10
Adventure and Invention: An Era of Daring

Every era has its share of adventurers and heroes. The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era were no exception. (The Gilded Age was the period in history following the American Civil War [1861–65] and Reconstruction [roughly the final twenty-three years of the nineteenth century], characterized by a ruthless pursuit of profit, an exterior of showiness and grandeur, and immeasurable political corruption. The Progressive Era was a period in American history [approximately the first twenty years of the twentieth century] marked by reform and the development of a national cultural identity.) The years between 1878 and 1913 were a time of exploration and risk-taking. Although many seekers failed—even died—while trying to live their dream, there were those whose determination and perseverance were enough to let them achieve their goals. For some, that goal meant finding wealth. For others, the dream was to do something no one else had ever done before. Still others were simply curious, not ambitious. Their curiosity led them to discovery.

Unless they were members of the upper class during the Gilded Age, men and women worked very hard and earned very little. They had little if any savings because they could not earn enough income to put money aside. They lived in poverty-stricken neighborhoods where crime was uncontrolled and disease took the lives of both young and old.

In 1890, eleven million of America's twelve million families earned less than $1,200 a year. Of these families, the average annual income was about $380. This was far below the poverty line. For people living in these conditions, the thought of taking risks gave them hope. They might fail, but what if they did not?

Going for the gold

Hope is exactly what brought thousands of people—men and women—to Alaska and the Yukon. (Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867, and became a U.S. territory in 1912 and the forty-ninth state of the Union in 1959. The Yukon is one of Canada's extreme northwest territories.) Gold was first discovered in this region in 1849 by a Russian miner in the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska. Word traveled, and a few prospectors made their way to Alaska. The actual Alaska gold "rush" did not begin until around 1880. Gold had been found here and there up until that time. But in 1880, experienced prospectors Joseph Juneau (1836–1899) and Richard T. Harris (1833–1907) made a major gold strike. With the navigational help of Chief Kowee (c. 1817–1892), an Auk Indian and an Alaskan native, the two men struck gold in Gold Creek. Accounts vary as to how much they found, but it is generally believed that the pair panned 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms) of gold from the creek.

WORDS TO KNOW

aeronautics:

The study of flight and aircraft.

boomtowns:

Towns that were built quickly by gold-seekers.

Gilded Age:

The period in history following the Civil War and Reconstruction (roughly the final twenty-three years of the nineteenth century), characterized by a ruthless pursuit of profit, an exterior of showiness and grandeur, and immeasurable political corruption.

grubstake:

To advance money or supplies to miners in exchange for a percentage of profits from any discoveries.

patent:

A grant by the government of the ownership of all rights of an invention to its creator.

poverty line:

The least amount of income needed to secure the necessities of life. If someone lives below the poverty line, he or she cannot afford to purchase the basics needed to live, such as food, shelter, or medical care.

Progressive Era:

A period in American history (approximately the first twenty years of the twentieth century) marked by reform and the development of a national cultural identity.

prospector:

An explorer looking for minerals, such as gold.

sluice:

A wooden trough for washing gold. Soil is shoveled into a steady stream of water. Gold and other larger particles get caught in the bottom. Smaller sluices called rockers were often used during the gold rush. These sluices could be rocked back and forth to hasten the process of separating the gold from the soil.

Smithsonian Institution:

A government institution with most of its grounds located in Washington, D.C. It includes 16 museums, 7 research centers, and 142 million items in its collections.

stampeders:

Gold-seekers.

Yukon:

One of Canada's extreme northwest territories. Sixty percent of the territory's population lives in its current capital city, Whitehorse.

A miner named George Pilz (1845–1926) grubstaked (advanced money in exchange for a percentage of profits from any discoveries) Juneau and Harris. But instead of returning to Pilz, the men loaded the gold on their canoe and headed for Canada. They were found by another one of Pilz's prospectors and brought back to Pilz at gunpoint. The find was the beginning of Alaska's first major gold rush. This rush would pale in comparis on to the one that followed in the Klondike just sixteen years later.

Juneau and Harris staked out a 160-acre site and built a mining town near where they had discovered the gold. At first, the town was called Harrisburg (after Harris); then it was known as Pilzburg and Rockwell. In 1881, those living in the town met and voted on an official name for their town. They chose to name it Juneau, after Joe Juneau. The name stuck, and Juneau became Alaska's capital in 1900 (and continued as capital when Alaska became a U.S. territory in 1912 and a state in 1959).

A journey of hope

In July 1897, two ships carrying miners docked in San Francisco, California, and Seattle, Washington. The miners had just returned from the Klondike, a vast region in Canada's Yukon territory. Accompanying the miners onboard one of the ships were endless bags of gold. The Excelsior docked in California with $200 worth of gold onboard. The Portland sailed into Seattle with more than $1.5 million in gold dust and nuggets. Newspapers were alerted, and soon everyone, everywhere knew of the gold awaiting them in the Klondike.

Within six months, approximately one hundred thousand gold-seekers (called "stampeders") set off for the Klondike. Only thirty thousand would reach their destination.

The decision to make the journey to the Klondike required careful planning and consideration. But the majority of stampeders had no idea where they were going, how they would get there, or how they would live once they arrived. They just set off, their heads full of promises of wealth. What they knew of the Klondike came from pamphlets and newspaper and magazine articles. These stories came from stampeders who had already been to the Great White North and returned. Some came home with empty pockets, but that did not stop them from telling their tales. In many cases, those tales were greatly exaggerated, giving those back home false hopes of finding their life's riches. Other literature of the time focused on the adventure of traveling to the Klondike and living in the wilderness.

