1890 to 1900
Timeline
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April 30, 1890
Orville and Wilbur turn West Side News into an evening newspaper, The Evening Item, although publication ceases in August.
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September 1890
Orville begins final year of high school as a special student in Latin. Leaves school before graduation.
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December 13, 1890
Paul Laurence Dunbar starts the Tatler, printed by his classmate, Orville Wright.
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December 1892
Orville and Wilbur open a bicycle shop, the Wright Cycle Company. They remain in the bicycle manufacturing and repair business until 1907. The business gives them the funds necessary to carry out their early aeronautical experiments.
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1893
Wilbur and Orville attend World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago where the aeronautical exhibit draws their interest.
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October 20, 1894
Wilbur and Orville start a weekly magazine, Snap Shots.
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1895
Orville invents a calculating machine that multiplies and adds.
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1896
Wright brothers begin to manufacture their own brand of bicycles-- first the Van Cleve and the "Wright Special," and later the less expensive St. Clair.
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August-October 1896
Orville seriously ill with typhoid fever.
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August 10 1896
Otto Lilienthal, German engineer and aeronautical pioneer, dies from injuries suffered in a crash while testing his latest single-surface glider. The tragedy renews the Wright brothers' interest in Lilienthal and the problem of human flight.
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1897-1898
While running their bicycle business, Wilbur and Orville study the problems of mechanical and human flight. After reading extensively and studying bird flight and Lilienthal's work, the brothers are convinced that human flight is possible and decide to conduct some experiments of their own.
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May 30, 1899
Wilbur writes Smithsonian Institution inquiring about publications on aeronautical subjects.
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July-August 1899
Brothers build and Wilbur flies a biplane kite in order to test the "wing-warping" method of controlling a flying machine. This experiment encourages the Wrights to proceed with constructing a flying machine with a pilot.
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November 27, 1899
Brothers write the U.S. Weather Bureau for information on an appropriate place to conduct flying experiments.
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May 13, 1900
Wilbur writes to Octave Chanute, a civil engineer and aeronautical pioneer. Correspondence begins an important friendship lasting until Chanute's death in 1910.
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September 6, 1900
Wilbur leaves for Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Orville arrives later and they stay with William J. Tate until their camp is ready in early October.
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October 1900
Wrights begin their experiments, flying their glider as a kite and as a man-carrying glider. About a dozen free flights are made although total time in the air is only about two minutes. They stay until October 23.