Thursday, December 3, 2015

Photo Manipulation Before 1900




A Brief Tutorial  on the Early Arts of Photo Manipulation

  "I believe it was probably less than ten minutes that went by from the invention of photography to the point where people realized that they could lie with photographs."--Errol Morris

 
(Below) This composite photo by Henry Peach Robinson used five separate images and shows the sophistication of the state of the art of photo manipulation  as early as 1858.

photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art


The photographic manipulation (below) was the placing of Lincoln's head on John Calhoun’s body in 1860. The photographer used a composite technique.    






During the American civil war (1861-1865), well known photographer, Mathew Brady, enhanced many of his photos to better show the carnage and horrors of the Civil War. The photo on the left was released in 1864 from a composite of the three photos on the right.




Unidentified French artist, published by Allain de Torbéchet et Cie. ca. 1880




Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec as Artist and Model by Maurice Guibert, ca. 1900



The above examples are just a few of the myriad of manipulated photographs done between the mid 1800's and 1900.

By the turn of the century, the state of the art was highly professional. Techniques that were used until the advent of "Photoshop" included airbrushing.

The first working airbrush prototype was developed by Liberty Walkup of Mt. Morris, Illinois. Walkup patented the work under the name of "air-brush." His wife would later go on to be the founder of the Illinois Art School where airbrushing was taught to students.

The first atomizing type of airbrush was invented by Charles Burdick four years later in 1893. It was presented by Thayer and Chandler art materials company at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago that same year.

As can be seen, manipulating and faking photographs was a sophisticated art even before 1900. The tools and techniques continued to develop. A faked photo early in the twentieth century could compete with the results of a modern day "Photoshop" product.

Monday, November 16, 2015

More Mystery of the Wright Flyer Wings--Continued



Will the Real Wright Flyer Please Step Forward ?

Photo claimed to be of the "first flight" by Orville Wright in 1903. Released in 1908.


Years after the Wrights claimed they achieved the first sustained, powered flight in history with a man on board at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, a 98 year old woman, Mrs. Lillie Swindell, made local headlines when she said she had stored the Wrights' original flyer in her attic after the Wrights went back to their home in Dayton. And as a thrifty and resourceful resident of Kitty Hawk, she wasn't about to let the flyer go to waste. So she made use of various pieces of "the first plane to fly" for her practical projects. Muslin that had covered the wings of the plane was shared with her neighbors to make clothes for their kids. Wood from the plane was used to fashion frames to stitch her quilts.1

To Wright historians, of course, this has to be a ridiculous story. Every Wright historian "knows" that the broken pieces of the original flyer were sent back to Dayton, Ohio, after the Kitty Hawk  "flights" in 1903 and stored in a crate behind the Wrights' bicycle shop. Everyone "knows" that the plane was rebuilt from these pieces in 1916 and displayed a number of times in the United States. https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/wright-brothers/online/icon/sight_2.cfm

In 1928 Orville's reconstructed "original flyer" became especially useful. The Smithsonian wasn't accepting his claim that it was the first in history "capable of flight." They asserted that Langley's Aerodrome should have that honor, even though it failed to launch twice in 1903. Orville was incensed. So he rebuilt the flyer again and shipped it to the Science Museum in London, England, to make a very public protest. Orville wanted to be remembered, not only as the first to fly, but also as the inventor of the first airplane even capable of flight..

After a long feud with the  Smithsonian, everybody "knows" that the Flyer was returned to the United States. That was six years after the Smithsonian was said to cave in to the Orville Wright demands to recant their defense of the Langley Aerodrome as first plane capable of flight.* According to the Wright history, the original Wright flyer has been at the Smithsonian ever since 1948.

Wright "flyer at the Smithsonian. Or is it?
But has the "original flyer" been at the Smithsonian--ever?  Certainly, you might say, this Mrs.Swindell was just a crazy old woman from the Outer Banks, North Carolina, with a faded memory. Maybe even demented. Right? Maybe wrong. Readers of this blog know that we take the statements of witnesses seriously. So who was this Mrs. Swindell, anyway?

It turns out that she was Adam Etheridge's widow, who, after his death in1940, had remarried again
Her first husband, Life Saver Adam Etheridge, was one of the few (five) original witnesses of the December 17, 1903, Wright "flights " When he was alive, Etheridge repeatedly asserted that the Wrights had left the wings of the original flyer with him when they left for Dayton after their 1903 "flight(s)"  and that he stored them at his home on the beach. Please see "The Mystery of the Wright Flyer Wings I and II" in this blog for many of the references for this story..

