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Volume 030-2 - April 1976 (8 pages)
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Page: of 8
LYMAN GILMORE JR.(left) STANDING NEXT TO
AVIATOR ROBERT FOWLER
COURTESY OF ELLARD AND BUZZ SCHWAB
The dawning moments of this century were marked
by the inventive genius of tremendously unusual
people. The inventors were the prophets of those
days. Cast in natural surroundings, and with bewilderment, loneliness, and exile, it was the unbridled
determination and courage of such men as Otto
Lilienthall, Samuel Pierpont Langley, Gustav Whitehead, and the Wright brothers who finally brought
man to the illimitable horizon of life in space. These
moments in our history are glorified, which is why
we add the unknown name of Lyman Gilmore, Jr. to
that cortege of pioneers who gave us flight.
Historians who have attempted to write about
Lyman Gilmore, Jr. have done so with mixed feelings
of admiration and frustration, for few people are so
baffling as this California inventor. Those who
talked with Lyman often could not distinguish truth
from fantasy, and, as one scholar, Kenneth Johnston,
wrote, ‘‘the extreme secrecy with which he (Lyman)
cloaked his early activities has limited his fame and
prevented any detailed verification.’? Lyman’s secret
isolation, his unabashed eccentricity, and his unreliable credibility seemingly defy attempts to accurately interpret the inventor’s true contributions. If
there is any hope that some endearing honor will come
to Lyman Gilmore, Jr., it is in the releasing to the
public the thousands of pages of manuscripts-Lyman’s
journals, diaries, correspondence, blueprints, and
photographs held by his many descendents and friends
for the past twenty five years.
Lyman Gilmore, Jr. was born in Cowlitz County,
Washington on June 11, 1874. He was the sixth of
eleven children born to Lyman and Sarah Gilmore,
As Lyman grew up, it was noticed that he was unlike
the other children. Hecared very little for the responsibilities of work around the farm. Thought and
seclusion became the abiding pastime. When Sarah
Gilmore read the Bible aloud to her children, it was
Lyman, Jr. who appeared to listen with noticeable
devotion. Neither was it unusual, according to the
Grass Valley newspaperman, Paul Fredrickson, to
catch the child, Lyman, ‘‘talking rapidly...for a long
time about some idea that had burst upon him.’’
It was Lyman’s enchantment with birds in flight
that brought out his intense interest in present and
future goals. As his experiments with hand-made
objects resembling birds increased with endless
enthusiasm, so, too, did the expressions of family
disapproval. Lyman’s father referred to his son’s
fascination and obsession with mechanical flight as
‘‘tomfoolery.’’
Lyman left his Washington home during the early
1890’s determined to challenge man’s age-old failure
. to achieve sustained flight. Stories have circulated