Thomas Wright

“ In his interview in the New York Times, already quoted from, published in the New York Times, February 28, 1914, Captain Thomas S. Baldwin, though a close associate of Curtiss, heartily endorsed the final decision in the Wright vs. Curtiss case. Referring to that decision he told the interviewer:
“It is high time for all the rest of us to step up and admit that not a one of us ever would have got off the ground in flight if the Wrights had not unlocked the secret for us. ”

“ He was apprenticed to the same business, but, as it proved distasteful to him, he was allowed to follow his natural inclination for art. As a boy he was given the opportunity of watching Thomas Stothard [q. v.] when at work in his studio, but otherwise he was self-taught. About 1810 Wright became associated with Henry Aston Barker [q. v.] , for whose panorama in the Strand he did much excellent work, including the battles of Coruña, Vittoria, and Waterloo. He was also employed for a time as a scene-painter at the opera-house. ”

“ WRIGHT, THOMAS (1809–1884) , physician and geologist, was born on 9 Nov. 1809 at Paisley, Renfrewshire, and received his early education in the grammar school of that town, after which he was articled to his brother-in-law, a surgeon in practice there. On the removal of the latter to Ayrshire, Wright's medical studies were for a time interrupted, but their attraction was irresistible, so that he ultimately rejoined his relative and completed his time. Then he became a student at the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, working also at the Peter Street Anatomical and Surgical School. ”

“ Among other English painters mentioned in the deed of September 21st, 1532, were Andrew Wright, who succeeded him as serjeant-painter, Christopher Wright, Richard Rypyngale, Richard Laine, Thomas Alexander, John Hethe, Richard Gates, Thomas Crystyne, William Lucas, Richard Hauntlowe, and Robert Cope. ”

“ On leaving Seighford, the Rev. John Wright became Rector of Longford, Co. Derby, where he died in 1681. His death is thus recorded in the Parish Register, “1681. John Wright, rector of Longford, an orthodox and worthy son. Buried January 10th.”
[2]
This exemplary clergyman left a widow and eight children. The maiden name of the former I have not been able to discover, but her Christian name was Elizabeth, and those of his surviving children (he had lost one, Sarah, during her childhood) are written on the back of the inventory of his goods, thus—
Richard. John. Thomas. Jonathan. Matthewe. ”

“ Patrick, makes the first Indian convert, 311 Comet player, English, wins distinction in India, 70 Coromandel Coast, site for a factory obtained on the, 263 Coryat, Thomas, an eccentric adventurer, 167; travels of, 168; received by Jehangir, 169; death of, 173 Coteels, Steven, Dutch resident at Amboina, 182 Coulson, Samuel, a prisoner of Amboina, 218; protestation of innocence, 231; prayer upon the scaffold, 233 Courthope, Nathaniel, conducts an expedition to the Moluccas, 189; obtains cession of Poolo Roon, 190; establishes a fortified camp at Nailaka, 193 ”

“ Thomas, 229–30, 245, 290–91, 292 Shaffer, Bert, 9 Shank, W. H., 145 Shearn, Clarence J., 297–98 Shonts, Theodore P., 270 Simms station—see Huffman field Sines, Edwin Henry, 6, 30, 33, 36, 39, 258–59 Sines & Wright, 30–37 Smithsonian Institution, 46, 137, 300–333 Snapshots, 38 Sonnino, Baron Sidney, 256 South Kensington Science Museum, 300, 315, 318 Sports, 179, 182 Spratt, Dr. ”

“ I'm like a man athirst, that I am like one athirst who eyes looks upon a running stream, the landscape's eye, yet may yet may not drink a single not drink a draught of draught of all that he doth streams that rail and race. ”

“ Life, the shadow of wide-winged time, Cast from the wings that change as they climb, Life may vanish in death, and seem Less than the promise of last year's prime. But not for us is the past a dream Wherefrom, as light from a clouded stream, Faith fades and shivers and ebbs away, Faint as the moon if the sundawn gleam. Faith, whose eyes in the low last ray Watch the fire that renews the day, Faith which lives in the living past, Rock-rooted, swerves not as weeds that sway. ”

