The Wright Bros. (and sister).

Everyone knows the Wright brothers. Almost nobody knows the sister who kept the whole operation running. Katharine Wright packed the trunks, managed the politics, and got erased anyway. Listen to hear the Wright family story. 

Sources:
Wright Family Bio, Wright Family History, Wright Family Stories , An Unusual Childhood , Milton's Diaries, Wright State University , Brittanica , The Wright's Sister , Who Flew First?, Katharine Wright , Katharine's Letters, The World Magazine , NPR- The Forgotten Wright, Bicycle Shop , Printing Press, New York Times , Samuel Langley , In Her Own Wright-Podcast 

Transcript

We’re Back After Life Chaos

Sarah 0:13

Hello everyone.

Cole 0:14

Hello.

Sarah 0:15

I'm Sarah.

Cole 0:16

I'm Cole.

Sarah 0:17

You're listening to Borrowed Bones, a podcast about fucked up, interesting, and toxic families.

Cole 0:24

Mm-hmm. It's been a minute.

Sarah 0:26

Oh man.

Cole 0:26

Since we were in it.

Sarah 0:28

Yes. It's been. Gosh, two months.

Cole 0:32

Yeah. Thereabouts. Since we've recorded an episode.

Sarah 0:35

Yeah. Um, yeah. Sorry guys. It's, we've had a lot of life happen.

Cole 0:39

With her ceiling caving in.

Sarah 0:41

Yeah, well, my double foot surgery, which I was doing. Okay. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And then we recorded

Cole 0:45

since then. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Sarah 0:46

And then I started getting better, but I got a new job in the middle of healing.

Cole 0:51

Yeah.

Sarah 0:51

So that was fun. And then

Cole 0:54

Oh, yeah,

Sarah 0:54

yeah, yeah, yeah. During my recovery.

Cole 0:56

Yeah.

Sarah 0:57

Yeah.

Cole 0:57

Yeah.

Sarah 0:57

Um, but then our ceiling

Cole 0:59

caved in again as it mm-hmm. That was pretty much every year, but

Sarah 1:02

Yep. The apartment above us, um, water leakage. And then it turned into like a waterfall in our dining room, which was a lot of fun. And they're just finished with that. Oh. So that's been fun. And we're moving.

Cole 1:15

Yeah. That's the plan.

Sarah 1:16

So yeah, there's just been a lot going on..

Cole 1:18

yeah. I'm fighting the after effects of a head cold. Oh yes. A migraine. So if I'm sounding congested or

Sarah 1:25

mm-hmm.

Cole 1:25

A bit more lethargic in my delivery than normal. That's why.

Sarah 1:30

Yes. He's getting over a cold and I still dragged him into the pod lab'cause I can't sit on this anymore. I've had this script ready to go for a while.

Cole 1:40

He almost got a fly on it.

Sarah 1:42

Oh.

Cole 1:43

You can't contain it anymore, it's gonna fly the

Sarah 1:45

subject. Oh, I thought you meant fly like a bug.

Cole 1:47

I'm doing a other things fly. This all makes sense when the subject is revealed. This is a poor attempt at foreshadowing and pun based foreshadowing.

Why The Wright Family Matters

Sarah 1:59

This has clearly been a while since we've been here. We're not clean at all. Nothing crisp here today. Nope. We're gonna fumble through this one. Okay. All right, let's go. Alright. Today we are talking about the Wright family,

Cole 2:16

as in the Wright brothers

Sarah 2:18

and W Sisters. Yes.

Cole 2:20

Okay. Like that Wright family?

Sarah 2:21

Mm-hmm.

Cole 2:21

Okay.

Sarah 2:22

W-R-I-G-H-T, the Wright Brothers.

Cole 2:25

Which Carolina was it? North, south.

Sarah 2:27

North.

Cole 2:27

North. Okay.

Sarah 2:28

This is not about how they invented flight. Um, this is in there of course, but this is about the family. And how did the Wright brothers Okay. Yeah. I

Cole 2:36

dunno anything about

Sarah 2:36

em. Yeah. How, how did, how were they raised? How'd they get to the position of being airplane inventors? Yeah. Like how do you just turn into that?

Cole 2:43

I just know trivia.

Sarah 2:45

Yeah.

Cole 2:45

They invented Orville and, uh, shit. What's his name? Orville.

Sarah 2:52

Okay. Well

Cole 2:52

I don't remember the second one. You will learn 1903, right? That was the year.

Sarah 2:55

Mm-hmm.

Cole 2:56

And the first flight was only like 18 seconds or something. Technically,

Sarah 2:59

I forgot the numbers. I have

Cole 3:00

it written down anyway. Yeah, yeah,

Sarah 3:01

yeah. Yes.

Cole 3:02

But that's like the basic, I knew it was one of the Carolinas. It wasn't even positive witch of the two.

Sarah 3:06

Yeah. Let's get into it because there's a lot that I did not know either. And I hope that this is a fun surprise for everyone else as well.

Cole 3:12

Yeah. I have no idea. Let's go.

Susan And Milton’s Unusual Parenting

Sarah 3:14

Alright. Susan Corner met Milton Wright in 1853.

Cole 3:21

Okay.

Sarah 3:21

While she was attending Hartsville College in Indiana.

Cole 3:24

A woman.

Sarah 3:25

A woman, woo.

Cole 3:26

In the Antebellum South. Attending college.

Sarah 3:29

Indiana.

Cole 3:30

Oh, Indiana.

Sarah 3:31

Yes.

Cole 3:31

Okay. Sorry. Yeah. I just assumed Caroline in my head already. Again, I'm a little hazy.

Sarah 3:35

Yes.

Cole 3:35

In my head

Sarah 3:36

this will be, he's on, called I firing all cylinders. There's cold medicine in him and a lot of, yeah, yeah. A lot going on. Susan was a student of Hartsville College and Milton was the college minister.

Cole 3:47

Okay.

Sarah 3:48

He preached for the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, and that was the same church that Susan's family just joined.

Cole 3:55

All right.

Sarah 3:55

So pretty natural that they met and fell in love.

Cole 3:58

One of those many Protestant sects mm-hmm. At the time.

Sarah 4:01

Yeah. Yeah. Milton asked Susan to marry him right before he went on a church trip to Oregon. Like he, he does a lot of traveling throughout his whole adulthood mm-hmm. With, um, preaching for the church. When he asked her, he was like, I'm gonna go to Oregon though, but like, will you marry me? And she said, ask me upon your return.

Cole 4:21

That's smart.

Sarah 4:21

Yeah. That's what I thought too. Yeah. He returned, he asked her again, and she. They married in 1859 and the first part of their marriage, the couple moved around the Midwest a lot like for like about the first half of their marriage.

Cole 4:38

cause he's like a circuit writing.

Sarah 4:40

Mm-hmm.

Cole 4:40

Minister, right? Yes. So he's popping around. Okay. He doesn't have like one church that he, he moves around.

Sarah 4:46

I didn't look too far into what the church is set up like, but that's the reason they moved is the church. And because he is, he eventually becomes the bishop.

Cole 4:53

Okay.

Sarah 4:54

So he does travel a lot and I don't know, I don't, I don't know if it's tent, revival, it doesn't matter. Yeah. They travel a lot because he's a bishop and it's all in the Midwest.

Cole 5:01

Okay.

Sarah 5:02

Ultimately though, they settle in Dayton, Ohio in 1884.

Cole 5:07

Okay.

Sarah 5:08

Yeah, we do a big jump here.

Cole 5:09

Yeah.

Sarah 5:09

We'll go back and forth a little bit because the kids are gonna be born and this is just, the background.

Cole 5:13

Yeah.

Sarah 5:14

Susan would give birth to seven children. Five of them would survive to adulthood.

Cole 5:21

Not bad odds for the time.

Sarah 5:22

Yeah, not too bad.

Cole 5:23

Five outta seven.

Sarah 5:24

Yeah. The first child was his son named Reland. Nice. I'm pretty sure I'm pronouncing that correctly.

Cole 5:31

Can I see it?

Sarah 5:32

Hold on. He was born in 1861 and he was named after the German theologian.

Cole 5:38

Theologian.

Sarah 5:39

It's been a while. Yeah. After the German theologian. Johan Reland. Okay. R-E-U-C-H-L-I-N.

Cole 5:49

Sounds. Yeah,

Sarah 5:50

I looked it up and that's how it was pronounced. Okay. To me. So I don't know exactly. If you do know, please let me know.

Cole 5:56

I know know any better.

Sarah 5:58

In 1862, another boy was born. His name is Lauren, L-O-R-I-N, and he was spelled

Cole 6:08

okay

Sarah 6:08

after a random city that they found on a map. Okay.

Cole 6:13

Do you know which country that city was in?

Sarah 6:15

I don't know.

Cole 6:15

Okay.

Sarah 6:16

Susan then had twins and they were the ones that did not make it past infancy.

Cole 6:22

That's fairly common in the era too. The twins to die young,

Sarah 6:26

they're usually premature. Yeah. So I mean, I was in the NICU for a few weeks, Sam and I. Yeah.

Cole 6:31

I

Sarah 6:32

don't know. We were like a month early almost. So

Cole 6:34

Jesse James is his wife, had a set of twins that died in infancy between his surviving son and daughter.

Sarah 6:42

Aw. See?

Cole 6:43

Yeah. Just, yeah.

Sarah 6:44

Um, Wilbur.

Cole 6:46

Wilbur. Wilbur.

Sarah 6:46

Wilbur. There it is. Yeah. He was born in 1867.

Cole 6:52

All right.

Sarah 6:52

And he was named after a well-known minister at the time. Then Orville was born in 1871, and he was named after a respected clergy man.

Cole 7:04

Okay.

Sarah 7:04

Then Catherine with a K was born in 1874.

Cole 7:08

Mm. The K.

