| Show O ah za AV rat 0 h MERV OV 7 1 1 RZ ix M 3 3 V 31 11 n 41 1 1 1 1 11 2 1 1 W aa a ix A oil zy rr wint by ELMO SCOTT WATSON ND it if a dayton ohio high school boy back in the early eighties been hit to in the face while playing a 0 game of hockey they called it shinny on tile the ice then a recent historian might not have been able to tell the tory story of a modern wonder in these words the sky Is alive with winged craft they dart through clouds clouda and slide 1 ide across the open blue at a night unseen they murmur their progress along starry pathways they wend to distant cities they cross the oceans the continents the north pole and lately the south pole they make pictorial map surveys patrol forests against fire man uever in military hosts bring first aid to regions of disaster poison insects in field and orchard carry machine parts to remote mines and a prize cow to a fair transport people and c cash a 4 and mall cupid also has flown down ala said a k kiss 1 ss improves improve with altitude tomorrow we can see the sky crowded with traffic tra fal c needing nl eding winged officers leers off to keep the roads clear at the top leviathan expresses roar alo along ng from rom chicago to london from new york to IS moscow and from boston to pekin the middle distance Is reserved for excursions to greenland the south seas and patagonia the broad highway below Is occupied by commuters and local travelers on paltry five hundred bundred mlle runs salesmen week enders joy riders a motley crew with cheap and wobbly equipment who somehow get to their destinations as in the days of reconditioned aliv vers the traffic officer has a task to make some of these people behave keep on their side of the air and have their tall lamps on at night yet a quarter of a century sigo ago no airplane exited 1 the man who painted that interesting word picture la Is john R mcmahon Mci lahon and the above quo mien forms th the opening paragraphs of his book the wright brothers fathers of flight published by little battle brown and company an and d t the he dayton schoolboy who lost all of his front upper teeth in the game of shinny on the tha tee ice and as a result later became a discoverer co ot of the secret of flight and inventor co of the first successful airplane was wllbur wilbur wright who with his brother orvllle orville wright launched themselves into the air at kitty hawk N 0 on december IT 17 1903 1003 on that date man flew for the first time the story of the wright brot brothers fiers Is by now a fa familiar millar one tomosa to most americans americana the twenty fifth anniversary celebration of the first successful flight of a heavier than air machine held nt at kitty hawk N 0 in 1023 not only attracted nationwide attention but ut spread their fame throughout the world only recently their names appeared in newspapers throughout the country in connection with two events one was the announcement that a design submitted by two new york architects had bad been chosen for foe the great memorial which Is to be erected to their memory at kitty hawk an am impressive stone shaft in the form of a huge wing topped by a powerful searchlight air beacon the other was the announcement that orvllle orville wright was to be the reci recipient plent of the first daniel guggenheim medal for notable achievement in the advancement of aeronautics which will be awarded to him on april 30 in connection with the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the american society of mechanical engineers in washington but well vell known as have become the names of wllbur wilbur and orvllle orville wright and the story of their epoch marking feat a quarter of a century ago the complete story of their careers Is told tor for the first time la in mcmahons hons book and certainly fr for the first time such a thing as a connett con neUlon lon between a game of shinny on the tee ice and mans conquest of the air after centuries of trial and failure has been established and that curious but significant fact told it came about when wllbur wilbur wright who was living in dayton ohio with his father a bishop of the united brethren church hla his mother his three brothers lorla and orvllle orville and tits his sister katharine now mrs hire henry J II askell of kansas city mo alo took a years course in the dayton high school in IS 4 85 lie ile had always been an athletic youngster e r and he soon became a leader in the sports of that high school one day lie be was playing on the high school hockey team against a team composed of sons of officers in the home for veteran soldiers near dayton during a melee in the course of the game a stick in the hands of an opponent slipped and struck young wright a ter rIfle blow on the mouth knocking out all of hta his front upper teeth an army surgeon burgeon bandaged him up but lie he refused the offers of a ride home saying saving that he would walk lest it frighten his ni mother cither if he were carried home among the effects of this injury were heart and stomach trouble writes mcmahon McM nhon there followed 0 long period of delicate health if not semi kemt invalidism with a diet confined to liquids eggs and toast it seemed to every one that the boy was handicapped for or life and none dreamed of the possibility of a great compensation chance chance and trifles loom large in our story Wll burs teeth were knocked out in a shinny game whence lin an important fact may be deduced poor health kept him at home for years forbidding vent ventures into the outside world lie he did not travel or marry like lila his elder brothers he remained in contact with orville and continued the collaboration on inventive feats time equalized the difference in age wllbur wilbur was born in 1807 orville in ISTIa 1871 and nd experience between them as they catnip caru to early manhood the fraternal partner hip essential to future achievement brt bit once A if M in 1 za IM IF Z A i y in Z f N kl Z 7 kaj af 4 A 1 the first time in history than an airplane flew orvllle orville Wright la 12 second flight at kitty hawk N C december 17 1903 1003 the distance was about feet on the same ame day wllbur wilbur wright piloted the tha virgin aircraft feet in 69 59 seconds 2 wllbur wilbur t in the glider of 1902 1002 at kitty hawk N C the air was in fact conquered then only an engine and propellers were needed to make the glider an airplane 3 wilbur wright in his prime his most char act photograph and kis usual costume whether for flying or meeting kings 4 orvllle orville wright at kitty hawk N C dem decem her ber 17 1928 revisits the scene of great achievement elleve during the celebration of the twenty fifth anniversary of flight besides the memorial here shown the foundation of a government monument was laid upon kill devil hill england and france joined america in tribute to the conquerors of the air 5 monument at kitty hawk N C markin Gr the spot where on september 17 