Orville Wright's Sense of Humor

Bonebreak and Higgenbottom- As told by Ivonette Wright Miller in Wright Reminiscences.(Lorin Wright's children were Milton, Horace, Ivonette, and Leontine).
"On some of our evening visits, there would be a magic lantern show, or perhaps a shadowgraph show. There were two characters that took part in the shadowgraph shows, Sam Bonebrake, who was tall and thin, and Jim Higgenbottom, who was short and fat and had a high squeaky voice. There was always a big build-up before each show. Uncle Orv and Uncle Will spent hours in the shop making these jointed sheet metal figures."

Christmas Eve Prank- As told by Ivonette Wright Miller in Wright Reminiscences. 
"The first Christmas after we were married, we went out to Hawthorn Hill for Christmas Eve, as the family had done for years. When we sat down at the table, we all picked up our place cards, which were envelopes bearing each one's name. Each contained a new twenty dollar bill. At Scribze's place was a box of candy. He thanked Orv for it and nothing more was said for awhile. Then someone spoke up and said to Scribze, 'I'll bet there's a bill in yours somewhere, why don't you look and see?' Scribze said he was satisfied but because we all insisted, he opened the box of candy and went all through it- no money. He was becoming more and more embarrassed by the minute. Uncle Orv was chuckling all through this procedure, but said nothing. Finally someone said 'why don't you take the box apart? I'm sure it's in there somewhere'. That he did, and slipped in under the covering of the box was his twenty dollar bill. Uncle Orv had carefully taken the whole cover off and pasted it back together again. He enjoyed every minute of this prank."

Thanksgiving Day Prank- As told by Ivonette Wright Miller in Wright Reminiscences.
"It was our custom to have dinner at Hawthorn Hill both Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve for the whole family. This was carried on until Orville's death. At one Thanksgiving dinner, as a prank, he had Carrie his housekeeper, prepare the turkey in a special way. Nearly all the family preferred dark meat, and at this time- we were surprised that as Uncle Orv carved- the supply never gave out. One of us remarked 'This is good turkey, but you know, it tastes like duck to me.' With that Uncle Orv went into a fit of laughter. He turned the platter around to show that the turkey was only a front. Most of the dark meat was duck."

Wedding gift Prank- As told by Leontine Wright Jameson in Wright Reminiscences.
"Our wedding, John's and mine, took place in the big home that the family had built and moved into in Oakwood, Hawthorn Hill. It was necessary to do some rehearsing for the big event and we were invited to come to Hawthorn Hill for dinner and rehearsal. Before dinner Uncle Orville called me and John aside and presented us a toy pirate's chest. It was quite heavy and we were mystified. When we opened up the chest to see what it contained, we found it full of large nails. I remarked that these would be good to use whenever we could build our first home. Uncle Orville thoroughly enjoyed watching our reactions and laughed in great glee. Soon, however, he exchanged the nail-filled chest for a similar one and we weren't sure what to expect. This one contained gold coins and, of course, we were pleased and surprised. The first and second toy chests looked and weighed the same and I'm sure Uncle Orville had spent quite a bit of time making them the same, so as to make his practical joke more plausible and more fun for all interested."

Valentines Day Prank- As told by Horace (Bus) Wright in Wright Reminiscences.
"As a small boy we used to make a lot of Valentine Day. After dark we would put down valentines at the door, stamp our feet and run. One year Uncle Orv put on a yellow raincoat, a top hat and when he heard the kids coming down the street, slid out the back door and around the corner so he would be following us as we approached his house. I had slipped in the gate and was going up on the porch, Uncle Orv turned in the gate, caught me under his arm and carried me into the house. As they all sat around laughing, I slipped out and down the street to a light. In my collection of comic valentines (as they were known then) I found one of a pig in a top hat and coat very similar to that Uncle Orv had used. It had a verse on it something about his pigish ways and I left it while they were still laughing on the inside."

Mashed Potatoes Prank- As told by Horace (Bus) Wright in Wright Reminiscences.
"During many of our Sunday dinners they used to tease me as to whether they had enough potatoes, since I always liked mashed potatoes. One Sunday Uncle Orv remarked 'It seems funny how Bus's plate always makes for the mashed potatoes' and with that my plate started to move towards the mashed potatoes he was serving. It turned out he had pasted a thread to the bottom of my plate which he had pulled toward him."

