The Wright Brothers: Chapter 11

by Quentin Reynolds
Wilbur and Orville Wright flew the world's first flying machine on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, NC. But before the glider came a sled, bicycles, and invaluable lessons and support from their mother.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapter 2, Chapter 11, Chapter 15
15 words 1 learner

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. assemble
    create by putting components or members together
    To assemble new bikes meant that they would have to buy up old ones and then buy wheels, tires, new seats, even new handle bars, and all these things cost money.
  2. gloomy
    filled with melancholy and despondency
    They felt pretty gloomy about it.
  3. admit
    declare to be true or accept the reality of
    “Mr. Henry ordered a new bike from us,” Wilbur admitted.
  4. spare
    more than is needed, desired, or required
    "With that sum we can buy enough spare parts to make a dozen bicycles."
  5. quantity
    an adequate or large amount
    “Orv,” he said, “you go to Cincinnati tomorrow. Now let’s figure out what we need. If we can buy in quantity, we can get things cheaper.”
  6. inspect
    look over carefully
    The next day Orville went to all of the bicycle factories in Cincinnati, inspecting their bikes and their spare parts.
  7. mass production
    the manufacturing of large quantities of goods
    Why were they so expensive? Well, “mass production’’ had not yet come into existence. Everything had to be made by hand, and that took a long time.
  8. existence
    the state or fact of being
    Why were they so expensive? Well, “mass production’’ had not yet come into existence. Everything had to be made by hand, and that took a long time.
  9. salary
    fixed payment for services
    They didn’t even pay themselves a salary.
  10. profit
    excess of revenues over outlays in a given period of time
    They just divided the profits three ways and then bought more old bikes and more spare parts with their profits.
  11. satisfied
    filled with contentment
    They were making plenty of money now, but oddly enough, they weren’t satisfied.
  12. quality
    a characteristic property defining the nature of something
    The truth is that one of the qualities they both had was curiosity.
  13. investigate
    conduct an inquiry of
    When they investigated they found that Wilbur and Orv were building a wooden shack in the back yard.
  14. install
    set up for use
    Will and Orv installed a workbench and a lathe.
  15. lathe
    a machine tool for shaping a piece of rotating wood or metal
    Soon the building was finished. Will and Orv installed a workbench and a lathe.
Created on Thu Mar 26 19:49:55 EDT 2026 (updated Fri Mar 27 19:28:50 EDT 2026)

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