The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1918-05-17
HEAVIER THAN AIR FLYING
MACHINE BUT 10 YEARS OLD
(From New York World.)

flee of the United States weather bu-
reau at Manteo, N. c., and wrote a
brief dispatch which he handed to A.
W.. Drinkwater, the officer then in
charge, with instructions to dupli-
cate 1t to a dozen metropolitan dali
lies in the east which he had desig-
mated in the upper left-hand corner
of the sheet. The despatch terse,y
stated that Wilbur and Orville
Wright had flown that afternoon
1000 odd feet in a heavier-than-air
machine propelled by an engine and
offered to send the full story on a
telegraphic order.
Next morning the world at large
was given an accurat< account of the
Wrights's epoch-fndking perform
ance. Their machine-the construc-
tion of which was known only to
themselves and the few life savers
on the North Carolina banks who had
aided them lug the big canvas and
wooden bird up Kill Devil hiIl-had
scared off into space, had proceeded
in straight line a fifth Of mile
and had dropped gently to the sand
with neither itself nor it's inventors
any the worse for the experience. The
news, utterly discredited by many
scientists and taken with a grain of
saltN the public generally, was
flashed the length and breadth of the
world. The performance was con-
sidered incredible.
Tomorrow's newspapers will tell
of bombing aeroplanes dropping tons
of deadly explosives on the lines OF
the allies and central powers in Eu-
rope, Of myriads of scouting ma
chimes circling thousands of feet in
the air above these lines and of huge
passenger biplanes and monoplanes
passing from point to point at speeds
of from 100 miles to an hour upward.
These items will be read casually and
with little particular interest because
they are common, everyday occur
rences.
A day or so before Salley flied in
the Manteo Office the despatch which
electrified the world, word had been
received in several metropolitan
newspaper Offices that the Wrights.
of Dayton, O., had gone to Kitty
Hawk, N. c., where they had appear
ed in 1908, and were again conduct
ing experiments with a glider, as an
aeroplane without motive power is
called, AS the Wrights had obtain
ed some success in glider building,
and as rumor credited them with
having constructed an aeroplane en-
gine capable of lifting the glider
from the ground and propelling It
through the air, several New York
newspapers had despatched staff re-
representatives. to the banks They
were at this moment cropping their
way to this isolated corner OF the
world, SO odd miles from the rail-
road and accessible only by motor
boat from Elizabeth City, N. c.
Salley, who had covered" the
banks whenever shipwrecks worth
while occurred there, had received
more accurate advance information
concerning the Wrights's expert
ments than had the metropolitan
newspaper editors, and had dropped
down to Manteo, on the island OF
Roanoke, some days previous. Each
morning thereafter he had made the
1O-mile trip across Pamlico sound to
Kitty Hawk, and from a crotch in a
forest tree on the edge of the desert
like banks had observed activities
about the Wright hangar with the
aid of a powerful pair of field
glasses. His perch also commanded
an excellent view of the ocean side of
Kill Devil hill, largest OF all the
giant sand dunes, up the side of
which had been constructed a 300
foot railway.
Twice each day the Wrights, as
sisted by the life savers, all of whom
had been sworn to secrecy, started
the glider down the incline. elevated
the plane and shot into the air, to
drop gracefully upon the earth after
short flights measured in time by
seconds. An accurate description of
the contrivance in which the Wrlghts
flew was impossible, as no close view
of IL could be obtained even by an
adroit and resourceful reporter. So