6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



posed solely of eagle-feathers, they would have been attracted to the air. 

 However, he does not appear to have carried the experiment further. 



Many other trials have there been of the same character. The re- 

 sults were generally discouraging, but men can always be found ready 

 to risk life and limb in striving to attain something much less im- 

 portant than the art of flying ; without a knowledge of the princijiles 

 involved, ignorant of the nature of the atmosphere, without machinery 

 or power, fettered by a superstition that looked upon all learning out- 

 side of the Church as coming from the prince of darkness, it was a 

 struggle in the dark — brave but hopeless. 



Still, those old fellows were quite as reasonable in their attempts as 

 many of our inventors are now. In looking through Patent-Office 

 reports, we shall find devices only slightly different in detail from 

 those tried five hundred years ago. 



One of our illustrations shows the plan proposed by Retif de la 

 Bretonne away back in the dark ages ; and another an apparatus pat- 

 ented in this country in 1872. It is only one of numbers of the same 

 sort. Rctif had an advantage, in that he carried a lunch-basket and 

 umbrella, and did not need so many ropes and spars ; but otherwise 

 the later arrangement seems equally good. 



In 1783 the Montgolfiers invented the balloon. Friar Bacon, as we 

 have seen, had speculated upon the possibility of such a construction. 

 In 1G70 Francis Lana, a Jesuit, had described an apparatus which, al- 

 though impracticable in so far that it could not be built, nevertheless 

 was correct in principle. The same idea had occurred to others ; and 

 there are even shadowy accounts of actual ascents. But to the Montgol- 

 fiers certainly belongs the honor of first actually building and bringing 

 the balloon before the public as an accomplished fact. They used hot 

 air only, but the substitution of hydrogen gas by Professor Charles 

 speedily followed, and in a few years the balloon was made as perfect, 

 excepting in a few details, as it is now. 



It would be difficult to describe the excitement which followed this 

 invention. The most extravagant hopes and anticipations were enter- 

 tained. The problem had been solved. The birds and insects would 

 no longer have a monopoly. Every gentleman would have a balloon 

 hitched to his gate-post, or, wafted along by summer breezes, would 

 look dowTi in luxurious pity upon the poor plodders. Sails and rud- 

 ders were to be used as on ships to direct the course. Regular lines 

 of aerial passenger and mail coaches were to be established. There 

 seemed no limit to the possible speed. Rome, or St. Petersburg, or 

 even America, might be reached in a few hours, and for the comfort 

 of travelers the arrangements proposed went far ahead of our palace- 

 cars. Floating hospitals were to be built ; methods of warfare would 

 need to be entirely reorganized ; and England's boasted supremacy on 

 the sea would be of no avail, unless she also maintained supremacy in 

 the air. 



