SON OF FORT MACON SOLDIER
Private Raymond L. Paul was one of the Confederate soldiers taken prisoner when Federal Forces recaptured Fort Macon in 1862. Soon, Paul and most of the other prisoners were paroled. Paul returned to his home in Davis Shore, a small fishing hamlet on Core Sound, about 20 miles northeast of Fort Macon. In civilian life, Paul became a master carpenter and blacksmith. With his brother, Ammie, they built several of the early Rod and Gun clubs on the Outer Banks. Raymond’s famous son was William Luther Paul, who was born in 1869. Luther Paul and his extraordinary inventiveness are described below.
As a boy, Luther was fascinated with the inner secrets of how machines worked. By his teenage years, he became known as the local “Mr. Fix it.” In 1904, he patented a gasoline engine of his own design, and by 1906, he had constructed a side-wheeler showboat on which to present lantern slide shows to the numerous down-east coastal communities. The slide shows were later replaced with silent motion pictures. In 1911, Luther moved to Beaufort with his wife and five children. He built the town’s first movie house, “The Seabreeze Theatre,” complete with heating and cooling Systems. He included for the entertainment of his guests a 14 record audio system that was synchronized with the motion pictures. He also established a blacksmith/machine shop and a garage. In 1914, he built one of Carteret County’s earliest automobiles. In the 1920’s, he corresponded with Thomas Alva Edison about his idea of putting sound on film, but Edison responded that he was too busy working on his own concepts.
Prior to 1903, the challenge of flight was capturing the attention of the world press. A reward was offered by a New York newspaper for the first manned power flight. Luther’s interest in aviation increased when he learned of this reward.
Germany’s Otto Lillienthal made several important contributions to the theory of flight. Between 1891 and 1896, Lillienthal made over 2,000 glider flights. Much of Lillienthal’s research was into the efficiency of various wing shapes and these had great influence on later experimenters. Another early pioneer in fixed-wing flight was Dr. Samuel P. Langley, the third Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Although Langley’s 1903 attempts with his tandem-wing aircraft were unsuccessful, he too contributed to the fund of knowledge available to other pioneers, including Luther Paul.
Luther Paul designed and built what may be described as an experimental helicopter. Paul’s machine, dubbed the “Bumble Bee,” was tested in 1903 in an open-ended barn that functioned somewhat as a wind tunnel. According to Luther’s notes and statements by family members, the Bumble Bee was eventually able to lift off the ground about five feet carrying 60 pounds of ballast. In addition to the ballast, the flying machine weighed approximately 500 pounds. Luther designed and built an engine to power his Bumble Bee using parts from several motorcycle engines.
Several of the features of the Bumble Bee were years ahead of other aviation pioneers at the time. The Bumble Bee had a single engine connected to two rotors for lift and a reversible propeller for forward or backward motion. In Luther’s own words, “While going up, the side rudders are used to guide it. These rudders are operated by extensions that contact the shoulders of the operator. A dip or tip is corrected by the horizontal rudder which is connected by extensions to the steering wheel and is pushed forward or back as the case may be. Changing course is simply by turning the wheel the direction you want to go.” A watertight bottom and steerable front wheels permitted use on both land and water. Luther Paul was convinced his machine would fly with a pilot on board if he had a more powerful engine than 12-20 horsepower ones then available.
On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers were able to achieve a powered and controlled 12-second flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. On learning of the Wright brother’s achievement, Thomas A. Edison commented that no aircraft could be considered truly practical until it could rise from the ground and settle back again “vertically.” Edison’s comments gave Luther Paul incentive to continue his work on the Bumble Bee, which had the potential for becoming the first craft in history to be capable of vertical flight. Unfortunately, without the aerodynamic lift provided by large fixed wings, much more power was needed by a wingless craft than was available at that time. Luther’s work on the Bumble Bee ended in late 1909 as a result of the Wright brother’s success, his loss of financing, and his wife’s concern for his safety. (It was ever thus.) William Luther Paul, who died in 1946, is still remembered in Beaufort with both affection and admiration. His father, Raymond Paul, witnessed many of Luther’s extraordinary accomplishments before his own demise in 1930 at the age of 87. Raymond Paul was the last known surviving Confederate veteran of the Battle of Fort Macon.
The author, Grayden Paul, Jr. is the grandson of Luther Paul. Grayden is an
aeronautical engineer, and serves on the Board of the Friends of Fort Macon. His
model of the Bumble Bee is now on display at the Beaufort Historical Association.