Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-10-18


Av again in that little
----- - shop over in West Sd
LILLE "NiNhi street that the world
has kept me from, there to devote the rest
of my life TO the thing dearest to my soul
scientific research"
In the big plant that will be erected in
Dayton Orville Wright will retain a fnan-
cial interest, and to it's trained force act in
an advisory capacity; but II will be over
'in the little shop in West Sd street." where
his heart is, that will be evolved from his
inventive and scientific genius flying ma
chine that will be absolutely safe for whom
soever may wish to run one
A French Toy
will be-" it is here written; for IL this
mans life is spared, 1t will as surely come
as tomorrow's dawn. Before the original
flight of their power-driven, heavier than-air
machine upon the sandy shore at Kitty
Hawk. North Carolina, on December II, 1903,
Orvlle and his brother Wilbur knew the ma
chine would fly; knew it positively as a
proved scientific fact. "It had to fly" they
said; 1--WE have worked out our formula for
the actions of the air. verified them by re-
peated experiments that have shown the
same results under identical conditions and
built the machine accordingly. 1t must fly;
and IL will" Which it did, with the in
ventors aboard, a distance of 800 feet at an
elevation of 100 feet, for period of five min
utes, before three members of the Kill Devil
Life-saving Station and two citizens of the
nearby town of Manteo.
Orville and Wilbur were the younger of
four brothers, who, with their sister, were
the children of Bishop Wright, of the United
Brethren Church, and his wife, who was a
college graduate, then rare distinction for
and editor of religious paper, who, in the
course of the pursuit of his profession, had
travelled in many parts of the world. The
boys did not go to college, like their elder
brothers, the early death of their mother ne
cessitating change in the plans their father
had for them. They had the advantage of
access TO their fathers library of more than
1000 volumes which included many works upon
science and art. Late in the autumn of 1S7S
when Wilbur was IL and Orville Z years of
age, their father brought home one evening
a French toy, a hecoptere, which when
thrown in the air flew of it's own accord
across the room and fiuttered like a wounded
bird at the ceiling for minute ere it sank
slowly to the floor. 1t did not last long,
being of frail and delicate construction; but
it left abiding memory with Orville and
his brother; 1t was the sun that generated
into life the germ Of science within their
souls So from tiny acorns do great oaks
grow In the scientific books in the family
library the boys read of the experiments of
Otto Lilienthal with a glider of his own in
vention; going to school meanwhile, playing,
skating, fishing and bicycling with the boys
of their neghborhood. When they left school
they went into the printing business to-
gether, and very shortly afterward into the
bicycle business.
In the meantime, quietly, unostentatiousy,
they were experimenting with air gliders and
flying machines, basing their efforts upon
scientific deduction They sought and found
the scientific reasons for the failures of Lii
ienthal and others They experimental with
little curved sheets of steel of different sizes
and shapes, which they suspended in delicate
balance within tubes, through which steady
currents of air were blown, changing the
angles of the steel sheets and the speed of
the air, noting, comparing studying, until
they had perfected an apparatus that re-
peatedly gave Identical results. They then
plotted" the shape of their plane accord
ingly; and the results were that scientifically
the machine had to fly. which, practically,
it did. With the plane perfected they
brought their genius to bear upon a pro-
peller. solving a problem that had previously
bafied all marine and aeronautical engi-
neers.
Then, and not until then, they inquired OF
the United States Weather Bureau where
upon the Eastern coast the winds blew
strongest and steadiest, and were informed
kitty Hawk North Carolina" Thence they
went, built a shack upon the beach. living
in 1t while putting their aeroplane together
and tuning It to perfection "It Just had to
hy' and 1t did
These men Of genius, the elder OF whom
Wilbur. died OF typhoid fever in 1912. worked
out their problem with little capital In an
Industrial town far from any scientific cen
tire. in the upper story OF little building
their bicycle shop, in West Sd street."
bringing to birth without the knowledge OF
their townsmen a new wonder OF the world
Presently, as time goes by, the world will
be modestly informed that Orvile Wright
scientist and inventor, has perfected in the
little shop In West Sd street. an absolutely
safe aeroplane. that viii be comfortable In
all conditions OF wind and weather. without
danger to the life Of the driver. 1t will be
constructed scientifically; and II will do
everything claimed for II. because It "win
just have TO-"