Orville Wright is really enjoying himself in this 1941 photo of himself with Lt. General William Knudsen inspecting a plane motor. Here is what I imagine William said to Orville just as the photographer took the picture-

Hey Orville, I'll bet that first flight in '03 would have gone farther than 120 feet, if you had had this puppy on board!

Copyright 2021-Getting the Story Wright

 

For more Wright Brother humor, go to "Connecticut, you have Gustave be kidding me!"

For alternate Wright Brother timeline humor, go to "What if the Wright Brothers had not experimented in flight in the early 1900's?" 

For more alternate timeline humor, go to "An Alternate Time line- The 1905 Wright Flyer III flies again"



Index of Topics
 

The Wright Brothers- Getting the Story Wright

(Updated 5/4/19) In researching the accomplishments of the Wright Brothers, be aware that everything in print or on-line needs to be evaluated for accuracy. Older newspaper accounts, for example, often provided inaccurate information. This was most noticeable with the first reporting of the December 17th 1903 first flights. The Dayton Daily News had the story mostly right on December 18th- see my post "Did the Daily News fail to carry the Wright's first flight?"  Printed material such as postcards, brochures, and booklets produced specifically to commemorate Wilbur and Orville are no exception.
The following account appeared in The Denver Republican, January 17, 1904. This same account appeared in the New York Herald, also on January 17th. Clippings of each were saved by the Wright Brothers, and are among the newspaper clippings in the Wright scrapbooks, a part of The Wright Brothers Collection held at the Dayton & Montgomery County Public Library. (I haven't researched which other newspapers may have carried this same story.)  Portions of the account are fabricated from the author's imagination.

The Denver Republican, January 17, 1904, The Machine That Flies, author's copy

Errors-
a. The rendering of the aeroplane shows one propeller at the rear, and one propeller under the craft. "What they have built is not an airship supported by a gas bag and driven by a motor, but a scientific adaptation of the principles in a soaring eagle's flight, only that two motor driven screw fans, one with a horizontal resistance and the other with a perpendicular resistance, make the machine's flight something surpassing that of a soaring bird, for the machine can navigate the air in any direction..." (In reality, both propellers were to the rear in pusher configuration).
b. "As the culmination of five years of careful study and experimenting Wilbur and Orville Wright, two young men of Dayton, O., have constructed a machine which on Dec. 17 last easily flew more than three miles in the face of a wind blowing 21 miles an hour."  (In reality, four flights were made, 120', 195', 200', and 852'.)
c. "Orville, the younger, is nearly 30 and Wilbur is a few years older. Their total scientific training was got under Professor William Werthner in the old Central High School in Dayton...." (In reality, Wilbur had received his high school education in Richmond Indiana, though taking some courses at Central High. Orville was a student of Werthner's, but not to the extent that all his scientific training came from this source. The brothers independently researched all they could find on the subject.)

Scientific American reported the account of the first flight in their December 26, 1903 issue, with a number of errors. The aeroplane was not "started from the top of a 100-foot sand dune". It was not "pushed off" such that it "at first glided downward near the surface of the incline", and did not fly at the "height of about 60 feet, after which it was driven a distance of some three miles".

Scientific American, December 26, 1903, author's copy

The January 2, 1904 issue of Harper's Weekly repeated much of the same misinformation. "It was started from a platform on a high sand-hill, and ran down an incline.....it gradually rose until it got up to sixty feet....Their practical experiments began in 1900, and starting with the knowledge gained by Lilienthal, and getting some good ideas from Mr. Octave Chanute, of Chicago, they seem to have worked to excellent purpose.....equipped with a rudder in the centre, and carrying the navigator's car and a gasoline engine which drives two six-bladed propellers, one of which drives the car upward, the other forward."

January 2, 1904 Harper's Weekly, Author's copy.

The January 30, 1904 Harper's Weekly provided a more accurate account of the Wright's first flight, though they incorrectly identify the brothers as William and Orville Wright.

January 30, 1904 Harper's Weekly, "The Problem of Flight", Author's copy.

The February 4, 1904 issue of The Independent ran an article "The Experiments of a Flying Man" by Wilbur Wright. Except there was just one problem; Wilbur Wright didn't write the article.

February 4, 1904 issue of The Independent, author's copy.

 From McFarlands "The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright", McFarland records that Wilbur responded by sending two letters, "one to the editor, and an open letter intended for publication in the Independent. The open letter is published in full in Miracle at Kitty Hawk, pp. 129-130. In this letter Wilbur Wright stated : "The bulk of the article consisted of carelessly arranged or garbled extracts from two addresses, which I delivered before the Western Society of Engineers.....Following this came extracts from two press dispatches....A few sentences from a strange source were interpolated, in which an attempt was made to describe the methods by which the power machine was sustained and propelled. This part was entirely fanciful and untrue."

