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172
Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies
·
Fulgence Marion
10
Why
should
we
be
obliged
here
to
state
that
the
great
discovery
that
stirred
the
spirits
of
men
from
the
one
end
of
Europe
to
the
other,
and
gave
rise
to
hopes
of
such
vast
discoveries,
should
have
failed
in
realising
the
expectations
which
seemed
so
clearly
justified
by
the
first
experiments?
It
is
now
eighty-six
years
since
the
first
aerial
journey
astonished
the
world,
and
yet,
in
1870,
we
are
but
little
more
advanced
in
the
science
than
we
were
in
1783.
Our
age
is
the
most
renowned
for
its
discoveries
of
any
that
the
world
has
seen.
Man
is
borne
over
the
surface
of
the
earth
by
steam;
he
is
as
familiar
as
the
fish
with
the
liquid
element;
he
transmits
his
words
instantaneously
from
London
to
New
York;
he
draws
pictures
without
pencil
or
brush,
and
has
made
the
sun
his
slave.
The
air
alone
remains
to
him
unsubdued.
The
proper
management
of
balloons
has
not
yet
been
discovered.
More
than
that,
it
appears
that
balloons
are
unmanageable,
and
it
is
to
air-vessels,
constructed
more
nearly
upon
the
model
of
birds,
that
we
must
go
to
find
out
the
secret
of
aerial
navigation.
At
present,
as
in
former
times,
we
are
at
the
mercy
of
balloons--globes
lighter
than
the
air,
and
therefore
the
sport
and
the
prey
of
tempests
and
currents.
And
aeronauts,
instead
of
showing
themselves
now
as
the
benefactors
of
mankind,
exhibit
themselves
mainly
to
gratify
a
frivolous
curiosity,
or
to
crown
with
eclat
a
public
fete.
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