Getting the story Wright: Collecting Wright Brother First Flight Magazines

The Wright Brother's flights of December 17th, 1903 were reported by numerous newspapers the next day and the days that followed, with most of the accounts filled with inaccuracies due to the imaginations of news writers lacking the actual facts but anxious to report the historical event. The accounts were then repeated in magazines, as early as the last week of December.

Wilbur & Orville Wright, A Bibliography Commemorating the Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Wilbur Wright, compiled by Arthur G. Renstrom, Library of Congress 1968, is a useful source of lists of publications of Wright history. Under the section of Aeroplanes and Flights, starting in 1903, a list is provided of magazines containing articles of the Wright's experiments. From this list, I've been slowly compiling a collection of these early magazines associated with news accounts of the December 17th flights. I have also found first flight magazines not listed in the Bibliography.

Some first flight magazine examples follow:

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Scientific American December 26, 1903, vol. LXXXIX No. 26. "A Successful Experiment With a Motor-Driven Aeroplane". Issued just 9 days after the first flights. Inaccurate account stating, "The aeroplane was started from the top of a 100-foot sand dune. After it was pushed off, it at first glided downward near the surface of the incline. Then, as the propellers gained speed, the aeroplane rose steadily in the air to a height of about 60 feet, after which it was driven a distance of some three miles......"

The aeroplane started from level ground, was not pushed, did not go up 60' or travel 3 miles. Why would Scientific American think the propellers slowly gained speed? How would one push a machine with propellers in the way? In their defense, they're simply repeating misinformation reported in the early newspaper accounts, but still....

Scientific American December 26, 1903 "A Successful Experiment With a Motor-Driven Aeroplane". One of Author's copies.

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L'Aerophile Decembre 1903 "Le Tour Du Monde Ae'rien. L'aviation en Ame'rique". This early issue is interesting in the alarm it brings to the French, and the calls for their aviators to waste no time in solving the flight problem. The earlier April 1903 issue is also interesting with Octave Chanute's Aero Club talk on the Wright's gliding experiments, with pictures of Wright gliders identified as "L'appareil Chanute vu par-dessous", translated, The Chanute device seen from below.

The April 1903 5-page account explains, "Here is how Mr. Chanute came into contact with the Wright brothers, his current devoted collaborators. In 1900, the Wright brothers, bicycle manufacturers in Dayton, Ohio, wrote to Mr. Chanute requesting details of his experiments. They wished to repeat them for purely sporting purposes. Mr. Chanute readily provided them with the information they desired, and Messrs. Wright then had devices similar to Mr. Chanute's built based on his data, which they immediately tested with real success...... " Yeah, not so much how it happened Chanute. Perhaps more on this in another post.

L'Aerophile December 1903, "Around the World By Air". Author's copy.

"Aviation in America- According to the foreign daily press, the brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright, whose gliding experiments we described in our April and August 1903 issues, successfully tested an airplane equipped with a glider on December 18th [17th] at Kitty Hawk.....After 5 kilometers, he is said to have landed without difficulty.

Mr. Chanute, interviewed by telegram about the veracity of this news, replied to Mr. Drzewiecki: 'Newspaper stories considerably exaggerated, await details by letter'.

We will wait before commenting, but let us remind French aviators of the alarm raised by Mr. Ernest Archdeacon: 'Would the homeland of the Montgolfier family be ashamed to allow this ultimate discovery of aerial science to be realized abroad?' And this recommendation by Captain Ferber: 'There is still time, but let's not waste a minute.'

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Le Monde Illustre' Janvier 2, 1904, 48 Anne'e, No. 2440, "L'Ae'roplane Des E'tats-Unis". A portion of the account is translated below. Octave Chanute is given the credit as providing the advice the Wright's then followed to achieve success.

Le Monde Illustre', January 2, 1904. Bound volume for 1904, Author's copy.

"The United States Airplane"

"The approach of the St. Louis Exposition, where a prize of 500,000 francs is to be awarded to the best aerial navigation apparatus, has led to the resumption if airplane experiments at Kitty Hawk, in Chesapeake Bay. [The St. Louis Exposition had nothing to do with the Wright's motivation of experiments at Kitty Hawk].