Sarah 7:09

Mm-hmm. She wasn't named after anyone in particular, but because, her name was Catherine, they wanted to make it special, so they added that K in there.

Cole 7:18

Okay. And I mean, only the boys are needing after notables.

Sarah 7:22

Yeah.

Cole 7:22

Women weren't doing notable things before then.

Sarah 7:25

Why? They could have at least

Cole 7:26

came to her after her mom. Trajectory. Oh, yeah. Or if that's their, like ministers, like there wasn't like female ministers probably for them to name a daughter after,

Sarah 7:35

but they're still notable women.

Cole 7:36

There's always Mary, like nothing else. You just named Mary. Mary.

Sarah 7:40

Well, they still gave her something with that K. Yeah.'cause that was different for the time.

Cole 7:44

Yeah. Mary Kay.

Sarah 7:46

Mm-hmm. I,

Cole 7:47

there's no Mary, I'm

Sarah 7:48

just, yeah. There's no marriage. Just Catherine. Um, it's, I read that Milton and Susan did not give middle names to their kids because their first names were distinct enough.

Cole 7:58

Yeah.

Sarah 7:58

Like they really made it a point. Yeah. As the siblings grew, they formed like two separate cliques. The older two, Reland and Lauren were close.

Cole 8:08

Mm-hmm.

Sarah 8:09

And then Wilbur, Orville and Catherine were close.

Cole 8:12

Okay.

Sarah 8:13

And

Cole 8:14

Oh yeah. So there's five surviving. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So two oldest and three. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Sarah 8:18

And for the time, the late 18 hundreds, the Wright children had a really great childhood. All of their emotional and physical needs were met. Something you don't really hear too often from the 18 hundreds,

Cole 8:30

they're fairly well todo or or middle class, I guess you would Upper

Sarah 8:34

middle, I would think. Upper middle. Yeah.

Cole 8:36

Yeah. I mean, their father is a minister and or a, a bishop.

Sarah 8:39

A bishop.

Cole 8:39

Mm-hmm. So he's gotta be, you know, not living lavishly, but he's in the position of esteem and

Sarah 8:45

Yeah. They don't want

Cole 8:46

not hurt. Yeah. They're not wanting for anything. Anything. Yeah.

Sarah 8:48

Susan and Milton believed all of their children needed to be well educated. Milton. Well, Susan went to college.

Cole 8:57

Oh, that's right. Yes.

Sarah 8:57

Mm-hmm.

Cole 8:58

Okay.

Sarah 8:58

She's a

Cole 8:59

little feminist for her time.

Sarah 9:00

Yes. And, um, Milton is an abolitionist too.

Cole 9:03

Oh, oh, shit.

Sarah 9:04

Yeah. Yeah. They're, they're, they're liberal leaning for sure. Well, this

Cole 9:06

is after the Civil War now, though.

Sarah 9:08

Well, he, he was raised an abolitionist, sorry, it is after civil war. It's

Cole 9:12

1869 and I'm against slavery bolds dance there.

Sarah 9:16

Listen,

Cole 9:17

Hey, hey.

Sarah 9:18

Living in today's world, I don't know anymore when it ended. Okay.

Cole 9:24

Yeah.

Sarah 9:25

Anyway, Milton did grow up with a family that did not support slavery.

Cole 9:30

Okay. Good to know.

Sarah 9:31

Milton had a large library that the children, were free to use whenever they wanted.

Cole 9:36

Mm-hmm.

Sarah 9:37

Susan encouraged curiosity and independent thought she would repair and build toys around the house. She also fixed appliances that were need, that needed fixing, like sewing machines. Um, there was a hand cranked washing machine. I don't know if they had those things. Yeah. But I was like, what appliances would she have fixed? So things like that.

Cole 9:56

This reminds me of the family from the hunting of Hill House. The mini series. One like the, the dad and the five kids and Oh, the moms at home. Like taking care of everything. And I know like he wasn't a minister in this series. Yeah. But just the The family layout. Yeah. Oh

Sarah 10:12

yeah. And the twins. But even though the twins didn't survive. Yeah. But yeah, I see it.

Cole 10:15

But yeah,

Sarah 10:16

Wilbur and Orville would later give credit to their mom for their mechanical skills.

Cole 10:22

Okay.

Sarah 10:22

They believed that they wouldn't have developed the same way with like their skills at mechanics

Cole 10:28

because they clearly wouldn't, we're

Sarah 10:29

so rust rusty at this.

Cole 10:30

Been naturally inquisitive and curious. And she just fostered that

Sarah 10:33

Yes.

Cole 10:34

In them.

Sarah 10:35

Yeah. They wouldn't have been, been able to like sharpen that talent.

Cole 10:38

Yeah. Some kids just naturally wanna know how machines work.

Sarah 10:41

And she encouraged it. Yeah. She said, let's figure it out together, boys. And they did, of course, Wilburn, Orville were very close. They often played together and they would start tinkering with toys and other things. They became very interested in aviation though. In 1878 when their dad brought home a toy wooden helicopter that was motorized by a rubber band.

Cole 11:08

Okay.

Sarah 11:09

And you would, I don't know how it word, wind it up, wind it up somehow, and then it would fly up and then slowly fall down.

Cole 11:16

Mm-hmm.

Sarah 11:17

The boys liked it so much that it eventually broke from overuse, which then just caused them to create their own version of it. Yeah. They're like, all right, well let's make one ourselves. And they both do look back at this as the point of them being interested in flying.

Cole 11:31

That's their book of Genesis moment.

Sarah 11:32

Mm-hmm. Now we're gonna go to the older boys, Reland and Lauren. They attended Hartsville College together in Indiana the same as their parents.

Cole 11:42

Mm-hmm.

Sarah 11:43

Neither of them got a degree though. They dropped out, they're like, ah, it's not for us. Okay. They moved back to Dayton and they lived in a boarding house for a year. This is, um, 1884 now. And then Reland would marry in 1886 and he moved to Kansas City, Missouri.

Cole 11:59

Okay.

Sarah 12:01

He stays there until the end.

Cole 12:03

Is he kind of out of the picture now or does he Yeah. Okay. He's more or less,

Sarah 12:06

yeah.

Cole 12:07

Yeah. Alright.

Susan Dies And Katharine Steps Up

Sarah 12:08

Um, Lauren also lived in Kansas City for a little bit with Rein, but then he would move back to Dayton in 1889 to be closer to the family because their mom, Susan was dying of tuberculosis.

Cole 12:20

Oh. Consumption.

Sarah 12:21

Mm-hmm.

Cole 12:22

She's on longer.

Sarah 12:24

It sounds like she had it for a while. I didn't write it down. Oh, yeah. But I think she had it for a few years.

Cole 12:29

There's, yeah. People could live with it 20 years at times. Yeah. Gosh. And it didn't always just infect. It doesn't,'cause it's still, it's still around, but like, it wasn't always just the lungs. It could be different organs. Really? Yeah. It could affect your livers, your intestines, your stomach.

Sarah 12:42

Oh, I didn't know that. I just

Cole 12:43

think of most commonly it was the lungs. That's what we think of, you know, doc holiday, that felt like, yeah. You think of doc holiday? Yeah. You could have tuberculosis of your intestines. Tuberculosis of your

Sarah 12:52

ew

Cole 12:53

kidneys and whatever.

Sarah 12:54

Okay.

Cole 12:55

Yeah.

Sarah 12:55

Oh, I don't wanna know about that. Anyway, moving on. Susan Wright passed away in 1889.

Cole 13:01

Alright. She never saw her kids go airborne.

Sarah 13:04

No. Milton the father, father, he wrote in his diary, she expired and thus went out the light of my home. Aw. Isn't that sad? Aw. Wilbur was Susan's main caregiver for the last two years of her life. He was staying by her side. He, he was all in. Katherine was only 15 when her mother died, and then she had to assume all of those responsibilities as a woman of the house.

Cole 13:32

Mm-hmm.

Sarah (2) 13:33

She would manage the household and whenever her father would travel, she would take care of everything. Milton Was a nice dad. He was really great. You can get a sense of that. Like he writes in his journal a lot. He loves his wife, but he still expected Katherine to rise to the occasion. He was like, you're going to high school. Yeah. You're graduating and you're gonna maintain this household. And she was like, I got you dad. And then she did great. She graduated high school in 1893.

Cole 14:02

1893.

Sarah 14:02

Mm-hmm. What else happened?

Cole 14:05

I dunno. For some reason that date just flew my head. For some reason,

Sarah 14:08

the Fox sisters were on their shit at this time.

Cole 14:11

Oh, okay.

Sarah 14:13

Listen to that episode guys. The Fox Sisters

Cole 14:15

crossover.

Sarah 14:16

Yeah.

Cole 14:17

We're playing Easter eggs for our previous ones. Ooh, the Bar of Bones Universe.

Sarah 14:21

Yes. I'm creating a universe here.

Cole 14:23

They're all gonna team up in our fanfic later.

Sarah 14:26

I wanna team up with morbid.

Cole 14:28

Ooh.

Sarah 14:29

Anyway, back to Lauren just for a second. Now

Cole 14:32

The second born.

Sarah 14:33

Yes.

Cole 14:33

I keep thinking of like Lauren Michaels to remember that it's a boy and uh, a girl. You know, it's spelled differently.

Sarah 14:38

Okay. I was like, it's Lauren. Yes.

Cole 14:40

Yeah, yeah.

Sarah 14:41

Um, in 1892, Lauren married and had four children with his wife.

Cole 14:47

Same year he had four children.

Sarah 14:48

Just kidding. No, no, no. I'm just giving a background of these two guys of what's happening, so I don't wanna forget about them, but this is what they're doing.

Cole 14:55

Mm-hmm.

