JF Ptak Science Books Post 2730
This is something of a stray thought, thinking about some ironies in the history of the Wright Brothers and their connections to early flight, back in the 1890s.
Orville and Wilbur seem to become acquainted with the substantial aeronautical work and experimentation of Otto Lilienthal (1848-1896) while Orville was laid very low from a near-fatal bout of typhoid fever. According to David McCullough in his book on the Wrights, Wilbur read to the very weakened and bed-ridden Orville about Lilienthal as Orville tussled with the angel of death. The brothers were fascinated by the work, and would become heavily influenced by it (though in truth by 1902 they would find via their own experimental work that much of the data compiled by Lilienthal was problematic, and somewhat useless.)
[The Wrights with their glider, at Kill Devil Hills, from Wright-Brothers dot org http://www.wright-brothers.org/Information_Desk/Just_the_Facts/Kites_&_Gliders/1901_Glider.htm]
Lilienthal was a glider man, convinced that the only way to become acquainted with the ways of the wind was to experience it the way that birds would. In that vein his gliders were pretty much designed after bird wings, and he would operate them much like a person on a hang glider would today. He was very successful in these endeavors, soaring for several decades before the Wrights became acquainted with him, and was perhaps one of the most famous men in the world in the realm of human flight. No doubt part of the reason for this were the photographs of Lilienthal that were circulated in the popular press and periodicals, and subsequently part of the "crazy" haze that descended on so many early pioneers of flight was somewhat lifted because of unimpeachable records of success. I suspect that the photographic imaging of the progress by Lilienthal took hold in the Wrights as well, as they made very careful photographic documentation of their own progress, as well as having some proof for their successes.
Lilienthal though was killed in a 50' high fall shortly before Orville fell ill. As McCulloch points out Lilienthal too had a brother, Gustav (1849-1933) who helped him in his technical pursuits, and it was his brother who sat next to him the day after his accident in Berlin when he died. I suspect that the Wrights felt an affinity or at least an understanding for the brothers' support of one another, something that the Wrights shared to a very high degree, right up to Wilbur's death in 1912. (Wilbur would die from typhoid fever, unable to beat it as his brother had.)
The other part of this slight ironic connection occurred at 1127 West Third St, which was the address of the last Wright brothers bicycle shop in Dayton from 1896 to 1908 (and since removed to Dearborn, Michigan, along with the Wright family home on Hawthorne Street, purchased in 1936 and moved there by Henry Ford). Opened in the year of Lilienthal's death and Orville's typhoid experience, the shop--which furnished the only income to the brothers and the only funding source for their flight experiments--was located in the ground floor of a duplex, the other business sharing the property being Fetters & Shank, “Undertakers & Embalmers; Coffins, Caskets & Robes of any Style or ... quality furnished at reasonable prices”2 I know, I know, that these are only slight coincidences, but they struck me this morning, out for a walk with the dogs. There are no connections there, of course--these are just two curious things.
Notes:
1. David McCulloch, The Wright Brothers, Simon & Schuster, 2015. Even though this book seems a little slim at 320pp, it has a very definite weight to it; McCulloch shares their story with deep insight and wisdom.
2. James Tobin To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight, 2003.
Okay, there's also this: the Wright Brothers memorial at Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina is exceptionally stumpy and heavy, and ugly, and seems the least likely design to honor something as beautifully designed and implemented as the Wright glider.
[Photo image source: http://warrior481.blogspot.com/2011/10/pilgrimage-that-almost-wasnt.html]
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