That claim of Etheridge contradicted the Wright history. Historians say that the Wrights had known how important their 1903 "flights" were. So they packed up the pieces of the "original Flyer" and shipped them home to Dayton. They wouldn't have left them at Kitty Hawk. Indeed, some Wright historians, in their dispute of  Etheridge's claim, said he must have mixed up the 1903 flyer with the 1905 flyer that was flown at Kill Devil Hills in 1908. In the Steven Kirk version, "First in Flight," 2 they claim he mixed it up with the 1902 glider.

But wait, historians. How could it be the 1905 plane when witness Charlie Furnas said that the Wrights burned that plane at Kill Devil Hills in 1908 after Wilbur wrecked it? At least he said they burned everything flammable--the wood and the cloth. http://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=following , page 5. And how could it be the 1902 glider? Here are the remains of the glider in a picture of the abandoned Wright camp below.

Find the skeletal remains (center) of the 1902 Wright glider half buried in sand. It was left to the wind and the weather of Kill Devil Hills, NC.
What's more, expert Wright historian, Arthur George Renstrom, in his respected chronology of the Wrights, indicates that the Wrights had shipped the 1905 flyer back to Dayton. Quoting Renstrom: "June 5. [1908] Wright engine and airplane shipped from Kitty Hawk arrives back in Dayton."
http://history.nasa.gov/monograph32.pdf
http://www.centennialofflight.net/chrono/1908.htm 

Either way, how could  the 1905 plane, used in 1908, be the one that was given to Etheridge and stored in his home on the beach? If it was burned in 1908, it couldn't be the same plane. And if it was shipped back to Dayton in 1908, it couldn't be the same plane either. See the other possibilities conjectured by Wright historians  in "The Mystery of the Wright Flyer Wings I and II," former posts in this blog.

 Life Saver Etheridge had said he was given the 1903 wings of the plane, or "the old plane," just as his widow later indicated. What's more, he said, he sold what he had to the the founder of the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, for 25.00, along with a glider left at Kitty Hawk for another 25.00 (This would almost certainly be the 1911 glider.)

However, in her 1975 narration, Mrs. Lillie Etheridge Swindell said she used the 1903 plane for wood for her quilts and the muslin for clothes for the kids. The rest was stored in the attic and when Etheridge wouldn't remove it, she finally burned it herself. That seems to contradict her husband's story that he sold the plane to Mr. Zenas Crane of the Berkshire Museum. But not necessarily. It turns out that Etheridge didn't have or sell the complete plane to the museum. We know that because on March 2, 1914, Orville wrote Samuel G. Colt, the son in law of the museum owner, Crane, asking what parts of the plane he had at the museum. (You will note that at some point Mr. Crane had been told by the Wrights that he had, not the 1903 plane, but the 1905 plane. When that occurred we may never know, because former critical correspondence is missing. We maintain, from historical statements we are presenting, that the plane was not the 1905 plane.) http://www.loc.gov/resource/mwright.03073/?st=gallery

"I wonder how much of the 1905 machine Mr. Crane has," wrote Orville to Mr. Colt on March 2, 1914. "Could you give me a list of the parts that are now in his possession?"

From the Library of Congress website (same link as above) is Samuel Colt's answer.
 Yesterday I went to the Museum and find that the parts which were sent up by Mr. Etheridge from Kitty Hawk consist of 4 end sections of the main planes, 1 elevator plane, 2 vertical "fins," or frames for the elevators and some of the canvas.
(Colt's complete handwritten letter pictured below)

Above, letter to Orville Wright from Samuel Colt of the Berkshire Museum,
in which he tells what parts of the Wright Flyer they have acquired from Life Saver, Adam Etheridge.

Story to be continued....
_________________________________

               * An examination of the Smithsonian documents shows that the Smithsonian never totally 
         recanted  their stance that the Langley Aerodrome was capable of flight. This will be 
                     addressed in"Another Truth in Aviation History:  Orville Wright and the Langley Aerodrome."        
 
1 Stephen Kirk. First in Flight: The Wright Brothers in North Carolina (Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair Publisher, 1995), 316-7

2 Ibid

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Two Different Timelines: December 17, 1903, the Day the Wright Brothers Claimed They Made the First Powered Flight in History


At Kill Devil Hills, NC: December 17, 1903
Wind speed: 27 mph. Temperature with wind chill: near freezing

Timeline Number One
 The Wright's Story
Of  The Events of December. 17, 1903,
When They Claimed the First Powered, Heavier Than Air, Controlled, 
Sustained, and Powered Flights in History

Note: Timeline number one, as narrated in this blog post, is extracted from the documents and statements of Orville and Wilbur Wright. Together with the photographs depicted in this article, it is the official version of Wright historians.


10:00 am or thereabouts
The Wright brothers wake up on the morning of December 17, 1903, to a cold wind, strong enough to attempt a powered flight from level ground. The rail they need to take off from has been moved from the hill.after their December 14 attempt and set up about 200 feet from their camp.. They failed making a successful flight from the hill on the 14th.