Sarah 14:56

He did grow close to Wilbur, Orville and Catherine at this time when he went back home to be with his mom. Like I said, Reland is still Kansas. He's in Kansas City. He's in Kansas City. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And, Lauren stays in Dayton. I I also read that Reland and the family had some distance between them because no one liked Lyn's wife. Oh. And I read that that was true, but I never got an explanation as to why

Cole 15:26

she's a stone cold bitch.

Sarah 15:28

So I, so, so that's the distance there. Like, nothing really happened. It just was like, I'm pretty sure that's it. Like, they didn't like his wife,

Cole 15:34

she just didn't fit with the family vibe. Yeah. She just,

Sarah 15:38

I don't know.

Cole 15:39

That girl is not sure,

Sarah 15:40

is

Cole 15:40

just not my type of girl,

Sarah 15:42

I guess. So, yeah. Now back to Catherine. After Catherine graduated high school, she attended Oberlin College from 1893 to 1898, and she did get her bachelor's degree. She's

Cole 15:56

93 to 98. Mm-hmm. She's there? Mm-hmm. Okay.

Sarah 15:58

Well, she graduated high school in 1893, so, okay. She

Cole 16:02

Where's Oberlin? I've heard of that one.

Sarah 16:05

I forgot.

Cole 16:06

I don't wanna state that soon.

Sarah 16:07

Is it in Illinois? Look it up.

Cole 16:10

I'm gonna look it up.

Sarah 16:10

I, I thought I wrote it down, but I didn't.

Cole 16:13

Oberlin is in Ohio. Okay. That makes sense. Oh, it

Sarah 16:16

is Ohio's,

Cole 16:16

it's a private college. It's a private, private liberal arts college. In Oberlin, Ohio. Known for its strong academics, progressive history. First co-ed college to admit black students in renowned conservatory of music. Okay.

Sarah 16:29

Oh nice.

Cole 16:30

So anyway. Yeah, it's in Ohio.

Sarah 16:31

That

Cole 16:31

makes

Sarah 16:31

sense, sense.

Cole 16:31

Consider they lived in Dayton.

Sarah 16:33

That's why I didn't write it down because I probably just assumed I'd remember If it was somewhere far flu,

Cole 16:37

you would know like, where is that? It's in Nevada. Like you would note that.

Sarah 16:41

Uh, again, it's been a while, so we're shaking off the rust here. Yeah.

Cole 16:45

Dust off the bones.

Sarah 16:46

Nice. Um, Catherine is the only right child to get her college degree.

Cole 16:53

Really? Mm-hmm.

Sarah 16:54

The brothers never went to college.

Cole 16:56

And she was still the fifth favorite. Jeez. Probably. That's cute. You gotta call. Is it because she's a woman? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sarah 17:03

Yes it is.

Cole 17:04

Yeah. Yes. Exactly. That's what it's, unless one of their brothers turns out gay. Maybe she could move up, drink four.

Sarah 17:12

Jesus.

Cole 17:13

For the times.

Sarah 17:15

I know. I know. Anyway, she became a Latin. What?

Cole 17:21

She became Latina. What?

Sarah 17:23

We have to get it together. She's transracial in the 1890s. Anyway, Catherine, we,

Cole 17:30

she was the head of the NAACP chapter

Sarah 17:33

camp getting a laughing fit. Okay. Okay. We okay? Work through it. Work through it. We can do this.

Cole 17:38

Fuck us

Sarah 17:40

thought.

Cole 17:41

Focus.

Sarah 17:41

Okay. Focus. Okay. Catherine became a Latin and English teacher.

Cole 17:47

Cool. The language died on her shoulders.

Sarah 17:50

Yeah, I know. She's like the last one. The last one. Yeah.

Cole 17:53

Oh, I mean, it's still being taught.

Sarah 17:54

Yeah, that's true. Um, when Catherine returned to Dayton, Wilbur and Oroville were beginning their aviation experiments.

Cole 18:03

Okay.

Printing Press Origins Of Wright Brothers

Sarah 18:04

But before the boys actually really threw themselves into the business of flying, they got into a couple other fads of the time. Yeah. It would just seemed more, some, they needed to make some money first.

Cole 18:15

Missteps on the way, or not missteps, but some steps. A staff.

Sarah 18:19

Yeah.

Cole 18:19

Yeah.

Sarah 18:21

They owned and operated a printing press from 1889 to 1899.

Cole 18:27

For 10 years. Okay. 10 years. Yeah. Yeah.

Sarah 18:30

I know. It sounds like one

Cole 18:31

year

Sarah 18:31

or 10.

Cole 18:32

Yeah. A yeah. Yeah.

Sarah 18:32

It's weird.

Cole 18:33

Threw me for a second. Again. Headache. Yes.

Sarah 18:37

Orville was still in high school at this time. He was 18 years old though. Um, so he

Cole 18:41

That's a man.

Sarah 18:42

Yeah, that's a man

Cole 18:44

Back then,

Sarah 18:46

that was just an odd reaction. That's funny.

Cole 18:49

Had, was since is the 20th century adventure.

Sarah 18:51

Yeah. Okay. Orville was still in high school at the time and Wilbur was 22 years old. The press itself was designed by Orville.

Cole 19:01

Oh. Mm-hmm.

Sarah 19:03

So they just started this right out of high school basically. Yeah. I don't know what Wilbur did for, I think, oh, he was helping his mom during the, his younger years.

Cole 19:11

Wilbur, the older of the two of them. Mm-hmm. Okay. Wilbur then, or, okay.

Sarah 19:14

Mm-hmm. So Wilbur didn't really do anything on his own right out of high school'cause he was taking, taking care of his mom. So now they're ready to go. They published their own newspaper called The West Side News. It was a weekly paper for the residents of Dayton to read

Cole 19:30

On the west side.

Sarah 19:32

Yeah, only the west side.

Cole 19:33

Yeah.

Sarah 19:34

Their dad supported them. He would have the boys print things for the church. One contract with the church was for Wilbur to write an editorial about the United Brethren Church Commission.

Cole 19:47

Okay.

Sarah 19:47

And the cover page credited Wright Brothers job printers as the publisher. And this is the first time we ever see the famous phrase,

Cole 19:58

Wright Brothers.

Sarah 19:58

Wright Brothers. In reference to just Wilbur and Orville.

Cole 20:02

Yeah. Okay.

Sarah 20:03

And this was about 1889 when this was published.

Cole 20:06

Okay. Yeah. That makes started there.

Sarah 20:08

Mm-hmm. So dad was like, here you go. I'll get you started. And this was the first time they have the Wright brothers. The printing press grew. They were printing 500 to a thousand sheets per hour, thanks to Orville's improvements on the printing press. So he kept making it better.

Cole 20:22

Oh.

Sarah 20:22

And they were able to like out print other printing presses in the area because it was so impressive. Others would come to them and pay them to make printing presses for them as well.

Cole 20:34

Oh, all right. So it's become kind of a cottage industry for

Sarah 20:36

them. Mm-hmm. In 1893, Lauren began working for Oroville and Wilbur at the Printing press. He's around helping out. He's

Cole 20:45

working for his younger brothers.

Sarah 20:47

It's really, he know. Well, it's

Cole 20:50

a family business.

Sarah 20:51

It it, yes. But

Cole 20:52

yes,

Sarah 20:53

it's kind of, Lauren does this because he knows that the brothers want to. Invent flying.

Cole 21:00

Okay.

Sarah 21:00

So he's trying to help them and a family business. Sure. I'm I, I bet. Because it was successful. So he's like, Hey, what's going on here? You know,

Cole 21:07

I need a job.

Sarah 21:09

I got some kids, I had four kids in one year.

Cole 21:11

Yeah.

Sarah 21:12

but yes. Um, Lauren would probably tell you that he did it to help his brothers invent flying.

Cole 21:18

Yeah. Without me, they couldn't have done it, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We don't know your name, Lauren.

Sarah 21:25

Yeah. Um, this, I thought this was interesting, it's a little sidebar, but orville's high school friend, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, who is a black man, he later became a famous writer and poet. He began the Dayton TA newspaper. Oh. And the boys printed it for him.

Cole 21:42

Okay. Very progressive with them again.

Sarah 21:44

Mm-hmm.

Cole 21:45

Runs in the family.

Sarah 21:46

Yeah. Yep.

Cole 21:47

They're on the right side of history. Hey,

Sarah 21:51

hey. I never thought of that. Doing this whole thing. That's funny. That's funny. That's why

Cole 21:55

you need me.

Sarah 21:57

Job security, huh? Yeah. But yes, the Dayton Tad was a weekly paper for the black community in Dayton. However, Wilburn Orville only printed. Three issues of it, because they sold their printing press. Okay. They saw that newspapers were like a, a fad at the time. There was a newspaper on every corner. Different companies, different people doing them.

Cole 22:20

Like a podcast?

Sarah (2) 22:21

Yeah, just like a podcast. Um, we're not trying to invent things though, and like get a nest egg going from this. Just They are, they're, they're determined. The boys really started ramping up with their inventions and experiments after a man named, I had to look this one up too. He's German, A man named Lily Anth.

Cole 22:43

Otto Li

Sarah 22:44

Yes.

Cole 22:45

Yeah, yeah,

Sarah 22:45

yeah.

Cole 22:46

Okay.

Sarah 22:46

Otto Lillian Al died in 1896, and then the boys were really like, okay, we need to get moving on this now. It's our

Cole 22:54

turn.

Sarah 22:54

Yeah. Well, they like, he inspired them and I, I wonder if just the news,'cause he was the, he was a famous gl, right? Yes.

Cole 23:02

So yeah,

Sarah 23:03

he was the first to create wings for flight.

Cole 23:06

Okay. It wasn't technically like aero. I don't know exactly what aeronautics are to find on, but there was no energy created.

