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172
Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies
·
Fulgence Marion
21
Leonardo
da
Vinci
might
have
known
the
art
of
flying
in
the
air,
and
might
even
have
practiced
it.
A
statement
to
this
effect,
at
least,
is
found
in
several
historians.
We
have,
however,
no
direct
proof
of
the
fact.
The
Abbe
Deforges,
of
Etampes,
announced
in
the
journals
in
1772
that
he
would
perform
the
great
feat.
On
the
appointed
day
multitudes
of
the
curious
flocked
to
Etampes.
The
abbe’s
machine
was
a
sort
of
gondola,
seven
feet
long
and
about
two
feet
deep.
Gondola
conductor,
and
baggage
weighed
in
all
213
pounds.
The
pious
man
believed
that
he
had
provided
against
everything.
Neither
tempest
nor
rain
should
mar
his
flight,
and
there
was
no
chance
of
his
being
upset;
whilst
the
machine,
he
had
decided,
was
to
go
at
the
rate
of
thirty
leagues
an
hour.
The
great
day
came,
and
the
abbe,
entering
his
air-boat
amidst
the
applause
of
the
spectators,
began
to
work
the
wings
with
which
it
was
provided
with
great
rapidity.
“But,”
says
one
who
witnessed
the
feat,
“the
more
he
worked,
the
more
his
machine
cleaved
to
the
earth,
as
if
it
were
part
and
parcel
of
it.”
Retif
de
la
Bretonne,
in
his
work
upon
this
subject,
gives
the
accompanying
picture
of
a
flying
man,
furnished
with
very
artistically
designed
wings,
fitting
exactly
to
the
shoulders,
and
carrying
a
basket
of
provisions,
suspended
from
his
waist;
and
the
frontispiece
of
the
“Philosophic
sans
Pretention”
is
a
view
of
a
flying-machine.
In
the
midst
of
a
frame
of
light
wood
sits
the
operator,
steadying
himself
with
one
hand,
and
with
the
other
fuming
a
cremaillere,
which
appears
to
give
a
very
quick
rotatory
movement
to
two
glass
globes
revolving
upon
a
vertical
axis.
The
friction
of
the
globes
is
supposed
to
develop
electricity
to
which
his
power
of
ascending
is
ascribed.
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