To Conquer the Air

by James Tobin

  “Perhaps we could go into the manufacture”: “Successful in Flying, the Wrights Guard Their Secret Well,” New York Herald, 11/25/1906, LC scrapbooks.

  “would make further wars”: OW to C. M. Hitchcock, 6/21/1917, McFarland, ed., Papers, vol. 2, 1104.

  To the sons of: For Milton Wright’s postmillennial view of American history, see Daryl Melvin Elliott, “Bishop Milton Wright and the Quest for a Christian America,” Ph.D. dissertation, Drew University, 1992, 125–27.

  “A fast flying machine will render”: OC, “The Conquest of the Air,” The Car, 2/21/1906, scrapbooks, Wright papers, LC.

  “We stand ready”: WW to OC, 5/28/05, McFarland, ed., Papers, vol. 1, 493–94.

  The first military man: Capper as “scientific soldier,” other attributes, Alfred Gollin, No Longer an Island: Britain and the Wright Brothers, 1902–1909 (London: Heinemann, 1984), 87–88.

  “It is of no use whatever”: Capper quoted in Percy B. Walker, Early Aviation at Farnborough, vol. 2 (London: Macdonald, 1974), 12.

  “grave doubts concerning the veracity”: “The Wright Flyer, 1905,” The Aeronautical News, 5/1/1906, scrapbooks, LC.

  “We call our invention ‘the Flyer’”: “Flying Machine Inventors Here,” Norfolk Landmark, 12/23/1903, scrapbooks, Wright papers, LC.

  “a face more of a poet”: H. M. Weaver to Frank S. Lahm, quoted in “Says Aeroplane Problem is Solved,” New York Herald, 1/1/1906, scrapbooks, Wright papers, LC.

  “One could not help being impressed”: Remarks of Alexander Ogilvie, Ivonette Wright Miller, comp., Wright Reminiscences (Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc., 1978), 191.

  “have at least made far greater strides”: Capper’s report quoted in Gollin, No Longer an Island, 69–71.

  “to ascertain whether this is a subject of interest”: WW and OW to Robert M. Nevin, in Fred C. Kelly, ed., Miracle at Kitty Hawk: The Letters of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1941), 135–36.

  another letter to Colonel Capper: WW’s letter to J. E. Capper, Alfred Gollin, No Longer an Island: Britain and the Wright Brothers, 1902–1909 (London: Heineman, 1984), 91–92.

  “the increasing difficulty”: WW to J. E. Capper, 1/10/1905, quoted in Gollin, No Longer an Island, 91–92.

  “I have been [so] skeptical”: Robert M. Nevin to the secretary of war, 1/21/1905, quoted in Russell J. Parkinson, “Politics, Patents and Planes: Military Aeronautics in the United States, 1863–1907” (Ph.D. dissertation, Duke University, 1963), 210.

  “As many requests have been made”: G. L. Gillespie to Robert M. Nevin, [1/24/1905], Kelly, ed., Miracle at Kitty Hawk, 136–37.

  “Our consciences are clear”: WW to OC, 6/1/1905, McFarland, ed., Papers, vol. 1, 494–95.

  “this may fairly be said”: Copy, Godfrey L. Cabot to Henry Cabot Lodge, 12/31/1903, GC, WBP, LC. For a good account of the Cabot-Lodge exchange, see Gollin, No Longer an Island, 50–52.

  In London, Colonel Capper’s: British dealings with Wrights in 1905, Gollin, No Longer an Island, 98–107.

  So, early in 1904: Archdeacon and Esnault-Pelterie glider efforts and comments in 1904 and 1905, Gibbs-Smith, Rebirth of European Aviation, 103–05, 122–25, 128, 147–48, 152–56.

  “risk a voyage to America”: Ernest Archdeacon to WW and OW, 3/10/1905 (Orville Wright’s translation, June 1945), GC, WBP, LC.

