Pieces of the Wright Puzzle: What Really Happened December 17, 1903. Part I

"My mind is made up; don't confuse me with the facts"!--Oft repeated quote

 "Skepticism is the first Step towards truth." --Denis Diderot

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Harry P. Moore, reporter, who "scooped the Wright story of a "first flight."

"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

Two Brothers, Three Telegrams, Only Two Attempts at Flight?

 December 17,  1903, is celebrated as a milestone in flight for the whole world. It is the day that we are told the "first manned-powered-controlled-heavier-than-air-sustained flight" was made in all of history. The achievement was claimed by Orville Wright of the Wright brothers.

But the Wright brothers' accounts of what happened that day at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, leave us with stray puzzle pieces and bits of information that just don't fit into their story.  For instance, Alpheus Drinkwater, who later became a Coast Guardsman, was operating a telegraph line north of Kitty Hawk that day. He has stated that he relayed a telegram for the Wrights that is not the famous one (pictured below) sent by the Wrights to their father.The telegram Drinkwater relayed actually contradicts that one. What's more, as everyone knows, the Wrights claimed their flyer took off from level ground. But witnesses, John Daniels and Adam Etheridge, signed statements saying they set the plane for the take offs onto the side of the hill. The Wrights also say in the famous telegram to their father that they took off four times, all in the morning. But the witnesses in their affidavits only mention two take offs and don't support that they were all in the morning.

Adding to the puzzle "misfits," a telegrapher in Norfolk, Virginia, named C.C. Grant stated that he received a message from witnesses, John Daniels and Willie Dough, at a little after 11:00 in the morning of the 17th that there had been a successful flight. Daniels and Dough were supposedly assisting the Wrights with their "four flights" between 10 a. m. and noon. How could they have sent a telegram that morning? Especially, since the telegraph office at Kitty Hawk was an estimated four miles from the Wright camp? If we really want to know the truth, every statement by everyone must be seriously considered.

We have expressed concern before that "primary documents" from a single source ( the Wrights themselves) can not always be trusted. So we posed this question in a previous blog post: where can we go to get the facts and assure ourselves of what really happened?

    
For honest and fair answers, we must compare the primary documents and statements that were recorded, not just by the Wrights, but by their witnesses and by any other people who were associated with the events of the day. If we look for them, we can find them.  Let's assume, for now, that these other documents and statements are indeed factual. 

Astonishing as it may seem to those who accept the traditional history, we notice disturbing contradictions with the Wright story almost immediately. Yet the accounts other than the Wrights' more or less agree, even though some people undoubtedly didn't know what the others were saying. We are smack up against the possibility/probability that the Wrights weren't telling the truth about more issues than whether they took off  "with engine power alone" (Note: If you take off into a headwind of 21-27 mph, no one can deny that the wind is assisting your engine.)

Refer to the Wright telegram, below, sent at the end of the day, December 17.

The telegram sent December 17, 1903 by the Wrights to their father Bishop M Wright after their last attempt at flight. According to my research, this was the second telegram they sent that day.

Consider this then. There is another possible scenario that includes the statements other than the Wrights' and is probably more nearly what really happened.  This explanation fits the puzzle pieces together nicely, but we have to practically scrap as factual the Wrights' famous telegram (above) to their father, Milton. To true Wright believers this is totally unacceptable, even heresy. To critical thinkers, it's an interesting possibility.

Alpheus Drinkwater (right), pictured in a later year, who relayed the Wrights' telegram to their sister, Katharine, about Orville's initial attempt  at powered flight on December 17, 1903. The Wright monument at Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina is in the background.

Let's look at Alpheus Drinkwater's story through a quotation taken directly from a United States Coast Guard Web Site. "The Indispensable Men."

          "...a future Coast Guardsman, A. [Apheus] Drinkwater, was working as a repairman for the U.S. Weather Bureau in 1900 out of Currituck Inlet when he first heard about the Wright Brothers. He colorfully recounted that: 'while making repair trips down the coast I heard of those two crazy islanders who were at Kill Devil Hills making attempts to fly. I didn't pay much attention to them, everyone considered them nutty.

         Three years later, on 17 December 1903, Drinkwater was working at a wreck station set up to monitor the stranded U.S. Navy submarine USS Moccasin which had run aground near the Currituck Beach Lighthouse.* He had a telegraph line set up that was linked to Norfolk, Virginia.  The local commercial telegraph operator apparently could not get though to the mainland 'on account of the wire being heavy'** so he asked Drinkwater to send a message for the Wrights. Drinkwater agreed, noting 'The message was to Miss Katherine Wright, Dayton Ohio, and read as follows, as best as I recollect. 'FLIGHT SUCCESSFUL. DON'T TELL ANYBODY ANYTHING. HOME FOR CHRISTMAS. SIGNED ORVILLE.' This message was given to the Weather Bureau office at Norfolk which handled all commercial messages along the coast from Cape Henry to Hatteras."

