Wilbur Wright in the bicycle shop, 1897.
Orville Wright, in white shirt, at work in shop.
At an early age they began to fly kites. They became interested successively in wood cuts, printing and photography. The urge for invention was strong in them. Wilbur got a job folding the entire issue of an eight-page church paper. When he found the handwork tiring and tedious, he designed and built a machine that did the folding.
The house on Hawthorn Street, home of the Wrights for 40 years and now re-erected in Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.
Orville was no less enterprising. When he was 15, he entered into a partnership with Ed Sines, a neighbor boy, and launched the printing firm of Sines and Wright. The plant was located in a corner of the Sines kitchen. One of their first ventures was to print a little paper called “The Midget.”
One of the Wrights’ first efforts to measure the effect of air pressure was this horizontal bicycle wheel mounted on one of their own bicycles and equipped with two metal vanes. This bicycle was placed in the Park through the co-operation of the family of the late Frank Miller, former Superintendent of Dayton Schools.