Evening star., 1923-12-16


dunes of Kitty Hawk, n. c.
a twenty mile gale was blowing;
its recently installed engine made
the flying machine heavier than ever
before, but Wilbur Wright believed
IT would rise instead of fall.
1t did rise from the dunes, One
hundred feet--one hundred and fifty
--one hundred and seventy -fve---two
hundred feet. Wilbur flew, then glided
easily to earth. He had been In the
Sir twelve seconds. a second time
he tried. and stayed up little longer.
a third trial increased the record
even more.
. Finally. orville, the younger. eager
to equal his brothers success. took
The machine. Up he SCARED. and flew
five hundred 'feet--seven-e!g !ght-nine
one thousand feet, lie landed safe
~ after being aloft nfty-nine seconds.
So excited were the brothers that
they ran off to their quarters and
forgot to anchor the machine. The
gale, which mad been dened four
times that day, then wreakcd revenge
II blew over the frail craft, wrecking II,
but not beyond repair by it's eIated
'owners, who later placed it on ex-
hibit in the United States National
Museum here in Washington.
That two o-hundred-foot, fifth-of-a-
minute flight. made December II,
I3V5. was the forerunner of thousands
OF flights. made by thousands of
planes: of ascents six miles into the
heavens; of 3,000-mile, thirty-six-
'hour. nonstop aerial journeys; Of
races through the air at a four-mile-
a-minute clip
twenty years ordinarily is not
formidable length Of time. but in air.
plane history--it is forever.
Necessity is the mother of inven-
tioh' Richard Franck wrote In 1865,
and the truth OF that assertion never
has been proved better than by the
lives of the Wright brothers.
They began building iying ma
crimes before they outgrew rompers.
because their father Rev. Milton
Wright. United Brethren clergyman.
could not afford to replace 4 toy thew
had broken.
The toy was known as helicopter.
butterfly shaped device of paper
wings lifted with a tin propeller.
which when released darted. toward
the ceiling and few around the room
several times until it's power of
twisted rubber bands ran down.
When the toy broke, the boys stud
LED its construction and built others,
making them larger and smaller un-
III they found the size which flew
highest and longest This was the
origin nF 40 a..
flying machine, the proud father OF
the Wrights told ewspapermen,
when his Sons scored their great tri-
umph over gravity.
WHILE building toy flying ma
chimes, the boys discovered that
necessity" was only one Of twin
mothers their inventive minds had.
Their own mother was far more inter-
ested in mechanics and possessed
more mechanical knowledge than.
most women and many men
Little inventions are credited to
her. Her sons soon learned that she
could help them perfect their TOW
flyers. A few years later, when they
Won prize for mechanical handi-
tLicS eiuIu-lteu lLdl Cney owed
much to her assistance. -....-
Mother Wright did not scold when
her home was Uttered with the bows
tools and experiments When their
interest in telegraphy and lack of
money combined to make them con-
6Aruct their own instruments, Mother
Wright helped them insulate their
wires by allowing attachment Of a
contrivance to the bobbin Of her sew
ing machine.
When the elder Wright became edi-
tor OF the Religious Telescope, he put
the boys to folding papers. Soon they
had planned and built a crude wood
en- machine which folded 1000 copies
an hour.
Orville Wright from this paper-fold-
ing experience contracted a desire to
put his hands deeper in printers ink
Teaching fifteen years Of age. he,
with a friend, started a small weekly
publication, called the West Side
News, which was to serve the section
OF Dayton, Ohio, in which they lived
I Wilbur bought out the friends inter-
est in the enterprise and from that
nay until his death che two brothers
were partners in whatever they un
tlertook
Their paper prospered. News notes
subscribers and advertisements in
creased until the boys needed a larg-
er printing press Lacking money to
buy one, they constructed a news
paper press entirely of wood. Though
this press wavered, it's output was
satisfactory enough to be demanded
by the community for over a year
The bicycle craze was sweeping the
United States about this time, so the
brothers established a bicycle factory
and repair shop. They made their
product by hand. Within a few years
they had saved from their receipts
several thousand dollars-their first
financial surplus.
One summer day in 1896 occurred the
tragedy which turned the Wright
brothers toward their greatest tri-
'umph. Otto Lilienthal, Germany's
leading experimenter in aeronautics,
was killed while testing one of his
, inventions.
Lilienthars fate, far from daunting
the Wright's, revived their interest in
terial navigation. They studied the
Germans aviation theories. as we'll as
those advanced by Leonardo da vinci,
the italian, in 1900, and the expert
1nents made by Sir George Gayley,
English inventor, about 1s43
In their bicycle shop they tried out
these theories, modified and added to
them until they believed they had
solved the problem Of heavier-than-
air flying.