Note: It would be easy to confuse the Drinkwater telegram with the one received by Milton Wright, the brothers' father, two days before, on the 15th, after Wilbur tried and failed a powered flight on December 14. In his diary entry, below, Milton writes that the brothers stated "keep quiet."

Entry in Milton Wright's diary dated December 15, 1903 after the Wrights' first and only flight attempt on December 14. This attempt, according to the Wrights, was initiated by Wilbur from the hill at Kill Devil Hills

Let's accept for now that the telegram Drinkwater describes was sent to Katharine, the Wright brothers' sister, just as Drinkwater says, on December 17, 1903. How can that be? Would the Wrights send two telegrams on the 17th, one saying "Don't tell anybody anything" and the other saying "Inform press"? (Refer again to the telegram to their father pictured above.) It can be because the first telegram was likely sent to Katharine after the first flight attempt on
December 17 by Orville.

It means that, surprisingly, after Orville's first claimed attempt about 10:35 a. m. that day, the Wright brothers, or at least one of them, hiked, probably to the Kill Devil Hills life saving station one mile away, and initiated the telegram by phone to Katharine by calling the telegraph office four miles away at Kitty Hawk. Then they/he hiked the mile back to camp. Such a round trip, totaling two miles, would have taken at least a half an hour. They wouldn't have gotten back, if we include Orville's flight attempt, the hike, and sending the message, until after 11:15, if not much later (of course, unless they flew!). After being told so many times that the Wrights made four flight attempts in the morning, their claim begins to seem preposterous. Especially if we include any repairs to the plane between flights. But it's only the Wrights, so far as I know, who claim that there was a total of four flights that morning.  Please note that all five assistants plus the Wrights were needed for the flight attempts. It would have taken all hands on deck to move and launch the plane. Imagine lugging it up the hill. It weighed over 600 pounds without the pilot.

What about the telegram supposedly sent in the morning by witnesses Daniels and Dough and received in Norfolk, Virginia, by C.C. Grant? It would also have been phoned to the telegraph operator at Kitty Hawk from the Life Saving Station at Kill Devil Hills.This would have to be after the first flight attempt on the 17th, as well, unbeknownst to the Wrights, of course. To support this theory, we present, below, the primary document that backs that up. It was written and signed in 1929 by C. C. Grant. C. (Charles) C. Grant was on duty at the Weather Bureau office in Norfolk on December 17, sitting in for the regular man, James J. Gray, according to Stephen Kirk in his book "First in Flight."
Transcription of the document at the end of this post**
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A primary document written by C.C. Grant, telegrapher, stating that witnesses Daniels and Dough wired his office the morning of December 17, 1903, to inform Harry Moore, reporter, of the Wrights first attempt at powered flight.

Grant says (above) that shortly after 11 a.m., a message came through signed by Dough and Daniels, stating that the"Wrights made a short flight this morning and will try again this afternoon." Voila! Here we have it! This document backs up the contention that after Orville Wright attempted a flight at about 10:35 a. m., witnesses John Daniels and Willie Dough also hiked the mile from the camp to the Kill Devil Hills station, which would have taken about fifteen minutes. There they telephoned a message to the Kitty Hawk station to be telegraphed to a reporter named Harry P. Moore in Norfolk, who is pictured in later years at the beginning of this blog post. Their message would have been telegraphed by Joseph Dosher in Kitty Hawk to the bureau office in Norfolk and received by Grant, as he says, a little after 11 a. m. This puzzle piece fits into our theory. Beautifully. The Dough/Daniels hike to Kill Devil Hills station would have been made about the same time that Orville and/or Wilbur made their hike and sent their message to their sister Katharine that was relayed to Norfolk by Alpheus Drinkwater.

But what's this about a reporter? Why are witnesses Daniels and Dough telegraphing a reporter after Orville's flight attempt? The story goes that the reporter by the name of Harry P. Moore had heard that the Wrights were planning to attempt powered flight. Moore befriended the surfmen, Daniels and Dough (not called Coast Guard until later), and made them pledge to let him know if there was a successful flight. A reporter like Moore knew a potential scoop when he saw one!

