The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1918-05-17

|
chine take the air, head directly for
the ocean and land thousand feet
distant apparently under full con-
troll of the pilot. At dusk, no more
Nights having been attempted, the re-
porter made his way back to Nam
. teo' well aware that he had a story
of worldwide interest, but depress-
ed by the knowledge that the facts
would be generally discredited.
The dispatches put on the wire
that night described the aeroplane n g
long box, the sides and ends of
which were open except for few up
right pieces of wood and guy wires.
lThe top and bottom of the frame
were made of canvas or silk. The
engine, thought to be 20-horsepower.
was given as being located in the
middle of the box. Attached to it
by shafts were two wooden propeI-
lers, each carrying a pair of blades.
Back OF the propellers and equidist-
ant from them was a rudder. In
front was small box-shaped affair
projecting outward which was beliey-
ed to regulate the elevation of the
plane. This was the best description
that the reporter, careful, trained
observer, could give. He hazarded
the opinion that the machine could
have kept the air an hour. but this
statement every editor who received
the story scrupulously blue penciIed
Arrive i'm Doubt.
Next day half dozen newspaner
men from New York arrived at Man
teo. Every one was a doubling
Thomas straight from Missouri They
were all going right over to the fIv-
ing fields and talk to the Wrights.
But they didn't. For one thing the
| Wrights weren't talking. For an
other, lifesavers bobbed up out of
the nowhere when one had labored
through the sand to point a mile
from the hangar. They were act
ing under instructions from Wash
lngton, which were to the effect that
the inventors were not to be disturb
| ihO "iiShlS Hdu the regal END
or the argument, as they had bor-
rowed the land from the lifesavers
who owned it.
There was but one thing to do and
the reporters did it. They followed
the example of Salley and climbed
trees. Two made dugout one
night in a hill facing Kill Devil. but
the ruse was discovered and the
Wrights didn't fly until the hole was
filed. Fortunately they did not sus-
pect that observers were hidden in
the trees and after a wait of a few
days they continued their expert
ments.
In the meantime news and maga-
zine writer's had begun to arrive in
numbers which threatened to swamp
the two small hotels at Manteo. Even
their preliminary accounts so con-
gested the single wire, owned by the
department of agriculture and ending
at Norfolk that it was necessary to
limit each reporter to a brief nightly
dispatch. late arrival, represent
ing London daily, undertook to
control the wire by filing a book to
follow his own dispatch. thereby
eliminating all competition. He
barely escaped with whole skin.
May IL the Wrights made flight
of two and seven-sixteenths miles
and followed this with a flight of two
and one-siXteenth miles. The long
er fight was made at the rate of
46.774 miles an hour and the shorter
at 32.2S1. In each instance, as in
lall the others. it was necessary to
wheel the machine to the top Of the
incline railway, no method at that
time being known whereby the aero |
plane could rise in the air from level
ground.
Flights Epoch Making.
Both these flights were epoch !
making in that the Wrights did not !
keep to straight course For the
first time they circled one OF the
dunes and also returned to the
starting point after a straight flight
of three-quarters of a mile. The OBJ
servers commented on the skillful
manner in which the big canvas bird
made. the curves.
All this time the news writer's had !
hpan nnahla 20 e,at IT.