Dayton, March 14, 1904
We were very much amused at the French articles which you enclosed in your letter of 3rd of March. We have been trying to decide whether the joke is on us, or on you, or on the French. Any how there is evidently a joke loose somewhere, and we have had several good laughs over it. The copies of your address before the American Association for the Advancement of Science have reached us and been read with a great deal of pleasure. We thank you for so kindly sending them. This address is fully up to the high mark which you have set in your former writings and is the clearest statement of the existing state of the art that has been published.
We are hard at work getting ready for spring. The new machines will be of the same size as the old one but will weigh a little more, 800 lbs. probably. By gearing the engine to run a little faster we will not only carry the additional weight but will have enough surplus to increase the speed to about 40 miles an hour.
Octave Chanute to Wilbur Wright, March 19, 1904