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Albert Francis Zahm
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Albert Francis Zahm
Born 1862
New Lexington, Ohio, U.S.
Died July 23, 1954
Citizenship American
Fields Aeronautics
Institutions University of Notre Dame,
Catholic University,
Library of Congress
Alma mater University of Notre Dame,
Cornell University,
Johns Hopkins University
Known for testimony in Wrights v. Curtiss
Notable awards Laetare Medal
Albert Francis Zahm (1862–1954) was an early aeronautical experimenter, a professor of physics, and a chief of the Aeronautical Division of the U.S. Library of Congress. He testified as an aeronautical expert in the 1910–14 lawsuits between the Wright brothers and Glenn Curtiss.

Contents [hide]
1 Time line of early life and work in aeronautics
2 Testimony in Wrights vs. Curtiss
3 Later years
4 Honors
5 Publications, bibliography and archival information
6 References
7 External links
Time line of early life and work in aeronautics[edit]
Received A.B., University of Notre Dame, Indiana, 1883, A.M., 1885, M.S. 1890; M.E. Cornell University, 1892; Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University, 1898.[1]
Professor of Mathematics, University of Notre Dame 1885-1889, mathematics and mechanics, 1890-1892.[1]
He suggested to stage an International Conferences on Aerial Navigation in 1893 and acted as Secretary, with Octave Chanute as Chair. .,[1][2]
He was a professor of mechanics (physics) at the Catholic University of America, from 1895 apparently until 1913-1914 (but one source says only till 1908).[1][3]
In 1901, as part of a pioneering aeronautical laboratory, Zahm built a wind tunnel with financing from Hugo Mattullah. It operated until 1908.[4] It has been described as "America's first significant wind tunnel."[5]
He joined the Aero Club of America shortly after it was founded, in 1905.[6]
Zahm's 1911 book Aerial Navigation described the historical development of experimental aircraft that led to functional airplanes.[7]
Testimony in Wrights vs. Curtiss[edit]
Zahm testified as an aeronautical expert in the 1910-1913 patent lawsuits by the Wright brothers who alleged patent infringement against inventor and manufacturer Glenn Curtiss.[8] His testimony took over a month. He testified on behalf of the Curtiss after declining to testify for the Wrights,[9] possibly because the Wrights refused to pay Zahm to appear as an expert witness whereas the Curtiss interests did.[10] Zahm had been on friendly terms with both sides previously but became a long term adversary of the Wrights during and after the trial.[4][11] He worked closely with Glenn Curtiss on the controversial 1914 flying tests of the (substantially rebuilt and modified) Langley Aerodrome in an attempt to show that Langley's machine had been capable of powered flight with a man aboard before the Wrights' glider was.[12]

Zahm testified that earlier experimental gliders and glider designs and publications, before those of the Wrights, had included a variety of monoplane and biplane designs, with horizontal and vertical rudders, and steering concepts of ailerons and wing warping. There were complex technical issues, notably whether Curtiss's airplanes used a vertical rudder and ailerons in ways that closely matched the patented design of the Wrights. Experts testified on both sides and sometimes contradicted one another on matters of fact. In the end judge John R. Hazel ruled in Feb. 1913 for the Wrights, and on appeal a higher court agreed with this decision in 1914.[11]

Later years[edit]
Zahm became the chief research engineer of Curtiss Aeroplane Company in 1914-1915 and then the director of the U.S. Navy's Aerodynamical Laboratory, 1916-1929.[1]

Zahm became the chief of the Aeronautical Division at the Library of Congress from 1929 or 1930 until 1946, and held the Guggenheim Chair of Aeronautics there.[1][13]

Zahm died in 1954, and was buried in the Community Cemetery, Notre Dame, Indiana.[1]

Honors[edit]
Zahm was invited to be a member of the Cosmos Club of Washington, DC, and received his mail there while on the faculty of Catholic University.
Recipient of Laetare medal at University of Notre Dame, 1925.
Awarded the Mendel Medal at Villanova College in 1930 for his pioneering work in scientific aeronautics.[14]
Daniel Guggenheim Chair of Aeronautics in the Library of Congress, 1929-1946.[1]
Publications, bibliography and archival information[edit]
More than 100 of his articles and papers were collected in Aeronautical papers 1885-1945 of Albert F. Zahm, volumes I and II.[15] He wrote the book Aerial Navigation (1911),[16] and a booklet called Early Powerplane Fathers.[17] His papers are kept by the University of Notre Dame.

Jacques married Mary Ellen Braddock on 6 May 1849 in Ohio, USA. Mary (daughter of John Braddock and Elizabeth Storm) was born on 27 Feb 1827 in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, USA; died on 18 Dec 1884 in Huntington, Huntington County, Indiana, USA; was buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery, Huntington, Huntington County, Indiana, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

BIOGRAPHY:
http://members.cox.net/chiefstorm/gen/oth-s365.htm

Notes:

BIOGRAPHY:
http://perrycountychapterogs.org/familyhistories/zahmnicholas.html
1. NICHOLAS5 ZAHM (PIERRE4, JEAN3, JOHANNE PAUL2, NICHOLAS1) was born April 02, 1787 in OLSBURG, WOLMINSTER COUNTY, GERMANY, and died April 02, 1874 in SOMERSET, READING TOWNSHIP, PERRY COUNTY, OHIO. He married (1) ELIZABETH GARHART in OLDENBERG, daughter of MATTHIAS GARHART and CATHERINE WIESS. She was born Abt. 1790 in URBACH, LORRAINE, and died April 21, 1842 in PERRY COUNTY, OHIO.

