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128
Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies
·
Fulgence Marion
12
anything
in
this
kind
that
can
hinder
its
motion
if
the
motive
faculty
be
answerable
“hereunto.
We
see
that;
great
ship
swims
as
well
as
a
small
cork,
and
an
eagle
flies
in
the
air
as
well
as
a
little
gnat.
This
engine
may
be
contrived
from
the
same
principles
by
which
Archytas
made
a
wooden
dove,
and
Regiomontanus
a
wooden
eagle.
I
conceive
it
were
no
difficult
matter
(if
a
man
had
leisure)
to
show
more
particularly
the
means
of
composing
it.
The
perfecting
of
such
an
invention
would
be
of
such
excellent
use
that
it
were
enough,
not
only
to
make
a
man
famous
but
the
age
wherein
he
lives.
For,
besides
the
strange
discoveries
that
it
might
occasion
in
this
other
world,
it
would
be
also
of
inconceivable
advantage
for
travelling,
above
any
other
conveyance
that
is
now
in
use.
So
that,
notwithstanding
all
these
seeming
impossibilities,
it
is
likely
enough
that
there
may
be
a
means
invented
of
journeying
to
the
moon;
and
how
happy
shall
they
be
that
are
first
successful
in
this
attempt!”
Afterwards
comes
Cyrano
of
Bergerac,
who
promulgates
five
different
means
of
flying
in
the
air.
First,
by
means
of
phials
filled
with
dew,
which
would
attract
and
cause
to
mount
up.
Secondly,
by
a
great
bird
made
of
wood,
the
wings
of
which
should
be
kept
in
motion.
Thirdly,
by
rockets,
which,
going
off
successively,
would
drive
up
the
balloon
by
the
force
of
projection.
Fourthly,
by
an
octahedron
of
glass,
heated
by
the
sun,
and
of
which
the
lower
part
should
be
allowed
to
penetrate
the
dense
cold
air,
which,
pressing
up
against
the
rarefied
hot
air,
would
raise
the
balloon.
Fifthly,
by
a
car
of
iron
and
a
ball
of
magnetised
iron,
which
the
aeronaut
would
keep
throwing
up
in
the
air,
and
which
would
attract
and
draw
up
the
balloon.
The
wiseacre
who
invented
these
modes
of
flying
in
the
air
seems,
some
would
say,
to
have
been
more
in
want
of
very
strict
confinement
on
the
earth
than
of
the
freedom
of
the
skies.
In
1670
Francis
Lana
constructed
the
flying-machine
shown
on
the
next
page.
The
specific
lightness
of
heated
air
and
of
hydrogen
gas
not
having
yet
been
discovered,
his
only
idea
for
making
his
globes
rise
was
to
take
all
the
air
out
of
them.
But
even
supposing
that
the
globes
were
thus
rendered
light
enough
to
rise,
they
must
inevitably
have
collapsed
under
the
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