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172
Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies
·
Fulgence Marion
12
Coming
down
through
ancient
history,
we
note
a
certain
Archytas,
of
Tarentum,
who,
in
the
fourth
century
B.
C.,
is
said
to
have
launched
into
the
air
the
first
“flying
stag,”
and
who,
according
to
the
Greek
writers,
“made
a
pigeon
of
wood,
which
flew,
but
which
could
not
raise
itself
again
after
having
fallen.”
Its
flight,
it
is
said,
“was
accomplished
by
means
of
a
mechanical
contrivance,
by
the
vibrations
of
which
it
was
sustained
in
the
air.”
In
the
year
66
A.D.,
in
the
time
of
Nero,
Simon,
the
magician--who
called
himself
“the
mechanician”--made
certain
experiments
at
Rome
of
flying
at
a
certain
height.
In
the
eyes
of
the
early
Christians
this
power
was
attributed
to
the
devil,
and
St.
Peter,
the
namesake
of
this
flying
man,
is
said
to
have
prayed
fervently
while
Simon
was
amusing
himself
in
space.
It
was
possibly
in
answer
to
his
prayers
that
the
magician
failed
in
his
flight,
fell
upon
the
Forum,
and
broke
his
neck
on
the
spot.
From
the
summit
of
the
tower
of
the
hippodrome
at
Constantinople,
a
certain
Saracen
met
the
same
fate
as
Simon,
in
the
reign
of
the
Emperor
Comnenus.
His
experiments
were
conducted
on
the
principle
of
the
inclined
plane.
He
descended
in
an
oblique
course,
using
the
resistance
of
the
air
as
a
support.
His
robe,
very
long
and
very
large,
and
of
which
the
flaps
were
extended
on
an
osier
frame,
preserved
him
from
suddenly
falling.
The
inclined
plane
probably
suggested
to
Milton
the
flight
of
the
angel
Uriel,
in
“Paradise
Lost,”
who
descended
in
the
morning
from
heaven
to
earth
upon
a
ray
of
the
sun,
and
ascended
in
the
evening
from
earth
to
heaven
by
the
same
means.
But
we
cannot
quote
here
the
fancies
of
pure
imagination,
and
we
will
not
speak
of
Medeus
the
magician,
of
the
enchantress
Armida,
of
the
witches
of
the
Brocken,
of
the
hippogriff
of
Zephyrus
with
the
rosy
wings,
or
of
the
diabolical
inventions
of
the
middle
ages,
for
many
of
which
the
stake
was
the
only
reward.
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