Some good old fashioned sleuthing, hard work and maybe a little bit of luck led archivists to the original patent application from Wilbur and Orville Wright for their “Flying Machine.” Michael E. Ruane writing for the Washington Post tells the remarkable story.
“The beat-up manila envelope sat on a table in the National Archives office in Kansas City, Mo. It had just been fetched from a limestone cave outside of town, and conservator Lauren Varga had been sent with a security escort from Maryland to bring it home.
First, she had to check the contents. She opened the envelope and examined one of the folders inside. There, on the cover, was the famous patent No. 821,393. There were the famous names Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright.
And next to the word invention, the cover form read: “Flying Machine.”
[box type=”bio”] The missing patent application for the Wright Brothers flying machine–an amazing story as told by the Washington Post.[/box]