The trek into the Yukon

The earliest stampeders were ill-prepared for a journey to the Yukon. They relied on maps and booklets for advice and directions. What they did not know then was that most of Alaska and Canada was wilderness. No one had accurately mapped those regions. Whatever literature they found was based on estimates and guesses at best. In an effort to get rich quick, some publishers provided maps that were made solely on what the mapmaker had heard from other people. These maps led thousands of people to their deaths, usually by starvation or exposure to the cold weather.

Out of necessity, a new career was born. Outfitters (commercial companies that sell "outfits"—wilderness survival equipment and supplies) seemed to spring up overnight. These operations provided necessities like food, clothing, tools, and camping equipment. In response to the unnecessary deaths of the earlier stampeders, the Northwest Mounted Police made a rule that stampeders had to have one year's worth of supplies and goods before they could cross the border into Canada. This came to about 1 ton (1 metric ton) of supplies per person. An outfit for two people cost anywhere from $250 to $500. For many, this was money they had saved specifically for the journey west. Other stampeders sold everything they owned to raise this money. Towns like Seattle made huge sums of money by outfitting the miners.

Once outfitted, stampeders had to decide which route they would take to the Klondike. There were five different routes to choose from, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. The route most commonly used was traveled by boat from the West Coast of the United States to Skagway, Alaska. From there, they took either the Chilkoot or White Pass to the Yukon River. Then they endured a 500-mile (804.5-kilometer) boat ride to Dawson City, the Yukon's capital city.

Both Chilkoot Pass and White Pass were dangerous. Chilkoot Pass was 32 miles (51.5 kilometers) long and rose 1,000 feet (304.8 meters) in the final half mile. Trekkers faced 60-mile-per-hour (96.5-kilometer-per-hour) winds in temperatures as low as −65 degrees Fahrenheit (−54 degrees Celsius). Fifteen hundred steps were carved out of ice and snow to help stampeders reach the top of the pass. These steps earned Chilkoot Pass the nickname "Golden Staircase." It was impossible for loaded pack-horses to make their way up the steps. Stampeders had to unload the horses, lead them over the Golden Staircase, then come back for their belongings and move them piece by piece up and over the mountain trail. With so many people on the mountain trying to reach the same destination, each stampeder had to make about forty separate trips over this challenging section of the pass. This was the point where many stampeders gave up. Those who kept pressing on and made it to the Klondike could boast that they survived the 580-mile (933-kilometer) route.

Robert Service

One man in particular found great success in the gold rush, not from panning and discovering gold but from writing about life in the Yukon during that time. Robert Service (1874–1958) worked at a bank in the city of Whitehorse in the early 1900s. A British poet, Service had already published at least two poems before leaving for the Yukon, but few paid attention to them.

Soon, Service was asked to submit a poem to the local newspaper. He wrote "The Shooting of Dan McGrew." A month later, he wrote and published "The Cremation of Sam McGee." With these two poems, Service's life changed. By 1908, he no longer had to hold a day job; he quit and lived the rest of his life off his writing.

Here is the first verse of "The Cremation of Sam McGee":

There are strange things done in the midnight sun

By the men who moil for gold;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

That would make your blood run cold;

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

But the queerest they ever did see

Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

I cremated Sam McGee.

White Pass was not as high as Chilkoot, but it was more hazardous. Conditions were slick and narrow. Thousands of pack animals died on that trail. It became known as "Dead Horse Trail." By 1900, a railroad had been built that would make the Chilkoot trail useless. By that time, however, the mass rush to the Yukon was over.

If stampeders successfully made it over the passes, they were faced with a three-week trip down the Yukon River to the gold fields. After all they had been through, a boat trip may have not sounded so bad, but the river was wild with rapids. Many stampeders died or lost all of their possessions when their boats fell apart as they rode the rapids.

Other stampeders chose to ride a steamer ship for the 1,600-mile (2,500 kilometer) trip up the Yukon River. Those who chose this route often had to be rescued from ice. However, this was the only way to reach Nome, Fairbanks, and St. Michael in Alaska.

By 1898, only thirty thousand stampeders made it to Dawson City. The reasons for not making it varied. Some gave up. Others died from disease from eating the meat of dead horses along the trail. Some died of malnutrition and exposure. Some went insane. Just three years later, the population of Dawson City dropped to nine thousand. The life of a gold miner was hard.

From Seattle, Washington, the Klondike was more than 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) away. Add to that the miles traveled by each stampeder to get to Seattle, and that is how long the journey was. Although other cities in Washington promoted themselves as departure points for the

Supply List from the Chilkoot Trail

Here is a list that pioneer Edmonton outfitters McDougall and Secord designed for stampeders heading off to the Chilkoot Trail in 1898. Each person was required to carry these general supplies:

2 suits heavy knit underwear

100 lbs. navy beans

6 pairs wool socks

150 lbs. bacon

1 pairs heavy moccasins

400 lbs. flour

2 pairs German stockings [stockings that were knit and then shrunk to be airtight)

40 lbs. rolled oats

2 heavy flannel overshirts

20 lbs. corn meal

1 heavy woollen sweater

10 lbs. rice

1 pair overalls

25 lbs. sugar

2 pairs 12-lb. blankets

10 lbs. tea

1 waterproof blanket

20 lbs. coffee

1 dozen bandana handkerchiefs

10 lbs. baking powder

1 stiff brim cowboy hat

20 lbs. salt

1 pair hip rubber boots

1 lb. pepper

1 pair prospectors' high land boots

2 lbs. baking

soda 1 mackinaw, coat, pants, shirt

½ lb. mustard

1 pair heavy buck mitts, lined

¼ lb. vinegar

1 pair unlined leather gloves

2 doz. condensed milk

1 duck coat, pants, vest

20 lbs. evaporated potatoes

6 towels

5 lbs. evaporated onions

1 pocket matchbox, buttons, needles and thread

6 tins/4 oz. extract beef

comb, mirror, toothbrush etc.