The brothers put up their flag to signal their friends at the Kill Devil Hills Life Saving Station a

mile away. They will need help launching their machine. Three Life Savers show up: John Daniels, Adam Etheridge, and Willie Dough. Two other people passing by stop to help: a youth named Johnnie Moore and a "lumber dealer" named W. C. Brinkley.

They set up their machine on its rail, facing into the wind. The Wright arrange their glass plate camera on a tripod. Luckily, the near gale force wind doesn't shake or blow it over. Estimating the point at which the plane will take off from the rail, they focus the camera on that spot. Life Saver John Daniels is chosen to squeeze the bulb of the shutter, just as the plane passes in front of the camera.

10:35  
After putting gasoline into the tank, Orville climbs onto the lower wing of the plane and lies prone. The engine is started, the plane is released, and starts to run down the track. The engine lifts the plane into the air for 12 seconds and moves it forward an estimated 120 feet. The plane hits the ground, cracks a skid, and breaks a lever..

Later, in a 1908 "Century magazine" article written by Orville Wright, he states that
 The first flight lasted only twelve seconds, a flight very modest compared with that of birds, but it was, nevertheless, the first in the history of the world in which a machine carrying a man had raised itself by its own power into the air in free flight, had sailed forward on a level course without reduction of speed, and had finally landed without being wrecked. 
 http://www.libraries.wright.edu/community/outofthebox/2011/12/17/a-flight-very-modest-compared-with-that-of-birds/

The Wrights step inside their building to warm up before making another launch attempt. They  quickly repair the damage to the plane.

11:20
The group carries the machine back to the beginning of the track. This time Wilbur mounts the plane. In the second  "flight  he is able to stay in the air for 13 seconds and travel 175 feet before he hits the ground. The plane is carried back again and the camera is set up for another picture.

11:40 
Orville climbs on the plane. It is launched and this time remains in the air longer, 15 seconds. The plane travels forward 200 feet. See picture of third claimed "successful flight." (below)
Purported to be a photo of the third successful flight.


The camera is then set up far to the left side of the track and pulled way back so that the next picture can include both the level track and the plane in the distance. The Wrights somehow guess in advance how far the plane will travel in its next flight.

Again, the machine is carried back to the beginning of the track. Wilbur lies prone on the plane this time and the engine is fired up again.

All of this is accomplished in an amazing 20 minutes, and by

12:00 noon
The machine is launched with Wilbur aboard. He manages to keep the plane in the air for 59 seconds and move forward 852 feet over the ground. Wilbur is traveling so low that he strikes a small hummock of sand when he over corrects the plane. The front elevator is damaged. The Wrights themselves calculate that with the wind speed and the speed of the plane, this flight is half a mile.

Claimed photo of Wilbur's last "flight"---852 feet

1. Orville-- estimated 120 feet (100 feet beyond the track)--12 seconds
2. Wilbur--estimated 175 feet--13 seconds
3. Orville--estimated 200 feet--15 seconds
4. Wilbur --measured 852 feet--59 seconds

After the final "flight," the Wrights haul their camera and tripod the more than 852 feet to the site where the last flight ends to take a picture of the plane and its broken elevator. See last photo in this article.

They plan another flight, but the wind picks up the machine, tumbles it over, and  tears it to pieces, despite John Daniels' attempts to save it. He is caught and blown over with the machine, sustaining some injuries

The Wrights eat lunch and wash their dishes.

2:00 pm
The Wright brothers set off on foot to the telegraph office at Kitty Hawk, four miles away to send a telegram of their success to their father, the Bishop Milton Wright. It states:

"Success four flights thursday morning all against twenty one mile wind started from Level with engine power alone average speed through air thirty one miles longest 57 seconds inform Press home Christmas"

The telegrapher Joe Dosher, asks the Wrights if he can spread the news. Despite the fact that the Wrights say absolutely not, the telegrapher(s) release the information to reporter(s) who then submit it to "Norfolk Virginian" newsmen The story appears on the front page of the "Norfolk Virginian" newspaper It is made up of some facts, some fabrications.


 Timeline Number Two
What Happened at Kill Devil Hill, According to Primary
Source Documents,  Witnesses, and Other References

It is highly recommended that the serious researcher carefully read the Saunders interview of witness John Daniels for Colliers magazine recounted in the book "The Published Writings of Wilbur and Orville Wright," edited by Peter L. Jakab and Rick Young, The Smithsonian Institution, year 2000, pp 274+
It may be surprising to the uninformed investigator that Wright historians deliberately leave out Daniels' statement in this interview that they pushed the plane up the hill for the "first flight" and back up the hill for the second and again to the hill for a third. but at that juncture, the wind picked up the machine and wrecked it. Daniels also states that he was supporting the wing of the plane up to take off.  Thus, it would have been next to impossible for him to have taken the first flight picture, as Wrightists try to claim. Daniels took credit for the picture later, but said he didn't remember doing so.