Notes for NICHOLAS ZAHM:



WILL OF NICHOLAS ZAHM

I, NICHOLAS ZAHM OF THE COUNTY OF HUNTINGTON, STATE OF INDIANA, DO MAKE AND PUBLISH THIS, MY LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT TO WIT.

I GIVE, BEQUEATH, AND DEVISE TO MY BELOVED CHILDREN OR THEIR HEIRS ALL MY PERSONAL PROPERTY, OR THE PROCEEDS AT TIME OF REMAINING UNCONSUMED AND UNEXPENDED AT MY DEATH, AFTER PAYING MY JUST DEBTS, TO BE DIVIDED AS FOLLOWS.

ITEM 1. TO MY DAUGHTER ANNIE OR HER HEIRS I GIVE AND BEQUEATH ONE DOLLAR TO BE PAID BY MY OTHER CHILDREN CONJOINTLY AFTER MY DEATH.

ITEM 2. TO MY OTHER CHILDREN NICHOLAS, MARGARET, CATHERINE, PETER, JACOB, MARY, GEORGE, AND THE HEIRS OF MY SON JOHN, FOR HIS SHARE, I GIVE AND BEQUEATH THE REST OF MY PERSONAL PROPERTY TO BE DIVIDED AMONG THEM IN EQUAL SHARES; MY SONS JACOB AND GEORGE TO BE EXECUTORS OF THIS WILL.

I HEREBY SO MAKE WELL AND VOID ANY AND EVERY FORMER WILL AND TESTAMENT, OTHER INSTRUMENT REGARDING MY LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT.

IN TESTIMONY WHERE I HAVE HEREUNTO SET MY HAND AND SEAL THIS 26TH DAY OF AUGUST 1870.

NICHOLAS ZAHM



NICHOLAS ZAHM WAS SAID TO HAVE BEEN A SOLDIER IN NAPOLEON'S ARMY. One source says Nicholas moved to the United States in 1829, stopped in PA and moved on to Wooster, Ohio before moving on to Perry County, Ohio near Somerset in 1839. In 1864 He was said to have moved to Huntington, IN., remaining there for 9 years before returning to Perry County, Ohio where he died on his birthday on April 2, 1874.





Somerset Press

Friday, April 10, 1874 Page 3

DIED, after a lingering illness, on Thursday morning, at half past 8 o'clock, at the residence of Mr. George Green, near St. Joseph's Perry Co., Ohio. Mr. Nicholas Zahm, aged 87 years.

The subject of this notice was born at Olsburg, in Wolminster County, Germany, on the 2nd day of April, 1787, and moved to this country at the age of 42 years. After landing at New York City, he purchased a horse and wagon and in his humble way, he moved his little family across the mountains to Wayne County, Ohio, where he resided till the year 1838, when he moved to Perry County, Ohio, where he purchased a small farm near St. Joseph's, on which he lived for many years. Becoming old and feeble, he sold his farm to his daughter, Mrs. Beber, and chose his home with his son-in-law Mr. George Green, where he died, as will be seen, on the morning of his 87th birthday. Mr. Zahm was a quiet, inoffensive man; honest and industrious; a strict member of the Catholic church; without an enemy on earth, he has left an example worthy of imitation. He left four sons and four daughters together with one hundred grand and great grand children to mourn his loss.





More About NICHOLAS ZAHM:

Burial: ST. JOSEPH'S CEMETERY, SOMERSET, OHIO

Notes for ELIZABETH GARHART:

also Elizabeth Capart poss.

More About ELIZABETH GARHART:

Burial: ST. JOSEPH'S CEMETERY, SOMERSET, OHIO

More About NICHOLAS ZAHM and ELIZABETH GARHART:

Marriage: OLDENBERG

Children of NICHOLAS ZAHM and ELIZABETH GARHART are:

Nicholas married Elisabeth Gerhardt. Elisabeth (daughter of Matthias Gerhardt and Katharina Weis) was born in 1790 in Bas-Rhin, Alsace, France; died on 21 Apr 1842 in Perry County, Ohio, USA; was buried in St. Joseph Cemetery, Somerset, Perry County, Ohio, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

BIOGRAPHY:
http://members.cox.net/chiefstorm/gen/oth-s365.htm

John married Elizabeth Storm on 25 May 1826. Elizabeth (daughter of John Storm and Susan Wysong) was born on 13 Nov 1800 in Pennsylvania, USA; died in 1860 in Kentucky, USA; was buried in Sacred Heart Parish Cemetery, St. Vincent, Union County, Kentucky, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

BIOGRAPHY:
http://members.cox.net/chiefstorm/gen/oth-s365.htm

Matthias married Katharina Weis. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

BIOGRAPHY:
http://members.cox.net/chiefstorm/gen/oth-s365.htm

John married Susan Wysong in 1796 in Pennsylvania, USA. Susan was born on 25 Jul 1773 in Pennsylvania, USA; died on 11 Nov 1837 in Pennsylvania, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

BIOGRAPHY:
http://members.cox.net/chiefstorm/gen/oth-s365.htm