Ex Libris: The Wright Brothers

The Wright Brothers around 1905: (L) Orville age 34, and Wilbur at 38. Library of Congress. Public Domain

On Dec. 17, 1903, brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright each made two flights using a heavier-than-air machine on the sandy beach of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The longest of these flights lasted 59 seconds.

Not quite 66 years later, astronauts walked on the moon.

Though neither of the brothers ever officially graduated high school or attended college, Wilbur and Orville displayed an early genius for hands-on technology. Gifted in mechanics, their mother, Susan, inspired all her children by her tinkering and creating simple inventions around the house. They sought out her advice when building a wagon or operating some piece of equipment.

Later, Orville and Wilbur practiced Susan’s careful craftsmanship in their print shop, improving presses and selling them to other printers. Their next venture, a bicycle sales and repair shop, found them building bicycles and improving parts, precision work with lightweight materials that again enhanced those skills that would allow them to build an airplane.

Wright St. Clair bicycle, at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Kenneth C. Zirkel/CC BY 4.0

Their father’s influence came from an entirely different sector. An outspoken conservative minister and bishop, Milton Wright was a loving parent who raised his children to be independent thinkers and confident of their talents. From the libraries he maintained in his home—one consisted of theology books, the other of more general works—Wilbur and Orville absorbed history, literature, and science.

‘Fully-Educated People’

In 1943, Fred C. Kelly’s “The Wright Brothers,” a biography authorized by Orville Wright, was published. Here, Kelly included many stories he had gotten directly from Orville—Wilbur had died in 1912—including a look inside the family’s library. Milton Wright rarely directed his children’s reading, and so the two boys, particularly Wilbur, who was more a bibliophile than Orville, made their way through books ranging from the works of Washington Irving to copies of The Spectator, from histories of England and Ancient Rome to the novels of Sir Walter Scott.

Of all these books, perhaps the most directly influential on their invention of the airplane were the 1870 edition of the “Encyclopedia Britannica” and an earlier edition of “Chambers’s Encyclopedia.” As Kelly writes in his biography, “Though Wilbur was the great reader, Orville was not far behind him. He was fascinated by scientific articles in the encyclopedia almost from the time he learned to read.”

Supplemented by books from the local library, this informal program of reading had a lifelong impact on both brothers. In an interview with the Smithsonian’s Air & Space Magazine, biographer David McCullough said of this educational path, “I think we can all learn from them. I think they’re a great lesson in how to approach life. They had a joyous time, and their love of architecture, their love of art, their love of music, their love of literature—these are fully educated people. They are home-schooled as it were, but their home-schooling was right up to and almost equal to any great liberal arts training in any great university.”

Award-winning historian David McCullough narrates the behind-the-scenes stories of the Wright brothers' quest for flight, in his book "The Wright Brothers."

The Lift-Off Book

In the mid-1890s, the brothers became intrigued by the gliding experiments of Otto Lilienthal. After he died in a crash, their curiosity turned to a craving for knowledge. They read whatever they could find about this pioneer of the air and about others interested in the possibilities of aviation. Wanting more information, in 1896, they wrote to the Smithsonian asking for guidance and books.

A reply by mail from the Smithsonian included some pamphlets, including one written by Lilienthal, and a detailed list of information. Of the book titles the Smithsonian recommended, one in particular, Octave Chanute’s up-to-date “Progress in Flying Machines,” was most helpful. The brothers then began a long and fruitful correspondence with Chanute, a highly successful French-American builder of railroads, who, in his retirement, had turned his interests to flight.

This 1976 copy of Octave Chanute's "Progress in Flying Machines" is still available today.

In 1910, Wilbur Wright attended Chanute’s memorial service and composed a eulogy that was delivered in 1911 at the Aero Club of Illinois. Wilbur wrote, “His labors had vast influence in bringing about the era of human flight. No one was too humble to receive a share of his time. In patience and goodness of heart he has rarely been surpassed. Few men were more universally respected and loved.”

Homage to Home

American aviation pioneers, the Wright brothers, in a family portrait taken in 1903, upon Wilbur's return from his famous first official flight in the world (to France). Orville is fourth from left; Wilbur stands next to him, fifth from left. Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Years after their first experimental flight, a friend said to Orville that “the Wright brothers will always be favorite examples of how American lads with no special advantages can get ahead.

“‘But,’ said Orville seriously, ’that isn’t true. Because, you see, we did have special advantages.’

“‘What special advantages do you mean?’

“‘Simply that we were lucky enough to grow up in a home environment where there was always much encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests; to investigate whatever aroused curiosity. In a different kind of environment our curiosity might have been nipped long before it could have borne fruit.’”

We experience the fruit of that curiosity every time we board an airplane.

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