With great boldness, these experiments are being carried out by Mr. Wilbur Wright, who came with his brother from Dayton, Ohio, to ascertain, on the shores of the Atlantic, the data applicable to aviation that an American of French origin, Mr. O. Chanute, a railway engineer from Chicago, had communicated to them a few years ago. [The Wright's used their own research, and not that of Chanute's to reach success].

Last spring, Mr. Chanute gave a scientific lecture in Paris that made a great impression in the world of aviation. He was then received at the Meudon park, and Colonel Renard was very impressed by the practical side of our former compatriate's aviator. [This as reported in the April 1903 issue of L'Aerophile].

Mr. Chanute, who is over seventy, continued this summer the Wright brothers' introduction to the advances of aeronautical navigation through the use of a mechanical engine, driving two propellers. Following Mr. Chanute's advice, and also taking advantage of the ideas of the German Lilienthal, the Wright brothers first succeeded in launching against the wind from the top of a hill overlooking the sand dunes of the Atlantic cities , where the United States Geographical Service allowed them to work....." [Again, the Wright's did not follow Chanute's or Lilienthal's methods or advice. The article shows how Chanute had mislead the French with the idea the Wright's were simply his students.]

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Harper's Weekly, January 2, 1904 "The Flying-Machine That Flies". An early report with inaccuracies, and attributing too much influence of Lilienthal and Chanute.

Harper's Weekly, January 2, 1904. "A Flying-Machine That Flies".

"A Flying-Machine that Flies". "....Stories of flying-machines that fly are received with exceeding caution....What looks like a veritable exception to that rule was reported in the newspapers of December 19. .....a flying-machine made by Wilbur and Orville Wright, of Dayton, Ohio, was tried at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 18 [17], and flew three miles [not quite]....it was started on a platform on a high sand-hill, and ran down an incline.[Not]..They have followed Lilienthal's method of making practice accompany step by step, holding that the navigator, before he applies power, must learn to balance himself in his machine as he would a bicycle. 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...."

Again, this article attributes too much to Chanute's input.

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Collier's January 23, 1904 Vol. XXXII No. 17 "A Flying Machine That Actually Flies". Inaccurate, repeating the flight was 3 miles in length, one horizontal propeller and one vertical propeller, pushing of the machine off a hill. Mentions the Wrights "tried the multiple wing machine with its large number of sails", which is a false statement.

Magazine collectors purchase Collier's just for the attractive covers, tending to drive the price up on this issue. I've yet to see this issue advertised for the Wright article. At the time of the writing of this post, one issue is available on E-bay for $500 and states, "The penfield cover for this issue became an iconic collector's item and was released as a poster not fetching 4 figures..." No mention is made of the Wright article. Another E-bay seller offers this issue at $93.14. Both issues have some cover tears.

Collier's January 23, 1904 "A Flying Machine That Actually Flies". One of Author's copies.

Three of the four gliders pictured are of the Chanute glider. The fourth picture shows Wilbur Wright on the 1902 Wright glider.

"A Flying Machine That Actually Flies".

"To sail three miles through the air at a speed of eight miles an hour against a breeze blowing twenty-one miles an hour is the most notable achievement in flying-machine experiments. Three years ago, two brothers named Wright, of Dayton, Ohio, went down among the sandhills of the North Carolina coast..."

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Harper's Weekly January 30, 1904 "The Problem of Flight". Harper's got their names right in the January 2nd issue, but by January 30th, they tell of William and Orville Wright's flights.

"In a test near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the aeroplane designed by William and Orville Wright rose from the ground with its own power, remained in flight for a period of fifty-seven seconds at a speed of about ten miles an hour, and finally landed safely with its passengers......It made four successful ascents..."

A number of these issues have sold on E-bay. In January of 2022, an issue sold for $199. In September of 2022, another issue sold for $150. Others have sold for less, with sellers making no mention of the Wright article within.

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

"The Problem of Flight"

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Knowledge & Scientific News February 1904 "A Motor Aeroplane" Vol. 1, pgs 3-4. This account has the facts correct as it is based on Orville Wright's statement to the Associated Press on January 6th.

"Various vague and sensational accounts have appeared in the Press during the last few weeks of a most important experiment made in America by the brothers Wright. We are now able to give an authentic account, kindly sent by Mr. Orville Wright himself, of what actually occurred. He states that he had not intended at present making any public statement with regard to the trials, but that 'newspaper men' gave out 'a fictitious story incorrect in almost every detail,' so that the inventors feel impelled to make some corrections...."

