America: Majesty of Flight and Imagination - Part 1

“Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.”- Jennifer Lee - writer?and director of Frozen and A Twist in Time.?

“There is no weapon as powerful as the human soul on fire” ~ Ferdinand Foch?

The Confluence of Ideas

As Schopenhauer, Einstein, Howard Aiken and Steve Jobs predicted, new ideas, like truth, go through 3 phases;?

First they are ridiculed, then violently opposed, and finally accepted as self-evident. So it is with FCEVs or Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles;

Like Cugnot’s monstrosity of an original idea of the automobile in 1871 - designed as a farrier, a machine capable of transporting cannon barrels;

the ideas of geniuses are refined; they evolve. Cugnot’s ridiculed invention evolved when Felix Theodore Millet;

who first thought of powering a bicycle wheel with a motor;

Wikipedia: The Millet motorcycle, designed in 1892 by Félix Théodore Millet, may have been the first?motorcycle ?(or?motorized bicycle ) to use?pneumatic tires .[1] It had an unusual radial-configuration?rotary engine ?incorporated into the rear wheel, believed to be the first one ever used to power a person-carrying vehicle of any type. This idea was further refined into a powered tricycle;?

which?evolved in 1885, when Otto Benz created what we would today recognize as a car;

Inspiration and Exposure

Thanks to the Paris Expo of 1889;

the ideas of the tragic Alphonse Pénaud;

reached the Reverend Milton Wright;

after which America and the world would never be the same.?

Pioneers, Education, Economics and Flight

Wikipedia: Milton Wright was the son of Dan Wright and Catherine Wright née Reeder, daughter of George Reeder and Margaret Van Cleve. Margaret Van Cleve was one of the earliest women of European ancestry to settle in the?Miami River basin.[3].?

The Great Miami River (also called the Miami River) (Shawnee :?Msimiyamithiipi[2]) is a tributary of the?Ohio River , approximately 160 miles (260 km) long,[3] in southwestern?Ohio ?and?Indiana ?in the?United States . The Great Miami flows through?Dayton ,?Piqua ,?Troy ,?Hamilton , and?Sidne y.

In 1859, Milton married Susan Catharine Koerner, b. 1831, who died on 4 July 1889 , in childbirth.?

Milton joined the Church of the United Brethren in Christ in 1846 because of its stand on political and moral issues including alcohol, the abolition of slavery and opposition to "secret societies" such as?Freemasonry .

The Wright brothers began their experimentation in flight, in 1896, at their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. They were inspired by a toy their father bought them. Bishop Milton Wright, traveled widely and brought back from one of his travels which likely featured a visit to the Paris Exhibition of 1889, where he saw Alphonse Penaud’s toy. It was one of Penaud's rubber band-powered helicopters which first interested two of Bishop Milton Wright's sons, of Dayton, Ohio, in the possibility of flight. The most common depiction of it is actually of the Launoy & Bienvenu "Helicoptre" of 1784, not of the Penaud toy helicopter;

Wright brought a model home as a souvenir; an addendum to his 3 libraries with which he educated and inspired his children to create the first controlled flight;

Inspiration, Disease, Education, Sport and Love?

Wikipedia: Katharine Wright Haskell (August 19, 1874 – March 3, 1929 ) was the younger sister of?aviation ?pioneers?Wilbur and Orville Wright , with whom she worked closely. She managed the bicycle shop, helped with flight operations, writing, communications and iterated ideas with her brothers, was a high school teacher and later became an international celebrity when the whole family team went to Europe. The French recognized her contributions, awarding the French Legion of Honor to all three Wright siblings. Wright also worked to support?women's suffrage ?efforts in?Ohio .

During Orville's?convalescence , Katharine wrote Wilbur saying “Brother has been suffering so much… and I am so dead tired when morning comes that I can not hold a pen.” Orville later said that without the aid of his sister, he would have died.

The Wright brothers' endeavors were privately funded.[8] Early on, this funding came primarily from their own bicycle shop which Katharine managed.[7] She packed supplies for the Wright Brothers,[9] managed official correspondence, supplemented funding their continued work at Kitty Hawk with her stable income from teaching,[7] and provided solutions to problems not having to do directly with the planes or the mechanics behind it. Katharine helped Wilbur and Orville to negotiate a one-year extension of their contract with the U.S. Signal Corps. She also learned?French ?in order to speak with European dignitaries for her brothers during their exhibition trips funded by?Charles Ranlett Flint .[8]

Charles Ranlett Flint?(January 24, 1850 – February 26, 1934 ) was the founder of the?Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company ?which later became?IBM . For his financial dealings he earned the moniker "Father of Trusts".[1][2] He was an avid sportsman and member of the syndicate that built the yacht?Vigilant, that was the U.S. defender of the eight?America's Cup ?and owner of the yacht?Gracie .[3][4]

In 1917, their father Milton died three years after he, Katharine, Orville, and Charles and Carrie Kayler Grumbach moved to?Hawthorn Hill ;

a newly constructed mansion in the Dayton suburb of Oakwood. Orville became increasingly dependent on Katharine. She looked after his social schedule, correspondence, and business engagements along with his secretary, Mabel Beck, and ran the household as before.[19]

Wright was an active member of Oberlin College's board of trustees from 1924 until her death in 1929.[20][21] She also participated in the?women's suffrage movement ?and was one of the main leaders in organizing a march through Dayton with 1,300 supporters, which included her father.[22]

In?the 1920s, Katharine renewed correspondence with an old schoolmate from her college days, associate editor and board member of the?Kansas City Star ?Henry Joseph Haskell[23]

Haskell was a widower who lived in?Kansas City, Missouri and they began a romance through their letters.[7] Katharine feared Orville's reaction to her relationship with Haskell; after several attempts, Henry broke the news to Orville. Orville was devastated and stopped speaking to his sister.[1]

Katharine wed Henry on November 20,[1] 1926 at Oberlin College.[23][24] Orville refused to attend the ceremony. Katharine and her husband moved to Kansas City, but she grieved over her broken relationship with Orville.[25]

Two years after her marriage, Katharine contracted pneumonia. When Orville found out, he still refused to contact her.[7] Their brother Lorin, who greatly approved of Katharine's marriage to Haskell, persuaded Orville to visit her, and he was at her bedside when she died.[1][7]

She died on March 3, 1929 , age 54.[1][7]

Continued….