Since the bicycle business was seasonal, it left the brothers with plenty of spare time. They built porches all around the house, a fireplace in the parlor, and installed shutters on the windows. Wilbur learned to play the guitar and mandolin, while Orville chose to learn the harmonica.

More important, they took up photography, converting a shed behind the house into a darkroom to develop glass-plated negatives and prints. This hobby would become very important and played a vital part in history, as they documented and photographed everything that they did. The brothers kept extensive notes, diaries, and wrote a number of letters. A very complete history is available today of almost every aspect of their lives and work.

Most of their photographs were taken between 1898 and 1911. They left over 300 glass plate negatives and hundred of prints, which are currently housed in either the Library of Congress in Washington DC or the Wright State University Library in Dayton, Ohio. The famous picture that you see of Orville's first flight was made by the brothers setting up their own camera and having one of the fisherman squeeze the bulb at the time they thought that the airplane would take off. Both the flight and the photo were a success!

In 1896, Orville and Wilbur began reading about the flight experiments that several men were conducting. Otto Lilienthal, a German, had made some 2000 glider flights. An American civil engineer, Octave Chaunte, was also working on the problems of flight. Chaunte was famous for building the first bridge across the Missouri River, in 1868.

At the same time another American, Dr. Samuel Pierpont Langley, had successfully launched a steam engine model he called an Aerodrome from a houseboat in the Potomac River. Langley, a distinguished scientist, was the head of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC. The U.S. Army was so impressed with Langley's flight that they gave him $50,000 to continue his experiments. They wanted a passenger-carrying, full size, mechanical powered, flying machine. The Smithsonian also contributed $20,000 to the project, a very sizable fortune in those days.

In the spring of 1899, the brothers began to get serious about flight research and experiments. Wilbur wrote to the Smithsonian Institute asking for information on flight experiments. The Smithsonian mailed them a list of available books and a number of pamphlets. On the list was Samuel Langley's Experiments in Aerodynamic and Octave Chanute's Progress in Flying Machines. The boys not only read all the books, but sought advise from both men. Chanute took a fatherly interest in them and became one of their most ardent supporters.

As Wilbur and Orville studied the fledging technology of aeronautics, they determined that three basic requirements would have to be met. One, they would need wings that could lift a flying machine into the air. Two, they would need a power plant sufficient to propel the machine into the air and sustain it. Three, a method of controlling the machine in flight would be needed.