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Orville Wright, [Diary Entry], November 1903Text from
Diary
[7 November 1903, Saturday - Orville Wright Diary,
Kill Devil Hills, NC]
[8 November 1903, Sunday - Orville Wright Diary, Kill Devil Hills, NC] The wind has subsided and temperature so pleasant that we had door open quite a while during day. Sat up to 11 o’clock talking open quite while during day. Sat up to 11 o’clock [Page 30] talking over with Mr. Chanute plans for next year, should machine make a successful flight. Weather Data for 8 November 1903 [9 November 1903, Monday - Orville Wright Diary, Kill Devil Hills, NC] Spent most of day working on engine and magneto, which after much trouble were got into shape for running. The vibration at high speed is not at all disagreable [disagreeable ]. Weather Data for 9 November 1903 [10 November 1300, Tuesday - Orville Wright Diary, Kill Devil Hills, NC] Storm all day with rain. We hardly got out of building at all, but spent our time in conversation with Mr. Chanute, who told us of some of the plans he had hoped to carry out this year. One was to have us operate his oscillating-wing machine; another to perfect the Ader [Page 31] machine which he was trying to buy. However, he had just learned that it had been presented to some French museum. He also proposed to have us exhibit his machine at St. Louis at his expense. Weather Data for 10 November 1903 [11 November 1903, Wednesday - Orville Wright Diary, Kill Devil Hills, NC] Sky clear and air warm almost as a summer day. In the afternoon we put machine on track and ran it out of building to finish some of fastenings of front rudder. Mr. Chanute went to Station [Life Saving Station] in afternoon to make arrangements for going to Manteo tomorrow morning. Weather Data for 11 November 1903 [12 November 1903, Thursday - Orville Wright Diary, Kill Devil Hills, NC] Mr. Chanute left with Mr. Dough of the [Page 32] Kill Devil Station in his sailboat for Manteo at eight o’clock. On our return to camp we began work in planning down the starting track. A breeze of 10 meters soon sprang up from north. We decided to test our method of starting from track with the old machine, so we took two rails to Big Hill. Five starts out of six were successful. We then tried starting with one man holding front rudder frame, and making a few steps backward. We found this also a very easy thing to do in a wind of nine meters. The flights, however, were very irregular and made in some danger. Probably as a result of the fire we keep in the building, the cloth and trussing seemed very loose allowing the surfaces to swing considerably in twisting the wings. [Page 33] This in a measure interfered with the working of the front rudder. After four or five flights we took machine back to camp. Spent most of afternoon in chopping wood and reading. Weather Data for 12 November 1903 [13 November 1903, Friday - Orville Wright Diary, Kill Devil Hills, NC] The wind being very quiet, we took new machine out to add braces to skids and to attach wires to front rudder frame. Weather Data for 13 November 1903
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