75 lbs. evaporated fruits

mosquito netting/1 dunnage bag

4 pkgs. yeast cakes

1 sleeping bag/medicine chest

20 lbs. candles

pack saddles, complete horses

1 pkg. tin matches

flat sleighs

6 cakes borax

6 lbs. laundry soap

½ lb. ground ginger

25 lbs. hard tack

1 lb. citric acid

2 bottles jamaica ginger
"KLONDIKE GOLD RUSH, YUKON TERRITORY 1897." ADVENTURE LEARNING FOUNDATION.HTTP://WWW.QUESTCONNECT.ORG/AK_KLONDIKE.HTM (ACCESSED ON JUNE 7, 2006).

Klondike, the overwhelming majority left from Seattle.

Now what?

Getting to the Klondike and Alaska was just half the battle. Once stampeders reached their destination, they needed to establish a home. They found flat land in places such as Nome, Alaska, and Dawson City in the Yukon. Here they quickly set up tents while they built shacks. They built general stores, saloons, and eateries. These towns became known as boomtowns. Some boomtowns lasted only weeks. Once it was discovered that an area did not provide gold, miners moved on to the next place. The boomtown was left behind and quickly disappeared.

If miners thought the journey to the Klondike was rough, they may have been surprised that panning for gold was so difficult. Gold was not lying just beneath the water, ready to be scooped up. Most was at least 10 feet (3 meters) below the surface. To get it, miners had to dig through permafrost (a layer of ground that is always frozen). Before being able to dig, they had to thaw the ice. Then the miners used a sluice (a wooden trough for washing gold) to separate dirt from the gold. Miners could dig only in summer, when temperatures were warmer. The work was hard, and not always rewarding.

Empty promises, broken dreams

Only the early gold miners—known as the Klondike Kings—made their fortune in the Klondike and Alaska regions. It has been estimated that those few men found over one billion dollars in gold (according to today's standards). Friedrich (Fred) Trump (1869–1918), the grandfather of businessman Donald Trump (1946–), made his fortune running a hotel along the Chilkoot trail. Some of the women who joined in the gold rush made healthy profits running dance halls. Others earned good money by opening laundries, restaurants, or hotels.

For the majority of the stampeders, by the time they arrived, most of the creeks had been claimed. Those men who stayed on soon found themselves working for the Klondike Kings. Although they were paid anywhere from $1 to $10 a day (a decent wage in those days), they realized they were not going to amass the fortunes of which they had dreamed. Working for the Klondike Kings was not why these stampeders made the treacherous six-month journey. Thinking they would have better luck in Nome, most of Dawson City packed its bags and left. Life in Nome was no better, however. By 1914, the Alaska-Klondike gold rush was over.

When curiosity becomes a
way of life

Every day, people of great intelligence are born. Every day, people with a heightened sense of curiosity are born. Wilbur Wright (1871–1948) and Orville Wright (1867–1912) were brothers whose lives were entwined until death. Their flying machines and first successful flight in 1903 ensured their place in the history books.

Women of the Rush

Men were not the only people to make the journey to the north. In fact, one of every ten people to join the gold rush was a woman. A number of them found their fortune, either by finding gold or working in other professions. Some found wealthy husbands during the rush.

Women trekked north as miners, teachers, writers, shopkeepers, medical professionals, cooks, entertainers, and prostitutes. Many owned and ran hotels throughout the mining towns of the Yukon. One such woman was Belinda Mulrooney (1872–1967). She headed to Dawson City in 1897 at the age of twenty-five. Mulrooney built the Grand Forks Hotel where the Yukon's Eldorado and Bonanza Creeks met. The hotel was an immediate success, and Mulrooney invested her profits in mining claims. In 1898, she built a first-class hotel, the Fairview, in Dawson City.

By the end of that first year, Mulrooney expanded her business and established a telephone company in Dawson City and Grand Forks. She also set up a water delivery company in Dawson City.

Mulrooney's story is unusual, but it is not the only one of its kind stemming from the gold rush. Women changed the boomtown way of life by bringing to the wilderness some aspects of life the miners had left behind. Women were responsible for establishing libraries, restaurants, churches, and families. Women also provided the men with encouragement and humor when their spirits were low.

If not for women, historians would know much less about the Klondike gold rush than what they know now. Although some men kept journals, women were more likely to keep diaries and recorded weather conditions, physical descriptions of camps and towns, and lively interpretations of life during the gold rush.

The Wright brothers were quite different, but their personalities balanced each other. Both men were intelligent. Wilbur had an amazing memory, while Orville continually came up with new ideas and inventions. The two brothers together accomplished more than either of them likely could have as individuals. Where Wilbur used his analytical skills to figure out technical problems during the invention of the airplane, Orville's positive outlook and enthusiasm kept the pair from losing hope. They were a perfect match.

Orville Wright: the serious one

Orville Wright was born on April 16, 1867, in Millville, Indiana. His father, Milton, was a minister who was against slavery and supportive of the outlawing of alcohol. The elder Wright gave all his children—four sons and one daughter—a sense of morality and strength of character that served them well throughout life. Orville's mother was also devoted to the church. Unlike most women of her time, Susan Wright had attended college. She had a mechanical mind and used her talent to make toys for her children. She even built small appliances for her home. When Orville or Wilbur needed advice for their inventions, they turned to their mother.

Orville Wright excelled in his school studies. In his senior year of high school, Orville and his family moved to Dayton, Ohio, for reasons related to Milton's position in the church. Orville did not graduate. He took preparatory classes at a high school in Dayton with the plan of studying at Yale and becoming a teacher.

