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7. The Wright Way
A Radio Talk by Charles F. Kettering
We often receive letters from young
people or their parents asking where the best opportunities for the
future lie. Our answer is that special opportunities do not exist
in the particular industry or profession - they exist within men themselves.
On December 17, 1943 the world
celebrated the 40th anniversary of the first successful flight of a
selfpowered airplane - and I can think of no better time to review
some of the highlights in the early career of the inventors the
Wright brothers. After you have heard the simple story of their
lives - I wonder if you will think they were conscious of what Destiny
had in store for them?
Wilbur Wright
was born on a farm near Millville, Indiana - in 1867 - and Orville was born four years later in
Dayton, Ohio. Their father was the Reverend Milton Wright. In this
period - just after the Civil War - there were yet no electric lights,
telephones or automobiles, and their home town, Dayton, was a
typical American town of about thirty thousand people. The Wrights were
not wealthy people and the boys had no special advantages, except their
home environment. Their parents encouraged them to
investigate whatever aroused their curiosity, but urged them to try to
earn enough to cover the costs of their experiments. The boys tried
many things, and to
finance their experiments they sold kites, folded papers, and
collected junk. When bicycles became the fad, the Wright boys each
saved up enough money to buy one. This was a new field to them and,
after a thorough job of investigation, they went into the bicycle
business. Business grew; they not only sold several makes but repaired
them, and in 1895 even brought out a custom model of their own make -
the Van Cleve.
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