Kit Carson County, History of Colorado, BIOS: BUCK, Frederick W. D., M. E.  (published 1918)
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"History of Colorado", edited by Wilbur Fisk Stone, published by The S. J. 
Clarke Publishing Co. (1918)  Vol. II


p. 382-383


FREDERICK W. BUCK, M. D., M. E.

	Dr. Frederick W. Buck is well known as a physician and is coming 
prominently to the front as an inventor, being now at the head of the 
Buck Aircraft & Munitions Company, in which connection he has brought 
forth an aircraft that it is believed will largely revolutionize flying 
and torpedo use in aviation. Dr. Buck was born in Allegan county, 
Michigan, on the 13th of March, 1873, a son of David S. and H. A. 
(Richmond) Buck. The mother died when he was but three years of age. He 
was educated in the public schools but when a youth of fourteen years 
left home and when but sixteen years of age taught in the rural schools 
of his native state. He afterward went upon the road as a commercial 
traveler and for three years he was engaged in government work on the 
Mississippi river. While employed in these different capacities he 
saved the money which enabled him to take up the study of medicine, the 
profession which he felt that he wished to enter. He first graduated 
from the Physio-medical College of Chicago in 1898 and then secured his 
degree of M. E. from the National College of Electrotherapeutics and 
afterward became a student in the Central Medical College at St. 
Joseph, Missouri, in which he completed his studies in 1902. He first 
located for practice at Grand Rapids, Michigan, and afterward became 
connected with a private sanitarium at Aberdeen, South Dakota. In 1905 
he removed to Flagler, Colorado, where he purchased a ranch and in 
addition to practicing his profession he has pursued his investigations 
and experiments, resulting in notable inventions. He has organized the 
Buck Aircraft & Munitions Company, which was incorporated for three 
million dollars on the 27th of January, 1917, for the purpose of 
manufacturing and selling aircraft, aeroplanes, torpedoes and explosive 
carriers and for the further purpose of maintaining an aerial 
passenger, mail and express service and an aviation school. The company 
are manufacturing at Pueblo, Colorado. The officers are: Dr. F. W. 
Buck. president; D. D. Buck, vice president; and John G. Powell, of 
Denver, secretary and treasurer. These constitute the board of 
directors together with A. C. Troutman, of Palisade. Nebraska, and F. 
E. Gibson, of Kokomo, Colorado. For five years Dr. Buck has been 
working upon the invention and evolution of the Buck aerial torpedo, 
which he has succeeded in bringing to its present state of perfection 
and efficiency. This (the aerial torpedo) is one American invention 
that Germany was not able to purchase. After turning down their first 
two offers of one and five million dollars, in June, 1916, - ten months 
before we entered the war, her agents raised the bid to ten million 
dollars and received the truly American reply:  "The Kaiser hasn't 
money enough in his kingdom to buy it." One of the devices which he has 
introduced is the stabilizer, so essential to the automatic control of 
the plane, as well as the device for the automatic detachment of the 
torpedo carrying the explosive. In regard to the former, Santos Dumont, 
who only saw patent drawings of the torpedo and an explanation of the 
stabilizer, said: "It's funny as long as I have been flying that I 
never thought of your principle of stabilization. I guess it's because 
it was too simple for me to see it." The editor of the Aerial Age said: 
"We certainly believe you are bound to succeed," while Lee Wallace, 
aeronautical engineer and designer, said:  "On account of your 
reduction in weight, head resistance and skin friction, you should get 
from ten to twenty-five miles per hour greater speed with same motor 
than other machines of the same design." The inventor of the gyroscope, 
Elmer A. Sperry, expressed himself in these words: "There is no 
question about being able to direct an aerial torpedo or airplane 
without a pilot. The only thing you have done is to beat us to it with 
your patents." All aviators and aeronautical engineers agree 'that the 
aircraft set forth by Dr. Buck will reduce weight, head resistance and 
skin friction, and eliminate sideslip and skidding.

	In 1894, Dr. Buck was united in marriage to Mi&s Hattie Parmalee, 
of Parmalee, Michigan, and to them have been born a son and a daughter, 
Lawrence and Nellie. In 1912 Dr. Buck was a candidate for the 
legislature and in 1914 was a candidate before the primaries for 
congress and was beaten by only ninety-six votes. He has always given 
his political allegiance to the republican party, of which he is a 
stanch champion. Fraternally he is a Mason, an Odd Fellow and an Elk, 
but more than that he is a scientist and Inventor who is prompted by 
the most patriotic purposes in endeavoring to perfect and build his 
aircraft, realizing how important this is at the present hour of crisis 
in the nation's history.