  “Mr. Archdeacon will find more compliments”: WW to OC, 4/20/1904, McFarland, ed., Papers, vol. 1, 488–89.

  “They are evidently learning”: WW to OC, 4/12/1905, McFarland, ed., Papers, vol. 1, 485–87.

  “little and contemptible”: WW to OC, 5/6/1905, McFarland, ed., Papers, vol. 1, 490–91.

  “It was the decisive battle”: WW to OC, 5/28/1905, McFarland, ed., Papers, vol. 1, 493.

  As for Millard Fillmore Keiter: MW’s vindication and reinstatement in 1905, Daryl Melvin Elliott, “Bishop Milton Wright and the Quest for a Christian America” (Ph.D. dissertaton, Drew University, 1992), 310–17.

  “the best dividends on the labor”: WW and OW to Augustus Post, 3/02/06, McFarland, ed., Papers, vol. 2, 699–702.

  He considered alterations: Manly to SPL, 3/28/1905, box 45, RU 31, SIA.

  “I take this occasion”: Manly stores equipment, affirms importance of new trials, Manly to SPL, 6/17/1904, Manly to SPL, 11/4/1904, box 45, Record Unit 31, SIA.

  “to do otherwise would be to confess”: Octave Chanute to SPL, 5/25/1905, box 18, RU 31, SIA.

  As soon as he learned: SPL prepares to write history of aerodrome experiments, SPL diary, 3/19/1904, SIA.

  “thought how changed he was”: Eliza Orne White to Cyrus Adler, 4/7/1907, box 22b, RU 7003, SIA.

  “While you have chided me”: Charles M. Manly to SPL, 3/28/1905, box 45, RU 31, SIA.

  The Army requested the return: J. G. Bates to SPL, 7/31/1905, box 96, RU 31, SIA.

  He explained that at first: Discovery of W. W. Karr’s embezzlement, conversation between Rathbun and Karr, [Richard Rathbun], draft report, “Actions, when embezzlement was first made known,” box 79, RU 31, SIA; see also “Smithsonian Funds Gone,” New York Times, 6/8/1905.

  It could not have been: Dates and details of W. W. Karr’s tenure at the Smithsonian appear in “Memorandum, Case of William W. Karr, Disbursing Agent, Smithsonian Institution,” box 79, RU 31, SIA.

  Langley informed the regents: SPL gives up salary, Charles G. Abbot, Adventures in the World of Science (Washington D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1958), 27.

  The craft was more imposing: Description of 1905 flyer, McFarland, ed., Papers, vol. 2, appendix 5, “Aeroplanes and Motors,” 1190–92. Key changes, including the controls, are described by Crouch, The Bishop’s Boys, 295.

  Orville’s attempt of July 14: OW’s accident of 7/14/1905, entry of same date, WW’s Diary F, 1905, McFarland, ed., Papers, vol. 1, 501.

  “The good humor of Wilbur”: William Werthner, “Personal Recollections of the Wrights.” Aero Club of America Bulletin, July 1912.

  more heft to the horizontal rudder: Crouch, The Bishop’s Boys, 297.

  jump from hummock to hummock: WW to OC, 8/16/1905, McFarland, Papers, vol. 1, 506.

  “a very comical performance”: Entry of 8/30/1905, WW’s Diary F, 1905, McFarland, ed., Papers, vol. 1, 507.

  As they had hoped: Improvement in rudder control, Fred C. Kelly, The Wright Brothers (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1943), 134.

  On September 7: Flights of 9/7 and 9/8/1905, entries of same dates, WW’s Diary F, 1905, McFarland, ed., Papers, vol. 1, 509.

  They altered the shape: WW’s diary F, 9/23/1905, McFarland, Papers, vol. 1, 510; Kelly, The Wright Brothers, 133–34.

  “Our experiments have been progressing quite satisfactorily”: WW to OC, 9/17/1905, McFarland, ed., Papers, vol. 1, 511.

