A Project for Flying | Page 9

of the
machine itself and of its gaseous contents. And this momentum, which
is ever proportioned to the rate of its motion, and, consequently, to the
amount of resistance it experiences, is amply sufficient to secure the
preservation of the form of its opposing front, however partially
distended, and whatever the velocity with which it might happen to be
endowed. Independently, however, of this corrective principle, another,
equally efficacious is afforded in the buoyant power of the included gas,
which, occupying all the upper part of the Balloon so long as it is in a
condition to sustain itself in the air, and generally extending to its

whole capacity, presses from within with a force far greater than any it
could experience from the external impact of the atmosphere, and
sufficiently resists any impression from that quarter which might tend
to impair its form. To what extent this is effective, will appear more
clearly when we observe that in any balloon inflated, it is the sides of
the distended globe that bear out the weight of the appended cargo,
through the intervention of the network; a weight only limited by the
sustaining power of the machine itself, and in the case of the great
Vauxhall or Nassau Balloon, amounting to more than two tons, and
consequently pressing with a force far exceeding any that could arise
from the impact of the air at any rate of motion it could ever be
expected to accomplish. And this statement, which represents the
theoretical view of the question, is fully borne out by the real
circumstances of the case as they appear in practice. So far from
justifying the apprehensions of those who conceive that the front of the
Balloon would be disfigured by its compulsory progression through the
air, the result is exactly the reverse; the only tendency to derangement
of form displaying itself in the part behind, where the rushing in of the
atmospheric medium to fill the place of the advancing body (in the
nature of an eddy, as it is termed in water), might and no doubt would,
to some extent (though perhaps but slightly) affect the figure of that
part, in a manner, however, calculated rather to aid than to impair the
general design in view,
Another error of more universal prevalency, because of a more
superficial character, regards the condition of the Balloon as affected
by the currents of air, in and through which it might have to be
propelled. The arguments founded upon such a view of the case,
generally assume some such form as the following--"It is true you can
accomplish such or such a rate of motion; but that is only in a room,
with a calm atmosphere, or with a favourable current of wind. In the
open air, with the wind at the rate of twenty or thirty miles an hour,
your feeble power would be of no avail. You could never expect to
direct your course against the wind, and if you were to attempt it and
the wind were strong, you would inevitably be blown to pieces by the
force of the current." Now this argument is equally nought with the
preceding. The condition of the Balloon, as far as regards the exercise

of its propulsive powers, is precisely the same whether the wind be
strong or gentle, with it or against it. In neither case would the Balloon
experience any opposition or resistance to its progress but what itself,
by its own independent motion, created; and that opposition or
resistance would be exactly the same in whatever direction it might be
sought to be established. The Balloon, passively suspended in the air,
without the exercise of a propulsive power, experiences no effects
whatever from the motion of the atmosphere in which it is carried,
however violent; and the establishment of such a propulsive power
could never subject it to more than the force itself, with which it was
invested. The way which the Balloon so provided would make through
the air would always be the same, in whatever direction, or with
whatever violence the wind might happen to blow; and the condition of
the Balloon would always be the same that was due to its own
independent rate of motion, without regard to any other circumstances
whatever. If it was furnished with the means of accomplishing a rate of
motion equal to ten miles an hour, it would experience a certain amount
of atmospheric resistance due to that rate; and this amount of resistance
with all its concomitant consequences, neither more nor less, would it
experience, whether it endeavoured to make this way against a wind
blowing at the rate of 100 miles an hour, or with the same in its favour.
The result, so far as regards its distance from the