Many of the references for this timeline can be retrieved from the previous essays on this blog truthinaviationhistory.blogspot.com. See the various posts titled "Pieces of the Wright Puzzle, What Really Happened..."; "Original Documents: What Really Happened...," and Harry Moore and How the Wrights' Tall Tales Came to Light." Now for the Timeline--the Corrected Version.

 
10:00 AM or so  
The Wrights raise their flag to signal the Life Savers at Kill Devil Hill Life Saving Station a mile away. There is a good wind that morning. They will attempt a powered flight with their 12 horsepower engine attached to their new 1903 machine. They will use the assistance of the wind and the gravity of Kill Devil Hill a quarter of a mile from their camp to launch their aircraft and to help propel it forward. Since the plane weighs over 600 pounds without its pilot they will need at least five men to haul the plane to the base of the hill and move it up the flank of the hill.

Life Savers John Daniels, Adam Etheridge and Willie Dough respond to the signal for help. and walk the  mile from their station to the Wright camp. Two other passers by stop to help: an eighteen year old named Johnny Moore and a farmer named W. C. Brinkley, who is searching for driftwood that morning.

The track is already set up on the hill. It was set up for the December 14 flight attempt.


Witnesses don't mention the Wrights setting up a camera in their statements.

According to witnesses John Daniels and Adam Etheridge, they push the plane up the track on the big hill for the first flight. In his interview for Colliers magazine, John Daniels says that he supports the wing of the plane until it takes off.

The Wrights step aside to consult each other privately, then Orville climbs on the plane. The engine is started; the plane is launched. Wrights claim Orville "flies" for 12 seconds and is propelled forward 120 feet before he hits the ground, cracking the skids and breaking the lever for throwing off the engine.

About 10:40
After the first flight attempt, John Daniels and Willie Dough walk over to the Kill Devil Hills Life Saving Station, a mile away, which would take about fifteen minutes. From here, they telephone Joe Dosher, who mans the telegraph in Kitty Hawk to send a telegram to Henry Moore, their friend and a cub reporter. They have secretly promised Moore, who lives in Norfolk, Virginia, that they will let him know right away if there is a powered flight.

At least one of the Wrights appears to have walked to Kill Devil Hills station to initiate a telegram by phone to the Wrights' sister Katherine. This is likely the telegram that was received by Alpheus Drinkwater in Currituck and relayed on about the first "flight." This telegram, according to Drinkwater, says, "Tell no one." 

There is only one attempted "flight" that morning for the obvious reason that a number of people needed to launch the plane have left the camp.

A little after 11:00  
Charles C. Grant, the telegraph operator in Norfolk, Virgina, receives the telegram from Daniels and Dough, addressed to Harry Moore. Charles Grant personally walks it over to Harry Moore's home in Norfolk.

 In his later affidavit about the event, below,  Grant states that the Life Savers said,
"Wrights made a short flight this morning and will try again this afternoon."  (Full transcript at the end of this blog post.*)


 
Primary source document. Letter signed by telegrapher Charles C. Grant, who received the telegram from Life Savers John Daniels and Willie Dough the morning of Dec. 17, 1903, announcing Orville's attempt at powered flight. Transcript of this document is at the end of this article. *


11:40 
With telegram in hand, Moore phones the Life Savers at the Kill Devil Hills Life Saving Station for details.
"I got in touch with one of the Life Savers by telephone, and he told me that 'at last the nuts had flown. One of those fellows flew just like a bird. The two of them put gasoline in the engine in their contraption and after it glided down a hill on a wooden track, it went up. It was Orville that flew and he came down safely.'"--Harry P. Moore, reporter
Moore's statement indicates that the Life Savers were back at their station, not launching more flights that morning, as the Wrights claim.

After 12 noon
Harry Moore writes up a story  about the "first flight" to submit to the "Norfolk Virginian" newspaper. 

A page from Henry Moore's story about the Dec. 17 "flight" in his own handwriting.

In the afternoon, the Wrights and the Life Savers haul the plane back up the hill and launch another flight, this time with Wilbur on board. The plane stays airborne, according to the Wrights, for 57-59 seconds and travels forward in a straight line for 852 feet. Wilbur hits a small hummock of sand, ending the flight/glide. He breaks the front elevator.

The crew hauls the Flyer back to the hill for another attempt. At this point, an unexpected gust of wind picks up the Flyer and tumbles it over and over. Daniels becomes tangled in the machine trying to save it and sustains some injuries. The plane is so damaged, no more attempts at flight are possible.