  Will went up and began: WW’s eleven-mile flight of 9/26/1905, entry of same date, WW’s diary F, McFarland, Papers, vol. 1, 512.

  the brothers began to invite: Witnesses to 1905 flights, WW and OW to Augustus Post, 3/2/1906, McFarland, ed., Papers, vol 2, 702. See also WW to Georges Besançon, 11/17/1905, GC, WBP, LC.

  At one point Will asked: Werthner, “Some Personal Recollections of the Wrights.”

  “we were frightened”: “The Aeroplane Problem,” London Daily Mail, 12/12/1906, scrapbooks, WBP, LC.

  In one of the last flights: OW’s glide back to shed, “The Aeroplane Problem,” London Daily Mail, 12/12/1906, scrapbooks, WBP, LC. This apparently happened on either 9/30/1905 or 10/31/1905. See WW’s Diary F, entries of 9/30/1905 and 10/3/1905, McFarland, ed., Papers, vol. 1, 513.

  “It looked like a monstrous bird”: “Secret of Aerial Flight Wrested from the Birds,” St. Louis Republic, 3/11/1906, scrapbooks, WBP, LC.

  “I wouldn’t believe it”: “North Pole Can Not Be Reached,” Dayton Daily News, 10/1/1905, scrapbooks, WBP, LC.

  “They walked down the field”: “Real Flying Machine,” Weekly Enquirer, 5/24/1906, scrapbooks, WBP, LC. Waddell’s account is apparent
ly the first description of an airplane taxiing—though obviously he was exaggerating at least slightly when he said the machine “lifted itself clear of the ground.”

  “It was beyond my comprehension”: “Fly Over St. Louis at 50 Miles an Hour,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 4/21/1907, scrapbooks, WBP, LC.

  He got a single word: Torrence Huffman’s question about practical use of airplane and WW’s answer, “War,” interview with William Sanders, 3/15/1967. Wright Brothers–Charles F. Kettering Oral History Project, University of Dayton. Sanders, an Ohio newsman, told an interviewer he had discussed the Huffman Prairie flights with William Huffman, son of Torrence Huffman. According to Sanders, William Huffman “said that he remembers his father asking Wilbur what the use of the plane would be, and Wilbur said just one word, war.”

  “In forenoon, at home writing”: Entry of 10/5/1905, Bishop Milton Wright, Diaries, 1857–1917 (Dayton: Wright State University Libraries, 1999), 633.

  “We put many months of study”: “Successful in Flying, the Wrights Guard their Secret Well,” New York Herald, 11/25/1906, scrapbook WBP, LC.

  “I am afraid I cannot describe”: “The Aeroplane Problem,” London Daily Mail, 12/12/1906, scrapbooks, WBP, LC.

  had left him “intoxicated”: “Secrecy,” Cincinnati Enquirer, 6/16/1907, scrapbooks, WBP, LC.

  “There is no sport in the world”: WW to Aldo Corazzo, 12/15/1905, reproduced in Mario Cobianchi, Pioneri dell’aviazione in Italia (Rome: Editoriale Aeronautica, 1943), table lxxxviii.

