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172
Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies
·
Fulgence Marion
1
WONDERFUL
BALLOON
ASCENTS
or,
the
Conquest
of
the
Skies
A
History
of
Balloons
and
Balloon
Voyages.
By
F.
Marion
1870
PREFACE
“Let
posterity
know,
and
knowing
be
astonished,
that
on
the
fifteenth
day
of
September,
1784,
Vincent
Lunardi
of
Lucca,
in
Tuscany,
the
first
aerial
traveller
in
Britain,
mounting
from
the
Artillery
Ground
in
London,
and
traversing
the
regions
of
the
air
for
two
hours
and
fifteen
minutes,
on
this
spot
revisited
the
earth.
In
this
rude
monument
for
ages
be
recorded
this
wondrous
enterprise
successfully
achieved
by
the
powers
of
chemistry
and
the
fortitude
of
man,
this
improvement
in
science
which
the
great
Author
of
all
Knowledge,
patronising
by
his
Providence
the
inventions
of
mankind,
hath
graciously
permitted,
to
their
benefit
and
his
own
eternal
glory.”
The
stone
upon
which
the
above
inscription
was
carved,
stands,
or
stood
recently,
near
Collier’s
End,
in
the
parish
of
Standon,
Hertfordshire;
and
it
will
possibly
afford
the
English
reader
a
more
accurate
idea
of
the
feelings
with
which
the
world
hailed
the
discovery
of
the
balloon
than
any
incident
or
illustration
drawn
from
the
annals
of
a
foreign
country.
The
work
which
we
now
introduce
to
our
readers
does
not
exaggerate
the
case
when
it
declares
that
no
discovery
of
modern
times
has
aroused
so
large
an
amount
of
enthusiasm,
has
excited
so
many
hopes,
has
appeared
to
the
human
race
to
open
up
so
many
vistas
of
enterprise
and
research,
as
that
for
which
we
are
mainly
indebted
to
the
Brothers
Montgolfier.
The
discovery
or
the
invention
of
the
balloon,
however,
was
one
of
those
efforts
of
genius
and
enterprise
which
have
no
infancy.
It
had
reached
its
full
growth
when
it
burst
upon
the
world,
and
the
ninety
years
which
have
since
elapsed
have
witnessed
no
development
of
the
original
idea.
The
balloon
of
to-day--the
balloon
in
which
Coxwell
and
Glaisher
have
made
their
perilous
trips
into
the
remote
regions
of
the
air--is
in
almost
every
respect
the
same
as
the
balloon
with
which
“the
physician
Charles,”
following
in
the
footsteps
of
the
Montgolfiers,
astonished
Paris
in
1783.
There
are
few
more
tantalising
stories
in
the
annals
of
invention
than
this.
So
much
had
been
accomplished
when
Roziers
made
his
first
aerial
voyage
above
the
astonished
capital
of
France
that
all
the
rest
seemed
easy.
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