In 1908 Glenn Curtiss won the Scientific American Magazine trophy for the first public flight in America. It was he, not the Wright brothers, who received instant fame and glory. He built and sold civilian airplanes while they focused on a single sale to the American, British or French Army.
The book explains how early chronicles touted Glenn Curtiss, not the Wrights, as the pioneer of aviation. Thousands of Curtiss JN-4 "Jennys" were used to train WW-I pilots. Today the pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme. Few people know of Curtiss, inventer of the flying boat and father of naval aviation, but everyone has seen the photo of Orville Wright's famous "First Flight" at Kitty Hawk.
In a sometimes dry account, Jack Carpenter meticulously compares step-by-step progress of the three men, with more rare photos than any other book. He tells how they were influenced by Alexander Graham Bell, inventer of the telephone, and Henry Ford, the father of mass produced automobiles.
Having studied the lives of all three men, I think Pendulum is the only book that gives an unbiased account of the bitter patent lawsuit that delayed the growth of American aviation for 10 years.
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can anyone help me finding this book (and any other document)??????
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The LR is very nicely written, and carefully organized. It starts with and overview, then runs through building a rod. The second section of the book, about 1/3rd of the text, is devoted to equipment skills and techniques. This separates out specific tasks like making an oven,a dipping tank, or sharpeing a plane, which may not be attempted by all builders, or already be part of their repetoir.
A good book, which doesn't greatly overlap either Carmichael (Garrison), or Cattanach the other standards in the field.
Stefan Grau Swiss Rodmaker
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