Wright Brothers: Brothers of Innovation & Invention
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I'm reading the fantastic (albeit quite long) new biography of The Wright Brothers by David McCullough - amazon link[^] I couldn't wait to get to their first flight. It's such an amazing tale of two brothers who set out to do something, who stayed strong through the failures and implemented the scientific method and home-made engineering skills to overcome a problem that people thought might be impossible. McCullough is a true historian and although the book is long it really provides a great story and makes you feel like you are with the brothers as they fight to solve this problem. Inspiring I found it very inspiring in my work as a software developer. Have any of you read it?
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I'm reading the fantastic (albeit quite long) new biography of The Wright Brothers by David McCullough - amazon link[^] I couldn't wait to get to their first flight. It's such an amazing tale of two brothers who set out to do something, who stayed strong through the failures and implemented the scientific method and home-made engineering skills to overcome a problem that people thought might be impossible. McCullough is a true historian and although the book is long it really provides a great story and makes you feel like you are with the brothers as they fight to solve this problem. Inspiring I found it very inspiring in my work as a software developer. Have any of you read it?
Does it mention that they are widely credited for being the inventor of the aeroplane when they weren't actually the first to do so? There have been many people laying claim to this but the first, credible, independently verified instance was a New Zealand farmer called Richard Pearse (in March 1902);
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Does it mention that they are widely credited for being the inventor of the aeroplane when they weren't actually the first to do so? There have been many people laying claim to this but the first, credible, independently verified instance was a New Zealand farmer called Richard Pearse (in March 1902);
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Does it mention that they are widely credited for being the inventor of the aeroplane when they weren't actually the first to do so? There have been many people laying claim to this but the first, credible, independently verified instance was a New Zealand farmer called Richard Pearse (in March 1902);
It does refer to some skepticism and an interesting thing with Langley and the Smithsonian. The very cool thing is that The Wright Brothers flew above the controversy by never publicly trashing Langley's efforts which were paid for with gov't funds. Also, keep in mind the real invention is one of "controlled, powered flight". Other flyers did not create a system of controls with powered flight. Not sure about the person you mention. Will check out more. Thanks.
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Stringfellow is mentioned, at least in passing. McCullough attempts to mention that others did claim powered flight before The Wright Brothers and other forms of flight of course. That's why I like McCullough he represents the subject from numerous angles. Though that is why his books are normally quite long too.
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It does refer to some skepticism and an interesting thing with Langley and the Smithsonian. The very cool thing is that The Wright Brothers flew above the controversy by never publicly trashing Langley's efforts which were paid for with gov't funds. Also, keep in mind the real invention is one of "controlled, powered flight". Other flyers did not create a system of controls with powered flight. Not sure about the person you mention. Will check out more. Thanks.
The most interesting one is May 11th, 1903 where Pearse flew along the side of a river before turning to fly over it and turning again. He achieved a distance of roughly 1KM on this flight. An impressive feat.
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I'm reading the fantastic (albeit quite long) new biography of The Wright Brothers by David McCullough - amazon link[^] I couldn't wait to get to their first flight. It's such an amazing tale of two brothers who set out to do something, who stayed strong through the failures and implemented the scientific method and home-made engineering skills to overcome a problem that people thought might be impossible. McCullough is a true historian and although the book is long it really provides a great story and makes you feel like you are with the brothers as they fight to solve this problem. Inspiring I found it very inspiring in my work as a software developer. Have any of you read it?
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To be fair the wright brothers are not the only USians to claim to have invented things that were already invented are they
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
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To be fair the wright brothers are not the only USians to claim to have invented things that were already invented are they
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
Indeed they are not! A bit like Columbus is not the first person to discover America (that would have been the lookout :-))
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Indeed they are not! A bit like Columbus is not the first person to discover America (that would have been the lookout :-))
rubbish the first to discover America would have been Ugg, and not as some people are saying Ugg who got their even later than Ugg and no one says he discovered America
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
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To be fair the wright brothers are not the only USians to claim to have invented things that were already invented are they
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
It's interesting as an engineering feat. Nothing else. Just consider what the Wright Brothers did. The author isn't out to prove that no one else did it first. Nor were the Wright Brothers. Why would you focus on such a thing? I think it reveals something. But I don't know or care what. :D Smile and the world smiles with you.
