The History: In his personal diary, Orville noted that the brothers arranged their kitchen this morning as Orville attempted to make a French drip coffee pot. At their Kill Devil Hills campsite, the brothers are constructing an additional building which will be 44 feet X 16 feet.

Orville also wrote their sister, Katherine. He described their trip from Manteo on Roanoke Island to Kill Devil Hills and his relief on learning their provisions and equipment had not been destroyed in the fire at the Elizabeth City depot. He reports their existing building is a foot lower and closer to the ocean than it was the last year.

The brothers have had visitors: Dan Tate came on Friday with some eggs and Bill Tate and George Twifert visited for a while this afternoon.

The brothers have lived through some interesting and extreme weather and varmint situations at their camps. Two years ago the wind registered 107 miles per hour and "took the anemometer cups away with it". Lightening turned night into day and struck and burned all the telegraph poles between Kill Devil Hills and Kitty Hawk. There were so many mosquitoes it darkened the daylight sky. Orville joked that the only other time more mosquitoes existed in the area must have been when they "devoured the whole of Raleigh's settlers on Roanoke".

However, Dan Tate has told Orville that this year was much worst and Kitty Hawker's have had one storm after another of "unprecedented severity" which has created a lake around their camp. To top it off, it has been incredibly hot.

He tells Katherine about the new building which he anticipates will be completed by the end of the week. They are getting last year's machine ready for gliding. They will glide on good days and work on the new powered machine when it rains or the wind is too calm. Orville comments that the hills look better than ever for flying.

Orville tells Katherine, "I put in most of my time Friday afternoon and yesterday morning making a "French drip" coffeepot, thus doing away with the use of eggs for coffee — quite a good thing when eggs are as scarce as they are now." Orville is really engrossed in constructing this coffee pot. He wants his brother Lorin back in Dayton to get him the "very finest [smallest holed] brass-wire screen" and send it as soon as possible. He also wants Lorin to mount [attach onto a heavy cardboard] 4 or 5 of the pictures of the Life Saving Station and pay a bill for some bicycle chain parts.

The brothers walked through the woods this morning and saw many types of birds: buzzards, eagles and very bright red birds with black "under their chins" and the end of their wings. Orville thinks it might be a "scarlet tanager". However, no pigs or mice have been sighted.

He ends his letter asking Katherine to tell their bicycle shop mechanic "Charley" [Taylor] how they are doing in Kill Devil Hills.

How do you think Orville will use the fine wire mesh to make his coffee-pot? What do you think eggs were used for in making coffee? Did you understand Orville's humor regarding the mosquitoes "devouring the whole of Raleigh's settlers on Roanoke"? Try to find information about Raleigh's settlers on Roanoke. Who were they and why are they important in American history.

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