1:40 pm 
Reporter Harry Moore delivers his scoop about the Wrights' "flight" to the "Norfolk Virginian" newsroom.

2:00 pm According to the Wrights, they set off for the town of Kitty Hawk where there is a  telegraph office at the Life Saving and weather station. They will send a telegram to their father about their claimed successes at powered flight. Walking the four miles, we have to assume they arrive there about 3:00 pm. By this time Harry Moore has already delivered his story to the "Norfolk Virginian" newspaper. According to the newsmen who were there, the story isn't taken seriously by Keville Glennan, and it's tossed into his waste basket. 

3:00 pm The Wrights are at the Kitty Hawk telegraph office when Harry Moore phones that office for more information. Possibly Harry has heard of another "flight" besides the first one at 10:35. Joe Dosher, the telegraph operator, asks the Wrights if he can relay information to Harry. The Wrights say, absolutely not. 

6:30 pm and after
Newsman Howard Dean comes into the "Norfolk Virginian" newspaper office and reports that he has heard of the first flight attempt through the Norfolk weather bureau office.  The weather bureau office is the only telegraph connection from Kitty Hawk and is the link to the commercial telegraph lines to the outside world. So the news of the telegram received by C. C. Grant to reporter Harry Moore is getting out.

At the urging of C. G. Kizer, who is in charge of the "Norfolk Virginian" news department, Keville Glennan retrieves the story written by Harry Moore from the waste basket under his desk. Working together with Harry Moore that evening, the newsmen compose the feature that is published on the front page of the Norfolk Virginian newspaper on December 18, 1903. The story includes some facts with some fabrications to pad it out. It takes the Wrights by surprise,and they soon release to the newspapers a story that they want to be the official one.


Summary: As is the case in much of the history of the Wright brothers, there are serious discrepancies in their version and the testimony of witnesses. If the version of  events of December 17 narrated by various witnesses and participants is true, the Wrights did not make four controlled, sustained, powered flights the morning of December 17 from level ground. Most testimony backs up only two flights attempted, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Both ended in unintended crashes, causing damage to the plane. They would not be considered sustained or even powered if they were launched from the hill.  Perhaps they would be defined as powered glides.

William Tate, the Wrights' staunch and loyal friend, is quoted as saying the Wrights' flights were from level ground. That is merely hearsay, because Tate didn't witness the flight attempts. There are other statements by Outer Banks people that back up that the flights were from the hill. 

As for the later statements that three of the witnesses pinpointed the spot where the flights were launched, they testified twenty five years later, and history states they had difficulty finding the spot because the landscape was rearranged by wind and weather. The big hill had moved 450 to 500 feet. It's a fact that sand dunes move, and the movement of the dunes on the barrier islands is continual, as the prevailing winds and weather shift the sands. http://www.ncnatural.com/Coast/dynamics.html At Kill Devil Hills, the National Park Service had to stabilize the shifting of the dunes by planting vegetation.

Although Wikipedia is not considered by serious investigators as a reliable reference, here is a link to this group that lists serious storms, such as hurricane and tropical storms that have  affected and sometimes devastated the Outer Banks of North Carolina over the years.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_Carolina_hurricanes_%281900%E2%80%9349%29#1910s


The National Park Service believes and states on its web site that the flights were made from level ground less than one hundred feet from the Wright camp. In their first news release, the Wrights say it was 200 feet.

Regardless, if the flights had been made near the Wright camp from level ground, the approximate spot would have been easy to find and the shifting of the hill would have made little difference in locating the area. It would have been a simple matter of pinpointing the foundation of the camp and assessing the direction of the wind that day. Indeed, William Tate stated they were able to find the foundation of the camp, but on the "Wright Stories" site (a Wright biased web site), we have the following statement. "The task was not easy because the landscape had significantly changed since 1903."                       http://wrightstories.com/finding-the-location-of-the-first-flight-in-1928/

From the First Flight Foundation website: 

Building the [Wright] monument was tasked to the Army Quartermaster Corps.  The first task was to address a moving sand dune.  Big Kill Devil Hill was stabilized with inches of straw, leaf, wood mold, and imported grasses of tannic, hairy vetch, and marram after being fenced to keep wild hogs and cattle out.  This process began in 1929 at a cost of $27,500.  By summer of 1930 the sand dune was a stable hill and construction began February 1931.  Big Kill Devil Hill, 90 foot tall is 450 ft southwest of its location when the Wrights flew gliders from its slopes. http://firstflightfoundation.org/the-monument/
http://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/wrbr/hrs/chapter2.pdf

The iconic picture of the first flight claimed to be taken by John Daniels.The photo is full of anomalies, including the perspective.

Purported to be a photo of the third successful flight.


A distant view of the Wright machine submitted by Wright historians as Wilbur's 852 feet flight in 1903.