“ O wader of the seas of knowledge, O cistern of learning of our globe, exalted above his age, whose exaltation is above the mountains of increase and our rising place, opener by his books of night and day, traveller by ship and foot and horse, one whom none can equal in travel. ”

“ Night, she knows, may in no wise cling To a soul that sinks not and droops not wing, A sun that sets not in death's false night Whose kingdom finds him not thrall but king. Souls there are that for soul's affright Bow down and cower in the sun's glad sight, Clothed round with faith that is one with fear, And dark with doubt of the live world's light. ”

“ The Wrights were startled. So great had been the secrecy about the visit of the Frenchmen that not many even in the French Government were permitted to know about their trip to Dayton. How did this mysterious Britisher know about it? The Wrights assumed that he must have been a volunteer worker in the British secret service. It was now obvious that he had crossed the Atlantic for no other purpose than to call on the Wrights and had hoped to burst in upon them while the Frenchmen were still there. After a stay of only one day in Dayton he hastened back to New York to sail on the next boat. ”

“ While England sees not her old praise dim, While still her stars through the world's night swim A fame outshining her Raleigh's fame, A light that lightens her loud sea's rim, Shall shine and sound as her sons proclaim The pride that kindles at Burton's name. And joy shall exalt their pride to be The same in birth if in soul the same. But we that yearn for a friend's face,—we Who lack the light that on earth was he,— Mourn, though the light be a quenchless flame That shines as dawn on a tideless sea. ”

“ In his early life he was a teacher, from 1829 to 1833 being Professor of Mathematics in Western Reserve College. He became in 1833 Secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society in New York. In 1838 he came to Boston, and for twenty years was actively engaged in editorial work, taking a stand as a most pronounced abolitionist. Since then he has been Insurance Commissioner or Actuary for the State till the time of his death. Mr. Wright has been an earnest advocate of the project for converting the "Middlesex Fells" into a park in later years. He was always an earnest, active man. ”

“ During the several days the correspondents were at Kitty Hawk, the Wrights knew they were being observed. From time to time they caught glimpses of men’s heads over the hilltop in the distance. Moreover, they heard each day, from members of a life-saving crew, just how many visitors had come. But they simply thought it was a good joke on the mysterious observers, whoever they were.
Arthur Ruhl, of Collier’s, had met the Wrights in Dayton about a year before. On May 14, before the final flight, he came over to the camp. ”

“ A common argument had been: “God didn’t intend man to fly. If he did, he would have given him a set of wings.”
It was the regret of his life to the Wrights’ friend, “Bill” Tate, that he missed witnessing that first flight. He had decided that “no one but a crazy man would attempt to fly in such a wind,” and made no effort to be there.
After preparing and eating their lunch, and then washing their dishes, Wilbur and Orville set out, about two o’clock that afternoon, to walk over to the Kitty Hawk weather station, four or five miles away, to send a telegram to their father. ”

“ In 1837 he moved to Dorchester, Massachusetts, to prosecute a similar work in Boston.
Nothing is more remarkable in Mr. Wright's life than his perfect self- poise and peace of mind during such a long period of external agitation. It is doubtful, in spite of his highly nervous temperament, if he ever lost a night's sleep. When he was editing the Chronotype, and waiting for the telegraphic news to arrive, he would sometimes lie down on a pile of newspapers and go to sleep in less than half a minute. For mental relaxation he studied the higher mathematics and wrote poetry— much of it very good. ”

“ But, instead, he swung obediently away and took his revenge in a careless "All right, dear!" as he went off.
"Isn't he a peach!" mused Wright aloud, watching admiringly the broad-shouldered figure across the room.
"You've known him long?" I asked, in order to avoid answering.
"Roommates at Princeton," he replied. "Those were the good old days! There never was a more popular man in college than old Bill! I basked in reflected glory all the time. He was always the King Pin among us, whether it was football, or writing skits, or drumming the piano." ”

“ I remember you can see into the library from the path round the house!”
He darted out, the butler, protesting, lumbering along behind him.
“Mr. Wright,” he panted as he ran, “you didn’t reelly ought ... If any one should come ...”
But Bruce Wright was already at the window. The butler found him leaning on the sill, peering with an air of frightened curiosity into the empty room.
“The glazier from Stevenish”—Bude’s voice breathed the words hoarsely in Wright’s ear—“is coming to-morrow morning to put the window in. He wouldn’t come to-day, him being a chapel-goer and religious. ”