Hint: This is where and how Moore got his information that was printed the next morning in the "Virginian-Pilot" newspaper. The Wrights said he got it from the telegraph operators (that would be Dosher, telegraph operator at Kitty Hawk, and/or Grant) leaking the Wrights' information from the telegram(s) they had sent.The Wrights apparently never knew the real story. Since reporter Moore didn't know enough details, he and other newsmen at the "Virgina Pilot" painted a very elaborate tale to flesh out the story, much of which couldn't be true. But Moore knew quite a bit. He had apparently been at the camp at Kill Devil Hills with his surfman friends Daniels and Dough before and had observed the Wright's flyer/glider. Another piece of the puzzle fits. Again, beautifully.  http://www.virginialiving.com/virginiana/history/the-big-story/http://www.virginialiving.com/virginiana/history/the-big-story/

Front page of the "Virginian-Pilot" newspaper with Harry P. Moore's "scoop"

Daniels and Dough didn't know that the "flight" didn't qualify as a true powered and sustained flight if it was launched down the hill into a 21-27 mph headwind. Neither did Moore. As far as Daniels was concerned, it was a flight, or he was told it was. In a statement on 12 March 1935, Mr. J. T. Daniels, then a member of the Nags Head Coast Guard Station, said "...all he knew about the machine was that, in 1902, the Wrights were using a glider, which they used until 1903, when they made the machine and put power in it." (from a U. S. Coast Guard web site)

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So here is the revised timeline on Thursday, December 17, 1903, Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina:

--Before 10:35 a. m. The Wrights flag for help from the surfmen. Five people show up, including three surfmen, Daniels, Dough, and Etheridge, and they set the flyer on the track for take off. (Daniels and Etheridge say the track was on the hill.)

--10:35 a. m. Orville makes his first attempt at flight.

He is in the air for an estimated 120 feet hop. A lever for throwing off the engine is broken, and the skid under the elevator is cracked when the machine hits the ground.

--10:35-11 a.m. The Wrights and witnesses Daniels and Dough hike the mile to the Kill Devil Hills Life Guard Station fifteen minutes one way. Without the Wrights' knowledge, Daniels and Dough telephone that a successful flight has been made to Dosher at Kitty Hawk who mans the telegraph line there. Dosher telegraphs their message immediately to Grant in Norfolk, who takes the message personally to Harry Moore, the reporter. But because there is too much traffic on the telegraph line to Norfolk, Alpheus Drinkwater in Currituck has to relay the message by Orville that announces a successful flight to his sister, Katharine. Drinkwater sends this message on his own line to the central office at Norfolk.

--After 11 a. m. C. C. Grant telegrapher in Norfolk, receives the telegram sent by Dosher for Daniels and Dough to reporter Moore. He walks it over to Moore's residence, arriving about 11:40. The telegram states that the Wrights have made one flight and are going to make another attempt in the afternoon. Moore calls the surfmen at the Life Savers' station sometime after he receives the telegram at 11:40. He gets a confirmation (see the quotation by Moore at the beginning of this post. Moore says he was told that "...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.")

--After 11:40 plus until ?: Daniels, Dough, and Etheridge possibly hike the mile back to the Wright camp, which takes over fifteen minutes. They have very little time left (one minute?) to make three more attempts at flight before noon as the Wrights claim they did in their telegram to their father. It's much more likely that the Life Savers stayed at the Station for lunch (burned pancakes?) and returned in the afternoon for another flight attempt, as C. C. Grant says in his signed document.

--After 12 p. m. Sometime in the afternoon, the last attempt is made after which the "flyer" is blown to pieces by the wind. Then the Wrights hike to Kitty Hawk and send their telegram to their father that states: "Success four flights thursday morning...inform Press"

If the "flights" were made from the hill, it would have taken more time to haul the 600 pound flyer up the hill and to set it up. The hill was 1/4 mile from the Wright camp. I don't yet know how far it was from the Life Guard Station.

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One website claims Wright historians have disputed Drinkwater's claim altogether, essentially calling it "hogwash" as follows: "A convincing and colorful story concocted by Manteo resident and telegraph operator Alpheus Drinkwater about how he had transmitted the Wrights' message, told repeatedly to publications, including Reader's Digest, has since been refuted by historians...It wasn't until decades later, when Wright biographer Kelly contradicted Moore's - and telegrapher Drinkwater's - versions of events that the record changed."

Our readers must certainly know by now that Orville's biography, "The Wright Brothers," plus other publications about the Wrights were written by Fred Kelly with "facts" supplied by Orville, who monitored the writing every step of the way. Orville could not admit that the Drinkwater or Moore stories were true, because they don't fit in with his narrative of what happened. His typical solution to discrepancies from his stories was to claim that everyone else was either a liar, a dreamer, or had a short memory. It was a fairly consistent pattern, that, unfortunately, has been picked up by most contemporary aviation historians.


