Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1912 — AVIATOR WRIGHT DIES OF TYPHOID [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

AVIATOR WRIGHT DIES OF TYPHOID

Noted Inventor Loses Three Weeks’ Battle With Fever. WAS PIONEER IN AVIATION Won Fame In Europe and United States in Early Days of Aeroplane —Was Awarded Medal by Congress. Dayton, 0., May 31.—Wilbur Wright, the noted aviator, is dead of typhoid fever. Death came after an illness of about three weeks. Wright had been lingering on the border for many days and: though his condition from time to time gave some hopes to members of his family the attending physicians, Drs. B. D. Conklin and Levi Spitler, maintained throughout the latter part of his sickness that he could net recover. Family Is at His Bedside. When the patient succumbed lo the burning fpver. that had been racking his body for days and nights he was surrounded by the members of his family, which includes his father, Bishop Milton Wright; Miss Catherine Wright; Orville, the co-inventor of the aeroplane; Reuchlin Wright and Lorin Wright. All of the family reside in this Oity except Reuchlin, who lives in Kansas. Wrights Pioneers in Aviation. Wilbur Wright and his brother Orville were the first persons to make iviation a practical art and a commercial success. Building their own apparatus, making their own experiments and keeping their own counsel, they advanced through years of pa-

tient work from toy models and crude gliders to the motor driven aeroplane capable of long sustained flights. They guarded so closely their construction secrets and bargained so shrewdly - for the sale of their inventions that when their machine was ic.iected they cantured rich prizes aid contracts before the world had recovered from its surprise at their flights. Silences European Critics. It was Wilbur who went to France in the summer of 1908 to win the SIOO,OOO contract offered by‘ the Lazare Weiller syndicate. The conditions were regarded by European experts as almost impossible of fulfillment. Mr. Wright was required to make two flights of 50 kilometers each within a week, carrying a passenger or the equivalent in weight. He made his first flight at Le Mans in Augnst, silencing the critics who declared that he was an imposter and that bis aeroplane would never leave the ground. Thereafter he flew each day the weather favored him, refusing steadfastly to take unnecessary risks, 1 but increasing gradually the length of his flights. Record after record for speed, height, distance and time in air was broken by the American

His Homecoming a Triumph. Returning from Europe in the spring of 1909, Wilbur, with his brother, was awarded a medal by President Taft. His homecoming to Dayton. 0., was celebrated with a two days’ festival. Orville had attempted unsuccessfully the jfevious year to n.eet tne conditions of a $30,000 con-‘ ti.rct to furnish aeroplanes for the United States army. In a fall at Fort Hyer an army officer passenger had been killed and Orville so badly hurt that ne could not continue flying Wilbur aided in the preparations for fresh trials, and Orville passed the lest in a remarkable cross country flight with a passenger. Wilbur was the sensation of the Hudson-Fulton celebration at New York, flying over tne harbor and' distancing the boats that tried to follow him He abandoned flying about two years ago and has devoted himself to the manufacture of aeroplanes' and the exploitation of their money getting capabilities. Wilbur Wright was born in 1867 on a farm in Henry county, Indiana, the son of Bishop Milton Wright of the United Brethren church.

Wilbur F. Wright.