In 1885, tragedy imposed itself upon the life of Orville Wright. The young Wright sustained an injury during an ice hockey game. His face and teeth eventually healed, but he was left with digestive disorders and a heart condition that would linger throughout his life. Orville became a withdrawn and depressed man. He gave up his plans for Yale and isolated himself from the world. He spent most of his time caring for his sick mother, who was dying from tuberculosis, a common bacterial infection. He remained devoted to her until her death in 1889.

A practical joker among his few close friends, Orville was a private and shy man with strangers. As life progressed and the Wright brothers found fame, Wilbur was the one to represent and then speak for them in public.

Wilbur Wright: the dreamer

Wilbur Wright joined the family on August 19, 1871. Even as a young child he would take apart toys and machines in an effort to find out how they worked. Unlike his older brother Orville, Wilbur was impulsive, not given to thinking things through before jumping in. Accounts portray him as a perfect example of the nutty inventor, with several projects going on at once, ideas striking him in the middle of the night.

He also differed from his brother in how well he performed in school. With a mind every bit as sharp as Orville's, Wilbur was unable to focus on school work. He frequently got into mischief, and teachers complained that he did not apply himself to his full ability. He had the brains, but his interests were elsewhere. He did improve in high school, but he chose college preparatory classes for the junior year curriculum. This choice prevented him from qualifying for his diploma his senior year, so he decided to skip attending that year altogether. Wilbur Wright never graduated from high school. Neither brother suffered from their lack of formal education. They both spent much of their life in private study.

Whereas the two older Wright brothers, Reuchlin and Lorin, married and had families of their own, Wilbur, Orville, and their younger sister Katharine had an unspoken agreement between the three of them. They never had an interest in finding a mate, but chose to live their lives together. Only Katharine would break the pact, when she left Orville in 1926 to marry.

As brothers often do

Wilbur and Orville lived as a team from the time they could communicate with one another. As noted on the Franklin Institute Web site, Wilbur was quoted as saying in 1912, "From the time we were little children my brother Orville and myself lived together. We usually owned all of our toys in the common [together], talked over our thoughts and aspirations [dreams] so that nearly everything that was done in our lives has been the result of conversations, suggestions and discussion between us."

The brothers also argued a lot. Wilbur called this "scrapping," and these intense discussions were an important part of the creative process when it came to inventing. The Wright children grew up in a home where intelligence was valued. Every one of the five siblings had a strong self-confidence. To be able to defend one's beliefs with passion helped Orville and Wilbur understand each other's perspective on any given project.

How it all began

In 1878, Milton Wright gave Wilbur and Orville a toy helicopter. Designed by a French aviation enthusiast, the helicopter was powered by a rubber band. The brothers immediately began working on making copies of it in various sizes. They played with the toys for days, then moved on to the next activity. The brothers never forgot their introduction to flying machines, however.

Orville's first serious technical interest was printing. His father's office was in the same building as the United Brethren Printing Establishment. Orville enjoyed freedom in the printing office and his interest developed into a serious hobby. In 1888, and with young Wilbur's help, Orville built an even bigger printing press and began accepting jobs. This was the first time "the Wright brothers" would appear in print. Over the years, they took on numerous small printing jobs, including a small school newspaper called the Midget, pamphlets, and several local newspapers.

In 1889, the brothers published their own weekly newspaper. The West Side News gave Wilbur and Orville the chance to solidify their working relationship. The two men realized at this point that they could run a serious business if they collaborated and drew on each other's strengths. By the third issue, Wilbur was listed as the paper's editor and Orville was the publisher.

The Wright brothers sold their printing business ten years later to pursue a new dream—building bicycles.

Cashing in on the bike craze

American consumers developed an interest in bicycles in the late 1880s. The English safety bike was introduced to the States in 1887. The safety bike had two wheels of equal size and was much easier to ride than the original high-front-wheel and low-back-wheel model. More people could enjoy bike riding than ever before. At the peak of the bike craze in the 1890s, more than three hundred bicycle companies were manufacturing more than one million bicycles a year.

Wilbur and Orville Wright opened a bicycle rental and repair shop in 1893 in Dayton. This was the perfect outlet to satisfy their mechanical interests. Although they did not know it then, the knowledge and practice they obtained through their work on bikes would be invaluable to them in their pursuit of building an airplane. The brothers were able to make a good living with their shop, and they became known throughout the community as trustworthy businessmen.

The Wright Cycle Company operated out of five separate locations throughout Dayton between 1893 and 1897. Competition was stiff by the mid-1890s; more than twenty-four bike repair shops had sprung up in the city. Orville and Wilbur decided to branch out into bicycle sales. They began carrying more than a dozen brands, but even this expansion did not seem to satisfy the two entrepreneurs.

The brothers began designing and building their own line of bicycles, which they offered to the public in 1896. Unlike the competition, the Wrights built their bicycles by hand, with the help of Ed Sines, who had assisted them in the day-to-day operations of their previous printing business. This traditional means of production gave the Wrights' bikes a certain appeal the other, more "modern" manufactured bikes were lacking.

Between 1896 and 1900, the peak years saw the Wrights building three hundred bicycles a year and earning between $2,000 and $3,000 annually. Today, only five bikes built by the Wright Cycle Company are known to exist.

Take to the Skies

The Wrights moved their bike company one last time in 1897. The building was at 1127 West Third Street. Within a few years, they were involved in aerodynamics and began building experimental aircraft. They built the plane that made the first successful flight in 1903 in this bike shop.

