Faster Than a Speeding Bullet: Glenn H. Curtiss

More quickly Than a Rushing Bullet: Glenn H. Curtiss

“The quickest male in the environment…bullets are the only rivals of Glenn H. Curtiss of Hammondsport.” – 1907 newspaper headline

Carrying a leather cap, a very well-manicured moustache and a steely gaze Glenn Hammond Curtiss stares out of a time-worn black and white postcard-like photo. In the qualifications frothy waves plash upon a seaside, the pretty tricky packed sands on which his experimental V-8 powered bike would transport him into the history publications as “The Quickest Gentleman in the Environment.” The working day was Thursday January 24, the year 1907 the location, Ormond Beach front on the east coastline of Florida. The history… 136.3 mph, a land velocity record that would stand for eleven several years and then only surpassed by an automobile. It would not be until 1930 that a motorcycle would greatest Glenn Curtiss’s feat of daring-do and mechanical design and style.

The surfside placing for the well-known blast down the beach front experienced its origins a handful of years previously when in 1902 influential Ormond Beach inhabitants began promoting racing on the regional beach with an inaugural vehicle pace operate. The sport grew in reputation and even Henry Ford showed up for an occasion in a person of his early vehicles, and slept in it considering the fact that at the time he couldn’t afford the resort home. An additional “celebrity” who could afford to pay for about everything took up home in Ormond Beach, none other than John D. Rockefeller who experienced decided to are living to a 100 and was wanting for the ideal nutritious surroundings in order to achieve the century mark (he produced it to 97). Ormond Beach front turned a playground the rich and famous… and individuals experience the require for pace. Case in level, 1 Glenn H. Curtiss, a correct American hero and a more substantial than lifetime identity who exploits would even inspire a preferred collection of youth textbooks “The Adventures of Tom Swift” penned by Victor Appleton. And of course, there was a single quantity circa 1910 titled “Tom Swift and His Motor-Cycle or Enjoyable and Adventures on the Highway.”

Curtiss was often searching for new adventures on, or off, the highway. He also understood he would come across the rapidly lane he essential to split the existing history for it was at Ormond Beach in 1904 that Charles Schmidt drove his Packard Grey Wolf to a entire world report in the kilometer at 76 mph and where by, for the 1-mile file, William Vanderbilt, Jr. established the entire world report of 92 mph in a 90-horsepower Mercedes. It was these races that put Ormond Beach front on the velocity map and introduced it fame as property to 30 a long time of land-velocity data finally evolving into the now famed Daytona Seaside 500 and the founding of NASCAR.

Back in 1907 the 29-yr old Glenn Curtiss experienced by now invented or produced numerous of the extra than 500 models and factors he would conjure up in the course of his life time like a hand in the improvement of the Wright Brothers 1st airplane and added aeronautical experiments in partnership with Alexander Graham Bell that integrated building and patenting the plane aileron now universally intrinsic to controlled flight.

Irrespective of whether it was propeller run or rolled on wheels, Glenn was often pushing the envelope. Even though his lasting fame would rest with aircraft, it all commenced with motorcycles. As a final result of his encounter as a bicycle racer, Western Union bicycle messenger and bicycle shop owner Curtis became interested in bikes. In 1901 he started motorizing bicycles with his possess solitary cylinder interior combustion engines, originally fashioned from tomato cans. He not only talked the communicate, he walked the stroll, racing what he developed and earning the accolade in 1903 as the “1st American Bike Champion” by achieving 54.6 mph. By 1905, he established the planet velocity documents for just one, two and 3 mile functions. Moreover piloting his speedsters he tinkered out a variety of improvements together with the handlebar twistgrip throttle manage and a triple cylinder motor designated the W-3, essentially a V-twin with a third cylinder which Curtiss himself termed the speediest generation motorbike in the environment.

How this sort of ingenuity arose is one of those mysteries of character for Curtiss was lifted in in close proximity to poverty and misplaced his moms and dads when incredibly younger and subsequently only attained an 8th grade education and learning. As Trafford Doherty, Director of the Curtiss Museum explains, “Curtiss was extremely intuitive and very mechanical. He was also very athletic and in the1890s was pretty much unbeaten as a bicycle racer. He was quite aggressive and that competitive mother nature appeared first in bicycles, then bikes and then in his organization ventures. While of a serious demeanor, a man of comparatively few words and not cozy with community speaking, he was also recognised to be congenial between his fellows. His contributions had been legion and rightly gained him the accolades as “The Henry Ford of Aviation” and “The Swiftest Man in the Entire world.”

