The Dominion of the Air | Page 7

rectangular, and curved or hollowed. The operator would
commence by standing erect and balancing these paddles, one on each
shoulder, so that the hollows of the blades should be towards the
ground. The forward part of each paddle was then grasped by the hands,
while the hinder part of each was connected to the corresponding leg.
This, presumably, would be effected after the arms had been raised
vertically, the leg attachment being contrived in some way which
experience would dictate.
The flyer was now fully equipped, and nothing remained for him save
to mount some eminence and, throwing himself forward into space and
assuming the position of a flying bird, to commence flapping and
beating the air with a reciprocal motion. First, he would buffet the air
downwards with the left arm and right leg simultaneously, and while
these recovered their position would strike with the right hand and left
leg, and so on alternately. With this crude method the enterprising
inventor succeeded in raising himself by short stages from one height
to another, reaching thus the top of a house, whence he could pass over
others, or cross a river or the like.
The perfecting of his system became then simply a question of practice
and experience, and had young athletes only been trained from early
years to the new art it seems reasonable to suppose that some crude
approach to human flight would have been effected. Modifications and
improvements in construction would soon have suggested themselves,
as was the case with the bicycle, which in its latest developments can
scarcely be recognised as springing from the primitive "bone-shaker" of
thirty-three years ago. We would suggest the idea to the modern
inventor. He will in these days, of course, find lighter materials to hand.
Then he will adopt some link motion for the legs in place of leather
thongs, and will hinge the paddle blades so that they open out with the

forward stroke, but collapse with the return. Then look on another
thirty-three years--a fresh generation--and our youth of both sexes may
find a popular recreation in graceful aerial exercise. The pace is not
likely to be excessive, and molestations from disguised policemen--not
physically adapted, by the way, to rapid flight--need not be
apprehended.
One of the best tests of Besnier's measure of success is supplied by the
fact that he had pupils as well as imitators. First on this list must be
mentioned a Mr. Baldwin, a name which, curiously enough, twice over
in modern times comes into the records of bold aerial exploits. This
individual, it appears, purchased a flying outfit of Besnier himself, and
surpassed his master in achievement. A little later one Dante contrived
some modification of the same apparatus, with which he pursued the
new mode of progress till he met with a fractured thigh.
But whatever the imitators of Besnier may have accomplished, to the
honest smith must be accorded the full credit of their success, and with
his simple, but brilliant, record left at flood mark, the tide of progress
ebbed back again, while mankind ruminated over the great problem in
apparent inactivity. But not for long. The air-pump about this period
was given to the world, and chemists were already busy investigating
the nature of gases. Cavallo was experimenting on kindred lines, while
in our own land the rival geniuses of Priestley and Cavendish were
clearing the way to make with respect to the atmosphere the most
important discovery yet dreamed of. In recording this dawn of a new
era, however, we should certainly not forget how, across the Atlantic,
had arisen a Rumford and a Franklin, whose labours were destined to
throw an all-important sidelight on the pages of progress which we
have now to chronicle.

CHAPTER II.
THE INVENTION OF THE BALLOON.
It was a November night of the year 1782, in the little town of Annonay,

near Lyons. Two young men, Stephen and Joseph Montgolfier, the
representatives of a firm of paper makers, were sitting together over
their parlour fire. While watching the smoke curling up the chimney
one propounded an idea by way of a sudden inspiration: "Why
shouldn't smoke be made to raise bodies into the air?"
The world was waiting for this utterance, which, it would seem, was on
the tip of the tongue with many others. Cavendish had already
discovered what he designated "inflammable air," though no one had as
yet given it its later title of hydrogen gas. Moreover, in treating of this
gas--Dr. Black of Edinburgh, as much as fifteen years before the date
we have now arrived at, had suggested that it should be made capable
of raising a thin bladder in the air. With a shade more of good fortune,
or maybe with a modicum more of leisure, the learned