 ut though the money was good, it wasn’t enough. Milton and Susan Wright had
taught their children to take pleasure from intellectual challenge, and without them
knowing it, this had become the driving force in Wilbur and Orville’s lives. Their
early careers reflect this. After they learned the skills required to be printers, they
moved on to the problems of building printing presses, running newspapers, repairing
bicycles, and building them, all in rapid succession. In short, they loved to learn. And
once they had learned to build bicycles, they began looking for something new.The next logical challenge had already been anticipated by several visionaries who noted that the obstacles to human flight were similar to those faced by cyclists. Among them was James Howard Means, who wrote in his journal The Aeronautical Annual in 1896, "It is not uncommon for the cyclist, in the first flash of enthusiasm which quickly follows the unpleasantness of taming the steel steed, to remark: ‘Wheeling is just like flying!’" |
Click on a
photo to enlarge it. The Wright Cycle Shop at 1127 West Third Street in Dayton, Ohio -- before it was moved to the Henry Ford Museum. The frame addition where the Wrights built their first airplane is just visible behind the larger building. |