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172
Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies
·
Fulgence Marion
4
Whilst
pensions
and
honours
and
popular
applause
were
being
showered
upon
the
inventors
of
the
balloon,
Watt
was
labouring
unnoticed
at
his
improvements
of
the
steam-engine--a
very
prosaic
affair
compared
with
the
gilded
globe
which
Montgolfier
had
caused
to
rise
from
earth
amidst
the
acclamations
of
a
hundred
thousand
spectators,
but
one
which
had
before
it
a
somewhat
different
history
to
that
of
the
more
startling
invention.
England,
when
it
remembers
the
story
of
the
steam-engine,
has
little
need
to
grudge
France
the
honour
of
discovering
the
balloon.
After
all,
however,
Great
Britain
had
its
share
in
that
discovery.
The
early
observations
of
Francis
Bacon
and
Bishop
Wilkins
paved
the
way
for
the
later
achievement,
whilst
it
was
our
own
Cavendish
who
discovered
that
hydrogen
gas
was
lighter
than
air;
and
Dr.
Black
of
Edinburgh,
who
first
employed
that
gas
to
raise
a
globe
in
which
it
was
contained
from
the
earth.
The
Scotch
professor,
we
are
told,
thought
that
the
discovery
which
he
made
when
he
sent
his
little
tissue-paper
balloon
from
his
lecture-table
to
the
ceiling
of
his
classroom,
was
of
no
use
except
as
affording
the
means
of
making
an
interesting
experiment.
Possibly
our
readers,
after
they
have
perused
this
volume,
may
think
that
Dr
Black
was
not
after
all
so
far
wrong
as
people
once
imagined.
Be
this
as
it
may,
however,
in
these
pages
is
the
history
of
the
balloon,
and
of
the
most
memorable
balloon
voyages,
and
we
comprehend
the
story
to
our
readers
not
the
less
cordially
that
it
comes
from
the
land
where
the
balloon
had
its
birth.
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