Background
Augustus Moore Herring was born on August 3, 1867, at Covington, Georgia, United States, the son of William Francis and Chloe Perry (Conyers) Herring.
Augustus Moore Herring was born on August 3, 1867, at Covington, Georgia, United States, the son of William Francis and Chloe Perry (Conyers) Herring.
Educated in mechanical engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology, Augustus offered in 1888 a thesis on “The Flying Machine as a Mechanical Engineering Problem” but, disappointed by the Institute’s refusal to accept his thesis because of its supposed chimerical character, he left shortly before graduation.
Almost immediately entering his chosen field, Augustus Herring experimented with gliders, at first copying those of Lilienthal. His work on light engine construction brought him into the notice of Samuel Pierpont Langley, whom he assisted at the Smithsonian Institution from June to November 1895. In 1896, Herring assisted Octave Chanute in making and flying gliders near Chicago. Of the four types experimented upon by Chanute, the Herring biplane with flexible-rudder stabilizer proved best. Herring and others made many glides with it ranging from 250 to 1, 000 feet.
On December 11, 1896, Herring applied for a patent on a heavier-than-air powered flying machine. He showed superposed wings, a wheeled chassis, a horizontal and vertical rudder with flexible controls, two screw-propellors of opposite pitches driven oppositely on a common central shaft, and wing sections of special curvatures both above and below. Since the Patent Office required a working model, he submitted an affidavit reciting his gliding experiences and his work on light engines, and accompanied it by three photographs: one, of a two-foot elastic-band propelled model in flight, another, of himself gliding with a full-sized machine, and the third, of a light two-cylinder gasoline engine. The Patent Office found nearly twenty claims not anticipated by the prior art. Among these are highly important ones covering curved wing sections of unequal curvatures above and below. Although these and other claims would have been allowable in an application for a glider, the Office totally rejected the application in 1898.
Conceiving the Office to demand as proof of operability an actual power-driven flight with pilot, Herring worked on gasoline and on steam engines for several years but only succeeded so far that in 1898, powered with compressed air, he made a hop of seventy-five feet with his full-sized machine. A fire in 1901 destroyed his shop and partly-completed engines. Almost without funds, he nevertheless made, about 1902, a gasoline engine of four pounds to the horsepower, which was exhibited in Germany. About 1909, the Herring-Curtiss Company was formed. Herring and his friends contributed his patent applications besides funds, and held a majority of the stock. Successful machines were turned out, and Herring petitioned for a revival of the patent application of December 1896 after he had actually flown a machine constructed on that plan by Starling Burgess. The Patent Office found, however, “that the delay in prosecuting this case has not been shown to have been unavoidable within the meaning of Section 4894 R. S. ,” and the petition was denied.
In 1910, the Herring-Curtiss Company was made a defendant in the famous suit by the Wrights, in which the lower court held against the defendants. Appeals still pending were settled out of court in 1917 by the celebrated “crosslicensing agreement, ” whereby to meet the war exigency all patents were made available to all builders on certain terms. Disagreements had arisen between Curtiss and Herring, however. Their company became bankrupt about 1910, and its assets were purchased at auction by Curtiss, who also secured an injunction against Herring. At its expiration, Herring brought suit for damages against Curtiss for $5, 000, 000. Appeals are still pending (1931) therein. Several further attempts to revive the patent application of December 1896 were made by Herring and his assignee after 1920, and even carried to the court of appeals, but the Patent Office was finally sustained in its action disallowing the petitions on the ground of fatal delay. With much ingenuity, devotion and enthusiasm, Herring tried hard for many years to promote heavier-than-air gliding and power flying. He wrote many articles, both technical and popular, he gave generous praise to the Wrights in their success, but he, himself, seemed almost continuously pursued by misfortune.
Augustus Herring was married to Lillian Mellen of Freeport, Long Island.