McCurdy and the Silver Dart

by Les Harding

  McCurdy and

  the Silver Dart

  by Les Harding

  McCurdy and

  the Silver Dart

  by Les Harding

  Cape Breton University Press

  Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada

  Copyright © 2014 Les Harding

  First published 1998.

  All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Responsibility for the research and the permissions obtained for this publication rests with the author. Cape Breton University Press recognizes fair dealing uses under the Copyright Act (Canada).

  Cape Breton University Press recognizes the support of the Province of Nova Scotia, through Film and Creative Industries Nova Scotia, and the support received for its publishing program from the Canada Council for the Arts Block Grants Program. We are pleased to work in partnership with these bodies to develop and promote our cultural resources.

  Cover image: Patsy MacKinnon

  Cover: Cathy MacLean, Chéticamp, NS

  Layout: Gail Jones and Laura Bast, Sydney, NS

  eBook development: WildElement.ca

  Harding, Les, 1950-, author

  McCurdy and the Silver Dart / Les Harding. -- New edition.

  Includes bibliographical references.

  Issued in print and electronic formats.

  ISBN 978-1-927492-77-2 (pbk.).--ISBN 978-1-927492-78-9 (pdf).--

  ISBN 978-1-927492-79-6 (epub).--ISBN 978-1-927492-80-2 (mobi)

  1. McCurdy, J. A. D. (John Alexander Douglas), 1886-1961--

  Juvenile literature. 2. Silver Dart (Airplane)--Juvenile literature.

  3. Aeronautics--Canada--History--Juvenile literature. I. Title.

  TL540.M23H37 2014 j629.13092 C2014-900528-8

  C2014-900529-6

  Cape Breton University Press

  PO Box 5300, 1250 Grand Lake Road

  Sydney, NS B1P 6L2 CA

  www.cbupress.ca

  Contents

  1. Helping the Great Inventor

  2. Kites and Gliders

  3. Success and Danger

  4. The Silver Dart

  5. The Army Says No

  6. Barnstorming

  7. Triumph and Treachery in Cuba

  8. McCurdy and the First World War

  9. The Silver Dart Flies Again

  Notes

  Glossary

  Bibliography

  Chapter 1

  Helping the Great Inventor

  John Alexander Douglas McCurdy was born on August 2, 1886, in the hamlet of Baddeck, Cape Breton Island. His father, Arthur, was a part-time inventor who held a valuable patent for developing photographic film. His grandmother had been a distinguished member of the Nova Scotia Assembly for over forty years. An aunt, Georgina McCurdy, was one of the founders of the Victorian Order of Nurses.

  Because Douglas came from a family of high achievers, everyone in Baddeck sensed he was destined for greatness – but in what field? Perhaps he would be a scientist or an inventor like his father. As a child, Douglas, as he was called, was filled with an insatiable curiosity to know how things worked. But he was also stubborn and mischievous.

  Though no one realized it yet, Douglas’s course in life had already been set. A year before his birth, in the summer of 1885, a chance and seemingly unimportant meeting occurred which was to have a profound effect on the future of Douglas McCurdy.

  The editor of the local newspaper, The Cape Breton Island Reporter, was angrily shaking a newfangled gizmo lately installed in his office. The gizmo, the first in that part of Cape Breton Island, was called a telephone. It was not working, although it had been in fine working order earlier that morning. What could have gone wrong?

  The editor, preoccupied as he was, did not notice the approach of a tall, well-dressed, bewhiskered stranger who was peering at him through the window with evident interest. Without waiting to be asked, the stranger entered the office.

  “Having trouble with your telephone?” the stranger asked in a soft Scottish accent.

  The editor, startled at the approach of the stranger, replied that indeed he was having trouble and feared the would have to travel all the way to Halifax to get the instrument repaired.

  “Let me have a look at it,” said the stranger, with a hint of a smile on his face. The stranger glanced at the receiver for barely a moment. Expertly, he unscrewed the mouthpiece, flicked a dead fly out and reassembled it.

  “It’ll work now,” he said.

  The editor placed a call. Sure enough, the telephone was as good as new.

  The dumbfounded editor could not resist asking the question, “How do you know so much about the telephone?”

  “I invented it.”

  The newspaper editor was Douglas McCurdy’s father and the stranger was Alexander Graham Bell, the man who had invented the telephone only nine years before.

  Bell was in Cape Breton Island looking for a place to build a summer home. At the age of thirty-eight he was already a wealthy man and one of the most famous inventors in history. Bell eventually chose to settle in Baddeck because of its resemblance to Scotland, the land of his birth. Near the village Bell purchased a tract of land from McCurdy’s grandfather on which he constructed a fine home called Beinn Bhreagh, which in the Gaelic language of Scotland means “beautiful mountain.”

  It was here that Bell built a laboratory to carry on his scientific experiments into the possibility of manned flight. Douglas’s life would be changed because of Bell’s settling in Baddeck. He and Bell became great friends. Growing up at Bell’s side helped Douglas choose what work he would do when he became older.