In "The Wright Brothers" by Fred Kelly, Orville Wright states that Dosher sent the telegram supposedly discrediting Drinkwater.  Joseph J. Dosher was the telegraph operator for Kitty Hawk, the single Weather Bureau employee there, and the chief of the Life Saving Station. Dosher would have had to be the telegrapher who sent the famous telegram by the Wrights to Milton, their father, after the last flight attempt on December 17. That telegram would have gone through the Norfolk hub, then on through the commercial lines to Dayton. It would be Dosher who sent the message to C.C. Grant in Norfolk by Dough and Daniels addressed to Moore. But Dosher most likely initiated the telegram to Katharine, the Wrights' sister. It was this message that would have been relayed by Alpheus Drinkwater from Currituck to Norfolk, Virginia, then on to Dayton.

It's germane to weigh the question, why in the world would the Wright brothers not tell the truth about what happened December 17? I believe they had many reasons to manipulate the facts. Consider that they had left their bicycle business months out of the year for several years and spent their money for a quest that most people at the time thought was a fool's errand. (Including their father, Bishop Wright, as I understand).  Consider that by 1903 they thought that they were in a race with Smithsonian Secretary Langley to be first to build a successful, heavier than air, man carrying plane. Consider, that they had seen an opportunity to make a ton of money--despite what they told Octave Chanute, their mentor. (He found out later.) They were planning a monopoly of aviation with a patent for their flyer, for which they needed primacy.

It's my opinion, too, that by December 17, 1903, the Wrights were running out of time (and probably money). The weather at Kill Devil Hills was turning bitterly cold as winter was setting in. The day of December 17th was a kind of now or never proposition. They wanted to be home for Christmas but they couldn't come home in disgrace..

We believe the Wrights made at least two attempts at flight that day, but possibly only two-- Orville's hop of an estimated 120 feet was made in the morning. At the end of Wilbur's last attempt at flight, the plane was smashed to pieces by the wind. (Witness John Daniels corroborated this event.) This accident dashed any hope to try to fly at Kill Devil Hills again that year.

So the Wrights hiked the four miles to Kitty Hawk  and sent the famous telegram announcing their success with embroidered details.. If they didn't actually meet the criteria of successful powered flight that day, they would announce they did by stating that they took off  "with engine power alone from level ground."

 

. Who would know the difference? Those knowledgeable, Octave Chanute and George Spratt, who had actually been there at the camp at Kill Devil Hills, had left by the middle of November. If they had witnessed the attempts at flight, initiated from the hill, would the Wrights have said Chanute was an old man, losing his memory? Would they have said Spratt had a poor memory, as well? Indeed, they did very nearly that about both of them in regard to other issues.

 Besides, what a feather in their cap. They flew, they said, and Professor Langley with all of his government subsidies had failed in front of many witnesses. (Actually, the Langley plane only failed to launch. There was no money to try again.)

That the 600 plus pound Wright Flyer I with the additional weight of the pilot was even capable of taking off from level ground in 1903 with its 12 hp engine alone has been essentially refuted by any number of experiments. The flyer needed the assistance of the wind and the hill.  Even with today's knowledge and expertise, no one has been able to replicate the claims the Wright brothers made for their flyer at Kill Devil Hills, December 17, 1903. The closest replica was unable to fly 120 feet from level ground, let alone 852 feet.  See Wright flyer replica fails to fly. Also see blog post: Wright "Flyer" Replicas and Reconstructions truthinaviationhistory.blogspot.com 

(On the other hand, Glenn Curtiss indeed flew the reconstructed Langley plane in 1914 from the water at Keuka Lake, NY. The plane was handicapped at the time with 350 pound pontoons, a reduced camber of the wings, and the original engine that they were unable to bring up to full horsepower, yet it completely lifted up out of the suction and drag of the water. There were many highly educated and qualified witnesses who observed these flights.  Moreover, the so called "modifications" of the Langley plane were not "secret," as Orville Wright claimed for years.)

   

* An interesting record about the grounding of the USS Moccasin from the Annual Report of the U. S. Life Saving Service, 1903:

** too much traffic on the line

*** Transcription of statement by C. C. Grant, who was manning the telegraph office, Norfolk, Virginia, December 17, 1903, as follows:

                                                                                         " Norfolk Va., April 11, 1929

            I was bureau telegrapher at he 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."

This blog post will be continued in Part II of this story in the next blog post of 
truthinaviationhistory.blogspot.com

Please check out glennhcurtiss.blogspot.com for a new post about the Wrights' chief 
competitor and rival.



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