1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1391 



Scientific American had taken any notice of this 

 wonderful invention. In our issue for March 1, 

 as far baclc as 1904, p. 241, 1 gave the first intima- 

 tion of what was going on here in Ohio in the 

 vvaj' of flying; and at frequent intervals during 

 1904 I visited the Wright Brothers at Dayton, 

 Ohio, to witness their preliminary experiments. 

 In our issue for January 1, 1905, I gave the re- 

 sult in detail, occupying three or four pages of 

 Gleanings. Just as soon as an impression was 

 off the press I mailed a copy of it to the Scientific 

 American, and sent a letter accompanying it, 

 thinking they would, of course, be glad to give 

 it a wider publicity than we could give in our 

 comparatively little journal. Well, what do you 

 suppose happened.' Not a peep, not a word of 

 thanks for the trouble I had taken to give them 

 full particulars of what I had been an eye-witness. 

 Do you suggest that perhaps they did not get my 

 letter with the proof-sheets.' They did get it, 

 and promptly asked me for another copy of our 

 journal. Not a word of thanks then, and no 

 mention of the Wright Brothers until more than 

 a year afterward. If they have any thing to say 

 in defense of their way of announcing inventions 

 as they come up, we shall be glad to be correct- 

 ed. In our issue for Jan. 15 I gave some further 

 particulars with a cut of the gliding machine. 

 At that stage of proceedings the Wright Brothers 

 would not permit a photo of the complete appa- 

 ratus to be given in print, for they had not fully 

 secured their patents. 



On page 48, Jan. 1, 1905, I gave my reasons for 

 having kept back some news of this wonderful 

 discovery as long as I did. Permit me to men- 

 tion here that as soon as I had permission to give 

 my write-up of the machine I sent the Wright 

 Brothers a check for ,$100; and, in fact, I would 

 have been willing to send $500 for the privilege 

 of announcing to the world this wonderful inven- 

 tion. They thanked me for the check, but it 

 was promptly returned, thus indicating that those 

 two young men were not working altogether for 

 the almighty dollar, but, rather, that they may 

 benefit humanity. 



While I am about it, permit me to say I am 

 also a little surprised to see in the Technical 

 World for November the following statement: 



In June, 1906, the Technical World Magazine announced the 

 success of the Wright Brothers, of Dayton, O., in the private tests 

 of their wonderful aeroplane. The Technical World Magazine 

 was the first publication to accord full credence to the Wright 

 Brothers' claims, now so abundantly made good. 



And the Technical World admits they did not 

 give it to the world till 1906, while Gleanings 

 goes back to March, 1904, with frequent men- 

 tions of what the boys accomplished step by step 

 until the present. 



At the time I gave my write-up there were 

 several points in regard to the machine that I was 

 not permitted to mention; but since these various 

 features are now being fully discussed through 

 the various periodicals I presume I am at liberty 

 to tell what 1 know about it. 



The first was an apparatus for putting a strong- 

 er curve on the tips of the wings when rounding 

 a curve. Second, a device that would enable the 

 machine to spring up into the air as a bird does 

 in starting. When I first visited them they were 

 obliged to run the machine along a single rail 

 for, I think, 60 or 70 feet, in order to get up suf- 



ficient speed to " climb into the air. " This long 

 track had to be moved so as to face the wind ev- 

 ery time the wind changed, making considerable 

 labor for each successive experiment. 1 suggest- 

 ed wheeling the machine up on to a platform 

 over the little building where it was stored, so as 

 to get up momentum by running down hill. 

 After I left them I figured out in my mind that 

 a derrick from which a weight could be dropped 

 something like a pile-driver in order to get up a 

 good momentum in starting would be a good 

 plan. I was so full of this idea that I made a 

 second trip in a short time, and was astonished 

 as well as pleased to find they had got hold of 

 the same thing and had it in practical operation. 

 They had a lot of iron weights, about the size of 

 a small grindstone, with a rope running up 

 through the hole in the middle. By hitching on 

 nlore or less iron weights they could get up any 

 desired speed. I think they used fully as much 

 as 1500 lbs. for the experiment at Dayton. This 

 weight dropped 15 to 18 feet, and by a system of 

 pulleys to magnify the speed and distance, the ma- 

 chine was given a sudden impetus that threw it 

 up into the air a sufficient height and with suffi- 

 cient speed to start the vehicle for flight. The 

 device was a complete success from the start.* I 

 think the great wide world has had no intimation 

 of this starting-device until the present summer. 

 As I see pictures of it in the various magazines 

 just now I suppose I am at liberty to describe it 

 as 1 have done above. 



I have from the start, perhaps, been more san- 

 guine in regard to the value of their invention 

 than even the Wright Brothers themselves. I 

 may have forgotten; but if I am correct I think 

 it took only little if any more gasoline to go a 

 mile with the flying-machine than it does to run 

 my automobile that distance; and this wonderful 

 advance and achievement over all other methods 

 of locomotion is that they are without any expense 

 for tracks, macadam roads, or bridges. Right in 

 sight of the bicycle-factory where these two men 

 made their flying-machine is a bridge that cost, 

 if I am correct, half a million of dollars. What 

 will it be worth to the world to be able to go in 

 any direction and any distance, independently of 

 bridges.'' What do you suppose all the bridges 

 in this world have cost, to make no mention of 

 roadways and railway tracks and gradings.? 



In our last issue I said I hoped that Wilbur 

 Wright would not be persuaded, jwj/ noiv, to at- 

 tempt to cross the Channel or any other large 

 body of water. I notice by a clipping from the 

 Cleveland Plain Dealer of Oct. 19 that my good 

 friend Orville backs me up in what I have said. 

 See this: 



ORVILLE WRIGHT SAYS HE WOULD ATTEMPT NO FLIGHT 

 OVER ANY HIGH OBSTACLES. 



The idea of flying over cities in a machine like the one with 

 which he made his successful flights at Fort Meyer does not ap- 

 peal to Orville Wright. He would not be willing to undertake 

 a trip of that kind. The work he did at Fort Meyer was as haz- 

 ardous as he is willing to perform. 



The doctors attending the aviator are permitting him to see 

 visitors, and the expression of opinion here set down is the first 

 utterance from him by way of criticising the hopes of aerial navi- 

 gation created by the work done in Paris and Washington. 



He is afraid to trust any motor he has ever built or seen to the 

 performance of such a task as has been suggested by the optimists 

 who have expressed the opinion that Wilbur Wright should ac- 

 cept the challenge to cross the English Channel in his machine 



* It really reminds one of firing a man into the air out of a can- 

 non when the trigger is pulled to let that big weight drop. 



