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Wall Street History
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09/12/2003
Kitty Hawk, Part I
Next week I’m going to be in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
(Hurricane Isabel permitting), visiting the Wright Brothers
memorial there. This year is the 100th anniversary of the historic
first flight, but before I file a report from the scene, I thought we’d
review a few of the big events of 1903.
About a month ago I wrote of Henry Ford and the founding of the
Ford Motor Company that year, but there were some other major
items.
On March 21, organized labor scored a huge victory with a report
from the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission, a body appointed by
President Theodore Roosevelt to investigate conditions in the
mining industry. The commission established that “no person shall
be refused employment, or in any way discriminated against, on
account of membership in any labor organization.”
July 4, the first Pacific communications cable was opened.
President Roosevelt sent a message around the world and back to
him in 12 minutes.
July 26, the first transcontinental automobile trip ended when a 20-
hp Winton driven by H. Nelson Jackson and Sewell K. Crocker
arrived in New York City. There were some who charged Jackson
with fraud, saying there was no way his car made it on its own the
entire way, but no evidence of wrongdoing was ever found.
Jackson and Crocker had started out from San Francisco on May 23.
Later, on August 21, a 12-hp Packard model F driven by
Tommy Fetch and M.C. Karrup arrived in New York. It had left
San Francisco on June 20.
Also in 1903, Russian neuro-physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
invented the term “conditioned reflex” to describe the subject of
his recent research. Pavlov rang a bell each time he gave food to a
dog. After 20 to 40 repetitions, the dog began to salivate when it
heard the bell, even if no food was present. Pavlov won a Nobel
Prize for his work in 1904. Homer Simpson would later prove,
again, that Pavlov’s theories were sound.
Here’s one that probably doesn’t belong here December 30, a fire
broke out at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago during a performance
by Eddie Foy. 588 died. This led to all manner of new building
codes in the country, such as more fire walls, better and more exits,
unobstructed alleyways, etc.
You also had the important issue of the Panama Canal in 1903. On
January 22, the Hay-Herran Treaty was signed with Colombia.
This granted a 99-year lease and U.S. sovereignty over a canal
zone in Panama. The U.S. Senate ratified it on March 17, but on
August 12 the Colombian Senate rejected it.
November 3, a revolt was launched in Panama against Colombian
rule after President Roosevelt ordered U.S. naval forces into the
area. The rebellion was engineered by the Panama Canal
Company and other local groups with the approval of the
Roosevelt administration.
3 days later, Nov. 6, the U.S. recognized the Republic of Panama.
Then on Nov. 18, the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty was negotiated.
This gave the United States full control of a ten-mile-wide canal
zone in Panama in return for $10 million in gold plus a yearly
payout of $250,000.
As for the Wright Brothers, Orville (1871-1948) and Wilbur
(1867-1912), they had a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio and in the
1890s they commenced work there on an airplane. Neighbors said,
“They’re back in that bicycle shop again. I don’t know what they
think they’re going to do. They will never make a machine that
can fly,” recalled Mabel Griep, a neighbor. Ms. Griep’s father was
a big supporter of the Wright brothers, and he used to tell Mabel,
“You just let those boys go, those boys know what they’re doing.”
[“The American Century”] For their part, Orville and Wilbur let
everyone come into the shop to see what they were doing and the
ridicule never seemed to bother them.
The Wright Brothers had designed and flown 3 gliders between
1900-1902 before they took their powered plane to Kitty Hawk.
I’ll cover December 1903 next time, but a few days before the
historic flight on the 17th, a gentleman by the name of Samuel P.
Langley tested his own heavier-than-air flying machine, launching
it from a houseboat in the Potomac River on December 8. On
takeoff its wing hit a stanchion and the machine crashed. Langley
was subjected to much ridicule.
But in 1914, two years after Wilbur’s death, Orville Wright locked
horns with the Smithsonian Institution. It seems that Langley had
been the leader of the Smithsonian and his replacement authorized
the rebuilding of Langley’s ‘Aerodrome’ with all manner of
modifications. After testing it out, the Smithsonian claimed that
had the Aerodrome been launched properly in 1903, it would have
flown, nine days before the Wrights’ plane, the Kitty Hawk.
As noted by Fred Howard (“Oxford Companion ”), “The
Aerodrome was later displayed in the Smithsonian’s National
Museum, as the first airplane ‘capable of sustained free flight.’
Orville retaliated by exiling the Kitty Hawk to England for display
in London’s Science Museum. The feud was settled in 1942, but
not until December 1948 – eleven months after Orville’s death –
was the Kitty Hawk installed as the National Museum’s prized
centerpiece.” [I didn’t know that!]
By the way, Teddy Roosevelt was the first president (former, at the
time) to go up in a plane, October 11, 1910, in St. Louis. It was
piloted by Arch Hoxsey and attained an altitude of 50 feet in a
four-minute flight. Within the year, Hoxsey died in a crash.
Roosevelt had also been the first president to go down in a
submarine back in 1905.
Sources:
“The Century,” Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster
“The Oxford Companion to United States History,” edited by Paul
S. Boyer
“The American Century,” Harold Evans
“The Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates,” edited by
Gorton Carruth
Next week Kitty Hawk.
Brian Trumbore
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