The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1908-12-04

member of her family, Miss Mary II.
Krout was informed that Mr.. Wilbur
Wright had been presented to the
Queen of Italy after his recent success
in France, and had received very distin-
guished honors at the Italian court. 1t
will be recalled that the Italian Princes
of the reigning house are eminently sci
entific men, the Duke of Abruzzi being
an intrepid explorer.
1t was also stated in the same letter
that the city of Dayton will give the
now famous brothers a grand reception
upon their return TO Dayton, which, by
the way, is not their native town, both
brothers having been born in Indiana.
As was mentioned some time ago in
the Advertiser, the Wright brothers
have not had the usual experience of in
ventors in contending with poverty,
their father being a man Of abundant
means, and they themselves practical
business men, as has been shown, not
withstanding their absorbing scientific
study.
In The Worlds Work for October,
Frederick Todd has given most in
telligent and appreciative account of
their experiments, exploding good
many of the silly stories that have been
circulated about the two inventors and
their work. He said:
cone morning in the summer push
ed open the front door of the little two
story store building on West Third
street and came upon a big structure of
white canvas, aluminium, painted wood,
and thick, heavy wires-part of the
aeroplane of the Messrs. Wright. There
had been much said to me about the Sc
crecy of the two young men in Dayton;
but nobody was in sight. Stepping
noisily about did not bring anybody. 50
1 went to a side door, from which L
saw an elderly gentleman 60, and there
met Mr.. Orville Wright who had in
vited me by letter to come any evening
after six and talk about flying. his time
being taken up with workron the gov
eminent flying machine during work
hours. told him that / had called just
for moment to make an engagement.
CAN right" he said, "come up to
my house at seven"
"And then he took me first to look
at the machine l had seen, and after
ward, in the little office upstairs, talked
for three hours about experiments on
aerodynamics.
81 had gone to Dayton with the idea
that Mr.. Wright and his brother were
two skilful mechanics, who had got Q
little skilful sciertiflc information from
Mr.. Chanute, and had then blunderet
ahead to kind of success by grace Of
mechanical EXPERIENCES got in manufac
turing bicycles. But Mr.. Wright TOLD
me about the painstaking ard highl.
scientific experiments his brother ant
he conducted. - y" He showed m,
| some of the apparatus-little curvet
pieces of brass of different sizes AM
' shapes-which they put into delicat
balance in a long tube through whicl
| steady currents of air are blown, chang
q ing angles and speeds of air, NOTING
everything down and then studying tn
mass of figures. They perfected thei
, apparatus till it gave them identica
e results as often as they repeated an ex
e pertinent "a thing that pioneer expert
q mentors did not succeed in doing), an
;. learned so much from comparing figure
h that they can now plot the shape of
Il surface to do something they want ant
G after testing it, find that it does c'
f actly what they designed.
g "Many of the European scientist
who have written thick looks abor
O how air acts, have reasoned it all OF
4 in advance with equations containin
"a plenty of Greek letters, assuming tn;
+. the air acts just as the fluid water doe
,s The unassuming brothers in Daytc
=. first found out how the air really ac
# by experimental apparatus. They hay
satisfied themselves that air behav'
differently from water, having no c
3 hesion. Their actual tests with objec
;, have convinced them of some astonis
- ingly curious things that they give g
N inkling of in confidence, but are n
"A yet ready to make public
,fl Commencing their observations, M
Todd remarked:
"The Wright brothers, studying sos
ing flight, have satisfied themselves tn
most sharp gusts are little whirlwint
~ ,funnel-shaped and leaning atop the w
81 they are going; miniature tornado
We probably set awhirl by the tipping oy
eu of structure of air when light, wal
layer next the earth has slowly lifted
heavy cold mass, and balance is 81
'er denly lost"
lly This glimpse of their home life Civ