148 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



that they then took the machine down and abandoned experimenting 

 for that year. There had been unfortunately some previous delays 

 and breakages. When I went there in November to see the launch- 

 ing of the machine, it was postponed first by the twisting off of the 

 shaft, and then by the breaking of the propeller, which required 

 sending it back to Dayton in order to repair the work in the shop, 

 but full success was attained at last. In 1904 they operated in a 

 field about 8 miles from Dayton, Ohio, and it took them most of that 

 year to learn how to turn a corner. The machine was slightly 

 broken a number of times, repaired, and finally, in October, 1905, 

 they got their apparatus under perfect control, and succeeded in 

 making a flight of 24 miles in 38 minutes. They made 105 flights 

 in 1904 and 49 flights in 1905. The system which they have adopted 

 in order to avoid carrying too powerful and heavy a motor is shown 

 in plate 4, figure 1. The machine is placed on a single rail, weights 

 are hoisted on a derrick, and a rope is carried from the derrick with 

 a return pulley to the machine. Upon the dropping of the weights 

 the machine is given an impulse, this method being found to be 

 preferable to the catapult which Mr. Langley had devised and which 

 failed him on two occasions when trying to launch his machine. In 

 plate 4, figure 2, is shown the machine at the inner end of the launch- 

 ing rail, just before it gets under motion. The launching rail is 

 60 feet long, and with the aid of the falling weights the machine 

 quickly acquires the necessary velocity for rising in the air. 



The years 1906 and 1907 were spent by the Wright brothers in an 

 effort to sell their machines to various Governments. They had taken 

 out patents in eight different countries, and they hoped to sell flying 

 machines to war departments, together with the secrets, the tables 

 of resistance, and all the elaborate calculations which they had made, 

 but in each and every case the Government wanted to be shown the 

 apparatus before buying. The Wrights refused to exhibit the ma- 

 chine until such time as they had a contract contingent upon their 

 performing certain feats — notably, to fly with two passengers and 

 with enough fuel to carry it 126 miles; that it must attain a speed 

 of at least 36 miles an hour, maintained over a distance of 5 miles, 

 and must fly continuously for one hour. 



None of the Governments would thus contract with them. They 

 were offered at one time $120,000 by the French Government, but 

 they refused. They were then offered $200,000 if they would per- 

 form their feats 1,000 feet in the air. To this they said that they 

 had no doubt that they could get up 1,000 feet but they had never 

 done so and would not agree to the proposition. 



In 1908 they changed completely their plan of operation and de- 

 cided to show their machine with the risk of its being copied and 

 getting themselves into litigation. Plate 5, figure 1, shows the ma- 



