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Lot 65
WRIGHT, WILBUR. 1867-1912. 1902 LETTER ON GLIDER CONSTRUCTION
Autograph Letter Signed ("Wilbur Wright"), Dayton, April 5, 1902, on Wright Cycle Company letterhead, to Douglas W. Smeaton of Newton, MA, with autograph envelope
Autograph Letter Signed ("Wilbur Wright"), Dayton, April 5, 1902, on Wright Cycle Company letterhead, to Douglas W. Smeaton of Newton, MA, with autograph envelope
3 – 4 November 2021, 13:00 PDT
Los AngelesSold for US$19,062.50 inc. premium
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WRIGHT, WILBUR. 1867-1912.
1902 LETTER ON GLIDER CONSTRUCTION
Autograph Letter Signed ("Wilbur Wright"), Dayton, April 5, 1902, on Wright Cycle Company letterhead, to Douglas W. Smeaton of Newton, MA, with autograph envelope fold creases.
"Answering yours of Apr. 2nd. Our frame work in gliding machines is made of spruce and 2nd growth ash. The joints are made by lashing with linen cord. We use no nails at all, except brads to hold pieces in place prior to lashing with cord. Where metal is used it is lashed fast. / Yours very truly / Wilbur Wright."
After the summer of 1901, their second experimenting with gliders at Kitty Hawk, N.C., the brothers realized "that so many of the long-established, supposedly reliable calculations and tables prepared by the likes of Lilienthal, Langley, and Chanute—data the brothers had taken as gospel—had proven to be wrong and could no longer be trusted. Clearly those esteemed authorities had been guessing, 'groping in the dark.' The accepted tables were, in a word, 'worthless'"(McCullough p 63).
There was a major turning point in the autumn of that year when they realized that they would have to rely on their own data.
Wilbur Wright gave his first public speech on flight at the September 18, 1901 meeting of the Western Society of Engineers in Chicago and Wright's edited version appeared in the that group's December number of the journal. That piece was reprinted throughout the coming months in other publications such as Scientific American, The Engineering Magazine and the magazine Flying. It was likely one of these widely distributed publications that caught the attention of the recipient of the above letter. By April 5, 1902, the Wrights had further experimented and made considerable progress with their own 6 feet long by 16 inch square wind tunnel and had just begun construction on their new glider for their third trip to Kitty Hawk. Wilbur would have been fully immersed in the subject when he described the details of the Wright gliders. That September-October at Kitty Hawk proved to be extremely successful as Orville struck upon the idea of a movable rudder. It was the following year at Kitty Hawk when they added a motor to achieve their first successful powered flight. McCullough. The Wright Brothers. NY: [2015].
Autograph Letter Signed ("Wilbur Wright"), Dayton, April 5, 1902, on Wright Cycle Company letterhead, to Douglas W. Smeaton of Newton, MA, with autograph envelope fold creases.
"Answering yours of Apr. 2nd. Our frame work in gliding machines is made of spruce and 2nd growth ash. The joints are made by lashing with linen cord. We use no nails at all, except brads to hold pieces in place prior to lashing with cord. Where metal is used it is lashed fast. / Yours very truly / Wilbur Wright."
After the summer of 1901, their second experimenting with gliders at Kitty Hawk, N.C., the brothers realized "that so many of the long-established, supposedly reliable calculations and tables prepared by the likes of Lilienthal, Langley, and Chanute—data the brothers had taken as gospel—had proven to be wrong and could no longer be trusted. Clearly those esteemed authorities had been guessing, 'groping in the dark.' The accepted tables were, in a word, 'worthless'"(McCullough p 63).
There was a major turning point in the autumn of that year when they realized that they would have to rely on their own data.
Wilbur Wright gave his first public speech on flight at the September 18, 1901 meeting of the Western Society of Engineers in Chicago and Wright's edited version appeared in the that group's December number of the journal. That piece was reprinted throughout the coming months in other publications such as Scientific American, The Engineering Magazine and the magazine Flying. It was likely one of these widely distributed publications that caught the attention of the recipient of the above letter. By April 5, 1902, the Wrights had further experimented and made considerable progress with their own 6 feet long by 16 inch square wind tunnel and had just begun construction on their new glider for their third trip to Kitty Hawk. Wilbur would have been fully immersed in the subject when he described the details of the Wright gliders. That September-October at Kitty Hawk proved to be extremely successful as Orville struck upon the idea of a movable rudder. It was the following year at Kitty Hawk when they added a motor to achieve their first successful powered flight. McCullough. The Wright Brothers. NY: [2015].