University of Santa Clara - Redwood Yearbook (Santa Clara, CA)

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THE REDWOOD. that the clever machinist and aviator, Glenn H. Curtiss, personally sought to have Professor Montgomery intervene in the Wright-Curtiss injunction suit, because it was a conceded fact that the Curtiss aeroplane was the offspring of Montgomery ' s patent. The Santa Clara professor classed Curtiss in the same category with the enjoining aeronauts, for he had reliable information to the effect that Curtiss had been assisted in the construction of his aeroplane by Captain Thomas Bald- win, the balloonist, who became a full- fledged aviator soon after cultivating Montgomery ' s friendship and spending hours daily with the scientist during the latter ' s experiments at Santa Clara in 1904. In an article in the New York World magazine of November 27th, 1904, Captain Baldwin claimed to have received a four-months ' course in phy- sics from Rev. Richard H. Bell, the Jesuit physicist and electrician, and in- timated that Father Bell had assisted him in the building of the Arrow, the airship exhibited by Baldwin at the St. Louis Exposition. In a letter to a San Jose paper, December 6th, 1904, Father Bell disclaimed any credit, if such there were, in the premises, and declar- ed that he had never in his life had five minutes ' talk with Baldwin con- cerning airships . The learned Jesuit then put the question: Why does not the Captain tell the public what he ac- knowledged in a New York paper, and what he acknowledged but a short time ago to the man who really did give him confidentially much new scientific data with reference to the proper use of propellers, and v hich data the Cap- tain boldly made use of in the construc- tion of his machine? Father Bell, moreover, emphatically denied any con- nection with Baldwin, and plainly stated that it was to Professor Mont- gomery alone that Baldwin was indebt- ed for the success attained with the air- ship. Arrow, at the St. Louis Exposi- tion . In a number of so-called histories of aeronautics recently issued from the press the name of Professor Montgom- ery has been omitted. Of his thousand gliding flights, duly authenticated, not a solitary mention is made ; of the fact that Aviator Maloney, one of Mont- gomery ' s operators, was the victim of an aeroplane accident due to the break- ing of a rod in the frame of his ma- chine, there is said never a word, as if an allusion to Maloney ' s death would be a confession of the knowledge of Montgomery ' s existence; and the man to whom, more than to any one else, liv- ing or dead, is to be attributed the suc- cess which the aeroplane has attained in the hands of others, is thus deliber- ately deprived of recognition in aei ' o- nautieal books controlled, it would seem, by influences which undoubtedly feared Montgomery ' s patent rights while he was in the flesh, a nd are evi- dently jealous of the place Montgom- ery should occupy in the aeronautical firmament now that the brainy physi- cist is beyond the cavil of envious minds that withhold justice from the dead.

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THE REDWOOD. plans furnished. Since a piratical play-bnreau flourished for years by acting as an independent agency in supplying copyrighted dramas to the- atrical companies at a rate which amounted to one-third of the royalty demanded by the author, it is not un- reasonable to suppose that somewhat similar liberties might be taken under the patent laws. Moreover, it may be remarked that thousands operate Edi- son ' s electrical inventions as well, if not better, than Edison himself could do ; and not only that, but there are thousands who can make the machines that make the inventions ; but the brain of an Edison was required to conceive and plan and build in order to prepare the way for the procession of imitators. And likewise, the brain of a Montgom- ery was necessary to direct lesser minds to the heights of success in the progress of flying-machines. Prior to the 29th of April, 1905, the successful flying-machine was un- known. The aeroplane which recorded the eight-mile flight at Santa Clara on that day had in it less than twenty dollars ' worth of material. Its weight was just forty-eight pounds, and it con- sisted of nothing more than a wooden frame, two sets of wings and a peculi- arly-shaped rudder or tail. Certainly, the machine was easy to build . Far from being a complex affair, it was simplicity itself, and, with the aid of blue prints and exact and detailed measurements , might have been con- structed in a single day. But that suc- cessful aeroplane was the fruit of twenty-five years of scientific endeav- or, and it cost tens of thousands of dollars, perhaps, in experimentation and study. Nevertheless, when the Montgomery airship was described in the press of the country, even to the exact measurements , it was not diffi- cult for a man to build his own aero- plane . It was an easy matter for the formerly unsuccessful aviator to dis- card his flat planes for curved surfaces and to equal and even surpass Mont- gomery with Montgomery ' s own aero- plane. The California physicist and invent- or was one of the few great minds de- voted to the development of the science of aeronautics. The bird-men are, as a rule, mere jockeys of the airship ; but the skilful jockey is necessary in the progress of flying, and we appreciate the risks he takes, admire his daring spirit, and applaud his nerve and endur- ance. To the discovei ' ers and formulat- ors of principles of aerial navigation, or to the mere inventor of a successful aeroplane, however, comparatively lit- tle attention has been paid ; there being little of a spectacular nature in the pa- tient brainwork of years in studio and laboratory, and the crowds that cheer the sensational feats of the aviator are quite uneoneeimed as to whether the Wrights obtained their normally-flat aeroplane idea from Octave Chanute, as the German patent office infers, or whether the Wright company is using the Montogomery curved surfaces, as the evidence seems to indicate ; and the public may be less concerned to know

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10 THE REDWOOD. The ambition to enter the field of commerce with the most perfect of aer- oplanes perished with the tragic death of Professor Montgomery. Cap- ital for his enterprise was at hand, and he had gone into the foothills near Evergreen, California, accompanied by a mechanician and an operator, to make final tests of a machine embody- , ing his ideas of aeroplane construction. Having absolute confidence in the in- herent equilibrium of his model, he scouted the thought of accident; but he had been advised by friends and rel- atives, and by his mechanician, Corne- lius Rhinehart, and his operator, John Vierra, against making flights, not be- cause of his age or weight, but because vertigo had seized him on occasions during glides into the air. Argument was useless against his iron will, and on the morning of October 81st, 1911, he mounted the machine and, speeding along the starting track down the side- hill, began his ascent. He had risen less than thirty feet into the air when his assistants, with affright, saw his hands drop to his side and his body fall backward. The unpiloted machine slowly descended to earth, but the great weight of Montgomery ' s body rolling to one side threw the aeroplane out of balance when hardly a dozen feet from the ground. One wing struck and broke, and the unconscious Mont- gomery, falling through the guy-wires, his head hit a projecting bolt which pierced his brain. The fatal accident occurred immediately following a series of fifty-four flights, in all of which. according to the copious notes taken by Mrs. Montgomery (who acted as her husband ' s amanuensis), and ac- cording to the testimony of Rhinehart and Vierra, the light machine had in- variably maintained perfect equilibri- um in the air both in wind and calm. Without seeking in the least to min- imize the just fame of the Wright brothers, one of whom, like Montgom- ery, has joined the innumerable cara- van, — without seeking in the least to minimize the just fame of any of the brilliant navigators of the air, — I claim that Professor John J. Montgomery, an American and a Californian, is clearly entitled to be called the Father of the Aeroplane , and that all present-day aviators who really ply the heavens are indebted for their success to those long years of scientific experi- ment which had for their climax (on the memorable April 29th, 1905), that eight-mile glide which Octave Chanute, in a congratulatory letter to Professor Montgomery, called the greatest and most daring feat ever attempted in gliding flight . The marvellous development of the heavier-than-air machine, crowned with the thousand-year dream of aerial navigation, has roused universal inter- est in aeronautical science and its seem- ingly illimitable possibilities and led to a world-wide discussion of the genesis of siiccessful aviation ; but since many conflicting though insistent, claims of discovery, invention and patent-rights unmannerly jostle one another along the broadway of publicity, I may be