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Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies
·
Fulgence Marion
60
The
idea
was
too
simple
in
its
grandeur,
and
was
of
too
easy
a
kind
not
to
call
up
a
host
of
imitators.
Of
these
Blanchard
was
one
of
the
first;
but
this
mechanician
was
anxious
to
incorporate
his
own
invention
with
that
of
Montgolfier,
and
he
arranged
that
on
the
2nd
of
March,
1784,
he
should
make
an
ascent
in
what
he
still
called
his
“flying
vessel,”
which
he
furnished
with
four
wings.
Blanchard
and
his
companion,
Pesch,
a
Benedictine
priest,
were
prevented
from
going
up
in
the
balloon,
as
represented
in
our
illustration,
which
was
drawn
before
the
event
it
was
intended
to
commemorate.
A
certain
Dupont
de
Chambon
persisted
in
accompanying
the
voyagers.
Pushed
back
by
them,
he
drew
his
sword,
leaped
into
the
car
or
boat,
wounded
Blanchard,
cut
the
rigging,
and
broke
the
oars
or
wings.
The
aeronaut
was
consequently
compelled
to
have
his
machine
partly
re-fitted
in
great
haste,
and
in
the
course
of
a
few
hours
he
made
the
ascent
alone
in
the
usual
way.
Blanchard
should
have
known
the
uselessness
of
oars,
though
he
did
not
abandon
their
employment
in
subsequent
ascents.
The
Brothers
Montgolfier
had
dreamed
of
the
employment
of
oars
as
a
means
of
guidance,
but
had
ultimately
rejected
the
idea.
Joseph
wrote
to
his
brother
Etienne,
about
the
end
of
the
year
1783:
“For
my
sake,
my
good
friend,
reflect;
calculate
well
before
you
employ
oars.
Oars
must
either
be
great
or
small;
if
great,
they
will
be
heavy;
if
small,
it
will
be
necessary
to
move
them
with
great
rapidity.
I
know
no
sufficient
means
of
guidance,
except
in
the
knowledge
of
the
different
currents
of
air,
of
which
it
is
necessary
to
make
a
study;
and
these
are
generally
regulated
by
the
elevation.”
The
two
brothers
often
recurred
to
this
idea.
The
pictures
of
the
first
ascent
of
Blanchard
from
the
Champ
de
Mars
on
the
2nd
of
March,
1784,
in
the
presence
of
a
vast
multitude,
show
us
the
oars
and
the
mechanism
of
his
flying-machine
fitted
to
a
balloon.
The
design
which
we
here
give
seems
to
us
deserving
of
being
considered
only
as
one
of
the
caricatures
of
the
time,
especially
when
we
look
at
the
personage
dressed
in
the
fool’s
head-gear,
who
sits
behind
and
accompanies
the
triumphant
ascent
of
the
aeronaut
with
music.
It
was
not
with
this
apparatus
that
Blanchard
effected
his
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