But it would a interesting overcast day in 1907 that Glenn Curtis would make his mark, at the very least in the historical past textbooks of motorcycling. He had been designing and creating a assortment of engines such as singles, V-twins and inline fours, but it would be his lightweight air-cooled V8 that would literally make his mark. The electricity plant came into existence because of to the ever expanding desire for extra potent plane engines for the burgeoning production of early 20th century traveling devices. The document breaking motorcycle by itself was generally a rolling, but not quite flying, take a look at bed for the new Curtiss 40hp “monster” motor.

The configuration was based on a pretty sq. 3.25 x 3.25 inch bore and stroke that displaced a strong 269 cubic inches. Although his previous engines were mainly single cylinder and 50-degree V-Twins, Curtis went to a 90 diploma layout showcasing cast iron F-type heads as utilized on his lesser displacement powerplants. Moreover it dispensed with head gaskets thanks to the top quality of its design and manufacture. Within the enormous hunk of metallic lurked a reliable billet steel crank even though inner lubrication was taken care of through a dry sump and random splash method. Beneath the valve handles inlet valves have been activated by atmospheric stress even though pushrods actuated the exhaust valves. Fed by twin carbs, also Curtiss types, the throttle cables had been hidden inside of the handlebars. The electrical procedure relied upon leap-spark Ignition energized by dry cell batteries. While it appeared ungainly with its 4000cc engine suspended in what was a intensely beefed up bicycle body with a 64-inch wheelbase, the general structure benefited from a electricity to weight ratio (a person hp per 6.8 lbs) that was sophisticated by any expectations, specifically by those of 1907, the bike tipping the scales at basically 275lbs.

After the device was unloaded at Ormond Seaside, Glenn Curtiss surveyed the salt-sprayed 4 mile program. It was divided into a two-mile part for reaching top pace, a 3rd mile for timing applications, and past by not minimum a “gradual down and cease” mile. As the bike was shaft-pushed with no clutch and but one tall equipment, it was an all or nothing proposition. Just one stored twisting the throttle and let the speed construct though the screaming unmuffled pipes scattered sea birds for miles. As the Curtiss Museum director opinions, “It should have sounded like the Wrath of God!”

Aiding Curtiss ended up Thomas Baldwin and the aptly named “Tank” Waters, their brawn utilized to thrust start out the device into daily life. They essential to be hale and hearty fellows, and stout they were being, due to the fact the bump start off approach typically necessary as numerous as ten or much more attempts to get the V8 burbling and barking.

Curtiss climbed into the saddle, positioned his goggles and gripped the handlebars, possibly glancing down the moment additional at the Goodrich tires biting into the seaside sand, then nodded. The good thing is it was not the horrendously humid Florida summer months months, and the two gentlemen hurled Curtiss and his V8 two-wheeler down the seashore and into the record publications. Having the two miles to get to total pace, Curtis was clocked at 136.3 mph in the timed part of the training course. He would be the initial male to journey one mile in 25.25 seconds, a feat of mechanical style and individual courage that gained him the title of the quickest male on earth. Ironically the report was regarded unofficial due to a possibly lethal mechanical challenge that precluded it from managing the class once more under official observation. In other words the bicycle broke down after only 1 total through the system. The skilled and great-headed rider that he was, Curtis was equipped to convey it the machine to a halt from the 90mph at which instant pieces had began flailing about.

