rivalry between Britain, Germany
and France over who was the world's leading nation.
-
- 'It would appear that this was an effort on the part
of interested parties in Germany to discredit the British scientific community.
-
- 'At the time, scientists were the equivalent of today's
pop stars and their achievements were heavily reported in newspapers.
-
- 'It would have been a great propaganda coup for the Germans
if it had come off. Some of the documents are in German and date back to
the 1890s.
-
- 'I've shown the photos of the dragon to someone from
Oxford University and, like everyone who sees it for the first time, he
thought it was amazing.
-
- Obviously he could not say if it was real or not but
he wanted to come and take a biopsy of it.
-
- 'It is a truly amazing thing. It stands about 30 centimetres
but if you were to take it out of the jar and lie it flat with the tail
extended, it's probably about a metre long.
-
- 'The dragon is flawless, from the tiny teeth to the umbilical
cord. No matter how closely you look, you cannot tell if it is real.
-
- It could be made from India rubber, because Germany was
the world's leading manufacturer of it at the time, or it could be made
of wax.
-
- 'Or, of course, it might be real.'
-
-
- http://www.google.com./search?q=cache:jvmmxnSv6HcJ:www.macintyre.com/print.php%3F
sid%3D1491+%22Allistair+Mitchell%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-
-
- Here Be Dragons.... And Then Again Maybe Not!
- By Jack Malvern
-
-
- Could a pale body suspended in formaldehyde, complete
with claws, wings and a long white tail, really be a dragon? Or is the
mysterious creature merely a hoax designed to fool the scientific community?
-
- The finding of a 'creature' thrown out by a museum 100
years ago may spark a fiery debate
- Could a pale body suspended in formaldehyde, complete
with claws, wings and a long white tail, really be a dragon? Or is the
mysterious creature merely a hoax designed to fool the scientific community?
Whatever the answer, the same question was being asked more than 100 years
ago when a "dragon" was sent from Germany to a British museum
in what was believed to be a ruse to humiliate British scientists.
-
- The specimen recently re-emerged when it was discovered
by David Hart, the grandson of Frederick Hart, a porter at the Natural
History Museum.
-
- According to Mr Hart, the dragon had been sent to the
museum by German scientists in the 1890s when rivalry between the two nations
was intense. However, the museum saw through the ruse and rebuffed the
specimen as a fake, allowing a porter to take it away with him.
-
- Allistair Mitchell, a friend of Mr Hart who has researched
the specimen, said the "dragon" could have been a way for the
Germans to get one over on the British.
-
- "It would appear that this was an effort on the
part of interested parties in Germany to discredit the British scientific
community," he said.
-
- "At the time, scientists were the equivalent of
today's pop stars and their achievements were heavily reported in the newspapers.
It would have been a great propaganda coup for the Germans if it had come
off. Some of the documents are in German and date back to the 1890s."
-
- One letter found with the creature mentions the "horrible
ghost".
-
- The German author of the letter, known o-nly as "JW",
urges his correspondent:
-
- "Nobody should find out anything about the actual
provenance (of the dragon) or our involvement."
-
- However, it is unclear why, if the "dragon"
was a hoax, the letter should have made its way into the hands of the Natural
History Museum in London.
-
- Mr Hart, 58, a warehouse operator from Sutton, South
London, found the specimen in his garage during a clearout.
-
- "My father, George, who is dead now, left it at
my house when he moved away from London about 20 years ago," he said.
"I was not there when he put it in my garage so I never really looked
at it. It was just in the corner with a load of other junk.
-
- "I had never looked at it, so when I saw the dragon
it was a huge shock. I remember the crate it was in from when I was a kid
because it was in my Dad's workshop.
-
- "He just used to say the crate was fragile because
it had a glass container in it. But I never saw what was in it. I didn't
know until recently and when I first saw it I didn't know what to make
of it. Such things don't exist, do they?" Mr Mitchell now plans to
get a biopsy of the dragon to see whether it is organic or merely made
of rubber or wax. But if the "dragon" is a fake, it is flawless.
"It is a truly amazing thing," he said.
-
- "It stands about 30cm but if you were to take it
out of the jar and lie it flat with the tail extended, it's probably about
a metre long." Mr Mitchell added: "The dragon is flawless from
the tiny teeth to the umbilical cord.
-
- "No matter how closely you look, you cannot tell
if it is real."
-
-
- This article comes from MACINTYRE.COM
- http://www.macintyre.com/
-
- http://www.macintyre.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1491
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