The Bicycle Shop Funds Flight

Sarah 23:14

Right. Air. There was no motor. He's just, yeah. He's just gliding. He couldn't control air. Yeah. He was just gliding. Yeah. Yep. Now, the boys were really interested in making money fast. They needed to fund their dream and they saw this new bicycle craze that was everywhere at the moment. And the boys themselves loved riding bicycles and they were always. Improving their bicycles and fixing them, repairing them, adding, things to them as they do, they like to bells and whistles. Bells and whistles. Yes. And their friends would come to them when they needed repairs

Cole 23:46

Yeah. Bring a penny fathering in.

Sarah 23:47

Yeah.

Cole 23:48

Get your wheels oiled and lubed.

Sarah 23:51

So the Wright brothers were like, let's open up a bicycle repair shop. Mm-hmm.

Cole 23:56

Do they sell vacuums too?

Sarah 23:58

Oh, no.

Cole 23:59

That's a weird, reference I just made because, and basically for some reason where we live, there's bicycles and vacuum cleaners go together in stores. Yep. There's like three or four that are just. Vacuum cleaners and bicycles, and I've never in my head associated them as two items you'd buy together or shop for at the same time. But

Sarah 24:18

yeah,

Cole 24:19

it's a thing in mid-Michigan. I don't know.

Sarah 24:21

I have taken a vacuum to get repaired there and then browse the bicycles as I'm waiting for the vacuum cleaner.

Cole 24:26

Yeah, it's weird.

Sarah 24:27

It's so strange. But I

Cole 24:28

love it. It's like having, like we have microwaves and pogo sticks. That's what we have here. Why?

Sarah (2) 26:12

Yeah, so they start their own bicycle repair shop. They also will sell bicycles at this shop. It was called the right cycle company.

Cole 26:23

They're not the most original when it comes to branding. They're very literal. Just Yes. Right. Brothers this right, brothers that.

Sarah 26:29

Well, back then everything kind of was, yes. Yeah. I don't think you could trick people like, or you could easily trick people and they didn't want that. They wanted to be very blunt.

Cole 26:38

Yeah. They didn't have like bone willie's bike store.

Sarah 26:42

Yeah. Um, Wilbur and Orville also had a machinist working for them at the bicycle shop. His name is Charlie Taylor and he would end up helping with their experiments with flying. Okay. Eventually too. So I just like to give him a shout out'cause he exists as well. These boys didn't do this alone is pretty much what I'm getting at here with this whole story. Okay. You learn how much help and s not help, but support they had.

Cole 27:06

Mm-hmm. Sponsors.

Sarah 27:07

Yeah. The right cycle company was very successful. It ran from 1892 to 1907.

Cole 27:15

Yeah.

Sarah 27:16

They would have five locations by the end of it, and the final one was used for their flying experiments and it's where they would build their first motorized plane. The fourth location of the bicycle shop, was the last one that they did any bicycle business in, and it's also the only one left standing today.

Cole 27:36

Where's that at?

Sarah 27:37

It is located on South William Street in Dayton, Ohio.

Cole 27:40

Oh.

Sarah 27:40

And it's open to the public.

Cole 27:42

It's Is it like a museum or a functioning bike shop?

Sarah 27:45

It is a part of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park.

Cole 27:49

Okay.

Sarah 27:50

Referred to today as the Right Cycle Company complex.

Cole 27:53

Okay.

Sarah 27:54

Cool. It's so funny you asked the perfect questions. Yeah. That went straight with my script.

Cole 27:58

Yeah. Is it a functioning bike shop or is it a museum?

Sarah 28:02

Can we do that every time? Yeah, just you ask the questions that I assume you will. That's awesome. No, I like the surprises though, too. Those are my, those are my favorite really. But yes, this is a museum with multiple attractions. Of course it has the Wright Brothers, but it also has Paul Dunbar in the museum.

Cole 28:19

Okay.

Sarah 28:19

This makes me kind of wanna go to Dayton, Ohio.

Cole 28:23

I think I've been there. I think I've driven through it.

Sarah 28:25

I mean, yeah, but like go there with a new set of eyes. Like actually go there as a tourist instead of just like, right. Wouldn't that be funny?

Cole 28:34

Yeah. The tourism industry in Dayton, Ohio.

Sarah 28:37

The Wright brothers, it's everywhere.

28:39

Yeah.

Cole 28:39

It's not even thing, they're most famous. It's not even the state that has them on the license plate,

Sarah (2) 28:43

which is silly to me. It's so silly to me.

Cole 28:46

Yeah. We even got to how they wound up in

Sarah 28:48

Yeah.

Cole 28:49

The Carolinas yet.

Sarah 28:50

I know. It's crazy. We will,

Cole 28:53

didn't Randy Newman do a song called Dayton, Ohio? Someone did a remos piano bell. I think it was Randy Newman. I dunno, go

Sarah 29:01

ahead. I'll have to look for it.

Cole 29:03

I'm gonna see if I can find it, if it's true or. So, yeah, Randy Newman has a song that I thought was called Dayton, Ohio, but it's not just Dayton, Ohio. It's the full title is Dayton, Ohio, 1903.

Sarah 29:16

Oh, see,

Cole 29:17

and it's about the Wright Brothers, essentially. Yeah. It's all about, yeah. And the song came out in 1972 off his album Sail Away. So yeah.

Sarah 29:27

Anyway. Their bicycle business was so successful that they made somewhere between 2000 and 3000 a year, which equates pretty good. Equates to 77,000 to 116,000 a year. Yeah. So

Cole 29:44

five's day standards

Sarah 29:44

pretty good. Yeah. By today's standards, they were able to save up$5,000 to finance their experiments. This, that's about 194,000 today.

Cole 29:54

Okay.

Sarah 29:55

By 1902, the brothers were not very involved in their bicycle shop anymore. The day-to-day stuff was managed mostly by Lauren, Lauren and Catherine

Cole 30:05

Cath. Oh,

Sarah 30:06

mm-hmm. Ation. She's still teaching.

Cole 30:08

Yeah.

Sarah 30:09

Catherine's still teaching, still minding the household because her dad is still traveling everywhere as a bishop and helping the brothers with their bicycle shop and their experiments.

Cole 30:19

Okay.

Sarah 30:20

They sold their bicycle company in 1907.

Cole 30:23

Not to Lauren though, right? No.

Sarah 30:25

Nope. The whole family's in it together. Yeah, they all move with the brothers. Okay. In 1909, this is when they converted their fifth bicycle shop building into the machine shop

Kitty Hawk And Wing Warping Breakthrough

Cole 30:38

in Flint, Michigan. I'm just joking because that's like a music venue in Flint.

Sarah 30:42

Oh yes, that's right.

Cole 30:43

I've never been to it'cause Mike and I, bands don't go there, but

Sarah 30:46

Oh

Cole 30:46

yeah, I've heard things.

Sarah 30:48

I've never been, I just know it exists.

Cole 30:50

Yeah.

Sarah 30:50

Okay. The boys do give credit to their bicycle days, um, saying that it let them practice and improve on their mechanical skills.

Cole 30:59

Mm-hmm.

Sarah 31:00

This is a great example of it. So Catherine was like hanging around with the boys while they were tinkering with things, trying to figure out this wing warping for the plane.

Cole 31:09

Okay.

Sarah 31:09

So they had the glider. But they need to learn how to manipulate the wings to do what they want them to do for direction. And they called it wing warping. And Wilbur twisted a bicycle inner tube box to show Orville his breakthrough idea for warping aircraft wings and how they can imitate bird's wings. So they pretty much played with the bicycles to learn how to make airplanes.

Cole 31:37

Okay.

Sarah 31:38

And maybe that's what the bicycle shop and the vacuum cleaners do because they repair vacuum cleaners at the store in Bay City.

Cole 31:46

What, what?

Sarah 31:47

So maybe they use their mechanical

Cole 31:48

skills. I don't even think the same parts.

Sarah 31:50

No, they're not

Cole 31:51

like, and there's, I'm sure there's some overlap, but like no more than like any other household appliance. Like what? It's so baffling to me.

Sarah 31:58

Come to Bay City, get a vacuum and a bicycle. Yeah. One stop shop.

Cole 32:02

Yeah.

Sarah 32:03

Okay. The boys first experiments with wing warping were made with like small plane kites that were flown in the summer of 1899. The wing warping that they figured out how to do, allowed them to control the direction of the kite. So for them that was success. They were like, all right, now we're gonna make a full sized glider and try this wing warping out. In September of 1900, the boys took their first flying machine to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to test it out.

Cole 32:36

Why do they go from Ohio to North Carolina?

Sarah 32:40

Lauren actually helped them pick the location.

Cole 32:43

Okay.

Sarah 32:43

Because it was. A little more of a private area. Not a lot of prying eyes, but mainly a lot of space, a lot of wind and good elevation.

Cole 32:53

Okay.

Sarah 32:55

They never lived there, to my knowledge.

Cole 32:56

Yeah. I was like, yeah.

Sarah 32:57

Yeah. They would go there for the experiments and then come back to Dayton.

Cole 33:00

Okay. So it'd be Lauren or someone like just researched ideal locations?

Sarah 33:06

That's my takeaway from it. Yeah. I didn't search too hard, but I did read that, so. Okay. Um, I do believe that that's the case, that they were like, this is a good spot to do it because of the physics of it all. Okay. Yeah. When they made their first trip to test the glider, Catherine lent Wilbur her trunk, and she packed food for them while they were gone. She let Orville know that she fired the guy that he put in charge of the bicycle shop.

Cole 33:32

Oh. Yeah.

Sarah 33:33

She's like, by the way, I fired this guy.

Cole 33:35

What was he doing?

Sarah 33:36

I don't know.

Cole 33:37

Embezzling,

Sarah 33:39

who knows? Probably embezzling

Cole 33:40

pennies.

Sarah 33:40

Stealing something.

Cole 33:41

Pennies petty. Follow things. I just like need reference. Any chance I get to reference penny far things.'cause they're a ridiculous thing. Like

Sarah 33:49

bring them

Cole 33:49

back. There's hipsters who are, but anyway,

Sarah 33:53

we did see them quite a bit in the millennial days. Oh yeah. In like 2014. Yeah. We did see a couple 13.

