The Savannah morning news., 1904-01-07
TALE OF THE FLYER
AS 1T is TOLD BY THE MEN WHO
MADE THE MACHINE.
ITS FLIGHTS ARE DESCRIBED.
THE WRIGHT BROTHERS STATE
MENT OF THEIR INVENTION.

Inventors Say Tint Theirs Is the
First Correct Statement of the
Performance of Their Flying Ma
chine-They Operated at n DIsad-
vantage Because of Lack of Ex-
perience and the Gale That Pre-
vailed at the Time.
Dayton, O.. Jan. 6.-The Wright
brothers. inventors of the flying ma
chine which has attracted such wide
spread attention, have prepared the
following, which they say is the first
correct statement of the two success
full trials made by them:
"On the morning of Dec. II, be-
tween 1920 o'clock and noon. four
flights were made, two by Orville
Wright and two by Wilbur Wright.
The starts were all made from a point
on the level and about two hundred
feet west of our camp, which is stu
ated quarter of a mile north of Kill
Devil sand hill, in Dare county, North
| Carolina.
THE wind at the time of the flights
had velocity of twenty-seven miles
an hour at 10 o'clock and twenty
| four miles an hour at noon, as record
| ed by the thermometer at the Kitty
| Hawk weather bureau station. This
thermometer is thirty feet from the
ground. Our own measurements,
made with a hand thermometer at a
hight of four feet from the ground,
showed a velocity of about twenty
two miles when the first fight was
made and twenty-five and a half when
the last fight was made.
''The flight was made directly
against the wind. Each time the ma
chine started from the level ground
by it's own power with no assistance
from gravity or other source what
ever After a run of about forty feet
along a mono-rail track, which held
the machine eight inches from the
ground, it rose from the track, and
under the direction of the operator,
climbed upward on an inclined course
until hight Of eight or ten feet from
the ground was reached, after which
the course was kept as near horizontal
as the wind gusts and the limited skill
OF the operator would permit.
Into the teeth of a December gale
the flyer" made it's way forward with
a speed of ten miles an hour over the
ground and thirty to thirty-five miles
an hour through the air.
Why Flights Were Low.
ut had previously been decided that
for reasons of personal safety these
first trials should be made as close to
the ground as possible. The hight
chosen was scarcely sufficient for man
euVering in so gusty a wind and with
no previous acquaintance with the con-
duct of the machine and its controlling
mechanisms Consequently the first
fight was short.
THE succeeding flights rapidly in
creased in length and at the
fourth trial fight Of SO seconds
was made, in which the machine flew a
little more than half a mile through the
air and a distance of more than 852 feet
over the ground. The landing was due
to a slight error of judgment on the
part of the operator. After passing
over a little hummock of sand in at
tempting to bring the machine down to
the desired hight the operator turned
the rudder too far and the machine
turned downward more quickly than
had been expected. The reverse move
ment of the rudder was a fraction of a
second too late to prevent the machine
from touching the ground and thus
ending the flight. The whole occur