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Indeed they are not! A bit like Columbus is not the first person to discover America (that would have been the lookout :-))
Or more likely, that would have been the Vikings - there is strong evidence to support their having visited many times.* *That's discounting the people who already lived there who cannot claim to have discovered America because, as far as they were concerned, it was never lost.
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No one cares. Not even the Wright Brothers themselves. I like the story as a feat of Engineering. Nothing else.
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Or more likely, that would have been the Vikings - there is strong evidence to support their having visited many times.* *That's discounting the people who already lived there who cannot claim to have discovered America because, as far as they were concerned, it was never lost.
Oh yawn: do smileys not mean anything any more??? Nobody know who the first people to set foot on North America were but likely to have come across the land bridge connecting Russia with Alaska 40000 odd years ago and then migrated southwards. Just as peoples from Asia were likely to have begun the population of South America. There are also remains of Viking settlements and extremely old Chinese artifacts get found all the time - well, every other third Sunday in March.
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No one cares. Not even the Wright Brothers themselves. I like the story as a feat of Engineering. Nothing else.
newton.saber wrote:
No one cares.
Judging by the amount of interest this has garnered here on CP, you're wrong about that. Obviously people do care. You might not, but others do.
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Oh yawn: do smileys not mean anything any more??? Nobody know who the first people to set foot on North America were but likely to have come across the land bridge connecting Russia with Alaska 40000 odd years ago and then migrated southwards. Just as peoples from Asia were likely to have begun the population of South America. There are also remains of Viking settlements and extremely old Chinese artifacts get found all the time - well, every other third Sunday in March.
Nope, and nor do triple question marks. I was hoping that someone would pick up the Pratchett paraphrase in my answer and run with it.
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It's interesting as an engineering feat. Nothing else. Just consider what the Wright Brothers did. The author isn't out to prove that no one else did it first. Nor were the Wright Brothers. Why would you focus on such a thing? I think it reveals something. But I don't know or care what. :D Smile and the world smiles with you.
my comment was in response to those commenting on the fact that the Wright brothers were not the first to fly, IMHO the one thing that enabled the Wright brothers flight was the design and construction of the engine every other aspect of the design was already in existence and was proven technology, so credit where its due the engine was remarkable for its power to weight and it alone was the success factor, that's and their ability to select the best of the existing tech that was already out there
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
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Nope, and nor do triple question marks. I was hoping that someone would pick up the Pratchett paraphrase in my answer and run with it.
local 1: where are we, local 2: I don't Know, I do wish an explorer would discover us and tell us where we are
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
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newton.saber wrote:
No one cares.
Judging by the amount of interest this has garnered here on CP, you're wrong about that. Obviously people do care. You might not, but others do.
Maybe... but the OP didn't say anything about the Wright brothers being first or not using ideas from others - yet you guys immediately jumped to that conclusion. One of you even went so far as to claim that lying about inventions was an American trait. It gets a little old... :|
Contrary to popular belief, nobody owes you anything.
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Maybe... but the OP didn't say anything about the Wright brothers being first or not using ideas from others - yet you guys immediately jumped to that conclusion. One of you even went so far as to claim that lying about inventions was an American trait. It gets a little old... :|
Contrary to popular belief, nobody owes you anything.
It did get out of hand a bit, however, you're making assumptions about why I asked my question. If the book had made that claim, I would have dismissed it and not bothered with it. If it makes no claims about that, then it's more likely to be an unbiased, hence, more interesting read. And that's why I asked - not because I was jumping to a conclusion, that's why I phrased it as a question.