A close up of the picture above. This indicates two passengers on the wing and the upright engine to the right of the passengers, as would be the case in the flight of the machine in 1908..


The Wrights supposedly carried their camera and tripod in the near freezing wind for 852 feet to the site where the last "flight" ended to record the damage to the elevator.

* Transcript of C.C. Grant's affidavit. Grant was the telegrapher who received the telegram sent by Life Savers John Daniels and Willie Dough addressed to Harry Moore, reporter, the morning of December 17, 1903

Norfolk Va., April 11, 1929

            I was bureau telegrapher at the Norfolk weather bureau, located on the top floor of the Citizens Bank of Norfolk, on December 17, 1903.

           Shortly after 11 a. m., a message came through on our wire government owned and controlled, from Kitty Hawk N.C.
            It was addressed to Harry P. Moore and it was signed Dough and Daniels. It stated that the "Wrights made a short flight this morning and will try again this afternoon."
             I delivered the message in person to Mr Moore at his home190 Charlotte street, opposite the Norfolk Academy. It was about 11.40 when I arrived.

                                                                    Very Truly


                                                                    C.C. Grant

For Mr Harry Moore or
any others who may be
Concerned

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Harry Moore and How the Wrights' "Tall Tales" Came to Light: Part III


“...he that sows lies in the end shall not lack of a harvest, and soon he may rest from toil indeed, while others reap and sow in his stead.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion
 The other side of the headlines 
Norfolk, Virginia, December 18, 1903

Alpheus Drinkwater claimed he forwarded the first telegram announcing the "first flight." He very well may have, but it wasn't the famous one to the Wright's father--it was to their sister.  Harry Moore was the cub reporter who broke the news of Orville's "flight" to the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot.

The first "successful flight" of a powered airplane was blazoned in headlines across the front page of the Virginian-Pilot newspaper the day after the Wrights claimed they were first to fly. The story of how the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot got the news of the Wrights' "flights" has been the subject of speculation for years.

 The "official" version is what the Wrights guessed, because they apparently never knew the whole truth. They figured that when they telegraphed the news to their father from Kitty Hawk to Norfolk, Virginia, about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the telegraph operator(s) must have spilled the story to the press, despite the Wrights' direct request to keep the matter quiet.1

From our research, as evidenced here, it's much more likely that the reporter was protecting his sources and the sources were protecting each other. Please see the two preceding blog posts.

In Wilbur and Orville by Fred Howard, we are given two possible variations of  the Wrights' version. The first scenario is that the telegrapher in Norfolk, Virginia (he names as Gray) shared the news with aspiring reporter Harry P. Moore, who then called long distance to pin down facts. Howard admits that there were a number of actual facts in the article other than those in the telegram. How they were obtained, he's not certain.2

In a second possible version that Fred Howard says was accepted later, the news was revealed, not to Moore, but to Ed Dean, who covered the Weather Bureau for the "Virginian-Pilot." Harry Moore didn't even arrive at the paper, he says, until that evening; and Dean and Keville Glennan, the city editor, had already written the story and were ready to set it into type. According to Howard, it was then that Moore asked them if they knew about the flights. "Moore was not even a reporter at the time....and it was never clear how he managed to hear of the flights." 3

In The Bishop's Boys, Tom Crouch gives credit to Ed Dean, who he says "was a friend of Jim Gray, the Norfolk operator Joe Dosher had asked to relay the Wrights' message on to Western Union. [Dosher was the operator at Kitty Hawk.] Gray told Dean about the telegram despite his instructions [to keep quiet]. Dean in turn approached his city editor, Keville Glennan, who agreed that the story was too good to pass up. The two men spent the next few hours fleshing out the sparse and enigmatic details of the telegram. Harry Moore, who worked in the Virginian-Pilot circulation department, also took a hand in composing the news account. "4

Crouch continues,"The finished story shows how heavily the three men drew on their imagination to fill in the gaps."5  (As we are seeing, it's apparent that historians similarly invent "facts" to fill in the blanks.--ed.)

But the "official" time line just doesn't fit the statements of the key players in the news story. When we try to correlate all of the stories together with the Wrights' claims, we end up with what author Stephen Kirk in First in Flight calls a "confused mess" 6

 Here is Kirk's version of what happened.

