7 The 100 Most Influential Inventors of All Time 7the same time, the bishop’s rigid adherence to principle
and disinclination to negotiate disputes may have had
some influence on the manner in which the brothers, later
in life, conducted the marketing of their invention.
Printers and Bicycle Makers
Wilbur and Orville were the only members of the Wright
family who did not attend college or marry. Wilbur’s plans
to enter college came to an end when he was injured in a
hockey accident in the winter of 1885–86. He spent the
following three years recovering his health, reading
extensively in his father’s library, assisting the bishop with
his legal and church problems, and caring for his invalid
mother, who died of tuberculosis in 1889.
Following their mother’s death, Orville, who had spent
several summers learning the printing trade, persuaded
Wilbur to join him in establishing a print shop. In addition
to normal printing services, the brothers edited and
published two short-lived local newspapers, and they also
developed a local reputation for the quality of the presses
that they designed, built, and sold to other printers. These
printing presses were one of the first indications of the
Wright brothers’ extraordinary technical ability and
their unique approach to the solution of problems in
mechanical design.
In 1892 the brothers opened a bicycle sales and repair
shop, and they began to build bicycles on a small scale in
- They developed their own self-oiling bicycle wheel
hub and installed a number of light machine tools in
the shop. Profits from the print shop and the bicycle
operation eventually were to fund the Wright brothers’
aeronautical experiments from 1899 to 1905. In addition,
the experience of designing and building lightweight,