Cole 33:59

Yeah.

Sarah 33:59

They were trying to come millennials. Yeah, we can do better.

Cole 34:02

Yeah.

Sarah 34:03

No, I don't care. I want them back. We can't do better. I want them back. Ugh. Wilbur and Orville would test their first right glider in October of 1900. So they went to Kitty Hawk in September. They're still there. They have to like, put things together when they're there. So about a month later, they're ready to test their first glider.

Cole 35:28

Okay.

Sarah 35:29

And they flew it like a kite, even though it was huge.

Cole 35:33

So they're not on it,

Sarah 35:34

not on it right

Cole 35:34

now. There's no one, it's not a man's aircraft.

Sarah 35:37

It, it can hold, a man can, but they're testing it. But they try it first like a kite.

Cole 35:41

Okay. Smart.

Sarah 35:42

Mm-hmm. And they weren't quite there yet. They, they, they still needed to improve. But Wilbur was asked to speak to the Western Society of Engineers in Chicago in September of 1901. So even though they weren't where they wanted to be, they were further ahead than others. And the Western Society of Engineers wanted to hear what he had to say. Hmm. Wilbur didn't wanna go, he didn't like public speaking. Both him and Orville are very much the awkward, inventors. Yeah.

Cole 36:13

We're into it for pure research.

Sarah 36:14

Yeah. Yeah. Like they didn't wanna do it, but Catherine

Cole 36:18

mm-hmm.

The 1903 Flights That Changed History

Sarah 36:19

Catherine wrote to her dad, wrote a letter and said that she nagged him into going. She also said that she helped Wilbur pick out an outfit. She wanted him to look swell and Wilbur has bad taste in clothing, so she chose Orville's clothes to give to Wilbur. Okay. So she outfitted him for this speech?

Cole 36:38

Yeah. His presentation.

Sarah 36:39

Mm-hmm. Catherine also in a letter to her dad said that she felt the meeting in Chicago would provide Wilbur with the opportunity to get acquainted with some scientific men, which may do him a lot of good.

Cole 36:53

Okay.

Sarah 36:54

She understood connections.

Cole 36:56

She might find some friends and some peers and

Sarah 36:57

Yeah.

Cole 36:57

Networks.

Sarah 36:58

Right. Networking connections. And I think the boys were just like, we don't care. We don't need anyone. Yeah. And she was like,

37:04

we

Cole 37:04

have each other and a flight in our planes.

Sarah 37:08

That is kind of the vibe of the boys. It is. And Catherine's like, we can do a lot more if we just network though. Like it's, we

Cole 37:14

can do more. I don't know if either married and I hope you don't tell me till it becomes germane.

Sarah 37:19

Okay. In October of 1902, this is when they had their first successful gliding experiment with control. Okay. So they could glide with control now, but they're still not powering their own plane, but they can control the glide. So that's the next step.

Cole 37:37

Okay.

Sarah 37:38

Before leaving on their 1902 Kitty Hawk trip, Orville and Wilbur worked at home on fabric wings. They were like literally sewing them and making them, and I just thought this was a cute little window into their home life because Katherine write writes a lot of letters to her father. So this is another letter to her father, she says, will spins the sewing machine around by the hour while orb squats around marking the places to sew. There is no place in the house to live, but I'll be lonesome enough by this time next week and wish that I could have some of this racket around.

Cole 38:14

Hmm.

Sarah 38:15

It's just, I like that little picture that it painted. Yeah. Just them feverishly working. Yeah. And she's just kind of watching them in attending the home and it's annoying, but I am gonna miss it when it's gone. Yeah. Because they basically go to Kitty Hawk, do the experiments, figure out what they have to do, go back to Dayton, do tweak, tweak this and that, and then they go back to Kitty Hawk. It's this back and forth, back and forth all the time.

Cole 38:36

I, I wanna see how the distance is from

Sarah 38:38

Yeah,

Cole 38:38

Dayton,

Sarah 38:39

I didn't look it up

Cole 38:40

to Kitty Hawk.

Sarah 38:40

I'm gonna pause it.

Cole 38:42

So today, if you are driving from Dayton, Ohio to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, it'd be almost exactly 11 hours.

Sarah 38:51

Oh wow.

Cole 38:51

If you're a bicycling, it'd take three days.

Sarah 38:53

Oh wow.

Cole 38:54

Yeah.

Sarah 38:55

I mean, they

Cole 38:55

would stay there. So it's seven 50 miles roughly.

Sarah 38:58

They would stay there for like months. Or so, yeah, they would stay there for a long time. No. Yeah, they would stay there for a long time. So I don't know where they stayed when they were, if they had a second house. I didn't look that far into that because I didn't want this to be a two-parter, so I had to cut it off. But if you guys want more on this, I can definitely do a two-parter. Um, and I'll just redo it, but I wanted to keep it. One, the boys returned to the outer Banks of North Carolina in September of 1903. They spent seven weeks assembling, testing and repairing their powered flying machine. They were constantly testing it, so they haven't really done it yet, right? Mm-hmm. September, 1903. They've done little tests here and there, but nothing major. Finally, on December 17th, 1903,

Cole 39:48

just barely made it into the year. I should just wait until January 1st.

Sarah (2) 39:53

Why?

Cole 39:53

Because then it's starting off the new year.

Sarah 39:56

Oh. I

Cole 39:57

dunno.

Sarah 39:58

Yeah. But now they can say they invented flight one year earlier than

Cole 40:01

Oh, yeah.

Sarah 40:02

You know what I mean? So,

Cole 40:03

yeah.

Patents Money And Public Doubt

Sarah 40:04

But in December of 1903, Oroville made the first successful powered flight. He covered 121 feet for 12 seconds.

Cole 40:14

Okay. And it was like less than a half minute. It was like 18 seconds and it was somewhere around there.

Sarah 40:19

Well, then Wilbur flew it and he went 175 feet also in 12 seconds.

Cole 40:24

Okay.

Sarah 40:25

Orville went again 200 feet in 15 seconds, and then the final flight of that day was Wilbur flying 825 feet for 59 seconds.

Cole 40:36

Wow.

Sarah 40:37

This was the first time in history that a heavier than air flying machine demonstrated power and sustained flight under complete control of the pilot. Very specific.

Cole 40:49

Yeah.

Sarah 40:49

That's for a reason.

Cole 40:51

There's a lot of other people who've claimed they've invented.

Sarah 40:53

Mm-hmm.

Cole 40:54

Or discu. It's, is it invented or discovered?'cause the laws of aeronautics.

Sarah 40:58

Invented powered flight.

Cole 41:00

Invented powered flight. Yes.

Sarah 41:01

Invented controlled flight. Invented powered flight.

Army Demo Crash And Aftermath

Cole 41:04

But you discover the laws of aerodynamics, I guess.

Sarah 41:07

Probably, yeah. Yeah. But this was very specific. Yeah. Like, like, um, yeah, like Otto Lill Andal. He obviously didn't invent flying. Yeah. They give him credit for inventing the glider.

Cole 41:20

Yeah.

Sarah 41:21

So, yeah.

Cole 41:21

Yeah.

Sarah 41:23

These first flights were witnessed by five locals. That's it.'cause again, they like to stay private.

Cole 41:28

Yeah.

Sarah 41:28

Because a lot of people were trying to invent powered flight at this time. Yeah. It was like a race, basically. Like who's gonna do it first?

Cole 41:35

Yeah. It's like a lot of the scientific community at the time, like knew it was possible.

Sarah 41:38

Yes.

Cole 41:39

Theoretically.

Sarah 41:39

Yeah. It was like right there.

Cole 41:40

How do we do it? Yeah. How do we find the common, how do we tap the laws of aerodynamics? Yeah. Yeah.

Sarah 41:46

There's even, um, a lot of the planes would get launched instead of having a runway

Cole 41:50

aeronautics. Not aerodynamics.

Sarah 41:52

Oh, I didn't hear that. Aeronautic. I meant to say, hear that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're sorry.

Cole 41:55

Correct. Myself.

Sarah 41:55

Good call. I didn't hear it. I just heard aeronautics.'cause that, yeah. Anyway. Yeah. So there were only five locals there because the rights wanted their privacy. And then once they succeeded, they. Packed up and went to Dayton because they were like, all right, we did it. Now we're gonna like really hone in on this and figure it out, but we don't want everyone to be watching us.

Cole 42:14

What if they were just like we did? It's when are the next thing we're gonna invent?

Sarah 42:16

Yeah. Yeah. Thanks

Cole 42:17

guys. We met scuba gear next, like what? They just do it for the fun of doing it and then we went to some another. Yeah.

Sarah 42:23

Um, by October of 1905, they could stay in the air for 39 minutes and they could do circles 39 minutes and simple maneuvers.

Cole 42:33

Okay. Huh.

Sarah 42:35

So a few years, just two years later. Yeah. Yeah.

Cole 42:37

It is always amazing without me knowing the steps of it, how quick the whole world got on board airplanes. Yes. Like how short of a span from 1903 to, I mean, world War I just a little bit over 10 years later and there's planes in the war.

Sarah 42:53

Yeah. It's crazy.

Cole 42:54

Yeah.

Sarah 42:55

As they gained fame and notoriety, they realized that they didn't have any of their inventions protected. Ah, uh oh,

Cole 43:04

patented.

Sarah 43:05

Mm-hmm. So then they got into even more hiding. They just kept even more private. They sort of stopped everything for a little bit and then focused on the legal stuff. Mm-hmm. This is now 19 0 6, 19 0 7, and the public is becoming skeptical of their claim because only five people saw it and then no one saw it again.

Cole 43:23

Yeah.

Sarah 43:24

But, at this point though, the rights weren't really concerned about the public image. They were already in negotiations with. Certain financiers.