"Charles C. Grant was on duty at the Weather Bureau office in Norfolk on December 17, sitting in for the regular man, Jim J. Gray. [As noted, more than one history has Gray manning the telegraph lines, apparently in error] Grant claimed that the first message about the flights came in at eleven in the morning..., and that it was from livesavers Willie Dough and John Daniels, not the Wright brothers. It supposedly read, 'Wrights made a short flight this morning and will try again this afternoon.'"7

From his statement above, it is obvious that author Kirk was aware of Charles C. Grant's affidavit, posted in this blog. But he rejects it as follows:

    "This...appears doubtful. The first flight took place just after ten-thirty, and it is unlikely that Dough and Daniels could have conveyed the message to Kitty Hawk by eleven o'clock. Besides their help was needed in carrying the Flyer back from where it landed....aside from Grant's claim, it has never been suggested that Daniels or Dough left the Wright camp and returned between the first and fourth flights."8

In our opinion, author Kirk's errors in interpreting the Grant affidavit are the same errors that continually plague Wright historians in most of their material I have reviewed. They accept as gospel the Wright stories when there is no authentic documentation other than the Wrights' own claims. The Wrights claimed that four flights were made in the morning of December and stuck to that story. Using that story as a basic premise, Kirk has to reject Grant's statement. There are other statements he has to reject, as well.

But another author, Thomas Parramore, does suggest that Life Savers left the camp to relay the story:



"Just how the Pilot obtained its story is often debated. But after the second flight at 11:05 A.M., it appears that Adam Etheridge and John T. Daniels rode briefly over to the lifesaving station. There they wired Harry P. Moore, a Virginian-Pilot reporter to whom they had promised to send word of any powered flights: 'Wrights flew in motor-driven plane 11:20.'  (They may have considered the first flight a failure. ) Norfolk telegrapher C. C. Grant relayed the message to Moore..." 9

After Dosher telegraphed the Wrights' famous telegram about 3:00 P. M., Parramore says, "Grant again informed Moore, who then apparently phoned the Kill Devil Hill Life Saving Station. ..

At a Kitty Hawk meeting with Moore in 1928, Orville Wright confirmed that 'when you called the coast guard station...about our flights, the station man turned to me and asked me whether they should tell you....I told them to tell you nothing, but in their enthusiasm they did give out the story and made it a bit stronger than it was...'." 10

Parramore's narration deserves quite a bit of analysis. There are facts that appear incorrect, but at least he sees that there had to be a message sent to Moore in the morning--and about the only way that could have happened is for the Life Savers to leave the camp and phone from the Kill Devil Hills Station. He has them on horseback, not walking. Also, from this account, it's my opinion again that Moore phoned at least once in the morning after the first "flight" and again in the afternoon for more information. The first call was made to the Kill Devil Hills Life Saving Station as soon as he got the telegram from Dough and Daniels about the first flight attempt. The second was to the Kitty Hawk Station in the afternoon while the Wrights were still there after sending their telegram to their father, the Bishop. There was probably a third to Kill Devil Hills to talk to the original witnesses about the 852 foot "flight."
When it came time to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the "first flight," according to Kirk,  Harry Moore wrote a couple of articles for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot about how it was he who had "scooped the story." Keville Glennan, who had been city editor, objected to Moore's story, stating in a letter to the editor that "...I would like to inform you that the credit for the magnificent "beat" which the Virginian-Pilot scored on that occasion does not belong to any individual man..."  He said that Edward Dean, who had received the news of the flights from the local Weather bureau office, was the first to report the story to the city desk. "And that's the finish line in news races." 11 

After a subsequent exchange of letters with Glennan, Moore collected the statements published here in this blog to back his story up. They were written by Grant, the telegraph operator in Norfolk at the time (not Jim Gray), and by the newsmen who were there at the paper December 17, 1903, when Moore came in with his story before 2 pm. Dean hadn't picked up on the story until early evening and the Wrights hadn't even sent their famous telegram yet..See preceding blog post for two more of these documents.

Two of these letters follow:

                                                                                               Norfolk, Va. Feb. 3 1929
To Whom It May Concern


    I was a member of the Virginian-Pilot news staff on December 17, 1903
and am well acquainted with Harry  P. Moore, Keville Glennan and Edward O. Dean.

     I was in conference with Mr. Moore, Mr. Glennan, Mr. Kizer and Mr James
A. Pugh, the latter being city editor, when Moore brought in a message from
x, two life savers at Kitty Hawk telling about Orville Wright making the first
flight in a glider equipped with a motor.
     It was 1.40 p.m. and Glennan advised all present not to discuss the story
until after the public Ledger had gone to press. He said he believed the "yarn was
just another glider" flight and did not think it would develop into anything big.
     About 6:30 p.m. the story came up again when Dean said he had heard
J. Frank Newsome, weather bureau observer, mentioned the telegram received
by Moore early in the day which came over the Government owned seacoast wire
which had its commercial outlet in the weather bureau.

     No other newspaper man got any information about the flight except Moore
up to the time Dean visited the weather bureau.

