Robert Lynn wrote:
This was a patent maneuver. They needed to have the fact that they
had a flight published in order to head off anyone else who tried to
patent on the basis of prior art if it came to a legal wrangle (which
it did).
I do not think so. Amos Root showed up out of the blue one day, driving
an automobile, which marked him as a wealthy lover of high technology.
The Wrights treated him cordially, as they treated all visitors. They
went ahead with their flight tests. That was the first day they ever
flew in a circle. Root described it in his magazine.
I do not think they needed to have a publication because they had
affidavits from leading citizens such as the bank president, and copious
other documentation, plus Wilbur had given a lecture and published two
scientific papers in one of the top U.S. engineering journals, "Some
aeronautical experiments," J. Western Soc. of Engineers 6, (1901)
489-510, and "Experiments and observations in soaring flight," J.
Western Soc. of Engineers, (1903). They also published in "The
Aeronautical Journal" in 1901, and various letters elsewhere. They had
clear priority. The patent was issued in 1906.
As I recall, their patent lawyer was telling them to shut up, stop being
so cordial with visitors and agents from the French and British
governments, and stop flying next to a trolley line. Patent lawyers take
the fun out of inventing.
Here is a good bibliography:
http://history.nasa.gov/monograph27.pdf
Here is the patent. Notice it has no engine. They were patenting flight
controls, not the engine:
http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Wrights/WrightUSPatent/WrightPatent.html
- Jed
