Aeronautics -- United States -- Biography; Wright, Orville, 1871-1948; Wright, Wilbur, 1867-1912
In a surprisingly short time, an impressive list of moneyed men were
enrolled as subscribers in the proposed flying-machine company. A
number of them were prominent in the field of transportation. The
list included Cornelius Vanderbilt, August Belmont, Howard Gould,
Theodore P. Shonts, Allan A. Ryan, Mortimer F. Plant, Andrew Freedman,
and E. J. Berwind. Shonts was president of the New York Interborough
subway. Ryan, a son of Thomas F. Ryan, was a director of the Bethlehem
Steel Corporation. Plant was chairman of the Board of Directors of
the Southern Express Company, and Vice President of the Chicago,
Indianapolis & Louisville Railroad. Berwind, as President of the
Berwind-White Coal Mining Company, had accumulated a great fortune
from coal contracts with big steamship lines. Freedman had made his
money originally as a sports promoter and then in various financial
operations. (He later provided funds for founding the Andrew Freedman
Home in New York.)
The Wrights wanted to have in the company their friends Robert J.
Collier, publisher of _Collier’s Weekly_, and the two Alger brothers of
Detroit. Those names were promptly added.
But the names of J. P. Morgan and E. H. Gary were not in the final list
of stockholders. The truth was that some of the others in the proposed
company did not want Morgan with them because they believed--probably
correctly--that he would dominate the company; that where he sat
would be the head of the table. One of them phoned to Morgan that
the stock was oversubscribed. When he thus got strong hints that his
participation was not too eagerly desired, Morgan promptly withdrew
his offer to take stock for himself and Gary.
On November 22, 1909, only about a month after Peterkin’s first talk
with Wilbur, The Wright Co. was incorporated. The capital stock
represented a paid-in value of $200,000. In payment for all rights
to their patents in the United States, the Wright brothers received
stock and cash, besides a provision for ten per cent royalty on all
planes sold; and The Wright Co. would thenceforth bear the expense of
prosecuting all suits against patent infringers.
From the Wright brothers’ point of view, the one fly in the ointment
was that they now found themselves more involved than ever before
in business affairs. It had been their dream to be entirely out of
business and able to give their whole time to scientific research.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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