The History: Sitting on a "chickenless" chicken coop, Orville writes his younger sister, Katharine, another letter and continues to acquaint his sister with life at Kitty Hawk and their glider experiments.

The brothers go to bed early: last night 6:30 PM, tonight 7:30 PM. The winds are so strong at night they often get little sleep trying to keep their tent from flying away. The sand moves in clouds blinding them and the wind sounds like thunder as it strikes the tent's roof and sides. One evening, winds were 45 miles per hour and "wagonloads" of sand blew over the glider, covering its bottom 8 inches.

Yet Orville admits, "We certainly can't complain of the place. We came down here for wind and sand, and we have got them."

It is so cold in the tent that even with two blankets each, the brothers are freezing cold at night. Orville jokes that he alternates pulling both blankets over his head and then over his feet. In spite of everything Orville reports to Katharine that he is getting 9 - 10 hours of sleep.

Tom Tate Holding A Drum Fish, October 1900 The Glider Is Lying In The Sand Behind Him

Yesterday, October 17th, they spent a few hours digging the machine out of the sand. They have been testing the glider unmanned, as a kite, sometimes attaching 75 pounds of chains to add weight to the glider. Describing efforts to control the glider with the use of a tail, Orville tells his sister, "We tried it with tail in front, behind, and every other way. When we got through, Will was so mixed up he couldn't even theorize. It has been with considerable effort that I have succeeded in keeping him in the flying business at all."

Today they tested in light winds from the sides of small steep hill. If the winds are favorable, tomorrow they may go to Kill Devil Hills and conduct manned glides.

Orville tells Katharine that they have disrupted the grocery supply in Kitty Hawk. The brothers are financially better off than the residents of Kitty Hawk. Subsequently, the brothers have bought all the eggs and canned goods in the store leaving the shelves fairly barren for the Kitty Hawk natives. They eat fish, wild geese, ducks, eggs, milk, rice, coffee, biscuits, canned tomatoes and peaches, bacon, butter and condensed milk.

He relates a funny story about Tom Tate, Bill Tate's nephew to Katharine. In fact according to Orville "Tom ... can tell more big yarns [tall stories, exaggerations] than any kid of his size I ever saw.

Orville closes his letter confirming that he and Wilbur plan to leave on Tuesday, [October 23rd] and adds a "P.S.". " "Ullam" [Wilbur] is in bed asleep while I'm writing."

Adding chains to the glider had two purposes: ballast and testing the lift capability of the glider. The weight of the chains acted like the ballast of a ship or balloon - the chains stabilized the glider. By adding more weight they could also determine how the glider's lift would perform under the heavier load of a man onboard.

Sometimes in fact, in lieu of chains, Tom Tate who weighed about 75 pounds was used in the gliding experiments.

Why do you think Wilbur and Orville went to sleep so early?

Quotation from the book The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Volume 1 by M. McFarland.