The connection between building bicycles and inventing airplanes is not obvious, but a magazine article published in 1896 discussed the similarities between biking and flying. James Howard Means published the article "Wheeling and Flying" in his journal, Aeronautical Annual. The article stated that balance and control are of the utmost importance in both activities. It discussed the need for lightweight, yet strong, structures and chain-and-sprocket transmission systems (the same system used on bicycles, in which a chain moves around a toothed wheel) to propel the structure. The article maintained that wind resistance and the shape of the rider affected the success of the flight.

Given the brothers' mechanical ability, curiosity, and unceasing quest for knowledge, it should not be surprising that they began experimenting with aeronautics. Beginning in 1899, they used their bike shop to build and research aircraft. Although the men have been credited with genius for their invention, researchers and scientists through the ages have been in awe not only of the result (the first airplane) but also of the research process implemented by Wilbur and Orville. Their research and evaluation methods remain an important part of the aeronautical industry today.

From theory to reality

Orville and Wilbur began by studying everything they could find on aeronautics. Wilbur wrote a letter to the Smithsonian Institution on May 30, 1899, expressing his interest in researching and learning all he could about flight. He closed the letter with a request for any materials or resources the institution might be able to share with him.

After thorough research, Orville and Wilbur decided it would be best to test their ideas using full-sized gliders. By studying how aerodynamics would affect such a simple machine, they figured they could slowly evolve their design, step-by-step. It would prove to be an excellent decision.

Eventually, the duo was able to reduce the known obstacles to flight to three broad points: wings, a way to balance and control the craft, and a means to propel it.

At this stage in their experiments, their knowledge of bicycles came in handy. Like an airplane, a bicycle is an unstable structure, but can be controlled. The brothers figured the same theory would apply to an airplane. They initially thought they could control the plane with a system of gears and pivoting shafts. Unfortunately, the sheer weight of such mechanisms would keep the plane from getting off the ground. Together they came up with the idea of wing-warping.

Wing-warping was a technique that twisted the wings so that the wing on one side of the plane would meet the oncoming airflow at a greater angle than that on the other side. The plane would rise on that side. By twisting the wings to various degrees, the plane could be controlled and balanced.

Wilbur tested the theory using a kite the brothers built in 1899. The wing-warping concept proved to be a sound theory in reality. Orville and Wilbur went back to the design table to build a glider. This was a huge step; building a small kite is one thing, but building an aircraft that will carry a man into the sky is another.

When complete, the glider weighed 52 pounds (24 kilograms) and had a wing span of 17 feet (5.2 meters). The Wrights wanted to build part of the wings with spruce, but they had to settle for pine because that is what was available. Pine is a soft, light wood, not ideal for aircraft structure, but it would have to do. The framework was covered with a sateen fabric (a midweight, strong material).

The future of aerodynamics was found at Kitty Hawk

Now the brothers needed a place to test the glider, a place with wide open spaces and steady winds. They settled on a small fishing village in North Carolina called Kitty Hawk. The winds in Kitty Hawk proved to be even stronger than the brothers planned. They sent whirlwinds of sand through the air at any and all times of the day. According to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Web site, Orville wrote in 1900, "We came down here for wind and sand, and we have got them. … The sand is the greatest thing in Kitty Hawk, and soon will be the only thing."

Wilbur and Orville took turns piloting the glider during the test flights at Kitty Hawk. This gave them both much-needed experience manning the craft. Repeated flights gave them the information necessary to take back to the drawing table when it came time to make the next new-and-improved aircraft.

The 1901 Wright glider had problems. When the Wrights returned to Kitty Hawk that year, the new glider performed worse than the first one. At least they could control the 1900 glider; this new one was erratic. Although they experienced glides of more than 300 feet (90 meters), the brothers were discouraged. They questioned the data they had collected from the 1900 tests. Instead of having only lift problems, they now had to rethink their method of control.

When Orville and Wilbur went over the old data yet again, they realized something. Some of the numbers were solid and would not change; they were measurements rather than calculations. Since they knew they had measured correctly, they were sure of the accuracy of those numbers, but they had been using other researchers' equations and formulas to figure some of the information, such as lift and drag (how high the craft would go, and the degree of wind resistance). Maybe they were relying on faulty research.

Further research (using bicycles) led the brothers to conclude that the equations they had been using from other researchers' work were, indeed, inaccurate. They built a large wind tunnel in 1901 and tested their theories. What they learned in their wind-tunnel experiments solved their problems regarding balance and lift. They were still left with the question of control.

The Wrights built one more glider. They first flew it as a kite, just as before. The results were impressive; the lift and balance problems were gone. It was time to man the glider. Again, they took turns piloting. The Wrights had added a fixed vertical rudder (steering mechanism) to the tail of the craft. This addition took care of the issue of control by giving the inventors a means to change the course of travel horizontally as well as vertically.

The Wright brothers had designed a three-axis control system: They already had achieved balance and pitch control, and the rudder gave them lateral control. In its final flying form, this 1902 glider was actually the invention of the first airplane. It was the first fully controllable aircraft ever built and flown.

Orville and Wilbur were encouraged by the success of their 1902 glider. It was not enough to have broken all records and made history with their aeronautical research. They set their sights on building the first engine-powered airplane.

The Wrights spent most of 1903 researching ideas for powering the plane. The engine they built was simple, even by the standards of their day. The two propellers were impressive. The Wrights built them to spin in opposite directions at the same time. The propellers were 8 feet (2.4 meters) in diameter and 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) thick. The propellers were powered by a chain-and-sprocket transmission system, inspired by what the brothers knew of the mechanics of bicycles.

The Wright brothers returned to Kitty Hawk in September 1903. Almost immediately, things started to go wrong, making the men question the sanity of their plan to take to the air. The weather was exceptionally bad, and they were experiencing technical difficulties with the airplane. They forged on, and on December 14, set out to test the 152-pound (69-kilogram) plane. They flipped a coin to determine who would fly first. Wilbur climbed aboard. The plane was airborne for just 3½ seconds before it crashed into the sand.

