Rocket PoweR, InteRstellaR tRavel and eteRnal lIfe

I just dreamed – sitting here – a man came in carrying
– large – wheel –wire spokes – that extended
beyond a sort of rim but not a rim-. The wheel was
a good 3-feet in diam – and looked like this – The
thing happened so quick I couldn’t catch all the
details. The hoop [?] looking at the edge looked like
this. . . .
The drawings also are marked “SELF-MOVING
WHEEL-. Our idea – not the wheel –with the spokes”
and “Supporting bracket and Frame For Self Moving
Wheel. . . D.D. & F. S. Hungerford”.
Steven Sekella recalls a perpetual motion machine in
the Hungerford apartment on East Third Street. This
device resembled a Ferris wheel and used ball bearings.
One wonders if that might have been the self-propelling
wheel. 189
CONCRETE DRILL
Drawings of a “Rock or Concrete drill” are identified as
“DESIGNED -5-30-58 RUSSELL BARR. 531 CENTER
STREET. ELMIRA”. Although Barr’s name appears on
the images and captions and he was close with the
Hungerfords, the drawings and lettering for the drill
resemble Daniel Hungerford’s work. One wonders if
the Hungerfords recorded most of the invention.
ENDNOTES
171 Stickler to Geoffrey N. Stein, March 30, 1979.
172 I. Seymour Copeland was the owner of the Evening Star, one
of the two newspapers which merged in 1907 to form the
continuing Star Gazette.
173 Lathers to Geoffrey Stein in conversation, August 9, 1979. No
patents were issued to Daniel Hungerford between 1914 and
1922. In fact, the only patents granted to him at all apparently
are for the automatic start and reverse mechanism
described above and for the joint Daniel, Floyd Hungerford
and Amos Newlands invention of the rotary engine.
174 Peg Gallagher, “Moonstruck”, New York Alive, March/April
1986, p. 52.
175 Three pages of this conversation are preserved in photocopy
form at the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum and at the Chemung
County Historical Society among items collected in the early
2000s by research David Smith. “Crandall” possibly was G.
Wells Crandall, a photographer.
176 Wheelock to D. D. Hungerford, March 17, 1942 and March
23, 1942.
177 September 11, 1927. The article is a “review of the history of
airplane construction as it related to this city in particular”.
178 Marvin, “The Wizards of West Second Street”.
179 Marvin, “The Wizards of West Second Street”.
180 George Mapes in telephone conversation with Geoffrey
Stein, July 23 and 24, 2008. If, indeed, the Oriole is the item in
question, it actually had been transferred to the Glenn H.
Curtiss Museum a few years prior to the time Hungerford
wrote to Marvin. That fuselage since has been restored to
original, Curtiss factory form in the recreation of a complete
Oriole aircraft. If, on the other hand, Hungerford actually
had a small-scale model in mind, that likely has been lost.
181 A photocopy of the drawing was provided to the Glenn H.
Curtiss Museum by researcher David Smith. The original
may be in the hands of Linda Hungerford Lathrop, a granddaughter
of Daniel’s brother William.
182 September 16, 1965.
183 The writer’s “at my store” suggests the column clothing store
operator was Leon Markson who wrote regularly for the
Elmira Star-Gazette.
184 H. Steven Sekella to Geoffrey Stein via telephone, September
30, 2008.
185 Daniel D. Hungerford to Harry O. Bright, November 7[?],
1966.
186 Daniel D. Hungerford to Howard H. Kimball et al. The letter
is signed “Daniel D. & Floyd S. Hungerford by DDH”
187 Robert Boyles in telephone conversation with Geoffrey Stein,
July 31, 2008; Boyles to Stein via letter, October 25, 2008.
Chapter Two: Hungerford Inventions 47