Wright Flyer Ignition

There's a debate going on over in rec.crafts.metalworking about what
type of igniton was used on the original Flyer...
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Dear Dan,

Yeah, that crops up every now & then :-)

According to Leonard Hobbs, author of a book about the Wright brothers and
their engines (*), the original used make-and-break... AND a magneto. But
the 'magneto' had been gutted and was in fact running as a permanent-magnet
dynamo, providing about 10 volts.

The magneto is clearly evident in several photos of the original engine, the
typical horsehoe magnets sticking up above the level of the flywheel. The
presence of what is obiously a magneto has been a source of confusion for many
who are not familiar with make & break. The lack of spark plugs should be the
deciding clue but the fact spark plugs and magneto were fitted to later models
of what is basically the same engine simply adds to the confusion. The key
point, in my opinion, is that on the original engine the magneto was not keyed
to either the crank or the cam but was powered by a simple friction drive off
the edge of the flywheel. Based on the photos I've seen the make & break
levers appear to be driven off the cam, a guess that is supported by the fact
the cam timing can be altered once the engine is running. This was common
among make & break marine engines, as was the lack of any form of throttle
other than a kill switch, another Wright design element. To start such engines
you moved the timing lever to a position that gave you a spark just after TDC.
Once it was running and the 'vaporizor' was heated up, you moved the timing to
the 'run' position (ie, slightly advanced from TDC) and opened the fuel valve
to full on. No carb, not throttle and basically, no worries... until you ran
out of fuel or oil. (Some make & break engines from the 1880's were still
chugging around Nova Scotia in the 1950's.)

But after those first flights in December of '03 details get pretty hazy.
Later Wright engines used spark plugs but the original did not.

If you don't have a sparking plug your ignition options are pretty slim. Most
spark plugs were made in France back then but make & break engines were common
throughout America. It was used on early 'motor cycles,' washing machines,
water pumps and so forth. Since those 'motor cycles' were often nothing more
than a one-speed make&break one-lunger belted to the rear wheel of a bicycle,
and since the Wrights had built bicycles for a time, the odds are in favor of
their having a good knowledge of the make & break ignition system. Which is
more than you can say of most folks today :-)

-R.S.Hoover

(Hobbs, Leonard S. "The Wright Brothers' Engines and Their design" Washington,
D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1971, pp 9-28.