Three days later, the damage was repaired and the brothers set out to test the plane again. Orville sat in the pilot's seat this time. He kept the plane in the air for twelve seconds before it came to rest in the sand. It had flown a distance of 120 feet (3.7 meters). History had been made; a human had maintained flight for a significant amount of time that did not end with a crash.

They made three more flights that day. Wilbur made the longest flight on the final run. The plane was in the air for 59 seconds and flew 852 feet (260 meters). The world of aviation and aeronautics was changed forever.

Just after that final flight, a gust of wind caused the plane to roll over. It was so seriously damaged that it never flew again. It took three years for the Wrights to obtain a patent, but on May 22, 1906, U.S. Patent 821,393 was granted to Orville and Wilbur Wright. Due to a mix-up, the patent was given to the 1902 glider rather than the 1903 airplane. This would cause many patent infringements (violation of owners' rights) in the future.

Practical applications of the airplane

The Wright brothers achieved their goal of inventing the first powered airplane, but it was not a practical plane. If they were to sell their planes, they had to design and build crafts that could be used in terrains other than wide, sandy spaces. So they set to work and built two more airplanes. By 1905, they were done building experimental aircraft. On October 5, Wilbur flew their latest plane for 39 minutes. He circled a field thirty times and flew a distance of 24.5 miles (39.4 kilometers).

Life without Wilbur

Wilbur Wright, always the more fragile of the two brothers, died of typhoid fever (a bacterial disease concentrated in the bloodstream) in 1912. He was forty-five years old. Orville sold the Wright Company in 1916 and returned to the business of inventing. He built himself an aeronautics lab and became a member of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Wright remained a member for 28 years, until his death from a heart attack in 1948. Ten years later, NACA became NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration).

Invention without adventure

Gold miners led adventurous lives, but the majority of them did not end up with results that showed their hard work and sacrifice. Then there were people like the Wright brothers, whose inventions included adventure. Without the life-endangering first flights those two men made, the first occurrence of humans in flight may not have taken place for several more years.

While the gold rush and the first successful flight represent the spirit of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, they were not the norm. Many inventions made during that time did not involve risk-taking.

What is that ringing?

On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922) invented the telephone. He was just twenty-nine years old. Bell and his assistant, Thomas Watson (1854–1934), had been experimenting with sound in hopes of improving the telegraph. Already in use for thirty years, the telegraph sent one message at a time using a series of dots and dashes called Morse code. The telegraph worked properly, but Bell felt it would be more effective to have a system that allowed more than one message to be sent at a time, and one that did not rely on typing out (and understanding) Morse code.

Bell was born into a family of men who were trained in elocution (the study of proper speaking in terms of voice control and sound). Having been trained to follow in their footsteps, Bell had a solid understanding of how sound is made and travels. This knowledge contributed to his success in inventing the telephone.

Bell and Watson knew that all they needed to do was find a way to transmit sound electrically. They built a transmitter capable of varying electronic currents and a receiver that would mimic these variations in frequencies human ears could hear. The first telephone was built, and Bell's notebooks from the experiment recall the first words ever spoken through a telephone: "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."

The telephone changed the way the world communicated. Distance between people no longer mattered. Life became easier. By 1884, long-distance calls could be made between Boston, Massachusetts, and New York, New York. By 1892, long-distance service was available between New York and Chicago, a distance of 800 miles (1,287 kilometers).

Shedding light on an age-old debate

Many people credit Thomas Edison (1847–1931) with the invention of the electric lightbulb. Although he is one of the most successful inventors in the world (with more than one thousand patents), he did not invent the lightbulb. In fact, most of his inventions were not original, but were improvements on devices already in existence.

What Edison did invent is the electric lamp, or incandescent lightbulb. This was an improvement over the lightbulb invented in 1854 by Heinrich Göbel (1818–1893). Göbel's lightbulb used a bamboo filament to get its light. The filament is the fiber within the lightbulb that glowed and provided light. Bamboo was used because it was lightweight and, at the time, maintained its light for what was considered a reasonable length of time. Within five years of experimentation, his bulb lasted for up to four hundred hours and was considered the first practical bulb. Edison's bulb used a carbon filament heated with electricity and lasted for up to one thousand hours.

In 1878, Edison established the Edison Electric Light Company in New York City. He made the first public demonstration of incandescent lighting on December 31, 1879, in New Jersey. His contribution revolutionized society. These bulbs required a central electric utility system, and soon the electric industry was born. This industry created entirely new employment opportunities for thousands of people. Ships, a primary mode of transportation, could now have electric lighting installed. Night-time no longer meant a decline in activity, or even productivity. Seemingly overnight, street lights sprang up, and electric trolley cars took over the streets.

Who invented the radio?

Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) was born in Croatia in 1856. In 1883, he designed an induction motor, which is a motor that operates on the principle of a rotating magnetic field. Tesla immigrated to America in 1884. He landed on the shores of New York with four cents in his pocket and a letter of recommendation from Charles Batchelor (1845–1910), an associate of Thomas Edison's. The letter read: "My Dear Edison: I know two great men and you are one of them. The other is this young man!"

Tesla initially worked with Edison in New Jersey. The two inventors came from different backgrounds and had very different work habits. These differences ultimately led to conflict. Tesla resigned from his job with Edison. Eventually, Tesla would invent the alternating current, several generators and transformers, fluorescent lighting, and the Tesla coil. His work with alternating currents actually brought him back into contact with Edison, who invented direct current. Edison favored direct current for electric power distribution. But alternating current was more efficient. Direct current required more power lines. Alternating current could transform the electricity into lower or higher voltage without extra lines. Tesla sold the rights of his alternating-current machinery to George Westinghouse (1846–1914) in 1885. The alternating current system became the industry standard and is still used today.