February 4, 1904 The Independent, false report "One of the propellers was set to revolve vertically and intended to give a forward motion, while the other underneath the machine and revolving horizontally, was to assist in sustaining it in the air."

From McFarland's "The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright", he wrote "From the ensuing correspondence, it developed that the hoax had been perpetrated by a D. A. Willey, who claimed to have a letter of authorization from Wilbur Wright." Wilbur wrote to D. A. Willey March 1, 1904, and had this to say, "I never in my life wrote you a letter; I never gave authority to you to use my name in any way whatever; I never gave you authority to make extended verbatim quotations from my addresses before the Western Society of Engineers which are copyrighted by that Society. Neither has that Society given you such permission, the Secretary tells me. The Independent will probably publish a further statement regarding the matter. If not I will..."
The February 25, 1904 issue of The Independent provided a response that in lieu of taking responsibility for the forged article, simply attempted to brush it off as some sort of misunderstanding. 

February 25, 1904 issue of The Independent (author's copy) response to Wilbur Wright's complaint. "At times men of distinction have no time themselves to write an article, but are willing to give material or an interview from which the literary agent prepares the articles which will bear the signature of the person who has given the interview..." Can you see the steam coming out of Wilbur's ears at this point?

February 25, 1904 issue of The Independent response to Wilbur Wright's complaint.

Wilbur Wright did not find this retraction satisfactory, and so the March 10th, 1904 issue of The Independent, the editors buried the following retraction deep within that issue in small type....

March 10, 1904 issue of The Independent, author's copy. Wilbur has his say, "Your note is equivalent to an assertion that I furnished the matter for the article but objected only because my name was used...."

The following article from the June 14, 1906 The Lewistown Gazette has the account correct concerning the Wright's flights in Dayton in 1904 and 1905, but repeats the depiction of the aeroplane with a horizontal propeller under the air-ship. This is somewhat understandable, as the design of the Wright Flyer was kept secret by Wilbur and Orville through this period, despite many witnesses of these flights at Simm's Station. The account is as provided by the Wrights to the Aero Club of America, and reported in the Aero Club March 12, 1906 bulletin.

Lewistown Gazette, PA, June 14, 1906, author's copy.

 This rendering from The Globe, 1908, depicts Orville Wright and his brother Francis. And all this time I thought Wilbur Wright was involved somehow. Apparently Wilbur had a twin brother Francis who was the real mastermind behind the invention.

The Globe, 1908, Orville Wright and brother Francis, author's copy

The Daily News, New York, New York, December 17, 1933 issue with story "Thirty Years Ago", really blundered with the identification of this next photo.

The Daily News NY,NY, December 17, 1933 blunder. This is not a photo of Orville Wright and a West Milton Ohio barber, Curran by name.

The above photo is of Orville Wright and his brother Reuchlin Wright at Huffman Prairie in August of 1911. The first time the Wrights flew a passenger was at Kitty Hawk, May 14, 1908. Wilbur Wright flew with Charles W. Furnas aboard for a flight of 600 meters. Orville then took Furnas on a flight of 2 1/2 miles. This was witnessed by a group of newspaper correspondents  hiding nearby.

This postcard from the 30's states "This plane built by Orville Wright, flew a distance of 852 feet at Kitty Hawk, N. J., Dec. 17, 1903, which was the first flight of man in an airplane."

Count the errors-

a. This plane built by Orville Wright- The aeroplane was built by Wilbur and Orville Wright.

b. flew a distance of 852 feet at Kitty Hawk, N. J.- Since when is Kitty Hawk located in New Jersey??

c. which was the first flight of man in an airplane- No, it was the fourth flight of a man in an airplane. The 852' flight was the fourth flight of that morning.

d. The machine pictured is the Wright 1911 glider, not the 1903 Wright Flyer! Orville set a soaring record in 1911 in this glider. Note the lack of propellers and motor!

Similar errors occur in this next postcard. At least they've figured out Kitty Hawk is in North Carolina, and not New Jersey. Same errors though, confusing 1903 flight with the 1911 glider experiments. Wilbur made the fourth 852' flight, not Orville, and it didn't last just a few seconds. If it had, I doubt Wilbur would have survived (equivalent of 193.4 miles per hour). The flight lasted 59 seconds.