  Bell was determined to crown his career as an inventor with the construction of a heavier-than-air flying machine. He was one of many researchers trying to discover the secrets of wind currents and air pressure. As a small boy Douglas took an active role helping the great Dr. Bell on experiments with different shaped flying kites. How many scientists and professors the world over would have gladly traded places with the boy from Baddeck?

  Douglas also participated in some of the earliest attempts ever made to record the human voice on wax discs. McCurdy took an impish delight in watching Dr. Bell astonish the local farmers by playing back to them the Gaelic songs they had been coaxed into singing moments before.

  Because of the presence of Bell, important visitors were drawn to Baddeck. Among these were Lord Aberdeen, the Governor General, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the prime minister of Canada. People came from all over Cape Breton Island to welcome such distinguished visitors. Somehow, amid the thronging crowds of adults, Douglas succeeded in getting close enough to Prime Minister Laurier to shake his hand. The boy was so thrilled at the honour that he was reluctant to wash his hand for some time after.

  On another occasion, Douglas, while visiting Beinn Bhreagh, was introduced to two famous scientists: Professor Samuel Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, and Simon Newcomb, born in Nova Scotia and professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Two more opposing personalities could not be imagined. It was interesting that they were visiting Dr. Bell at the same time. Langley shared Bell’s belief, and shared it passionately, that someday it would be possible for people to fly in heavier-than-air flying machines. He had already conducted a number of important experiments to prove his point. Newcomb, on the other hand, was just as convinced that hum
an flight in general, and Langley’s theories in particular, were quite impossible. They simply violated the laws of physics.

  Voices were soon raised and Dr. Bell became alarmed that his guests were conducting their aeronautical arguments a little too hotly. Bell wanted to find another, safer, topic of conversation, so he started talking about cats. Langley remarked how strange it was that cats always landed on their feet when dropped from a height. Newcomb immediately adopted the opposite position. “Nonsense,” he cried, “where’s the fulcrum?” A fulcrum is a support, which allows an object to turn around.

  Bell figured that the only way to make peace between his scientific houseguests was to put the argument to the test and prove or disprove it scientifically. Bell had Douglas and his housekeeper collect about a dozen squirming cats and place them in a basket. Bell was a great cat lover. His estate was filled with cats.

  But the cats would not stay in the basket. It must have been a funny sight to see three scientists chasing cats around the room. Finally, the scientists succeeded in herding the cats onto a balcony which was about 6 metres from the ground. Douglas helped the housekeeper spread some of Mrs. Bell’s best cushions below the balcony. The experiment proved that Langley was correct. All the cats landed on their feet when dropped onto Mrs. Bell’s soft cushions. Newcomb admitted that he had been wrong and thanked Langley for giving him an interesting new problem of physics to solve. It would be interesting to know what the young Douglas McCurdy thought while watching three famous scientists toss cats over a balcony.

  Bell always had a fondness for children but, sadly, his own two sons had died in infancy. Still, he especially liked Douglas, and so when Douglas was five the Bells suggested they adopt him. Douglas’s mother had died when he was two, while giving birth to his brother Lucian. With Arthur McCurdy employed as Bell’s secretary and constant companion, it was felt that Douglas would never be far from his real father. But Aunt Georgina said no. It was not right to split up a family. Douglas was born a McCurdy and must be raised as one.

  In the fall of 1893, when the Bells returned to their winter home in Washington, DC, it was agreed the McCurdy family would accompany them. One of the highlights of that year in Washington for Douglas was when Dr. Bell took him to the opening of the Volta Bureau, an institution, found by Bell, devoted to helping the deaf (Mrs. Bell was deaf). At the ceremony, Douglas met the famed blind and deaf girl Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan.

  The next year, after the McCurdys returned to Baddeck, Douglas had a very foolish idea. Imitating the scientists he had met, Douglas decided to play inventor by making fireworks to celebrate a playmate’s birthday. After first picking the lock to his father’s hunting room, Douglas collected ammunition and then gunpowder. He then tossed a lighted match onto the powder. The bang was tremendous. The force of the explosion shattered windows all over Baddeck. When the smoke cleared, Douglas was unconscious and near death. The boy’s eyebrows had been singed off by the blast and the entire right side of his body had been burned black. There was a danger that he might lose an eye. Happily, after a few days in a darkened room, with his eyes wrapped in bandages, his sight returned and he regained full consciousness. His right hand, however, had taken the full force of the explosion and was horribly mangled. Signs of gangrene, a serious tissue-killing disease caused by infection or the impairment of blood circulation, set in, and the three doctors in attendance decided to amputate at the wrist.

  The operation was to take place the next morning at eleven and the shocking news spread over the community of Baddeck like a shroud. When Bell heard of it he raced to the young patient’s bedside and grilled the doctors as to Douglas’s condition. Learning that the injured hand had not grown any worse during the previous twenty-four hours he asked the doctors if the boy’s life would be in danger if the operation was held off for another day. The doctors concluded that Douglas’s life was not in immediate danger so, somewhat reluctantly, they agreed to Bell’s request and delayed the amputation.