Knowledge & Scientific News, bound volume 1904. Author's copy.

Knowledge & Scientific News February 1904 "A Motor Aeroplane".

"On the morning of December 17, between the hours of 10:30 o'clock and noon, four flights were made, two by Orville Wright and two by Wilbur Wright. The starts were all made from a point on the levels and about 200 feet west of our camp, which is located a quarter of a mile north of the Kill Devil sand hill, in Dare County, North Carolina. The wind at the time of the flights had a velocity of 27 miles an hour at 10 o'clock, and 24 miles an hour at noon, as recorded by the anemometer at the Kitty Hawk weather bureau station. This anemometer is 30 feet from the ground. Our own measurements, made with a hand anemometer at a height of four feet from the ground, showed a velocity of about 22 miles when the first flight was made, and 20 1/2 miles at the time of the last one. The flights were directly against the wind. Each time the machine started from the level ground by its own power alone with no assistance from gravity, or any other sources whatever. After a run of about 40 feet along a mono-rail track, which held the machine eight inches from the ground, it rose from the track and under the direction of the operator climbed upward on an inclined course till a height of eight or ten feet from the ground was reached, after which the course was kept as near horizontal as the wind gusts and the limited skill of the operator would permit......the first flight was short. The succeeding flights rapidly increased in length, and the fourth trial a flight of 59 seconds was made, in which time the machine flew a little more than a half mile through the air, and a distance of 852 feet over the ground. The landing was due to a slight error of the judgment on the part of the operator....

From the beginning we have employed entirely new principles of control; and as all the experiments have been conducted at our own expense, without assistance from any individual or institution, we do not feel ready at present to give out any pictures or detailed description of the machine..."

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The Independent February 4, February 25, March 10, 1904 "The Experiments of a Flying Man". Though claimed by The Independent to be an article written by Wilbur Wright, he did not write it. Wilbur strongly protested, and apologies followed in the February 25th and March 10th issues. These make a nice collector's set.

A February 4, 1904 issue sold for $600 on January 4, 2017 by an E-bay seller. The description indicated "1904 newspaper magazine with detailed article by Wilbur Wright of the Wright Brothers describing the historic early flights....published less than two months after the 1st successful flight..."; the seller apparently unaware that Wilbur didn't actually write the article.

The Independent "The Experiments of a Flying Man". Author's copies (one of two sets)

"The Experiments of a Flying Man" by Wilbur Wright, except he didn't write it.

"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."

The Independent February 25, 1904 response to Wilbur's letter. Author's copy.

Wilbur Wright to Editor of the Independent, February 29, 1904. Letter sold by Bonhams, September 27, 2017, $6250 including BP. Wilbur was not satisfied with the Independent's response in the February 25th issue, and demanded another apology which came in the March 10 issue.

The Independent March 10, 1904 second response to Wilbur Wright's protest, buried within the issue. Author's copy.

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Gleanings in Bee Culture March 1, 1904 Vol XXXII No. 5 "Our Homes". This is one of my favorite accounts, and Amos Root's description to the boys in his Sunday School class contains accurate information, and one can tell Root understood and appreciated the Wright's methodology.

A March 1, 1904 issue of Gleanings sold on E-bay September 31, 2017, for $123 in great condition.

Gleanings in Bee Culture March 1, 1904. Author's copy.

Gleanings in Bee Culture March 1, 1904 "Our Homes".

Amos Root taught a Sunday School class of teenage boys and experienced some typical misbehavior from the group. He shared in this article how he brought them around by sharing the account of a couple boys from Dayton, Ohio.....

"Yesterday, Feb. 14, my class behaved worse than ever. I finally stopped proceedings, and told them that I feared the class would have to be broken up. Several said, 'All right, break it up;' but it had the effect of quieting them for a while. I said something like this:

'Boys, you are my personal friends- at least I believe you are. It will not only be a disgrace to you if the class is broken up, but a disgrace to me, because I shall have to admit that I am not equal to the task of keeping order....Whatever I do, I wish to maintain your respect. I am praying that God may help me to hold your confidence and your good will, whatever may happen. Last of all, most of you are church-members.

