The Developing of Transportation 



The principle of the aerostat, or passive balloon, v^^as 

 discovered and the Ignorant believed that this furnished a 

 key to the method of travel used by the witches. In Mln- 

 istre's "History of Lyons," an account is given of what 

 appears to be the first recorded Instance of aerial travel. 

 The record is silent as to the exact nature of the con- 

 veyance used, but the historian's words are as follows : 

 "Toward the end of Charlemagne's reign, certain persons 

 who lived near Mount Pilate, in Switzerland, knowing by 

 what means pretended sorcerers traveled through the air, 

 resolved to try the experiment, and compelled some poor 

 people to ascend In an aerostat. This descended in the town 

 of Lyons, where they were immediately hurried to prison, 

 the mob desiring their death as sorcerers. The judges con- 

 demned them to be burned, but the Bishop Agabard sus- 

 pended the execution and sent for them to his palace that 

 he might question them." Our own history records that 

 there were other helpless victims condemned to be burned 

 on American soil who had no good Bishop to suspend the 

 execution. Cultural Evolution Is fast casting Into the dis- 

 card the deluded thoughts of mankind that have sacrificed 

 so many thousands of their brothers upon the altar of 

 ignorance. 



But a new thought was born that had potential possibili- 

 ties beyond the fondest hopes of any then living. Benjamin 

 Franklin said of this new method of aerial navigation, "It 

 is an infant, but it will grow." Balloon travel began in 

 England In 1784. The first ascension on September 15 of 

 that year drew out the greatest throng that had ever gath- 

 ered on British soil. The brave sons of England, France 



[87] 