Cole 43:35

Okay.

Sarah 43:36

They had government purchasing agents in Europe and America, so they just didn't care about the general public at the time. They were business-minded. Mm-hmm. In February of 1908, they signed a contract with the US Army. They sold one of their planes to them and they received$250,000 for that plane.

Cole 43:56

Wow.

Sarah 43:57

8.8 million today.

Cole 44:00

This is

Sarah 44:01

one plane. One plane. Mm-hmm.

Cole 44:03

Wow.

Sarah 44:03

Yeah, and by this point, the plane could fly for a little over an hour with an average speed of 40 miles per hour. And there was enough room for a passenger in this plane, two

Cole 44:15

people. So you could have two people. Two people, okay.

Sarah 44:16

Mm-hmm.

Cole 44:17

Yeah.

Sarah 44:18

On September 17th, 1908, Oroville was flying his plane doing a demonstration for the US Army with a passenger. And the passenger was Lieutenant Thomas e Selfridge. During this flight, the right propeller, split and shattered, causing the plane to crash from an altitude of about a hundred feet.

Cole 44:40

Okay.

Sarah 44:41

Orville was very injured and Lieutenant Selfridge, he suffered from a fractured skull and died.

Cole 44:49

So is he the first human to die in the air?

Sarah 44:52

He is the first to die in a powered airplane crash.

Cole 44:56

Wow.

Sarah 44:57

Yes.

Cole 44:58

How come the, the brothers never get that credit? That why did we invent flight? We invented dying in flight.

Sarah 45:04

Well,

Cole 45:06

I killed the first man in the sky.

Sarah 45:08

Orville's injuries were very bad. He broke his femur bone and his hip.

Cole 45:14

Oh,

Sarah 45:15

he had lacerations to a scalp and he had multiple broken ribs. He was in the hospital for seven weeks and he suffered from chronic pain in his leg and hip for the rest of his life. Upon hearing of Orville's plane crash, Catherine immediately left her teaching job to be by his side. She helped take care of him, during his entire stay at the hospital. So that whole seven week period, Catherine then brought him back to Dayton for the rest of his recovery. He needed a wheelchair for the next several weeks. And then he slowly moved to crutches until he was able to fully walk again. Okay. An Army surgeon was quoted as saying it is dubious whether the aeroplane inventor would have survived his injuries had it not been for the loving care of his sister.

Cole 46:03

Hmm.

Sarah 46:04

I love Catherine Wright. She's one of my new, historical crushes,

Cole 46:09

and she's still, uh, Catherine Wright at this point. Mm-hmm. She's not married. Married herself. Okay.

Sarah 46:14

None of them are yet.

Cole 46:15

Okay.

Sarah 46:15

Nope. In December of 1908, Wilbur went off to France to demonstrate their plane looking to make more deals.

Cole 46:23

Mm-hmm.

Sarah 46:24

Wilbur wanted Orville and Catherine to come with him. He wanted Catherine to act as their social manager and leave teaching. He wrote to her saying, we will be needing a social manager and can pay enough salary to make the proposition attractive.

Cole 46:39

Yeah. They're essentially millionaires by our standards. Mm-hmm.

Smithsonian Feud Over Who Flew First

Sarah 46:42

Yeah. They're like, we'll pay you. Yeah. And she was like, oh yeah, all right. Let's do it. Yeah. And so she quit teaching and went, so Orville and Katherine met up with Wilbur early in 1909.

Cole 46:53

I just thought of her. But they're such a future in Latin, though.

Sarah 46:56

Yeah.

Cole 46:57

We are literally inventing something that's never been done before. You're sticking with the language. People haven't spoke colloquially in centuries.

Sarah 47:04

Yes. Catherine would introduce the boys to counts, Dukes and Kings. King Alfonso of Spain said that Catherine was the ideal American. She was also the subject of a World magazine article titled. The American girl whom all Europe is watching. Mm. I know. She was like making waves.

Cole 47:26

Nice.

Sarah 47:26

There's a quote from the article that says, few know what she has done. Few know how hard she has worked to make her brothers machine a working accomplishment, but the Wright brothers realize it all and pay her due tribute hats off then to Ms. Catherine Wright, who has ever been the mainstay of her brothers in their many efforts to conquer the air.

Cole 47:47

Okay. So they are giving her mm-hmm. Her, her time in the spotlight. Yeah. They're not trying to, you know, we're the inventors. You're just the woman stay in the back. Yep. They're, they're giving her equal footing. Yeah.

Sarah 47:58

Yep. Mama raised them right. Hi. Right. Sorry.

Cole 48:03

Ah, that one flew over my head.

Sarah 48:06

Shut off

Cole 48:07

briefly. Like that guy that Orville got killed. Oh. Was

Sarah 48:11

before leaving Europe, Catherine was awarded the French Legion of Honor along with her brothers. So all three of them were. Hmm. And then when they returned home to Dayton, Ohio in May of 1909, they were met with great celebration. And then that June they went to Washington DC and met with the president of the United States. Who is it at this time?

Cole 48:32

Roosevelt? No. Right after Roosevelt Harding. Taft. Taft

Sarah 48:36

Taft. Yes. William Howard Taft.

Cole 48:40

Big old Taft.

Sarah 48:41

Yeah.

Cole 48:42

He was our fattest president.

Sarah 48:43

Mm-hmm.

Cole 48:44

So far.

Sarah 48:45

Yeah. So far.

Cole 48:47

He did not get stuck in a bathtub though, that

Sarah 48:48

bath. No, but it's fun to think about. Anyway, Taft presented them with medals from the Arrow Club of America, and he referred to Catherine as the most important member of the family.

Cole 49:02

Oh

Sarah 49:02

yeah. Progressive.

Cole 49:04

Yeah.

Sarah 49:05

Now, Catherine was still working on patents and battling over who technically flew first. She was helping fight that fight while the boys were still making the deals. Oh. And doing all that. So that's still happening in the background. I think

Cole 49:17

they meant between the two of them at first. Like they're gonna bicker over Who flew between the two

Sarah 49:20

brothers? Like Yeah. Sorry.

Cole 49:21

Who gives a shit between the two of them? That's petty?

Sarah 49:23

No, they're basically the same person. They don't care.

Cole 49:25

Okay. Other people, competitors. Yes. Yeah. Okay.

Sarah 49:27

That

Cole 49:27

makes sense.

Sarah 49:27

So that's just going on in the background constantly. Yeah. Throughout all of this. And the Smithsonian Institute credited Samuel Langley as the inventor of the first powered airplane. However, his 1903 aircraft was not able to actually fly until 1914, after this guy named Glen Curtis made major modifications to it.

Cole 49:55

Oh.

Sarah 49:56

So this is gonna get kind of messy'cause it's legal and there's some shadiness

Cole 49:59

here. I think it's like what? Like Langley Air Force space and everything's named after I've heard that name. Like probably in the Air Force Lang. There's a lot of things named Langley.

Sarah 50:05

Yeah. He was something else before all. Like he was something I think the CA, this could have been like a two to three parter. So I didn't wanna go down too many roads. But he was someone, yes, he was someone. Mm-hmm. Um, so in, we're jumping ahead here just so we get the legal stuff out of the way, okay? Mm-hmm. In 1914, Lauren

Cole 50:26

the

Sarah 50:26

right?

Cole 50:27

Yeah.

Sarah 50:27

He spied on Glenn Curtis. When they were trying to make Samuel Langley's 1903, he, it was called an Aome fly, but they made modifications to it. But the reason Curtis was doing this was because he wanted to prove that Langley was the first to fly and not the rights, because Langley wanted to skirt around. The patents.

Cole 50:50

Ah,

Sarah 50:51

he didn't, he, he wanted to do whatever he wanted to do because Langley's dead at this point.

Cole 50:55

Okay. Yeah. And his patent that he took might have existed or did exist, but even that didn't come into fruition. Is that kind of

Deaths Grief And Hawthorne Hill

Sarah 51:05

Well, there is there, so there's so many patents going around. And this one did go through, like the rights did claim that they were the first ones and there was a patent for it. Okay. Like that did happen, but people kept fighting it, so they had to keep defending it. Gotcha. And Curtis is one of those.

Cole 51:23

Okay.

Sarah 51:24

And he was saying Langley did it first because Langley was testing his aome at the exact same time. Mm-hmm. As the rights were in December of 1903. Mm-hmm. But he never got it to fly with control.

Cole 51:35

Yeah.

Sarah 51:36

So he never could. But Curtis wants that to have happened because then the patent for the Wright brothers doesn't exist anymore because they're not the first. So. That's what Curtis was trying to do, Lauren. Right. I wanna say like Brother Lauren, but that sounds like a monk.

Cole 51:53

Yeah.

Sarah 51:55

So Lauren was caught spying on them in 1914. He had a camera Oh. And he was caught spying on them, and they took the film out. But according to Lauren, they were not successful in making this Samuel Langley's Aome fly. But the Smithsonian still gave him credit for it, which is weird. So I looked into it more and I was like, okay, who is Samuel Langley? And I don't know exactly what he did, but I know that he's from Massachusetts and he is from like the blue blood line. Okay. Like John Adams and, um, Mathers.

Cole 52:27

Okay.

Sarah 52:27

Those two last names. Yeah. Yeah. And the government, the US Army invested in him. Okay. They gave him money. Gotcha. To make this, they, they, they, they poured everything in him. The Wright brothers paid for everything themselves. He had money given to him, and I don't know why. But the US government just put they bet on him and not the Wright brothers. Okay. And I pretty sure that's why the Smithsonian Institute was like, we are giving credit to Langley. And I think that's why we have such confusion with it today. So even though it seems pretty obvious that Langley wasn't the first one to do it because it, his aome could only fly with modifications to it. Like, okay. Well, that

Cole 53:08

he didn't himself do.

