Here is the book he apparently ended up ordering (in the next letter, linked to on the left):
Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
11–20 of 38 posts
Re: Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
#12"It is only a question of knowledge and skill..."
I really like this observation that Wilbur made. It's definitely part of the ethos of someone who likes a technical challenge.
Re: Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
#13Wilbur Wright actually hoped to enroll at Yale and become a teacher, for which he enrolled in college prep courses. All that changed when he suffered a brutal injury during an ice hockey game, following which he retreated into a long depression and eventually opened a bicycle shop in 1992.
1892?
It was a very long depression.
Re: Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
#14" I wish to avail myself of all that is already known and then if possible add my mite to help on the future workers who will attain final success. "
I think this also says a lot about Intellectual Property right here. Just think of how todays innovation is hindered with NDAs and patent trolls.
Re: Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
#15" I wish to avail myself of all that is already known and then if possible add my mite to help on the future workers who will attain final success. " I think this also says a lot about Intellectual Property right here. Just think of how todays innovation is hindered with NDAs and patent trolls.
And how much is it helped by the internet and open access. The maker movement is a testament to that.
Re: Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
#16" I am an enthusiast, but not a crank in the sense that I have some pet theories as to the proper construction of a flying machine " So, cranks were a wellknown commodity already in the nineteenth century. Whoever would have guessed...
Well, look at Goethe's color "theory" or Newton's dabbling into alchemy.
Re: Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
#17They succeeded 4.5 years later. Their argument that birds make maneuvers 3-4x more aggressive than needed for level flight, and therefore level flight may be within the reach of man, is an intriguing one. You could make parallel arguments about AI today, for example that driving a car requires only 1/3 - 1/4 of a brainpower.
As a function of our neurons' computing power, definitely so (c.f. humans doing math). But as a function on the energy requirements to power a biological brain, I am more doubtful; we require much better nanoscale manufacturing processes.
Re: Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
#18" I wish to avail myself of all that is already known and then if possible add my mite to help on the future workers who will attain final success. " I think this also says a lot about Intellectual Property right here. Just think of how todays innovation is hindered with NDAs and patent trolls.
To a large extent, other experimenters in the field at that time freely shared information. As indicated by this letter, the Wrights eagerly drank from that well, but did not reciprocate, as it was their intention to patent their achievements.
If they had managed their patents with the aggressiveness that we see nowadays, early aviation development might have been stalled for a decade.
Re: Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
#19" I wish to avail myself of all that is already known and then if possible add my mite to help on the future workers who will attain final success. " I think this also says a lot about Intellectual Property right here. Just think of how todays innovation is hindered with NDAs and patent trolls.
The Wrights might not be the best precedent to cite here -- after they got a patent on the airplane, they wouldn't license for years, until government pressure broke the logjam during World War I.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers_patent_war
Re: Wilbur Wright's Letter to the Smithsonian (1899)
#20They succeeded 4.5 years later. Their argument that birds make maneuvers 3-4x more aggressive than needed for level flight, and therefore level flight may be within the reach of man, is an intriguing one. You could make parallel arguments about AI today, for example that driving a car requires only 1/3 - 1/4 of a brainpower.
One could make that argument, but we do not know at this point if it is valid, and the Wright's success does not change that.