“ Wright is 99 years of age his appearance is that of a much younger man. He is about 5 feet in height; his dark skin is almost free of wrinkles and his head is thickly covered with gray hair. His speech and thought indicate that he is very intelligent and there is no doubt that he still possesses a clear and active mind. ”

“ Northcliffe, after his meeting with the Wrights at Pau, became one of their most enthusiastic supporters in England.
Long afterward, he publicly made this comment:
“I never knew more simple, unaffected people than Wilbur, Orville, and Katharine. After the Wrights had been in Europe a few weeks they became world heroes, and when they went to Pau their demonstrations were visited by thousands of people from all parts of Europe—by kings and lesser men, but I don’t think the excitement and interest produced by their extraordinary feat had any effect on them at all.” ”

“ A son of genius and of misfortune, John Wright was born on the 1st September 1805, at the farm-house of Auchincloigh, in the parish of Sorn, Ayrshire. From his mother, a woman of much originality and shrewdness, he inherited a strong inclination towards intellectual culture. His school education was circumscribed, but he experienced delight in improving his mind, by solitary musings amidst the amenities of the vicinity of Galston, a village to which his father had removed. At the age of seven, he began to assist his father in his occupation of a coal driver ”

“ Because of the persistence of that kind of incredulity, the Wrights did not expect many sightseers, least of all newspapermen, at Kitty Hawk during their preparations for government tests. Therefore they did not think it necessary to keep their plans secret. ”

“ From the age of seven he assisted his father in driving coals, and at thirteen he was apprenticed to George Brown, a Galston weaver, a man of cultivated mind, who assisted his education and placed books at his disposal. While still a youth Wright composed fifteen hundred lines of a tragedy entitled ‘Mahomet, or the Hegira,’ which he was forced to retain in his memory until he learned to write at the age of seventeen. In 1824 he proceeded to Glasgow, carrying with him ‘The Retrospect’ and some smaller poems. ”

“ Now that flights had been made, neighbors didn’t doubt the truth of the reports—though one of them had115 his own explanation. Mr. Webbert, father of the man from whom the Wrights rented their shop, said:
“I have known those boys ever since they were small children, and if they say they flew I know they did; but I think there must be special conditions down in North Carolina that would enable them to fly by the power of a motor. There is only one thing that could lift a machine like that in this part of the country—spirit power.” Webbert was a spiritualist. ”

“ Those wind-tunnel experiments marked one of the great turning points in the long history of attempts at human flight.
It still remained for the Wrights to put their new knowledge to actual test in gliding, and they set out on79 August 25, 1902, for their third stay at Kitty Hawk. But not until September 8 were they able to begin the work of assembling their new glider, for the camp, battered by winter gales, needed much repairing; and they decided to build an addition to it for living quarters. They did not have their machine ready for its first trial until September 19. ”

“ A small selection from his pictures was a prominent feature of the winter exhibition of the Royal Academy in 1886. Wright was an able and versatile artist, and the great reputation which he made in his lifetime is fairly sustained at the present day. As a painter of candlelight pieces, especially in those compositions ‘The Orrery,’ ‘The Gladiator,’ and ‘The Air-pump,’ where genre and portrait are combined with dramatic action, he has no rival in the English school ”

“ No previous experimenter had ever dared to try gliding in so stiff a wind. That the Wrights were successful at such feats gave proof of the effectiveness of their devices for control. Some of their flights lasted more than a minute and at times it was possible to soar in one spot without any descent. So impressive were such exhibitions that Bill Tate’s brother Dan solemnly offered the opinion: “All she needs is a coat of feathers to make her light and she will stay in the air indefinitely.”
About one time in fifty, however, the machine behaved in a manner quite mysterious. ”

“ He said he knew a young man in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, George A. Spratt, “an amateur” in aeronautics, who had had some medical training. Spratt had never seen any gliding experiments, and Chanute thought he would69 be eager for the opportunity. If the Wrights would board him at camp, Chanute said, he would be glad to pay Spratt’s traveling expenses to Kitty Hawk and would consider himself “compensated by the pleasure given to him.” ”