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of staying but was offered a position as City Electrical Engineer, which he accepted and remained in that capacity until 1900. At that time he became Superintendent of the new Macomber Whyte Company factory at Coal City, manufacturers of stranded wire rope. There he began an intensive study of their methods and manufacturing processes which let to his undertaking the design and construction of new wire-rope making machinery in an effort to increase production and improve the product. He became so interested and absorbed in this work that he continued active in the field for the remainder of his life. During this period he was very civic minded and an untiring leader in local improvements and industrial growth. In this field he was always ready to serve his community in any way, and was elected mayor of the town in 1905, remaining in that office for eight years.

Somerville became deeply interested in aviation during the first years of its historic beginning and turned his inventive mind toward that new interest in 1908. Starting with scale model experiments he made a pusher biplane in 1910 embodying some new and novel features, the most important one being a means to open an area through the upper wing near the tips to provide lateral control instead of using ailerons or wing warping. Up-turned wing tips were also featured to give naturally inherent longitudinal stability in flight.

This first machine had a 45-foot span on the upper wing and 35 foot on the lower, with [[strikethrough]] up-turned wing tips and [[/strikethrough]] individually controlled Venetian blind arrangements in openings near the ends of the upper wing only. It was powered by a 4-cylinder, 4-cycle engine which he built himself. He also built a monoplane during this early period embodying these same basic principles. Somerville contended that the up-turned wing tips would maintain lateral stability under all normal flight conditions but, should they prove insufficient under abnormal or unusual conditions, the manually operated mechanical shutter arrangements in the wing openings would give [[strikethrough]] final absolute [[/strikethrough]] more positive control. He wanted a plane fully capable of [[strikethrough]] positive [[/strikethrough]] safety and stability in flight.

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