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172
Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies
·
Fulgence Marion
30
Another
species
of
parachute,
less
perfect,
to
be
sure;
than
that
of
Garnerin,
but
still
a
practical
machine,
was
described
189
years
before
the
great
aeronaut’s
feat
at
Paris.
We
read
in
the
narrative
of
the
ambassador
of
Louis
XIV
at
Siam,
at
the
end
of
the
seventeenth
century,
the
following
passage--“A
mountebank
at
the
court
of
the
King
of
Siam
climbed
to
the
top
of
a
high
bamboo-tree,
and
threw
himself
into
the
air
without
any
other
support
than
two
parasols.
Thus
equipped,
he
abandoned
himself
to
the
winds,
which
carried
him,
as
by
chance,
sometimes
to
the
earth,
sometimes
on
trees
or
houses,
and
sometimes
into
the
river,
without
any
harm
happening
to
him.”
Is
not
this
the
idea
of
our
parachutes?
Chapter
IV.
First
Public
Trial
of
the
Balloon.
(Montgolfier’s
Balloon
Annonay,
5th
of
June
of
1783.)
We
are
accustomed
to
rank
the
brothers
Joseph
and
Etienne
Montgolfier
as
equally
distinguished
in
the
field
of
science.
The
reason
for
thus
associating
these
two
names
seems
to
have
been
the
fraternal
friendship
which
subsisted
in
an
extraordinary
degree
in
the
Montgolfier
family,
rather
than
any
equality
of
claim
which
they
had
to
the
notice
of
posterity.
After
special
investigation,
we
find
that
Joseph
Montgolfier
was
very
superior
to
his
brother,
and
that
it
is
to
him
principally,
if
not
exclusively,
that
we
owe
the
invention
of
aerostation.
Nevertheless,
we
shall
not
insist
upon
this
fact;
and
seeing
that
a
sacred
amity
always
cemented
a
perfect
union
in
the
Montgolfier
family,
we
will
regard
that
union
as
unbroken
in
any
sense,
and
will
not
insinuate
that
the
brother
of
Montgolfier
was
undeserving
of
the
honoured
rank
which
in
his
lifetime
he
held.
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