In 1895, Tesla was able to transmit a signal 50 miles (80 kilometers). He did this using his Tesla coil, which was used to magnify the incoming electrical energy. This was the first example of wireless communication. Unfortunately, Tesla's lab burned to the ground before he was able to publicly demonstrate his discovery.

In the meantime, an Italian inventor named Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937) had been working on his own wireless transmission system. He took out the first wireless telegraphy patent in England in 1896. Tesla applied for his own radio patent in 1897. The patents were granted in 1900. Marconi's first American patent was turned down that same year. He kept applying for the next three years, but was refused due to Tesla's patent.

Patents do not guarantee an inventor's rights are safe. In 1900, Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company stock jumped from $3 a share to $22 dollars a share. Suddenly, Marconi was famous throughout the world. Edison and millionaire industrialist Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) invested in Marconi's business. On December 12, 1901, Marconi transmitted and received radio signals across the Atlantic Ocean. Even then, Tesla was not concerned. Although Marconi was using seventeen of Tesla's patents, Tesla knew he owned the patent on the first radio.

In a surprising move, the U.S. Patent Office reversed its previous decision and gave Marconi the patent for the invention of radio. No official explanation for this reversal has ever been given. Many believed the financial backing of Edison and Carnegie influenced the change.

Tesla was furious when Marconi won the 1911 Nobel Prize for the invention of the radio. He sued Marconi's company but had no money to take the case to court. A few months after Tesla's death in 1943, the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated Tesla's patent. Tesla was the true inventor of the radio. But even today, many people credit Marconi.

Kodak: "You press the button, we do the rest"

In 1888, George Eastman (1854–1932) introduced the first simple camera. His goal, according to his biography on Kodak.com, was to make photography "as convenient as the pencil."

Eastman was a New York high-school dropout. As a child from a poor family, he realized the need to work to help support his fatherless family, which included a mother and two sisters. Eastman went to work at the age of fourteen. His job as a messenger boy for an insurance firm paid him $3 a week. Not satisfied with the pay or the job, he took his services to another insurance company, where he began writing policies when not delivering messages. His pay increased to $5 a week. Eastman moved up the corporate ladder, and in 1874 was hired as a junior clerk, a position that earned him $15 a week.

When he was twenty-four years old, Eastman was planning a vacation. A friend suggested he take pictures to memorialize the trip. Eastman bought a camera and all the heavy equipment that went with it. The equipment was stunningly impractical; the camera alone was the size of a microwave oven. The outfit included wet plates, chemicals, glass tanks, and other items. Eastman never took that vacation, but he became determined to simplify the photography process.

It took three years of working nights to develop a formula to make gelatin emulsion, the chemicals that allow film to develop. In the past, the chemicals had to be carried around with the camera (hence, all the heavy equipment), and film was developed using wet plates. Eastman's formula used dry plates, which were coated with a gelatin that allowed photos to be safely processed at a later date (as opposed to having to process them at the time they were taken), and he invented the machine to manufacture those plates.

In 1880, Eastman rented an office in New York and began making dry plates to sell to photographers. The plates were made of glass, and because the process was still so new, those plates often failed to work once photographers bought them. The defect was not actually in the plates themselves, but in the gelatin emulsion that covered them. The emulsion was what made the images able to be processed into photographs. Because Eastman was still trying to perfect the balance of chemicals in that dry emulsion, the emulsion recipe sometimes was imbalanced and failed to develop the photos. Eastman nearly went broke making sure he replaced bad plates with working ones. But his integrity and ethics earned him a reputation as a solid, honest businessman.

Soon, Eastman began trying to find a lighter support than glass. He experimented with different types of film paper and was finally satisfied with paper that had the gelatin emulsion already on it. With this style of paper, he had eliminated the need to carry around the messy, heavy chemicals. He also invented the roll holder, which was similar to the mechanism that holds a roll of toilet paper in place. The roll holder was used instead of the glass plates to hold the film in place, and its invention made carrying and using the equipment and camera much easier because the whole system was lighter and more portable. His roll holder was an immediate success, but now he needed to find a way to get his product to the general public. Up to that point, only professional photographers took photos.

Eastman was a believer in the power of advertising, and he began to promote his products with ads he wrote himself. He first used the slogan, "You press the button, we do the rest" when he introduced his own camera design to the world in 1888. Within a year, the public was familiar with the phrase.

The name Kodak had absolutely no meaning to anyone; in fact, it was not even a real name. Eastman's favorite letter was K; he felt it was a strong letter. He wanted a name that began and ended with K. After much experimenting with various combinations of letters, he came up with Kodak. Eastman also chose the bright yellow color still used in the company's advertising and logo today.

Assembly line: simple idea, radical results

The world of industry was forever changed in 1913, the year Henry Ford invented the assembly line. As is often the case with inventions, one might wonder why it took so long for anyone to come up with the idea of the assembly line. It is a logical way to build something.

Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863, in Michigan. Although he was born into a farming family, he showed an early interest in all things mechanical. He left home at the age of sixteen to work as an apprentice (student assistant) for a machinist in Detroit. In 1888, he married and supported his family by running a sawmill.

Ford took a job with the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit in 1891. He began as an engineer and was promoted to chief engineer just two years later. During this time, he began spending his free hours experimenting with internal combustion engines. In 1896, he invented the Quadricycle. This vehicle had four large bicycle-like wheels, was steered with a system like that in a boat, and had two forward speeds.

