Grundy County IL Archives Biographies.....Somerville, William E 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com May 13, 2006, 8:04 pm

Author: History of Grundy County, 1914

Somerville, William E., who has served as Mayor of Coal City, is known not 
alone as a prominent figure in public affairs in Grundy County, but as an 
inventor in the field of aeronautics and as president of the Illinois Aero 
Construction Company. The high esteem in which he is held by his fellow-
citizens is evidenced in the fact that he acted in an official capacity for a 
number of years and through his capable handling of the city's affairs won 
friends among men of all political parties, Mr. Somerville is a native of 
Scotland and has inherited many of the sterling characteristics of his 
forefathers. He was born April 12, 1867, and is a son of William and Christina 
(Edgington) Somerville, who passed their lives upon their native heath, where 
Mr. Somerville was for a long period engaged in mechanical engineering.

William E. Somerville attended the public schools in his native land, and 
continued his studies in a school of engineering. After a thorough preparation 
he became a marine engineer, a vocation which he followed for five years, and 
in 1892 shipped from Glasgow on an Anchor Line vessel as chief engineer, and, 
arriving in the United States, decided to remain here. Accordingly, he entered 
the employ of the General Electric Company, with which he continued for three 
years, and during this time traveled extensively in the company's service as 
an electrician. In 1895 he came to Coal City, and for five years followed 
electrical work, and in 1900 became superintendent of the new factory of the 
McComber Wire Rope Company. Having always been of an inventive turn of mind, 
and deeply interested in aeronautics, he conceived the idea of an airship 
which should have as its chief points stability and absolute safety. 
Accordingly, in 1910 he resigned his position and went to work to carry out 
his ideas. These resulted in the Illinois Aero Construction Company, 
capitalized at $250,000, with the following officers: William E. Somerville, 
president and treasurer; Richard Seeley, vice-president; Anthony J. Testa, 
secretary; and E. J. Hazel, C. E. Cumming, O. A. Miller and L. Veronda, 
directors. The company was organized for the purpose of placing on the market 
flying machines and engines, invented and designed by Mr. Sommerville, to 
operate a flying school and enter the exhibition business. The Somerville 
invention relates to the upturned wing tips, also to a system of opening the 
surface, both ideas being original and covered by letters patent. Mr. 
Somerville commenced his experimental work in 1909. In 1910 he built a biplane 
which proved so satisfactory that a patent was applied for on the original 
features and in 1911 the experimental work was continued. The results of 
experimenting and the expenditure of $40,000 produced a machine that is 
practically automatically stable and the safest in the world. The planes and 
upturned ends are so designed that any movement tending to disturb the 
equilibrium of the machine laterally creates a righting force or "couple'' 
which will cause the machine to right itself automatically without the 
assistance of the aviator. A mechanical system of maintaining lateral 
stability is also the invention of Mr. Somerville, which makes the machine 
safer than if only one system is installed. Although, as claimed above, the 
upturned wing will maintain the lateral stability while in the air, in landing 
in bad weather a gust of wind may tilt the machine and make a bad landing. To 
prevent just such a case, the mechanical stabilizing arrangement, which 
consists of two shutters on the high side, will be opened, which will cut the 
lift and also break the high side, the result being that the low side will 
speed up and the machine will right itself. This is the safest, simplest and 
most economical system in existence.  The company has a lease of 160 acres of 
land ideally located for a flying field.

In 1898 Mr. Somerville was married to Miss Bertha Piagno, of Coal City, Ill., 
and three children have been born to this union: Constance, Lillian and Peter, 
all living at home. Mr. Somerville has always been an active and stalwart 
Republican, and in 1905 was elected mayor of Coal City.

pages 900-901

Additional Comments:
Source:  History of Grundy County, Illinois, Chicago: Munsell Publishing Co. 
Publishers; 1914

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