The make any difference was reported in the February 9, 1907 problem of Scientific American (and we estimate): “THE Fastest AND MOST Impressive AMERICAN MOTOR BICYCLE. What is unquestionably the most effective as nicely as the speediest motor bicycle ever crafted in this state manufactured its overall look at the races at Ormond Seaside not too long ago but, owing to the breaking of a universal joint and subsequent buckling of the frame, this machine made no official report. It was crafted by Mr. G. H. Curtiss, a perfectly-known motor-bicycle maker, with the notion of breaking all documents. The equipment was fitted with an 8-cylinder air-cooled V-motor of 36-40 horse-electricity…The full bodyweight of the finish device was but 275 kilos, or 6.8 kilos for every horse-electric power. In an unofficial mile check, timed by prevent watches from the start off by many folks who viewed via field glasses a flag waved at the complete, Mr. Curtiss is mentioned to have included this distance in 26 2-5 seconds, which would be at the amount of 136.3 miles per hour – a quicker speed than has ever been designed ahead of by a person on any kind of vehicle. Sadly, before this new mile report could be corroborated by an formal examination, the universal joint broke although the device was going 90 miles an hour…”

In addition armchair pundits of the working day reportedly snorted with disbelief espousing their organization perception that is was a hoax or fable because no mortal male could breathe at the claimed velocity. It would be the V8’s one particular and only working day in the sunshine, the only time Glenn Curtiss would consider it up to speed. But at the time was more than enough.

In 1930, at age 52 Glenn Hammond Curtiss who experienced so typically slipped the surly bonds of Earth, did in truth breath his last breath succumbing unexpectedly to an embolism right after successful medical procedures for appendicitis. His human body now rests in his birthplace of Hammondsport, New York.
As for his vaunted V8 bike, a bolt for bolt duplicate of the ferocious equipment was constructed by the Mercury Aircraft Co. and is now on screen at the Curtiss Museum. If you want to see the authentic McCoy you will locate it at the new Smithsonian Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Heart situated adjacent to the Dulles Intercontinental Airport in Chantilly, VA (www.nasm.si.ed.u). As a poignant postscript, we are advised by the Curtiss Museum that several of the engine’s inner areas were recycled by Curtiss into other jobs, so in a way it lives on as does the practically legendary achievements of Glenn H. Curtis.

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A Gentleman of Several Firsts: Taking a fork in the road that would transport him from the beaches of Florida to the clouds earlier mentioned, Curtiss by 1910 would relinquish his interest in bikes. While Curtiss produced bikes under the name Marvel until finally 1914 he would chart a new course into the webpages of aviation record. This would incorporate earning the very first pilot license in 1910, remaining the to start with to fly a kilometer, produce the initially plane to cross the Atlantic Ocean, the first to carry a passenger in a seaplane, and the 1st to practice the initial American woman pilot Blanche Stuart Scott. His skills would direct to the advancement retractable wheels and as a result the 1st amphibious aircraft. Insert to the record the developing of dirigibles for the U.S. Military and the manufacture and sale of the 1st private airplanes. The Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company turned the biggest aircraft manufacturer in the globe with in excess of 20,000 staff. To the record of Glenn Curtiss milestones, increase no les than the invention of the plane provider. In addition to developing motorcycles and airplanes, Glenn Curtiss built cities. In the course of 1919-26 he created Hialeah, Miami Springs and Opa-Locka, Florida. And to take a look at them, in his spare time, he tinkered up the streamlined journey trailer.

The Name Game: The “H.” in Glenn H. Curtiss stands for Hammond, the center title derived from his birthplace Hammondsport, New York, its name in flip derived from the town’s founder. Simply because it was situated on Lake Keuka, it also turned the focal issue for U.S. Navy aviation earning Curtiss still yet another accolade as “The Father of Naval Aviation” considering the fact that he sold the to start with “aeroplane” to the Navy in 1911. Inventors, designers and fliers from all-around the globe converged on Hammondsport drawn by the prevalent desire to style and manufacture traveling equipment, traveling boats, and dirigibles. As this kind of, the space turned a World War I arsenal engaged in the manufacturing of the famous Curtiss “Jenny” trainer in which U.S. and Canadian pilots gained their wings. Another technology later on and the Second Globe War brought renewed plane making exercise to the region all through which the Mercury Plane Co. created tail assemblies for the P40 War Hawk aircraft recognized variously as the “Tomahawk”, “Kitty Hawk”, and “Flying tiger.”

Curtis Museum: Located on Lake Keuka in Hammondsport, New York, the museum’s 57,000 sq. ft. capabilities the full spectrum of Glenn Curtiss’s contributions. On display are his numerous plane styles as perfectly as his bicycles and motorcycles including a faithful reproduction of the record breaking V8. For a lot more info contact (607) 569-2160 or speak to the Museum Director Trafford Doherty via [email protected].