  “There is a sense of exhilaration”: WW, “Flying as a Sport—Its Possibilities,” Scientific American, 2/29/1908, reprinted in Jakab and Young, Published Writings, 194–95. Another description, attributed to the brothers, but without citing either of them specifically, appeared in the New York Herald late in 1906. I have not included it in the text because it appears to be the reporter’s paraphrase, and it may be embellished. Nonetheless, it is interesting: “When we are tacking into the wind we realize it only by finding we have to point up just as if we were in a sailboat in order to reach a given point. If we aim at a certain tree and see ourselves being carried past it we know that the wind is blowing across our course, but otherwise we have no means of knowing that the air is not perfectly still. You see, we are racing along at forty miles an hour ourselves, and it is a forty mile an hour wind which is in our faces, no matter what the velocity of the air currents themselves may be at the time. Our most acute sensations are during the first minute of flight, while we are soaring into the air and gaining the level at which we wish to sail. Then for the next five minutes our concentration is fixed on the management of the levers to see that everything is working all right, but after that the management of the flyer becomes almost automatic, with no more thought required than a bicycle rider gives to the control of his machine. The whole thing is worked by reflex action, based upon experience, for there is no time while you are in the air to give conscious thought to what has to be done in an emergency. Action becomes and must be instinctive, otherwise it would be all over before you could consciously think out what to do to save yourself. But when you know, after the first few moments, that the whole mechanism is working perfectly, the sensation is so keenly delightful as to be almost beyond description. Nobody who has not experienced it for himself can realize it. It is a realization of a dream so many persons have had of floating in air. More than anything else the sensation is one of perfect peace, mingled with an excitement that strains every nerve to the utmost, if you can conceive of such a combination.” “Successful in Flying, the Wrights Guard Their Secret Well,” New York Herald, 11/25/1906, scrapbooks, WBP, LC.

  One day that fall: Manly’s visit to Huffman Prairie, Kelly, The Wright Brothers, 136–37.

  Ernest Archdeacon announced: quoted in Gibbs-Smith, The Rebirth of European Aviation, 173.

  “The Wright brothers refuse”: Quoted in Gibbs-Smith, The Rebirth of European Aviation, 179.

  Weaver had no idea: Henry Weaver report to Frank Lahm, 12/6/1905, copy in GC, WBP, LC.

  One evening in Washington: Bell’s dinner with Langley, Chanute, Newcomb, and David Fairchild is described in Fairchild’s memoir, The World Was My Garden, 333–34. Writing in the 1930s, Fairchild placed the dinner in the winter of 1906–07. But if Langley was indeed present, that timing cannot be correct, since Langley died in February 1906. It is possible the dinner occurred in the winter of 1904–05, since Chanute had seen Orville Wright fly at Huffman Prairie in October 1904. But that would mean Fairchild’s memory was off by two years, not just one. Also, Fairchild refers to the appearance before the dinner of newspaper accounts of the Wright flights. Such reports were far more numerous in January 1906, when the press was covering French efforts to purchase the Wright airplane, than they had been the previous winter. Thus, though not certain, it appears likely that the dinner occurred in the first two or three weeks of 1905. Bell had just returned to Washington from Nova Scotia and would have been eager to see and entertain Langley, who had suffered his stroke while Bell was at Beinn Bhreagh, yet was still capable of seeing friends. On January 20 Bell gave a speech in New York that seems to reflect the news he heard from Chanute at the dinner. In late January, Langley departed Washington for South Carolina, where he died several weeks later. It is also possible that Fairchild was correct about the dinner occurring in the winter of 1906–07, but mistaken about Langley being present. But this is unlikely, since other documents make it clear that by then Bell harbored no doubts at all about the Wrights’ claims, and therefore would not have asked Chanute about the evidence for them.

  “See that hawk up there?”: Bailey Millard, “Death and the Airmen,” Technical World Magazine, September 1910, copy in box 134, AGB papers, LC.

  On January 20, 1906: Bell’s address to Automobile Club of America, “Dr. Bell Predicts Airships,” New York Sun, January 21, 1906, scrapbooks, WBP, LC.

  At about noon: SPL’s stroke, “Diary, 1905,” box 13, RU 7003, SIA; Cyrus Adler, I Have Considered the Days, 260.

  “His usefulness as an executive chief”: W. B. Pritchard to Cyrus Adler, 1/2/1906, box 22b, RU 7003, SIA.

  But Langley rallied: J. J. Reilly to W. B. Pritchard, 1/31/1906.

  “his interest in all matters”: Untitled typescript beginning “A meeting of the officials and employees of the Smithsonian,” 3/1/1906, box 42, RU 31, SIA.