                                                                                Very truly

                                                                                 Frank S. Wing
Dear Harry
          Use this anyway you like and if you want me to write my opinion of
Glennan and his atte,pt [attempt] to take the credit for this story from you, let me know and
I will write you a hummer
                                          FSW
(Italics and emphasis added by editor of  truthinaviationhistory)


                                            
 El Centro Printing Co.                                         670 Main Street
                                                                              El Centro California
                                
                                                                              October 28, 1950
Harry P. Moore, Esq.
P. O.Box 182
Norfolk, Virginia

Dear Harry:

It is good to have your letter of October 25th and to know
from your own typewriter that you continue
newspaper work.

I feel that it is not only unfair but untrue for anybody
to attempt to dispute the record of your right to first
credit for the story of the Wright Brothers' initial
flight in their biplane at Kill Devil Hill (Kitty Hawk)
North Carolina in 1903.

I was a working newspaper man in Norfolk from 1910 to
June 1917, during the last five years of that period
I was managing editor of the Virginian-Pilot. Nobody (far as I know)
in Norfolk ,while I lived there, challenged the validity
of your then established position as the man who got the
Wright story first, and on the morning of December 17, 1903. 

Keville Glennan was a feature writer, and for a time was
Sunday editor of the Virginian-Pilot during my tenure as managing
editor. While I knew Keville, I never heard him claim for
himself or for anybody except you the credit for being first
to get the Wright story.

As you know, I was born (1887) and spent my boyhood within 50 miles of
the spot where the Wrights made aviation history at Kill Devil Hill.
My father had a cottage at Nags Head, a few miles south of the
site of the Wright memorial monument, and I spent every summer
at Nag's Head from the first year of my life until I was 17 years old.

I refer to this background now to indicate my familiarity with
the scene. There was only one telegraph line from the coastal
region along the "banks"  between Kill Devil and the outside world,
with Norfolk weather bureau its link to commercial wire lines.
This one outlet at the Norfolk weather bureau was manned in my
years in Norfolk by personnel so loyal in friendship to you that
I always called on you for any news story originating along the
"banks" between Cape Henry and Cape Hatteras. And I know this loyalty
to you had existed for many years.

Write to me when you can find time and tell me more about yourself.
I wish you would tell Joe Pacini's boys to send me a small kit of
corned spots, express collect, and mail me a bill for the fish.
                                                  Sincerely,
                                                  T. H. Lamb
(Italics and emphasis added)

 So to review:

The story behind the story all started when a  perspicacious young reporter by the name of Harry Moore  happened to overhear some Life Savers from Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, chatting nearby at a shop in Norfolk, Virginia. He made friends with the Life Savers, and they promised to let him know if the Wrights were successful in making a manned, powered flight.

That friendship resulted in Harry Moore nailing the "Scoop of the Century."

Many decades later, Harry Moore's daughter just happened to come across an advertisement that was posted by Steve Fritts, who was looking  for an original copy of the now very famous newspaper, the Virginian-Pilot dated December 18, 1903, to add to his collection. It was the first front page newspaper story of the first so called powered and manned flight ever made.

Moore's daughter answered the ad. She didn't have the particular newspaper, which is a rarity for sure, but she produced some primary documents for Steve she had preserved for decades that were justifiably of even more importance, such importance that when the Smithsonian heard of them, they expressed a keen interest. The documents Moore's daughter had saved when studied very carefully are in conflict with the tales that the Wrights broadcast to the world about their first "flights" at Kill Devil Hills December 17, 1903, and the tales that have been picked up and told time and again in countless reams of books and publications.What the Smithsonian would have done with these documents, we'll never know. Maybe they would have tucked them away somewhere in a deep, deep vault far into its enormous, infinite caverns. Eventually no one but a musty old file somewhere would know they were there. But the collector Steve Fritts believed they needed to be shared with the world. At the moment of this publication, they still rest securely in his safety deposit box.

Not so long ago, some of this important information came to light in an article that I happened to read in my excursions through the internet, looking for information on the Wrights' flights. I was finding too many discrepancies about their flight claims to ignore. It was then that I came upon C. G. Grant's documented statement. "Wrights made a short flight this morning and will try again this afternoon." Steve Fritts had shared this story with the world.
__________________

1. Fred C. Kelly. The Wright Brothers (New York, NY: Dover Publications, 1989), 102-5.

 2. Fred Howard. Wilbur and Orville (New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1987), 142-3.

 3. Ibid., 143.

4. Tom Crouch. The Bishop's Boys (New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1989), 271.

 5. Ibid.

 6. Stephen Kirk. First in Flight: The Wright Brothers in North Carolina (Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair Publisher, 1995), 186. 

 7.  Ibid., 186-7.

 8. Ibid., 187.

 9. Thomas Parramore. First to Fly: North Carolina and the Beginnings of Aviation (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002), 97-8.

10. Ibid., 98.

11. Kirk, First in Flight, 295-6.