the efforts to fly made before the advent of the balloon. This ancient yearning of the human mother mind for aerial offspring would form an interesting preliminary chapter, the mythical part, as it were, of the narrative; but the era from which aerial navigation will always date its history is the day when Montgolfier's invention, fertilized by the discovery of Cavendish, came forth as the huge round egg, in which, after seven decades of years of incubation, the great bird of the future is now lively and stirring, soon perhaps to break forth to its work in the restless world. The last seventy years will be the main field for the historian of the embryo art; he will find his work among the schemes for, and attempts towards, the propulsion of balloons and other gas vessels through the air. He will meet however within this interval with some noteworthy endeavours to solve the problem of flight without the aid of buoyant matter; I shall give a list of books and papers from which much of the materials for this, as well as for the rest of the subject, may be obtained.1 The historian will not discover among the signs of activity, which the yet unhatched chick has exhibited, many promises of a very vigorous organisation for its future life: he will however find traces of some efforts at vitality which will give him hope. These struggles in the egg are what I shall have to notice in illustration of the fundamental propositions by working upon which I shall afterwards seek to assist in its escape from its shell. It will be observed that the projects to which I shall make reference are almost exclusively French and English; I have not met with any mention, in the authors I have consulted, of any German efforts to improve upon the balloon: and I have succeeded in finding but few accounts of endeavours in this direction which have been made in Italy. The French have been very active at different times in their search for the solution of this problem, which to them must have something in it of a national character. The sort of feeling with which the invention of Montgolfier, and the application by Charles and Robert of Cavendish's discovery of hydrogen, was hailed in France, le vrai motif qui enthousiasmait tant ce peuple de 1 See Appendix A. France,' as the author of a recent French sketch of balloon history expresses it, may be gathered from the following lines which were current in Paris at this remarkable period: Les Anglais, nation trop fière, 'Ce qui flattait surtout la nation,' continues this author, quoting 'Le Journal d'un Observateur,' 'c'était de précéder les Anglais, cette nation rivale en tout, dans les sciences comme dans la guerre, et de la précéder dans ce qui paraissait alors avoir une immense portée, un avenir aussi fructueux dans résultats matériels, que glorieux dans la mode de procéder.' An honourable rivalry, perhaps, in the endeavour to be foremost in conferring benefits on our race. But nothing has come of the competition. Balloons are still as useless as on the day of the first experiment at Annonay. It remains to be seen whether efforts in which the two nations may take part in concert, may not yet be made with more success to achieve the conquest of the air. However, the French of course have produced many schemes for this end, some in the early days of the balloon, some in these latter years. Of several of these I shall have to make mention: one or two of them I find to be egregiously absurd; but on the other hand, by far the best experiments that have been tried yet, so far as I can learn, and to which I shall specially direct attention, have been made in France by a Frenchman. I shall try to deliver any conclusion as to the value of any contribution towards the end which I am seeking, with equal justice, whether the author of it be Briton or foreigner. I shall have to refer to a few actual experiments made on a large scale, to some notions that have been tested with models, but principally to hints or schemes, embodied like my own only upon paper. I shall be careful always to make distinction between these different degrees of poetic dignity: an important point which is not always attended to by describers of inventions. 1 Turgan, 'Ballons,' p. 33. I shall thus endeavour to place the reader on the ground from which aerial navigation has now to take its start, by showing, through considerations deduced from simple principles, what are the requisites which must be fulfilled. In doing so, I shall illustrate each portion by instances of attempts made by former schemers, and by quotations from former writers, thus showing the opinions which have usually been entertained on the conditions of this art, and of the means of fulfilling them. In doing so I shall have to point out a few instances of happy device, and of correct reasoning, but a far greater number of mistakes in conception, and of blunders in design. I shall generally select for remark such projects and treatises as either having been put most prominently forward, have had the greatest share of public attention from time to time, and are therefore most likely to be familiar to the reader, or such as being of the most value ought to be brought before him, if they were not already known to him. Where some experiment or suggestion less commonly known is adduced as an example, it will be either on account of some peculiar excellence in the thought, or of some curious vagary of inventive fancy which bears on some peculiar point of theory or practice. I trust that in the criticisms which I shall of necessity be led to make, I shall give to the best of my ability an impartial judgment as to the worth of the design or view which is under notice. AERIAL NAVIGATION. PART THE FIRST. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM. 'Certainly many birds of good wing, as kites and the like, would bear up a good weight as they fly, and spreading of feathers, thin and close, and in great breadth, will likewise bear up a great weight; being even laid without tilting upon the sides. The farther extension of this experiment for flying may be thought upon.' Chancellor FRANCIS BACON, 'Sylva Sylvarum.' |