— age of electricity —
HELICOPTERS
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An accurate depiction of the Flying Scud under construction at Readeworks, from Harper’s Weekly magazine, compared to the same subject as depicted by Frank Reade Library. At Frank Reade Jr.’s direction, Readeworks vehicles (especially helicopters) were depicted inaccurately in dime novels, so that the technology would be harder to copy.
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You should see the marvels Frank is building! Yesterday he took me on the first flight of his air-ship, after persistent persuasion. For many miles we sailed in the air above the Delaware River, its mighty waters and lush valley rolling far below us. It felt as if we were carried along by the hand of God Himself. I must ask Frank to take me aloft after dark, that I may use my telescope to observe the stars from this new vantage.
Aeronautics expert David Hahn extrapolates the design of a Readeworks helicopter’s rotor assembly.
emilie reade, letter to sarah frances whiting (june 30, 1884)
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Chartroom of the airship White Cruiser. The spittoon was for Barney’s use. Interior photos of Readeworks craft were allowed, so long as they didn’t show any technological secrets. TITLE TK
Parlor room of the White Cruiser. Frank Reade Jr.’s youthful enjoyment of “high-class grub and furnishings” found its expression in the living spaces aboard his vehicles, which are lavishly described in many Frank Reade dime novels.
Frank Jr. was so proud of his accomplishments that he decided to keep them to himself. He didn’t mind spreading general information, or misinformation, about his technology. But he always strove to keep the technical details out of the public record. No one would ever be able to read about his discoveries, let alone buy them, as his father had done with Zadoc Dederick’s Steam Man patent. Where so many other men have failed, I have succeeded in achieving powered flight. The secret is mine alone; I’ll not share it with lesser minds by filing patent applications. I will use my inventions exclusively for the benefit of myself and my family, my business, and my country. journal of frank reade jr. (june 29, 1884)
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Jack Wright and other Readeworks employees give scale to one of Frank Jr.’s helicopter rotor blades. A standard airplane propeller is also displayed for comparison.
elicopters have been around in some form for ages. In ancient China, people played with tops made of twisted feathers attached to the end of a bamboo stick. By twirling the stick between their hands, they could generate lift and release the top into free flight, then watch it sail through the air. The earliest recorded design of a manned helicopter dates back to 1483, when Leonardo da Vinci conceived of a vertical-lift vehicle with a helical rotor, but he only made models of his design. Gustave de Ponton d’Amécourt demonstrated one of his model hélicoptères at the 1868 London Aeronautical Exposition. George Cayley built a working twin-rotor helicopter model in 1792, powered by clock springs. Many other inventors created powered models during the nineteenth century — but not a full-scale version capable of carrying a man into the sky. Frank Reade Jr. designed and flew the first true helicopter in 1883, at the age of twenty-one, using a lightweight electric engine and revolutionary new rotors.
Newspaper publisher James Gordon Bennett, who financed African exploration by Henry Morton Stanley and sponsored air and sea races, was especially interested in Frank Jr.’s accomplishment. Bennett approached him with a proposal for commercially exploiting the invention, but Frank Jr. turned it down. Bennett then gave Thomas Edison $1,000 to begin work on a helicopter. Edison failed to produce a practical vehicle, though he did produce an impressive explosion in his lab when one of his models blew up. Frank Jr.’s secrecy, and his refusal to file patent applications or sell his technology, prevented anyone outside Readeworks from exploiting his breakthroughs. No one else would develop workable vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft until the 1920s. Frank Jr. was ahead of even the brilliant Nikola Tesla, who patented a design for a one-man VTOL rotor aircraft called “Apparatus for Aerial Transportation” in 1928. Eventually, Frank Jr. passed the baton to his daughter, Kate Reade, whose work for the U.S. Navy in the 1930s helped make helicopters practical and birthed an industry of VTOL rotorcraft.