The Washington herald., 1909-05-30

have flown in 1904 for three miles in tn
midst OF the Ohio farm country and hav
escaped keen eyes. The fact is a proc
Of the brothers extreme care 70 avoi,
notice. Their brief records do not shov
how the feat was managed. To hav
ficwn that far unseen seems almost a
surprising as 20 have flown az all tn
flights were probably made IN a small
circle al the slightest possible elevation
from the ground
Year After Year OF Experiment.
IN the spring OF 1905 the wrights. still
unsatisfed. rebuilt their flyer and starte,
on the same old routine OF short, unim
pressiye experimental fights. generally
followed by a lot OF tinkering with theii
machine. There were stin some rathe
obscure and intermittent" faults WITH
the apparatus, and the inventors were no
satisfied From the beginning OF Jun,
until late IN September the step-by-steT
process went on. II was not until Sep
tember 26 that long fight was attempt
Cd. The records OF the next ten day.
give some i0ea OF the value OF the dul
and trying process OF the previous
months:
September as-IiH nile. Is minutes . seconds
/ September &-l2 miles. i9 minutes $ secoods
/ Octobcr 2-l5l. miles. = minutes 5 ssconds-
I Octobcr 4-20ss miles. 3 mi1u;es J. secoods-
/ October 50 Is niles g MINUTES secocds.
News Of Wrishts Gets Ont.
The fights were too wonderful to 90 on.
They stopped on October 8. There was
no accident. Just the old troublesome need
Of avoiding notice The flights. going on
/ day after day. had been noticed al last in
/ the neighborhoed. On October sort OF
wave Of excitement struck Dayton Men
who had automobiles. boys who could
walk Il. al who could reach Hoffman
4 Prairie. nine miles from Dayton, jour
! neyed over. The flyer kept on in spite OF
them till the fuel gave out But immeoi-
ateIv after the descent the brothers undid
! the machine with all possible haste and
/ packed II away The few curious persons
j who had a good look at II from near By
were lucky. Il was 10 be a long time be-
/ fore they were to set eyes on It again.
In the next few days the rumcrs OF the
l Dayton episode began 20 run over the
country. They sounded Wild and imprOb-
able There had been other such runors
I OF young aerOnauts seen going through
The air, and this case was set down by
part Of the public as Just another TO
nance OF the same sort Yet IL was q
sturdy rumOT and would not die. Too
many actual persons had seen the Wright
machine IN fight and would vouch for IT,
They were enthusiastic about what they
had seen. Some leading citizens even
went 70 the length OF making affidavits
The rumor went abroad. and then Il
made more Of a stir than IN New York.
France was at that time already actively
interested II promoting air navigation
for the purposes OF national defense. The
French made quiet Inquiries through an
emissary. IN December. 1905. there ap-
peared in this country Mr.. Arnold For
dyce, OF Paris
Flyer Wanted by French Syndicate.
SIr. Fordyce came with the avowed pur-
pose OF buying an option from the
Wrights He announced that he repre-
sented a syndicate Of buyers in Paris. and
this syndicate. it was generally under
stood. represented the French govern
ment
When Mr.. Fordyce called on the
Wrights ne was not By any means lei
into their confidence. There arose. on the
contrary. a mutual suspicion and misun-
CeTstaEding which was destined 10 end
badly for the French negotiations Mr.
Fordyce appeared unconvinced OF the
powers OF the aeroplane. The Wrights
kept calmly back and refused 10 convince
him. They would not show their cards.
The French agent did not get look at
the machine il its storeroon- Not so
much as a photograph Of It was shown to
hir1 until after long hesitation.
The French syndicate finally. 1t is said.
pui I'D a forfeit IN a New York bank for
an option Of purchase on the Wright ma
chine. Naturally. when their agent re-
turned 10 Paris as he had nothing definite
TO report about the Wright flyer, his pTin-
cipals were discouraged and allowed their
option 10 lapse. This fact became known,
CT widely rumored az least. and ended 10
doing much harm TO the inventors pros
poets OF selling abroad For long while
no others would venture where the
French syndicate had backed out.
A Year of disappointment.
The abandonment Of the French nego-
tiations was q severe disappointment for
the Wrights. The blow came IN 1906 right
OF top Of what they might feel entitled to
consider the successful termination Of
their labors. II they thought when their
flyer was perfected that their task was at
an end, they were destined to be disap-
pointed. Some Of their hardest times lay
right before them.
It must not be forgotten that the
Wrights were IN the flying machine busi-
-o-- . ---.,o+ 49,. nae 4, II Tl.ez- ..ar.e-
made any pretense Of being disinteTested
Investigators. Probably il was an excel
lent thing for the progress Of flying that
they did not. There had always been
plenty Of disinterested theorists studying
the subject for its own sake. 1t was get
tiers Of effective results that had been
lacking And the Wrights always made
Il plain in their straightforward, simple
bred way that they wanted 10 make their
fortunes. and that was the real reason
why they were bothering with flying and
the air
II all they had wanted was fame, they
could have demonstrated their apparatus,
surprised the whole world, and retired 70
be the most talked-of-men CT the mo-
rent In their circumstances they had
not the means TO 90 so They had val
GSSiS OiSSVNSt4 ana luSy HeecSO us pfiCS-
They must market Il. For years the
brothers had been living along on their
savings, giving their working hours Who'll
~ to the Ayer. They had to look to it to
pay them back again.
Why Wrights Kept Secret
The WIights believed. as has already
been said. that they would DO better sell
Ing their secret than natenfiuz II. Their
machine. as they could demonstrate, was
g powerful engine OF war. The secret Of