1900 1000 wllbur wilbur wright began the assembly of the wright brothers first experimental glider which led to mans conquest of the air his monument was erected crested by the citizens of kitty hawk in 1923 1928 6 wllbur wilbur wright taking his sister katharine for an air ride in the presence of the king of england at pau france 1909 it was a complete and delightful surprise plotted by her brothers imperiled by age disparity was now secure this casualty on the tee ice in it a hockey game however was only one in an interesting chain of events which led eventually to the invention of the first successful airplane from the day their father aroused their childish interest in flying by bi the gift of a toy hello copter the idea of conquering the air was wag implanted in the minds of both orvllle orville and wllbur wilbur wright it persisted during their first venture in business after leaving high school publishing a weekly newspaper new in dayton called th eWest side news hews it continued when they established themselves as manufacturers repairers and retailers of bicycles which in the nineties were ahre coming into wide vogue in america one night in the summer of 1890 while orvllle orville was at home homb recuperating from typhoid fever wilbur sat in their shop reading it a newspaper ile he came upon an account of the death of 0 otto lillen that thai a german engineer in a glider gilder accident in the soa and we the german had bad made hundreds ut of gilding flights and was experimenting with a power machine when th the accident caused his death wilbur showed the article to orville when tae latter recovered they read eagerly of human attempts to solve flight starting with a book animal mechanism tn in their fathers library they wrote to the smithsonian institution for advice on what books to buy perused the history of research from the greek greeh legend telling of icarus falling failing into the sea when the sun melted wax fastenings of his wings to the gliding gilding ventures of the englishman percy pitcher killed in 1809 1899 and octave chanute an american pioneer in aeronautics of the two groups of investigators in aeronautics one having to do with powered machines and the other with gliders they became more interested to in the tha latter because lahey considered it a wasteful extravagance to mount costly machinery on wings which no one knew for sure how bow to managed manage from speculating on the theory of gliders gilders the next step was to make actual experiments in the air so that they could learn the fundamentals dament als which had to be mastered before flights would be possible previous investigators had failed because they could coald not keep gliders on an even keel heel this tala teemed seemed to the wrights to be the most perplexing problem to be solved before man could fly they finally decided on tho the correct principle to obtain stab stability lItty the principle that today la Is used in every airplane it involved twisting the wings but at first they did not see how bow they could apply it the elew clew came to them by one of those exam exa pies of chance and trifles which McI mcmahon lahon men men eions as looming so large in their life story one night in 1809 orvllle orville and his sister visited with friends wllbur wilbur in the bicycle shop sought bought means of filling the idle hours caused by slack business lie ile picked up nn an empty cardboard box a customer had left on the counter after taking out an Inner tube wllbur wilbur was thinking of aviation all theotime the time the cardboard box would have hava been only a cardboard box to most men but to wllbur wilbur wright it suggested experimentation wllbur wilbur noticed that the oblong box bor resembled the biplane glider they bad planned lie ile distorted its surfaces by twisting it IL after a while he warped the right side upward and the left side downward ile ijo studied it why their gliders gilders surfaces bo be warped in such a manner so that a lateral balance could be maintained by applying varying vertical wind pressures an on either wing when orville returned lie he found wilbur sketching his scheme they discussed it far into the night examining and twisting the cardboard box they concluded that tile alie time had come for action they must now spend money and risk their lives in experiments instead of buying more books but caution and lack of resources resource a held them back a while and they contented themselves with building a model embodying their cardboard box principles in the summer of 1000 they constructed their first glider of light strong wood with wings covered with tough muslin in addition to wings that could be warped it had a small email horizontal plans in front which could be directed upward or downward at the discretion of the operator they needed hills and winds of rather high velocity to test it and these were not aval available lable near dayton As their glider was taking shape they wrote to the weather bureau nt at washington for recommendations ions BS as to the best locality for glider gilder experiments the weather bureau suggested the rolling teri ted rain near kitty hawk N X C correspondence with a north norih carolina postmaster revealed that the little hills were of sand plied piled up by winds from the son sen and this encouraged the wrights wrighta because sand would do less damage to a crushing crashing glider and roan man than hard earth or rocks and that Is how this his town in north carolina came to be associated with the pioneer export in flying and won its enduring fame as a milestone la in the history of human progress the wrights arrived in kitty fialk in Sep september ipox and made their first experiments with will a glider which they had bad constructed the experiment was not a success but in their failure they learned enough to encourage them to continue the next year they were back after having figured out accurate wind resistance tables upon which they realized the success of their expert meats depended by 1002 they had successfully solved the glider gilder problem and the next thing was to design an engine to propel their craft within the next year that problem also had been solved and on december 17 1003 the historic 12 second night flight over ever a distance of feet was made by orvllle orville wright that brief summary of the I 1 success of their experiments does not mot of course courm tell the he full story of all the disappointments and discourage discouragements ments which they encountered nor the ridicule to which they like ake all pioneers were subjected by the skeptics who refused to believe that man would ever ly fly even they shared that doubt sometimes and once during a period of pessimism following it failure of the experiments Wilb wllbur arWright declared nobody will fly tor for a thousand years and yet within a year he be himself was flying because the wright brothers wot sive opt |