  “Mr. Langley will never be our old friend”: Copy, W. B. Pritchard to Cyrus Adler, undated letter, box 22b, RU 7003, SIA.

  began a memoir of his childhood: Typescript copy, “Uncompleted Memoirs of S.P. Langley . . . ,” box 22b, RU 7003, SIA.

  “Publish it”: “Prof. Langley’s Death,” Washington Star, 3/2/1906; McFarland, Papers, vol. 2, 1092–93, footnote 11.

  When Representative Edgar: Crumpacker-Hull exchange regarding money wasted on flying machines, “Laughed as Langley Died,” Kansas City Times, 2/28/1906.

  “No doubt disappointment shortened his life”: WW to OC, 3/2/1906, McFarland, Papers, vol. 2, 697–98.

  “We are parting”: AGB’s eulogy for SPL, “Ridicule Wounded Langley,” Boston Post, 3/4/1906, “Funeral of Prof. Langley,” Washington Post, 3/4/1906.

  “the facts that prevented his last ship”: Copy, Julia H. Goodrich to AGB, box 225, AGB papers, LC.

  Chapter Ten: “A Flying Machine at Anchor”

  “As to our being abnormal”: “Fly Over St. Louis at 50 Miles an Hour,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 4/21/1907, scrapbooks, WBP, LC.

  “I have discovered that my interest”: AGB to Mrs. Gardiner Hubbard, 6/24/1875, quoted in Robert V. Bruce, Bell: Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1973), 151.

  “I will help you if you will not hate me”: AGB to Mabel Bell, [undated] AGB papers, LC.

  “Let us lay it down”: Quoted in Bruce, Bell, 322.

  “You are the mainspring”: Quoted in Bruce, Bell, 323.

  “retire into myself”: Bruce, Bell, 319.

  “I have
found by experience”: Quoted in Bruce, Bell, 328.

  “I wonder”: Quoted in Bruce, Bell, 323.

  “I can’t bear to hear”: Quoted in Bruce, Bell, 334.

  “indefinable sense of largeness”: David Fairchild, The World Was My Garden (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1938), 290.

  “clear, crisp articulation”: Thomas Watson, Exploring Life (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1926), 58.

  “He always made you feel”: Fairchild, The World Was My Garden, 290.

  “the tendency of your mind”: Gardiner Hubbard to AGB, quoted in Bruce, Bell, 160.

  filled with devices: Frank Carpenter, “The Telephone,” Detroit Free Press, 10/20/1895.

  “articles not too long”: Quoted in Bruce, Bell, 333.

  “A new invention”: George Wise, unpublished essay, “General Impressions Gained from the Lab Notebooks of Alexander Graham Bell,” AGB Collection, Special Collections, Boston University.

  “I have got work to do”: Quoted in Bruce, Bell, 355.

  “From my earliest association”: Exploring Life: The Autobiography of Thomas A. Watson (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1926), 153–54.

  “I shall have to make experiments”: Quoted in Bruce, Bell, 358–59.

  “kindly, loveable, simple”: And Mabel Bell’s letter to Kelvin, Bruce, Bell, 363; copy of Kelvin to Mabel Bell, 4/20/1898, box 152, AGB papers, LC.

  Bell tested many forms: Bell’s aeronautical experiments in 1890s, Bruce, Bell, 359–61.

  “I am finding out in the laboratory”: Quoted in Bruce, Bell, 361.

  whom Bell’s daughters called: SPL as Bell daughters’ “grandfather,” SPL to Marian Bell Fairchild, box 73, AGB papers, LC.

  “Poor dear man”: Quoted in Bruce, Bell, 407.

  “He goes up there”: Quoted in J. H. Parkin, Bell and Baldwin: Their Development of Aerodromes and Hydrodromes at Baddeck, Nova Scotia (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1964), 6.

  “There is a great fascination”: Untitled typescript beginning “For a good many years past,” box 152, AGB papers, LC.

  “surprised, indeed overwhelmed”: AGB to SPL, 4/2/1901, box 71, RU 31, SIA.