Seventh of a series of "Famous Events" issued by Kessler Distilling Company, N.Y. from the 1930's.

Dayton Wright Airplane Company was formed in 1917 by Edward A. Deeds, Charles F. Kettering, and Harold Talbott Sr. and Jr.. Orville Wright was a consulting engineer to the company.  One would think that the Dayton Wright Airplane Company would be accurate in their brochures, and if Orville had been given the opportunity to review the following booklet, he definitely would have made the corrections.

Dayton Wright Airplane Company booklet, author's copy.  Dayton Wright Airplane Co established 1917, closed 1923.

Dayton Wright Airplane Company An-Achievement, Page 1

Dayton Wright Airplane Company An-Achievement, Page 2

Notice the errors?

a. 1901 Original Wright Glider: The Wright Brothers first used a glider without a motor for experimenting in stability. The glider was operated by the pilot shifting his weight.- This glider was flown by the Wright Brothers, not Otto Lilienthal, and they did not shift their weight to fly this! 

b. These experiments were conducted at Kitty Hawk, N. C., in 1901.- The picture of the glider shown is from 1902, with Wilbur as the pilot. The glider experiments were conducted during 1900, 1901, 1902, and some in 1903. 

c. 1902 An Early Wright Machine in Flight: This machine was a pusher with elevator in front and stability obtained by warping the wings. This machine was flown from Kitty Hawk, N. C., in 1902.- The first flights were made on December 17, 1903, not 1902!

This artwork was offered by the Wright Aeronautical Corporation in 1928. Orville Wright was not associated with the company. The caption reads "The Wright brothers' "Strange Contraption" rises at Kitty Hawk, 1903" Look at it close, and see if you see the error:

Hint- It's supposed to be 1903 at Kitty Hawk, not 1908! In 1903 the Wrights laid down to fly. This continued through 1904 and 1905. Seats were not added until 1908. Also, the skids were flat across the bottom in 1903. This picture is of a 1908 flyer.

The following are examples of collectables with embarrassing errors. These refrigerator magnets are currently being offered on E-bay with the name of Orville and Wilbur or Wright Brothers printed across a picture of Paul Zens (french aviator) and Wilbur Wright. The photos date to September 16, 1908, and were taken prior to Paul and Wilbur taking off on a two-man flight at Le Mans, France. Orville was at Ft. Myer during this time. 

Paul Zens and Wilbur Wright, September 16, 1908, Le Mans, France. Modern produced misidentified refrigerator magnet.

The Wrong Brothers. Again, wouldn't it make sense to have a picture of Orville and Wilbur Wright on a refrigerator magnet in lieu of Paul Zens and Wilbur Wright? It can be yours for just $3.99 and $2.80 shipping!

 

 

Copyright 2021-Getting the Story Wright

Notes-
Added 10/9/16- The Independent "The Experiments of a Flying Man"
Added 10/3/17- Harper's Weekly January 2, and 30, 1904 accounts.
Added 3/15/18- Kessler Distilling postcard showing Orville Wright and 1911 glider.
Added 4/13/18- Paul Zens impersonating Orville Wright.
Added 7/29/18- Second Paul Zens refrigerator magnet. What would Orville have thought of such careless errors?
Text revisions- 1/15/19
Added 5/4/19- Dayton Daily News "Thirty Years Ago" blunder.

Index of Topics

Does Audio Exist of Orville Wright's Voice?

(Updated 4/8/18) In "The Bishop's Boys", Tom Crouch writes in chapter 33, "Orville....alone with his friends....was a delightful conversationalist; amongst strangers he grew silent and withdrawn. He had few illusions about his capacity for leadership. The thought of attending a board meeting, let alone presiding at one, was abhorrent to him." And in Chapter 34, "Orville could never mask his painful shyness. He was uncomfortable even when accepting the plaudits of an admiring crowd. At the same time, he knew he could not escape that role. The result was an unsatisfactory compromise between his desire for privacy and the need to represent Wilbur and the other members of the family with dignity. Orville was the honored guest at scores of banquets over the years, but he absolutely refused to speak from the podium. He would not so much as offer an after-dinner thank you into the microphone, although he did, on occasion, write comments to be read by others. Requests for radio interviews were dismissed out of hand, and there are no known recordings of his voice." (At the time of publication of "The Bishop's Boys" in 1989, the film that captured some of Orville Wright's voice was not well known, or recognized for its significance.)(1)


A search on-line will bring up numerous pages where the question has been asked if audio exists of Orville Wright's voice, and the answer is indicated as "No". One inquirer in 2003 even indicated that the Smithsonian response to his question was that no audio exists.  But the fact is, audio does exist! Wilbur and Orville's voice were so similar that for a person standing in an adjacent room, it was difficult to distinguish who was talking, Wilbur or Orville. Based on this, by hearing Orville's voice in this audio recording, you will also gain the sense of how Wilbur's voice  sounded.

