topend,
Hate to burst your bubble, but one of the Wright bros early findings was that Octave Chanute didn't know beans about lift, drag or control, so if Chanute learned stuff from Hargrave, it fell on deaf ears.
When the Wrights tried to measure the "laws" that were previously taken as gospel, they were astounded that their wind tunnel data proved most of the prior work to be drivel. The wind tunnel work done by the Wrights established the field of aeronautical science as we know it. No other previous experimenter had developed lateral control, nor did they characterize the essence of lift, moment, power and drag to any usable degree. The concepts that were previously used were essentially unworkable, but impressive to newspaper reporters and debunkers who would flood the field once the Wrights flew.
In doubt? Find one reference to airfoil drag/power relationships in any other previous or contemporary work. Or pitching moment, stall characteristics or lateral control. Without some mastry of these concepts, controlled flight was not possible, even if a statue exists in every country on the planet where a favorite son "flew" some kind of device "years before the Wrights."