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Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies
·
Fulgence Marion
8
themselves
in
the
night
of
time.”
The
accomplishment
of
raising
oneself
in
the
air,
however,
had
no
actual
professors
in
antiquity,
and
the
discovery
of
Montgolfier
seems
to
have
come
into
the
world,
so
to
speak,
spontaneously.
By
this
it
is
to
be
understood
that,
unlike
Copernicus
and
Columbus,
Montgolfier
could
not
read
in
history
of
any
similar
discovery,
containing
the
germ
of
his
own
feat.
At
least,
we
have
no
proof
that
the
ancient
nations
practiced
the
art
of
aerial
navigation
to
any
extent
whatever.
The
attempts
which
we
are
about
to
cite
do
not
strictly
belong
to
the
history
of
aerostatics.
Classic
mythology
tells
us
of
Daedalus,
who,
escaping
with
his
son
Icarus
from
the
anger
of
Minos,
in
the
Isle
of
Crete,
saved
himself
from
the
immediate
evil
by
the
aid
of
wings,
which
he
made
for
himself
and
his
son,
and
by
means
of
which
they
were
enabled
to
fly
in
the
air.
The
wings,
it
appears,
were
soldered
with
wax,
and
Icarus,
flying
too
high,
was
struck
by
a
ray
of
the
sun,
which
melted
the
wax.
The
youth
fell
into
the
sea,
which
from
him
derived
its
name
of
Icarian.
It
is
possible
that
this
fable
only
symbolisms
the
introduction
of
sails
in
navigation.
Coming
down
through
ancient
history,
we
note
a
certain
Archytas,
of
Tarentum,
who,
in
the
fourth
century
B.
C.,
is
said
to
have
launched
into
the
air
the
first
“flying
stag,”
and
who,
according
to
the
Greek
writers,
“made
a
pigeon
of
wood,
which
flew,
but
which
could
not
raise
itself
again
after
having
fallen.”
Its
flight,
it
is
said,
“was
accomplished
by
means
of
a
mechanical
contrivance,
by
the
vibrations
of
which
it
was
sustained
in
the
air.”
In
the
year
66
A.D.,
in
the
time
of
Nero,
Simon,
the
magician--who
called
himself
“the
mechanician”--made
certain
experiments
at
Rome
of
flying
at
a
certain
height.
In
the
eyes
of
the
early
Christians
this
power
was
attributed
to
the
devil,
and
St.
Peter,
the
namesake
of
this
flying
man,
is
said
to
have
prayed
fervently
while
Simon
was
amusing
himself
in
space.
It
was
possibly
in
answer
to
his
prayers
that
the
magician
failed
in
his
flight,
fell
upon
the
Forum,
and
broke
his
neck
on
the
spot.
From
the
summit
of
the
tower
of
the
hippodrome
at
Constantinople,
a
certain
Saracen
met
the
same
fate
as
Simon,
in
the
reign
of
the
Emperor
Comnenus.
His
experiments
were
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