NAVIGATING THE AIR 



hauled him from the car, and turned him over to the 

 police. 



A few years later particular attention was called to 

 this incident by a rumor, which finally grew into a fixed 

 belief in France, that the young military student in 

 question was none other than the youthful Napoleon 

 Bonaparte, then a student at the Academy. Through- 

 out the entire reign of the emperor this was the general 

 belief, and if it was denied at all by Napoleon, the denial 

 was not made with due emphasis. At St. Helena, 

 however, the captive emperor finally stated definitely 

 that he was not the hero of this escapade, who is now 

 known to have been a student by the name of Chambon. 



Nothing of importance came of Blanchard's first 

 attempt at guiding a balloon with rudder and wings, 

 except perhaps to emphasize the fact that wings of an 

 oarlike type were useless for propulsion; but neverthe- 

 less Blanchard soon prepared a somewhat similar 

 balloon in which he proposed to steer himself across the 

 English Channel. Before this time, as will be remem- 

 bered, several balloons had crossed the Channel, but 

 none of them had carried passengers. On this voyage 

 Blanchard proposed to make the attempt, taking with 

 him as companion an American physician named 

 JefiFries. On January 7, 1785, these two embarked 

 from the cliffs of Dover, a strong wind at the time setting 

 toward the French coast. Before their journey was half 

 completed they discovered that an insufficient amount of 

 ballast had been shipped, and that the balloon was 

 gradually descending at a rate which would land them 

 in the Channel several miles from shore. To avert this 



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