We got along pretty well after that. Usually, before closing a lesson I give the boys a hint of what is going on in the scientific world....On this particular Sunday I said, just before the last bell rang, 'Do you know, friends, that two Ohio boys, or young men, rather, have outstripped the world in demonstrating that a flying-machine can be constructed without the use of a balloon? During the past few months these two boys have made a machine that actually flew through the air for more than half a mile, carrying one of the boys with it. This young man is not only a credit to our State, but to the whole country and to the world.'

'Where do the boys live? What are their names', said a chorus of voices.

'Their names are Orville and Wilbur Wright, of Dayton, Ohio.'

'When and where did their machine fly?'

'Their experiments were made just before winter set in, on the Atlantic coast, at Kitty Hawk, N.C., at a place where there are several miles of soft sand blown up by the wind. They chose that sandy waste so that, in case of an accident, they would not be apt to be severely hurt by falling. For the same reason they managed it so as to keep the machine within five or ten feet of the ground. As soon as we have warm weather they are going on with their experiments. The machine was made something after the fashion of a box kite. A gasoline engine moved propeller wheels that pulled it against the wind. When they make their next trial I am going to try to be on hand and see the experiment.'

This little story seemed to have the effect I expected it would. They seemed to have forgotten the unpleasantness about maintaining order, and I was thanking God that I had been enabled to talk as severely as I did, and yet not arouse any bad or vindictive feelings in their hearts; but as we passed out of the door of our room, however, one of the tallest and brightest of the group said something like this:

'If they take you up in the machine I hope they will let you drop; for we haven't any use for such 'old thing' around here.'

I glanced quickly at the speaker's face to see if it was a bit of pleasantry; but he simply looked hard and sullen, or at least I thought he did. He had been one of the worst offenders that day, and he seemed not to have forgotten my severe words after all, even though he had listened intently to what I had to say about the flying-machine....

On the way home I kept thinking about the unkind fling.....It implied, or at least I thought it did, that I was getting to be too old to undertake to teach a crowd of boys in their teens.....I wondered how many of that class were of the same opinion. Had the boys been laughing at my attempts to control them?....I told Mrs. Root about it, and she felt hurt too... As I thought it over it seemed to me as if the sting was greater than if I had been knocked over with a club; but, dear friends, it did me good. It set me to praying; and my prayers cleared the sky somewhat.....I needed humbling, and God knows I felt humbled. Then a blessing came. I resolved to see my boys, and have a talk with them. The first one I met admitted, with rather downcast eyes, that I was right, and they they were wrong. He said that, in some way, they had gotten into a rut, and it seemed hard to get out of it; and he gave me a most happy surprise by saying that the tall young man had no thought of applying that cutting remark to myself. There was a mischievous little chap who generally helped along all the merriment going on in the class; and this fellow said, just as they were going out, that he would not be afraid to go up in a flying-machine clear up into the air, instead of keeping only ten feet from the ground. Then the tall one replied, and his answer, to me, came as he passed me, and, I thought, as he was looking at me. The answer was, 'Well, if they do take you up I hope they will let you drop, for we haven't any use for such 'old thing' around here.' But my pride had received a stinging lesson; and while my young friend is fully exonerated I hope the lesson I received may do me as much good as if his remark had in truth been intended for my poor self."

For more on Amos Root and his correspondence with Wilbur and Orville, see my post:

Amos I. Root Much A Buzz About the Wright Brothers

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An Honorable Mention for a Pre-First Flight issue:

The Independent October 22, 1903 "The Outlook for the Flying Machine" by Professor Simon Newcomb. Newcomb makes his case for why mechanical human flight is impossible, just two months prior to the Wright's first flights December 17, 1903.

"The whole problem of the successful flying machine is therefore, that of arranging an aeroplane that shall move through the air with the requisite speed. The practical difficulties in the way of realizing the movement of such an object are obvious. The aeroplane must have its propellers. These must be driven by an engine with a source of power. Weight is an essential quality of every engine. The propellers must be made of metal, which has its weakness, and which is liable to give way when its speed attains a certain limit. And, granting complete success, imagine the proud possessor of the aeroplane darting through the air at a speed of several hundred feet per second! It is the speed alone that sustains him. How is he ever going to stop? Once he slackens his speed, down he begins to fall.....Once he stops he falls a dead mass. How shall he reach the ground without destroying his delicate machinery? I do not think the most imaginative inventor has yet even put upon paper a demonstrative, successful way of meeting this difficulty..."

Two months later, the Wrights fly.