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Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies
·
Fulgence Marion
75
expect
from
time,
from
chance,
and
from
the
genius
of
man.
The
difference
which
there
is
between
the
canoe
of
the
savage
and
the
man-of-war
of
124
guns
is
perhaps
as
great
as
that
of
balloons
as
they
now
are
and
as
they
will
be
in
the
course
of
a
century.
If
you
ask
of
an
aeronaut
why
he
cannot
command
the
motions
of
his
balloon,
he
will
ask
of
you
in
his
turn
why
the
inventor
of
the
canoe
did
not
immediately
afterwards
construct
a
man-of-war.
It
must
be
recollected
that
there
have
not
yet
elapsed
forty
years
since
the
discovery
of
the
balloon,
and
that
to
perfect
it
would
be
a
work
of
difficulty,
as
much
from
the
increased
knowledge
which
such
a
work
would
demand,
as
from
the
pecuniary
sacrifices
and
the
personal
devotion
which
it
would
involve.
“Thus
this
invention,
after
having
at
first
electrified
all
savants
from
the
one
end
of
the
world
to
the
other,
has
suffered
the
fate
of
all
discoveries--it
was
all
at
once
arrested.
Did
not
astronomy
wait
long
for
Newton,
and
chemistry
for
Lavoisier,
to
raise
them
to
something
like
the
splendour
they
now
enjoy?
Was
not
the
magnet
a
long
time
a
toy
in
the
hands
of
the
Chinese,
without
giving
birth
to
the
idea
of
the
compass?
The
electric
fluid
was
known
in
the
time
of
Thales,
but
how
many
ages
did
we
wait
for
the
discovery
of
galvanism?
Yet
these
sciences,
which
may
be
studied
in
silent
retreats,
were
more
likely
to
yield
fruit
to
the
discoverer
than
aerostatics,
which
demand
courage
and
skill,
and
of
which
the
experiments,
which
are
always
public,
are
attended
with
great
cost.”
Robertson’s
proposed
machine
was
to
be
150
feet
in
diameter,
and
would
be
capable
of
carrying
150,000
lbs.
Every
precaution
was
to
be
taken
in
order
to
make
the
great
structure
perfect.
It
was
to
accommodate
sixty
persons
to
be
chosen
by
the
academics,
who
should
stay
in
it
for
several
months
should
rise
to
all
possible
elevations,
pass
through
all
climates
in
all
seasons,
make
scientific
observations,
&c.
This
balloon,
penetrating
deserts
inaccessible
by
other
means
of
travel,
and
visiting
places
which
travellers
have
never
penetrated,
would
be
of
immense
use
in
the
science
of
geography:
and
when
under
the
line,
if
the
heat
near
the
earth
should
be
inconvenient,
the
aeronauts
would,
of
course,
easily
rise
to
elevations
where
the
temperature
is
equal
and
agreeable.
When
their
observations,
their
needs,
or
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