----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]----Thanks Walker Lee for the reference to the inventors site. Fascinating stuff there. Apparently plenty of gasoline around in 1903. But what kind of gasoline was it?
After posting here this morning made an inquiry to the Aircraft Engine Historical Society (AEHS) today through their Web site. More fascinating stuff. It's here:
http://enginehistory.org/
Got this reply from their Web master tonight:
"No specification existed for aviation gasoline until the Army adopted French fuel specifications when the US entered World War I. These specifications described a percentage of fractions that boiled at certain temperatures and little else. Prior to that, aircraft used whatever motor gasoline was available. Engine trouble in W.W.I led to more careful study and specification of aviation gasoline. The concept of octane rating didn't come until 1926. Bottom line is that no one knows what the Wrights used.
If you are interested in further study of this topic, get copies of the Bureau of Mines Bulletins 178C and 191; Bureau of Mines Technical Papers 166, 305, 323 and 323B. These were published between 1917 and 1927. Another good reference is a chapter "Higher, Faster, Further" in a book Innovation and the Development of Flight, edited by Roger D. Launius, published by Texas A&M University in 1999.
AEHS Web master"
This reinforces yet again, after all we've heard over the last year about them, how utterly resourceful and resolute were the Wrights.
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Steve Greenhow
Austin, Texas USA
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.realtime.net/~magbo/
(nom de plume "Downwind Jaxon")
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