  The extra day passed and Douglas’s hand did not grow any worse. It was then decided to postpone the operation indefinitely. Instead a medication of lard and boric acid was applied regularly to the wound. The recovery was long and painful, but after six months, Douglas was completely healthy. Thanks to the timely interference of Alexander Graham Bell, his hand was strong and whole.

  Throughout the rest of his life, Douglas never forgot the lesson he learned. While he kept his love of adventure and spirit of curiosity, he now had a healthy dose of caution and common sense to go with it.

  Kite flying was a popular activity during those days when Bell and Douglas became actively interested in developing a plane. By flying kites Douglas learned about wind and air currents. The picture above shows a tetrahedral kite flying near Baddeck around 1907. (Photo courtesy Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site, Baddeck, NS.)

  Chapter 2

  Kites and Gliders

  In 1903, at the age of sixteen, Douglas left Baddeck to attend the University of Toronto’s School of Mechanical Engineering. Of all the students admitted to the university that year, Douglas was the youngest. Though he received excellent grades, Douglas did not like university. Instead he was more interested in summer vacations so he could work with the great Alexander Graham Bell.

  In the summer of 1906, Douglas, knowing that Dr. Bell was always on the lookout for bright young engineering talent, invited a fellow student, Frederick Walker “Casey” Baldwin, to accompany him to Baddeck. Casey had never heard of Baddeck but he had heard of Alexander Graham Bell and jumped at the chance of meeting him. Casey, incidentally, was the grandson of Sir Robert Baldwin, pre-Confederation prime minister of Canada.

  Upon their arrival in Cape Breton Island, the two young engineers began to work with Bell, studying the effect of air currents on tetrahedral structures. A tetrahedron is a three-dimensional shape with four triangular sides. The problem to be solved was one of weight and strength. A flying structure strong enough to carry a man was thought to be too heavy to fly. The solution to this problem was the tetrahedron. Douglas’s experiments showed that a skeleton frame of tetrahedrons, with each side equal in size, connected together at the corners, was both strong enough and light enough to do the job. It also possessed a remarkable degree of stability and so was ideal for a powered flying machine.

  Because Douglas, Casey and Bell did not have much experience with engines, they invited Glenn Curtiss, a manufacturer of motorcycle engines from Hammondsport, New York, to join the group in the spring of 1907. Curtiss was an expert on light and compact engines.

  Another expert – this one from the United States Army – would soon be asked to join the group. While the Government of Canada was skeptical about the manned flight, the United States government’s position was encouraging. There the War Department had already conducted flying experiments. The Aeronautical division of the United States Army had just been started for the purpose of developing balloons and flying machines for military use. Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge was a graduate of the West Point military academy and a member of the Fifth Field Artillery. As an expert in the science of aerodynamics, he was sent to observe the kite experiments in Baddeck. As Selfridge’s knowledge of kite flying was second only to his own, Bell invited him to work in Baddeck and join Douglas and Casey. Such was Alexander Graham Bell’s stature that, upon receiving a request from him, the president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, immediately placed Selfridge on indefinite leave.

  At the same time, Mrs. Bell suggested an association be formed. To finance the project Mrs. Bell sold a piece of property she had inherited for $25,000 and then donated an additional $10,000. So on October 1, 1907, the Aerial Experiment Association was born. The AEA was incorporated in both Canada and the United States, as a “cooperative scientific association, not for gain but for the love of the art and doing what [they] c[ould] to help one another.” Dr. Bell was chairman and Douglas the treasu
rer. Glenn Curtiss was to receive $5,000 for taking time away from his factory in Hammondsport. Douglas and Baldwin would each receive $1,000, while Lieutenant Selfridge would continue to draw his pay from the United States Army. The aim of the Aerial Experiment Association was simple: getting a man into the air.

  The Association set to work testing engines and propellers. They also towed model kites from speedboats to measure the effects of wind velocities and air currents. These experiments led to the building of the giant man-carrying tetrahedral kite Cygnet I, also know as the “little swan.” Douglas had helped Bell fly kites on the hills around Baddeck for years but never anything like the Cygnet I. The “little swan” was an enormous and ungainly contraption with a wingspan of 13 metres. Looking like a honeycomb sliced open, the Cygnet I was made up of 3,000 tetrahedral cells covered in bright red silk.

  Yet for all the painstaking effort that went into the building of the Cygnet I, little thought was given to the comfort of the pilot. There was no cockpit offering protection from the elements – only open space just big enough for the pilot to crawl into and lie face down.

  December 6, 1907, was the day fixed for the Cygnet I’s test flight. Douglas and the other associates decided that Thomas Selfridge, because of his familiarity with kites, should be the pilot. The weather was so frigid that Thomas had to wrap himself up in rugs to keep warm. The Cygnet I was placed aboard a flat-bottomed boat called the Ugly Duckling, which was towed behind the steamboat Blue Hill. A sturdy rope connected the kite to the steamboat. In case of emergency, the rope connection with the steamboat would be the only way of controlling the kite.

  Bell posed the important question: what would happen to a person if an accident occurred when he was being propelled through the air with the speed of a locomotive? Because he was also concerned about an accident, Douglas wanted these early flights to take place over water.