The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-12-04


inking of in confidence, but are not
yet ready to make public. -
| Commencing their observations, Mr..
Todd remarked:
"The Wright brothers, studying soar
ing flight, have satisfied themselves that
most sharp gusts are little whirlwinds,
,funnel-shaped and leaning atop the way
| they are going; miniature tornadoes,
probably set awhirl by the tipping over
of structure of air when light, warm
layer next the earth has slowly lifted
heavy cold mass, and balance is sud
denly lost
This glimpse of their home life given
| by the writer is not only interesting
but accurate:
owe talked again at the Wright
home, " he continues, son Hawthorne
street, in the evening. There, in a
charming home circle, of which the two
brother inventors are a part, L saw
the culture that no doubt made a good
foundation for their work. Their father,
a clergyman, prominent in church adj
ministration, joined with interest in our
conversation. Mr.. Orville Wright show
ed as much interest in local tangle of
public school politics. in Mr. Taft IS !
campaign and in the national issues, as I
he did in the progress of aviation. Then !
he told me an interesting story of their
dealings with foreign governments, de-
nying the stories about exorbitant de-
mands made by them, narrated how
some foreign customs officers, with busy
patriotism, took their flying machine
apart and made complete measurements,
and how Mr.. Wilbur Wright s fight in
France was delayed because his work
men had failed to ship box of little
bolts, which the French hardware shops
could not come near duplicating. When
we got to the description of his flights,
he showed me a complete record in
splendid photographs of their trials
with gliders and motor-driven machines
as they progressed"
Reverting to the charges of secrecy.
Mr.. Wright gave this account, taking
a tilt at the enterprising fellow journal
st who always delights in giving
great air of difficulty and mystery to his
achievements in behalf of his news
paper:
. They have called us secretive,
Mr.. Wright began, with smile. I'VE
have made many practice flights out at
Simms a village near Dayton], and !
often we had people stop in wagons and
to watch us. Then we pub
ished what we were doing in aero .
nautical journals, and nearly every
hing that we had was on record at the
Patent Office. Of course, there were
curious men that we did not care to !
nave watch US too closely, and when we
suspected that experts were on hand we
stopped flying. 1t costs too much to be !
patenting things as we try
hem out.
But we never cared about the gem :
II dl puUI1C. we 1uNIGCu Tie 4OCd1 uCNo-
'apers to watch us, asking only that
ameras be barred. We got off for a
ong time without much notice, because
he public did not seem to know the
Inference between dirigible balloons
nd aeroplanes. They were both called :
irships And with Santos Dumont stay
ng up for half an hour in his balloon
nd two young bicycle makers in Day
on only few minutes, the home news :
lidn't attract And even when we
vent down to Kitty Hawk and the q
got after us, we did not re-
use to fly because the reporters were i
o be sent to us. They never came.
hey took it for granted and watched
S from trees. We knew they were
here, for we saw them. -
Of their subsequent improvements,
Ir. Wright said: :
''Our first work, with elders, show P
d us only the principles of support and s,
alancing. We learned about shaping h
he planes and then, for the first time, 81
re put the thick front rib on our wings. e.
We learned something about h
alancing, and in rivalry with the buzz a
ards we tried soaring. Our wings Il