The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-06-01

AiS ~ IL 1t HlfSHL himself. II was
q neVer-ending stimulation. 1t helped
to keep their enthusiasm undimmed
IN the face of encouragement.
1t was not long after they took or
the study before every OF
their leisure vas given to It. In 100
they decided they must have an ex-
detrimental station. 50 they decided
to go down Kill Devil Hill in
North Carolina n establish an
they had given about the same
mount Of time and money to flying
as other boys do to a trip .up the
lakes or Ito the Worlds Fair:
put now n matter assumed more
serious proportions. One can mag
inc how many a father would have
discouraged these strenuous absorb
ing efforts given to a mere amuse-
ment, would have advised sticking
to something that paid But I IAN
not help b~elieVeing that Bishop Wright
watched his boys efforts to fly with
as much interest as they felt them
selves, and they needed his interest
for often they We're discouraged. In
1901. the year after they had begun
tc experiment in North Carolina with
a gliding machine, they returned pretty
We'll played out. ON that trip they
discovered that the tables of calcu-
latiOn previously made by all the au-
thorities upon whom they had de-
pended We're wrong, and that, if they
were to succeed they must work GU,
the whole theory from the bottom up.
At that time Wilbur Wright expressed
his solemn conviction that man would
not fly for a thousand years. But that
belief did not detain him and his
brother from tackling the job. This
is the point in their career where they
best showed the stuff they are made
G MI ~ ~1--
for balancing and controlling the ma
chine, but they developed propellers
for their machine on information
which they had discovered for them
selves. Further than this, and more
important they had to work out new
tables showing the pressure of the
air against various surfaces at various
angles. Without all this technical
information, the collection Of which
was a task scarcely conceivable, they
could never have solved the problem
Probably their method of work
saved them from failure at this stage
of the undertaking. It was this:
When one made a suggestion the
other attacked it-but not without
that frequently q whole days discus
siOn-and they often talked at home
until the women folk felt like weep
ing them out with the broom-wOuld
result in each one accepting the posi-
ton of the other. Then the next day
the whole thing would be gone over
again until they had got the trutE
and both were persuaded. In his man
ner they undoubtedly avoided "goine
off on a tangent and also stimulated
each others determination. And for
this reason everybody in the family
and everybody in Dayton. is satisfied
that neither brother could have mas
tered the thing alone.
On the 18th of December. 1903. af-
ter the boys had made undre and
hundreds of experimental flights in
their gliding machine (nearly a thous-
and in September and October Of 1902
alone), their first machine to carry a
gasoline engine made a successful
flight. This was at Kill Devil Hill,
in the presence Of five persons, and
il was the first time in the history OF
the world that a poWer-drlVen heavier
than-air flying-machine, with a mar
aboard, left this planet in successful
flight. III first flight lasted only
twelve seconds, but later the same day
the machine flew a ffty-nine seconds
covering a distance OF So feet against
a INSTRUMENTATION wind.
The time to celebrate had arrived.
SO the boys went to a telegraph Of
fee n wired the news home with a
dollar the good bishop had given them
to spend for that purpose if they met
with success.
It isn't boys in homes like the
Wrights and towns like Dayton that
trouble me-said the Philosopher
Give a boy freedom and territory tc
operate in. and he will take care OF
the rest. With fields for kite flying,
holes for swimming, trees to climb,
garrets to read and dream in, corners
of the woodshed or barn in which TIC
tinker n to build bob-sleds or fly
ing machines if he wants-you car