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[[Stamp: FROM THE FLYING PIONEERS BIOGRAPHIES OF HAROLD E. MOREHOUSE]]

WILBUR R. KIMBALL
Early Wright Pilot - Pioneer Plane Builder

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Wilbur R. Kimball was born in Lynn, Mass. in 1863. He left school to become an apprentice electrical engineer with the Bell Telephone Co. and installed a pioneer telephone system in Brockton, Mass. He then went with the Edison Co., where he assisted in the development of the three-wire underground power system and also became and electric meter expert. He then worked for Thomas A. Edison for a time, and from 1883 - 1886 was associated with Elihu Thompson in his Lynn Laboratory. In 1886 he became assistant Electrical Engineer with the Sun Electric Co. developing incandescent light bulbs. Following this, Kimball was with the Ft. Wayne Electric Co. and the Wardell Enoz Co. of Bridgeport, Conn. From 1895 to 1902 he was financial reported for the Wall Street Journal.

During this interval Kimball became interested in ballooning and made numerous ascensions with the early famed professional balloonist A. Leo Stevens. In 1903 he began to experiment with flying models and in 1905 became one of the founder members of the Aero Club of America. About a year later he was also a founder member of the Aeronautical Society whose members financed the purchase of a Curtiss biplane and established the first flying field in the vicinity of New York at the Morris Park Race Track. This group was comprised of men who wished to build and experiment with ideas of an aeronautical nature, and the Society provided workshop facilities and even purchased an engine to be rented to members to install in experimental planes for attempted test hops.

Kimball's first attempt at building a machine was during the summer of 1908 when he built a helicopter which he entered in the Morris Park Tournament of the Aeronautical Society on