John Brown responded to Mr. Crouch via an open letter which I suggest that you read at
http://www.gustave-whitehead.com/open-l ... h-3-24-13/This quote should wet your appetite.
Quote:
Open Letter to Tom Crouch (Smithsonian) by John Brown (this site's author) on March 24, 2013
Your critique opens by suggesting my findings were no different than those made by previous Whitehead researchers back in 1937 and calls them “standard arguments”. Indeed, your spokesman, Peter Jakab, stated last week, my findings were “nothing new”.
Now that I’ve published, I can finally reveal to you that from day one, I sent everything I found on Whitehead concurrently to you, Jane’s and the Whitehead Museum. Let me remind you how you reacted back then in your emails to me:
- June 13, 2012; “John, thanks so much for all of the Whitehead treasure. Where did you find all of this?”
- June 13, 2012; “I am incredibly impressed by the amount of Whitehead material you uncovered”
- July 27, 2012: “Some of what you outline below seems to be new.”
Within the first 24 hours after the press conference announcing my findings, more than 25,000 people visited my website. (If I’m not mistaken, that’s more people than ever bought one of your books.) Many of them – including some noted historians – made comments similar to yours about the newness of the material. So you were in good company. Your initial, enthusiastic reaction was what I think most people would have expected of anyone interested in early aviation history. Why the change of heart now that it’s receiving wide attention? Isn’t that good for our field?
Peer review is normally impartial. In your case, the Wright-Smithsonian contract requires that you never state anyone flew before the Wrights. I therefore fail to see how you are qualified to review my work. Let me be clear, I consider you one of the world’s most qualified historians and I hope our friendship continues through and
beyond these discussions. You’re certainly not UN-qualified. But on this matter, you are DIS-qualified. Normally, a person in your position would recuse himself. You simply cannot render an impartial judgment. You saying the Wrights flew first is like Bill Gates saying Microsoft products are good – except that Bill is more credible
because no contract actually requires him to say that. You may want to bear in mind the words of the philosopher, Dennis Diderot (1713-1784), who once said, 'What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is therefore the first step toward truth.' I think all good historians are sceptics - and impartial.