Pleased with his progress, Ford established the Ford Motor Company in 1903. He was the company's vice president and chief engineer. Ford introduced the Model T car five years later (see Chapter 8). Only two or three cars were made each day at the Ford plant. Small groups of men would work on each car using components purchased from outside manufacturers. It was not an efficient way to build vehicles.

The Model T changed the way America lived. Ford's cars were selling faster than he could build them, so he moved his factory to a bigger plant in the Detroit suburb of Highland Park, in 1910.

Ford was the first industrialist to manufacture interchangeable and standardized parts. He eventually made many models of automobiles, but many of the parts in each model were the same as those in other models. By making one part to fit all cars, Ford was able to lower the cost of his autos, thus making them more affordable for more consumers.

In keeping with that efficient spirit, Ford invented the assembly line. Workers stood in one place while a moving belt carried each car along. Every worker was responsible for incorporating one part onto the automobile. Parts were delivered to each worker by a carefully timed conveyor belt so that assembly was smooth and efficient. Again, this invention allowed Ford to lower the cost of his cars because it now took less time to assemble each one. Soon, he was the largest car manufacturer in the world.

Biology and life science advancements

The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era are remembered not only for their societal attitudes and philosophies, but also for the rapid gains made in a relatively short time period. In addition to the major inventions of the Wrights, Bell, Edison, Tesla, Eastman, and Ford, great strides were made in biology and the life sciences. A few examples follow.

• Biologist Jacob Loeb (1859–1924) was nicknamed "Dr. Frankenstein" for his belief that life could be engineered, or made by human hands. He experimented with parthenogenesis, a process that involves stimulating an egg to become an organism without fertilization. Loeb publicly declared that life could one day be created in a test tube. In 1978, Loeb's prediction came true with the first successful birth of a test-tube baby. A test-tube baby is a baby born from an egg that was fertilized in a test tube rather than in the mother's womb (the egg would be implanted into the womb at a later date).
• In 1900, Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) published On the Interpretation of Dreams. This text discussed the theory that human behavior is based on the unconscious mind. Freud believed that while people may repress (hold back from consciousness) unpleasant thoughts or feelings, they never get rid of them entirely. Those thoughts show up in the unconscious mind and come back to the person as dreams. Freud's theory was controversial because he believed most suppressed thoughts (thoughts concealed from oneself) revolved around sex.
• Albert Einstein (1879–1955) introduced his special theory of relativity in 1905. This theory states that the speed of light stays constant in a vacuum, regardless of the light source or the observer. It also says that mass and energy are always equal. The special theory of relativity is the foundation of modern physics.
• On March 1, 1909, Robert Peary (1856–1920)of the U.S. Navy set off for the North Pole with 23 men, 133 dogs, and 19 sleds. Peary was convinced that the North Pole was not part of Greenland, as popularly believed, but actually lay beyond that region. As they traveled north, the explorers lightened their load and reduced the number of men in their party. When Peary reached the North Pole on Apri l6, 1909, only five men remained with him. Upon returning to the United States, Peary was dumb-founded to learn that a man named Frederick Cook (1865–1940) was claiming to have reached the North Pole a full year before Peary's expedition. The American public was not sure who to believe until two Eskimos who had made the Arctic journey with Cook revealed that his photographic "evidence" had been faked. Peary truly was the first man to reach the North Pole.

For More Information

BOOKS AND PERIODICALS

Bankston, John. Henry Ford and the Assembly Line. Bear, DE: Mitchell Lane Publishers, 2004.

Coe, Brian. Kodak Cameras: The First Hundred Years. West Sussex, England: Hove Books, 2003.

Duncan, Sandy Frances. Gold Rush Orphan. Vancouver, BC, Canada: Ronsdale Press, 2004.

Means, James Howard. "Wheeling and Flying." Aeronautical Annual (1896).

Murphy, Claire Rudolf, and Jane G. Haigh. Children of the Gold Rush. Portland, OR: Alaska Northwest Books, 2001.

Murphy, Claire Rudolf, and Jane G. Haigh. Gold Rush Dogs. Anchorage: Alaska Northwest Books, 2001.

Murphy, Claire Rudolf, and Jane G. Haigh. Gold Rush Women. Anchorage: Alaska Northwest Books, 1997.

Stewart, Daniel Blair. Tesla, the Modern Sorcerer. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 1999.

WEB SITES

"Alaska's Gold." Alaska State Library.http://www.library.state.ak.us/goldrush/ (accessed on June 8, 2006).

"As Precious as Gold." National Postal Museum.http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/gold/asprecious.html (accessed on June 8, 2006).

Cyber Telephone Museum.http://www.museumphones.com/ (accessed on June 8, 2006).

"George Eastman—the Man." Kodak.http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/kodakHistory/eastmanTheMan.shtml (accessed on June 8, 2006).

"The Klondike Gold Rush." University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections.http://content.lib.washington.edu/goldrush/ (accessed on June 9, 2006).

"Klondike Gold Rush Yukon Territory 1897." Adventure Learning Foundation.http://www.questconnect.org/ak_klondike.htm (accessed on June 9, 2006).

"The Life of Henry Ford." The Henry Ford.http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/hf/default.asp#top (accessed on June 9, 2006).

"Literature of the Gold Rush." National Postal Museum.http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/gold/literature.html (accessed on June 9, 2006).

PBS. "Robert Peary: To the Top of the World." American Experience: Alone on the Ice.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/ice/sfeature/peary.html (accessed on June 9, 2006).

PBS. Tesla: Master of Lighting.http://www.pbs.org/tesla/index.html (accessed on June 9, 2006).

RobertWService.com.http://www.robertwservice.com/ (accessed on June 9, 2006).

"The Wright Brothers: The Invention of the Aerial Age." Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum.http://www.nasm.si.edu/wrightbrothers/ (accessed on June 9, 2006).