Sarah 53:09

Exactly. Yeah.

Cole 53:10

Yeah.

Sarah (2) 53:11

However, the Smithsonian refused to retract their statement, they, they sided with Curtis in 1914 and they said, yeah. And then in 1928, Orville lent his restored 1903 airplane. To the science of museum in London. And he told the Smithsonian he's not giving it to them until they apologize and they did apologize in 1942.

Cole 53:38

Oh, so now the Smiths, if you go to the Smithsonian today mm-hmm. Well, yeah. Today. Yeah. But, uh, 10 years ago or more.

Sarah 53:46

Yeah.

Cole 53:46

Um, it would've said that

Sarah 53:48

the Wright brothers.

53:49

Yeah.

Cole 53:49

Okay. Good.

Sarah 53:49

Okay. But if you went there in 1930 Yeah. It would've said Langley.

Cole 53:54

Okay. Yeah.

Sarah 53:55

So that's a bit of a sidebar that's kind of off track, but it also is important because that's a big part of what they were doing this whole time as well. Mm-hmm. Okay. So let's get back to the family. We're out of the legal world. That's the hard part. We're done In 1911, Catherine and her brothers would have their last Christmas together. All of them.

Cole 54:16

Okay.

Sarah 54:17

Wilbur passed away of typhoid fever in May of 1912.

Cole 54:22

Hmm. Wilbur. And he was the one that was injured in the crash or is that Orville or Orville's.

Sarah 54:28

Orville, yeah.

Cole 54:28

Okay.

Sarah 54:29

Orville's the younger of the two closer ages Catherine,

Cole 54:32

right. Or is the younger injured in the crash?

Sarah 54:35

Mm-hmm. Okay.

Cole 54:35

Mm-hmm. Okay. So Wilbur dies of Typhus in 1911. Mm-hmm.

Sarah 54:38

12. 12.

Cole 54:39

Mm-hmm.

Sarah 54:40

Yep. After Wilbur's burial in the family plot in Dayton's Woodland Cemetery, Milton wrote in his diary.

Cole 54:48

Oh yeah. Dad.

Sarah 54:48

Dad, he's still alive. Yep. He writes in his diary, probably Orville and Catherine felt his loss the most. They say little. Mm-hmm. So that's just sad. They all write quite a bit. There's a lot, if you guys wanna like look up journals and letters, they're out there. There's a lot of them. They wrote a lot. So you can really see what's going on inside their heads. Upon Wilbur's death in his will, he gave Catherine, Lauren and Reland$50,000 each. That's about$1.7 million today.

Cole 55:22

Yeah.

Sarah 55:23

And he gave his dad a thousand dollars, which is like 34,000 today. Hmm. Yeah. And of course he left like the business, the company to Orville.

Cole 55:32

Okay.

Sarah 55:34

After Wilbur died, Orville's enthusiasm for aviation waned quite a bit, and he leaned heavily on Catherine. At this point,

Cole 55:41

one of my wings was gone.

Sarah 55:42

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's a good way to think of it. Aw. Mm-hmm. I know you were doing it to make fun of like you were making fun of him, but then

Cole 55:50

it's sad, just, just commentary. Not everything I do is making fun. It's just making something.

Sarah 55:56

Okay.

Cole 55:57

Sorry.

Sarah 55:59

It's okay. Wanna pause

Cole 56:01

and we're back.

Sarah 56:03

Um, but Catherine would continue to encourage Orville to keep going and keep moving. They actually had plans to, the whole family had plans to make a mansion called Hawthorne Hill. It is in Oakwood, Ohio. And it's still around today?

Cole 56:20

You visit it?

Sarah 56:21

You can. I don't know if it's like free or costs or anything.

Cole 56:25

That's good. But yes, fine. It's a good public thing. Okay, cool.

Sarah 56:27

They broke ground on Hawthorne Hill in August of 1912. A year and a half later, Catherine, Orville and Milton all move in.

Cole 56:36

Just kind of, this is just my take. It's kind of weird that these are like, they're like adults.

Sarah 56:42

Mm-hmm.

Cole 56:42

Who are like,

Sarah 56:43

none

Cole 56:43

of them are married. We're all gonna live together.

Sarah 56:45

No one's married.

Cole 56:46

Why? All right.

Sarah 56:48

These, they didn't, they didn't get married yet.

Cole 56:50

I mean, yeah. Yeah. I don't think they're gonna,

Sarah 56:52

you just,

Cole 56:53

I mean they seem

Sarah 56:54

that's how you do

Cole 56:54

it. Yeah. I've lost track of their age, but they seem to be passed. Like if it's gonna happen, eh, it might happen. But

Sarah 57:00

yeah, they're in like their forties, the pressure's not there. Fifties something. Yeah. They're older now. Yeah. In 1914, I just thought this was interesting'cause there's a connection to Michigan here.

Cole 57:10

Mm-hmm.

Sarah 57:11

Catherine in Orville went to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mm-hmm. To purchase furniture for Hawthorne Hill. Yeah. She wanted the dining room to have the best and prettiest pieces. She was anticipating that holiday dinners and parties would be hosted there with, with extended family and, important people, dignitaries. She just envisioned that life for them and she was right.

Cole 57:36

Is Lauren there too? Do we know? I'm just curious.

Sarah 57:39

Oh, he lives with his wife and four kids.

Cole 57:41

Oh, that's right, right, right. Yeah.

Sarah 57:42

He got married.

Cole 57:44

Uh,

Sarah 57:44

that's right. He did get married. Soda Reland, El

Cole 57:46

Reland

Sarah 57:46

got married, but the three youngest did not. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Cole 57:48

yeah.

Sarah 57:49

The two eldest did like normal things for the 18 hundreds and early 19 hundreds. The three younger. It was also kind of normal man. I mean the, like, a lot of families just lived together forever that the, that wasn't that uncommon. I know there's compounds now.

Cole 58:07

Yeah.

Sarah 58:08

Family compounds. Yeah. Out in the thumb.

Cole 58:10

Yeah.

Sarah 58:11

Anyway, Catherine was right, and Hawthorne Hill's guests would include people like Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell. And Franklin d Roosevelt. Oh, interesting. Yeah.

Cole 58:26

They had wheelchair ramps.

Sarah 58:27

No, I

Cole 58:29

dunno. It's FDR probably before the polio.

Sarah 58:32

Yeah. Now, ever since Wilbur's death, Orville became very guarded about his relationship with his sister, and he would even get jealous of others if she got too close to them.

Cole 58:43

Oh

Sarah 58:44

yeah. It got weird to everything I read though. There was no incest or anything. Catherine was normal. Okay. Orville was weird.

Cole 58:51

Okay.

Sarah 58:51

He just had this dependency.

Cole 58:54

Yeah.

Suffrage Marriage And A Sister Erased

Sarah 58:54

You know, Orville sold his interest in the right company in 1915.

Cole 59:00

Okay.

Sarah 59:01

The lawsuits and patent disputes all ended in 1917 because that's when it expired. Milton passed away in April of 1917. He died in his sleep and he was 88.

Cole 59:13

Damn. He had a good run.

Sarah 59:14

Mm-hmm. He might have had pneumonia. I read on his, the newspaper that,

Cole 59:19

yeah.

Sarah 59:19

Of the time that stated his death. They said that he had a cold and died in his sleep.

Cole 59:24

At that age.

Sarah 59:25

Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just assuming it was pneumonia. Yeah. Reland died of a stroke in 1920 and he was still living in Kansas City.

Cole 59:34

He lived three years longer than his dad.

Sarah 59:38

Yeah. Lauren began focusing more on himself and his own ventures throughout the 1920s and thirties. He became the owner and president of Miami Woods Specialties.

Cole 59:51

Miami, Miami, Ohio, Miami, Ohio. Miami, Miami, Ohio. Yeah. I always did a crack up. The fact that there's a Miami, Ohio. Yeah. Like every day you wake up there, you'd be like, fuck.

Sarah 59:58

I know.

Cole 59:58

Fuck.

Sarah 59:59

This sucks.

Cole 1:00:00

It's like living in Paris, Texas or any of these cities that have like mm-hmm. These American cities that take these great, I mean obviously Miami, Florida is a, but like a still American city, but you know what I mean?

Sarah 1:00:10

Yeah. A good city

Cole 1:00:11

you take a good city can put it in a shitty spot. You're like,

Sarah 1:00:13

why?

Cole 1:00:14

Dumps has that one about like Harris, Tennessee, like, oh no, I'm gonna forget where I'm at.

Sarah 1:00:21

But, um, the, the wood toy company, they were known for making flips and flops. They

Cole 1:00:28

pancakes, this is what you're talking about.

Sarah 1:00:31

Flips and flops are names of clowns. One is named flips and one is named flops. And these toy clowns would flip and flop. And the toy was created by Orville and he also patented them.

Cole 1:00:43

Oh

Sarah 1:00:44

yeah. They were like very popular. Okay. It was like the 1920s, man. Yeah. They also made a lot of wooden airplanes. That was one of their other big sellers, so That's cute. Yeah. Lauren's keeping in touch with his past. Yeah. Lauren also served as a Dayton city commissioner from 1919 to 1927.

Cole 1:01:05

Okay.

Sarah 1:01:06

And he died of natural causes in 1939, and he was buried with his siblings at Woodland Cemetery. So they have like a family plot.

Cole 1:01:14

Family

Sarah 1:01:15

plot. Orville remained active in the aeronautics community. He was a member of the National Advisory Committee for aeronautics from 1920 to 1948.

Cole 1:01:27

Damn.

Sarah 1:01:28

During the last four decades of his life, he devoted a lot of his energy to defending himself and Wilbur as the inventors of the airplane. Well, this is all happening. Catherine is doing her own thing. She became active in the women's suffrage movement. She helped organize a march in Dayton of about 1300 people. In 1914, the march was for the right for women to vote. And this is before her dad died, so Milton and Orville both marched with her.

