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172
Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies
·
Fulgence Marion
17
Afterwards
comes
Cyrano
of
Bergerac,
who
promulgates
five
different
means
of
flying
in
the
air.
First,
by
means
of
phials
filled
with
dew,
which
would
attract
and
cause
to
mount
up.
Secondly,
by
a
great
bird
made
of
wood,
the
wings
of
which
should
be
kept
in
motion.
Thirdly,
by
rockets,
which,
going
off
successively,
would
drive
up
the
balloon
by
the
force
of
projection.
Fourthly,
by
an
octahedron
of
glass,
heated
by
the
sun,
and
of
which
the
lower
part
should
be
allowed
to
penetrate
the
dense
cold
air,
which,
pressing
up
against
the
rarefied
hot
air,
would
raise
the
balloon.
Fifthly,
by
a
car
of
iron
and
a
ball
of
magnetised
iron,
which
the
aeronaut
would
keep
throwing
up
in
the
air,
and
which
would
attract
and
draw
up
the
balloon.
The
wiseacre
who
invented
these
modes
of
flying
in
the
air
seems,
some
would
say,
to
have
been
more
in
want
of
very
strict
confinement
on
the
earth
than
of
the
freedom
of
the
skies.
In
1670
Francis
Lana
constructed
the
flying-machine
shown
on
the
next
page.
The
specific
lightness
of
heated
air
and
of
hydrogen
gas
not
having
yet
been
discovered,
his
only
idea
for
making
his
globes
rise
was
to
take
all
the
air
out
of
them.
But
even
supposing
that
the
globes
were
thus
rendered
light
enough
to
rise,
they
must
inevitably
have
collapsed
under
the
atmospheric
pressure.
As
for
the
idea
of
making
use
of
a
sail
to
direct
the
balloon,
as
one
directs
a
vessel,
that
also
was
a
delusion;
for
the
whole
machine,
globes
and
sails,
being
freely
thrown
into
the
air,
would
infallibly
follow
the
direction
of
the
wind,
whatever
that
might
be.
When
a
ship
lies
in
the
sea,
and
its
sails
are
inflated
with
the
wind,
we
must
remember
that
there
are
two
forces
in
operation--the
active
force
of
the
wind
and
the
passive
force
of
the
resistance
of
the
water;
and
in
working
these
forces
the
one
against
the
other,
the
sailor
can
turn
within
a
point
of
any
direction
he
pleases.
But
when
we
are
subjected
wholly
to
a
single
force,
and
have
no
point
of
support
by
the
use
of
which
to
turn
that
force
to
our
own
purposes,
as
is
the
case
with
the
aeronaut,
we
are
entirely
at
the
mercy
of
that
force,
and
must
obey
it.
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