Orville Wright to Griffith Brewer 27-Oct-1914

The government of Britain has settled with the British Wright Company over Patent GB-1904-6732. (The government says they don't intend to make further use of this patent but will make a single payment of ₤15,000.) Wright says he has received the payment and got a good exchange rate ($5 per ₤1.)

Wright mentions interest in a Canadian Wright company but says nothing has come of it.

He writes that, following a request by Brewer, the American company ("we") has shipped a motor to Alec Ogilvie. He mentions that new motors will use plated rather than painted cylinders. Also sent to Ogilvie: a blueprint of new navigation system which combines at the wheel the controls for wing warping and rudder:

The warping is done by the turning of the wheel, the elevator is controlled by the fore and aft movement of the wheel and the lever on which it is mounted, and the vertical rudder is operated through the small lever mounted on the wheel, so that when the lever and the wheel are gripped together, the vertical rudder works in conjunction with the warping. Of course, it would be very easy to disconnect the rudder and operate it through a foot lever if preferred. We are now arranging to equip all of our machines with wheel controls instead of the lever, as it possesses more instinctive movements.

Wright reiterates that he is declining a request to license to British manufacturers at a rate of ₤20 (per unit?), writing that American royalty rates are ten times higher.

Regarding patent extension:

I did not understand that the life of an English patent could be extended beyond its original term. A notion prevails in America that American patents can be extended, but I cannot find any foundation for it. I do not know of the life of any patent having been extended here.

Sources

• Riddle and Sinnott, 2003, Letters of the Wright Brothers, pp. 110–111.

Sender	Orville Wright
Recipient	Griffith Brewer
Date sent	27-Oct-1914
From location	Dayton, Ohio
To location
Communication type
Language	English
Refers to flight?	1
Tech fields	airplane, propulsion, safety, navigation, wing warping
Length (in words)
Full text available