Cole 1:01:58

Nice.

Sarah 1:01:59

The march was unsuccessful. We didn't get the right to vote in 1914. Yeah. But they, they were fighting the fight. She also became active in the Young Women's League and the Dayton College Women's Club. She became the president of both. She then became a trustee at Oberlin College, and as a trustee, she reconnected with former classmate Henry, who went by Harry Hesco. They would eventually marry

Cole 1:02:28

Nice.

Sarah 1:02:29

Catherine was 52 years old.

Cole 1:02:31

Cool.

Sarah 1:02:31

When she married Harry in 1926 and

Cole 1:02:34

next to no risk of children.

Sarah 1:02:35

Yeah, yeah. Now, the rights were still at Hawthorne Hill, entertaining famous, high-end guests, but now Oroville was the only one entertaining them. When Charles Lindbergh arrived in 1927.

Cole 1:02:51

Oh God.

Final Reconciliation And Lasting Legacy

Sarah 1:02:52

Yeah, I know. It's interesting. I didn't know,

Cole 1:02:55

wasn't trying to convert him into Nazism, was he?

Sarah 1:02:57

I I did not go down that rabbit hole. No, no, no. That's too big. So the

Cole 1:03:00

reals, oh God. Yeah. Yeah. Shut up Lindbergh.

Sarah 1:03:04

Yeah. Yeah. Catherine was not present because the previous November is when she married Harry. Oh. And Orville felt abandoned and betrayed and he refused to speak to her ever again because

Cole 1:03:16

she

Sarah 1:03:17

got

Cole 1:03:17

married at the age. I think that gonna age of 52 gonna happen. That was gonna happen eventually. Like Yeah. Either she stays loyal to him only, or he ends up never speaking to her again. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Like that was gonna happen.

Sarah 1:03:26

That was the choice. Yeah.

Cole 1:03:27

Yeah.

Sarah 1:03:29

Now he was so upset. And this is the reason why we don't know about Catherine and why she's the forgotten sister. Orville is a little prick. He's a little bitch boy and would probably be on the manosphere right now.

Cole 1:03:42

He wrote her out.

Sarah 1:03:43

He went on a mission to scrub her name from everything she's done for the brothers, everything.

Cole 1:03:49

It certainly seems incestuous.

Sarah 1:03:51

Yeah. Yeah. I think for him it was, yeah. I mean, nothing happened.

Cole 1:03:54

No,

Sarah 1:03:55

but like I think he would have done anything

Cole 1:03:57

strange.

Sarah 1:03:58

Yeah.

Cole 1:03:59

Would he have, I mean, obviously his brother died, but had his brother married?

Sarah 1:04:02

Yeah. What would he feel? Would

Cole 1:04:03

he do the same thing

Sarah 1:04:04

exactly?

Cole 1:04:05

Probably not.

Sarah 1:04:05

Mm-hmm.

Cole 1:04:06

He'd probably be hurt maybe, but I don't.

Sarah 1:04:09

Yeah. Who

Cole 1:04:09

knows?

Sarah 1:04:09

It was weird. Yeah. There was an Associated Press internal memo from a few months after Catherine's wedding that was found in an archive. Mm-hmm. So there was like this internal memo, and here's what it says.

Cole 1:04:22

Okay.

Sarah 1:04:24

We have accepted as a true story that Mrs. Catherine Wright, sister of the Wright brothers contributed financially and scientifically to the first success of the airplane. The Wright family has shown that this is not true. The Wright family, meaning Orville?

Cole 1:04:40

Mm-hmm.

Sarah 1:04:40

That's it.

Cole 1:04:41

Yeah. Dad's dead.

Sarah 1:04:42

Yeah,

Cole 1:04:42

brother's dead.

Sarah 1:04:43

Yeah.

Cole 1:04:43

Yeah.

Sarah 1:04:44

Please see to it that any item offered in our service refrains from accepting as true this very pretty story of sisterly supports in this achievement.

Cole 1:04:55

She could just write the opposite and say that.

Sarah 1:04:58

Yeah, but who's gonna believe her?

Cole 1:05:00

Yeah, I know, but

Sarah 1:05:00

yeah. What the second a woman is. Yeah. I mean, yeah. So yeah. Orville is the reason that his sister isn't praised today.

Cole 1:05:08

Well, he had the unfortunate name of Oroville his entire life.

Sarah 1:05:13

He would speak to Catherine. One more time though. Catherine had pneumonia in 1929.

Cole 1:05:20

Mm.

Sarah 1:05:21

Oroville relented and he went to see her. She was in Kansas City at this time, and he. Saw her one time, spoke to her one time before she died, having denied Catherine a wedding at Hawthorne Hill, which is where she wanted to, wed. But Orville said no. He did hold her funeral there. She was buried beside Wilbur. And in a tribute to Catherine helping her brothers change the world, Orville had airplanes drop flowers on her grave, Orville continued on and he worked as a consulting engineer during World War I, helping the US Army. He assisted in the development of a Pilotless aircraft bomb.

Cole 1:06:01

Mm. A missile.

Sarah 1:06:02

Oh, probably. Or a

Cole 1:06:03

torpedo,

Sarah 1:06:04

something like that. Right. Basically. I didn't think of that. I guess I was thinking more of like a drone, but yeah, that would make more sense. Yeah. Because the

Cole 1:06:10

drone doesn't blow up.

Sarah 1:06:11

Yeah. Yeah. Duh. I don't know.

Cole 1:06:13

Yeah.

Sarah 1:06:14

Orville lived at Hawthorne Hill until his own death from a heart attack in 1948. Upon his death he donated$300,000 to Oberlin College in Catherine's honor.

Cole 1:06:27

Okay.

Sarah 1:06:27

So he felt guilt, obviously. Yeah. But like he still should have gone on a fixing tour. Yeah. And had been like, fixed her name, you know,

Cole 1:06:35

send another memo to the ap

Sarah 1:06:36

Yeah.

Cole 1:06:37

And be like that disregard the previous memo. She did contribute.

Sarah 1:06:40

Yeah. Like she did actually help. I don't know. I just know why he don't know why he didn't do that. Orville then joined Wilbur and Catherine in Woodland Cemetery. They have identical headstones with Orville on one side of Catherine and Wilbur on the other. And in death as in life, this remarkable woman is forever at the center of things

Cole 1:07:01

and neither are the brothers married or any kids.

Sarah 1:07:04

Mm-hmm.

Cole 1:07:05

Nice.

Sarah 1:07:05

No, Catherine helped them have a life.

Cole 1:07:08

Yeah, Two thoughts.

Sarah 1:07:09

Mm-hmm.

Cole 1:07:10

Kind of random. It's okay. But one, because I thought, you know, maybe we always forget that there's, you know, un non, uh, uh, manned flight, but, uh, hot air balloons. Oh, yeah. Going back as early as, at least the civil War. So there's people in the air at certain points before them. Yes. So, like also theoretically, maybe someone was shot out of a basket and died in the air. Yeah. So maybe it wasn't that guy that rode

Sarah 1:07:33

with No, no. He wasn't the first one to die in the air. Oh. He was the first one to die from a powered flight.

Cole 1:07:38

Powered flight. Okay. Yeah.

Sarah 1:07:39

The vocabulary here is very specific. The Wright brothers are the first controlled powered flight inventors.

Cole 1:07:47

I do wanna know now, did anyone ever die in a basket? Who is the first person to die in the air?

Sarah 1:07:54

You know what? We'll let the commenters tell us that. Yeah. I'm not looking anything else up on Google today.

Cole 1:07:59

Second thought.

Sarah 1:08:00

Yes.

Cole 1:08:00

Everyone always blames. Justifiably so, but Oppenheimer for the abo, duh, duh.

Sarah 1:08:05

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Cole 1:08:05

But Abo would be useless if weren't planes drop him out of

Sarah 1:08:10

True.

Cole 1:08:11

Yeah. Or the, the unmanned missiles that he also helped develop apparently at the end. Yeah. So like

Sarah 1:08:15

I know that's what makes me think,

Cole 1:08:17

like we never would've looked into like, how do we split the atom and drop this bomb on someone if we didn't have something to drop it out of? Yeah.

Sarah 1:08:22

But also similar to what was happening during that time with the bomb, multiple scientists and countries were working on it. Yeah. So someone was going to invent it. Someone was going to invent this powered flight because we had the knowledge that it was possible.

Cole 1:08:37

Yeah.

Sarah 1:08:38

So it sucks. I mean, humanity is its own downfall. That's it. Like if it wasn't them, it'd be someone else. It'd be someone else. It'd be someone. There's always someone else.

Cole 1:08:47

Yep.

Sarah 1:08:48

But yes, that is the Wright family. Look into Catherine Wright, you guys, once you start looking into her. She's everywhere, but no one really talks about her that much. So look her up. There's some podcasts out there and

Cole 1:09:00

I just thought, I wonder what happened to her, uh, her husband who died. If she's buried between her brothers, will her husband end up?

Sarah 1:09:07

Oh yeah. I don't know.

Cole 1:09:08

Who knows?

Sarah (2) 1:09:10

But, yes! That is it. We're back finally. Yay. And I'll be a little more regular from this time on because the sun is out and it's a lot easier to get through life when it's sunny out. So that's, that's it. Follow us on Instagram, borrowed Bones podcast. Uh, leave a comment on Spotify or Apple Podcast. That helps us a lot. Engagement is great. Also, thank you everyone who. Asking if we're coming back. I didn't realize people were consistently listening. And also I'm still seeing quite a few new listeners coming on. So thank you to everyone that's new. Thank you to the people that have asked us to please keep going because you guys thought that we were maybe done. We're not. We just took a pause. We are back and I appreciate all the support and that's it. Yeah.

Cole 1:09:57

Yeah.

Sarah 1:09:58

Bye. Bye.