An example of one time Orville was willing to speak: Orville Wright in 1925 "appearing before the President's Air Board of Inquiry, asking for government aid for civil aviation in the way of airports, lighting equipment, licensing of pilots and training, if aviation is to succeed in this country." In "The Wright Sister" by Richard Maurer, the author states "On October 12, 1925...Lunch with President Coolidge was the finale of a week-long trip that included....testimony before a special presidential board in Washington. The night before Orv's testimony in Washington she (Katharine) helped him compose his remarks...The board knew that Orville rarely spoke in public, but they wanted to be able to say they had consulted him. Orv obliged with a series of cautious recommendations. More airports were needed, he said. So were regulations to ensure the safety of airplanes and the proficiency of pilots.....Orv talked for a few minutes and then answered questions. To Katharine's embarrassment, one of the board members drew attention to her. 'We are hearing and have for years heard of the Wright brothers and their accomplishments,' he announced,'but we hear very little of Miss Katharine Wright, who, after all, was just as instrumental in developing the airplane as were the brothers. I think we ought to at least be introduced to her. She is in the room.' (See my post "Did Katharine Wright contribute to the invention of the Wright Flyer?")

It is not much, but a few seconds of Orville's voice was recorded; not at the event of 1925 indicated above, but in 1935, at the Engineer's Club in Dayton. The audio is poor, and you'll need to turn the volume up a bit when Orville speaks, but at least we have a few words. I was speaking with an acquaintance after a church service one Sunday early in 2014, and he mentioned he had come across a video in the NCR archives in which Colonial E. A. Deeds and Charles Kettering were having a conversation, and Orville Wright steps into the picture and says a few words. Having read that there were no known recordings of Orville's voice, I told my friend that if what he was saying was factual, that he likely has discovered a video recording of historical significance. (At this time, I was not aware that this film had been discovered at least 14 years prior.) That very afternoon, my wife and I toured the Hawthorn Hill Wright home in Oakwood, and was told by a tour guide that there was no known audio recording of Orville Wright's voice. I mentioned that this may change soon, that there may be a recording of his voice after all. Further investigation on-line that evening, I came to the realization that in fact the video/audio does exist, and it has been available for viewing on-line. The video is of a 1935 film, at this link, "The Engineer's Club of Dayton" with Edward Deeds, Charles Kettering, and Orville Wright. The film is 9 minutes, 37 seconds in length, and Orville walks into the picture late in the video, so if you want to hear his voice, you'll need to have patience. The video is posted on the Dayton Innovation Legacy web site. Deeds and Kettering begin to talk at 5 minutes, 33 seconds into the film, and Orville eventually steps in for a short time. It's not much, but at least it is something, and having gone years with the understanding that no known audio of his voice existed, it was very pleasing to become aware of this audio.

Notes:
1. Added 4/8/18- From a September 26, 2000 interview with Milton Wright, by Ann Deines, Dayton Aviation Heritage NHP, Oral History Project. (Milton's grandfather was Lorin Wright).
Ann-"So, going to ceremonies and doing things like that is something Orville did because he felt he should, be he didn't really enjoy it?"
Milton- "Yeah, he did when he had to, but he wasn't really......He was a member of the Engineer's Club, and he sort of liked to go there and talk with people he knew."
Ann- "They just found a film of him, where (Colonel Edward A) Deeds and ....I think its (Charles F.) Kettering, and talking on the film, and I guess Orville comes into the room. But I think it actually recorded his voice. I haven't seen it yet. It may be the only recording of his voice that now exists."
Milton- "Yeah, yeah."
2. Link to video updated 4/9/18. 

Copyright 2021-Getting the Story Wright

 

For more on Orville's presentation before the President's Air Board, go to my blog "A Conversation with Orville Wright- 1925"
For more on Orville Wright, see "Orville Wright- A Genuine Friend"
Also "Orville Wright's Sense of Humor"
For the complete index of topics, see "Index"