Up in the Clouds | Page 4

be acted on, and the vessel could not be
steered.
Now a balloon, carried by the wind, cannot be steered by a rudder,
because it does not, like the ship, rest half in one medium which is in
motion, and half in another medium which is at rest. There is no sliding
of any substance past its side, no possibility therefore of pushing a
rudder against anything. All floats along with the wind.

If, however, the balloon could be made to go faster than the wind, then
steering would at once become possible; but sails cannot accomplish
this, because, although wind can drive a ship faster than water flows,
wind cannot drive a substance faster than itself flows.
The men of old did not, however, seem to take these points into
consideration. It yet remains to be seen whether steam shall ever be
successfully applied to aerial machines, but this may certainly be
assumed in the meantime, that, until by some means a balloon is
propelled faster than the wind through the atmosphere, sails will be
useless, and steering, or giving direction, impossible.
It was believed, in those early times, when scientific knowledge was
slender, that the dew which falls during the night is of celestial origin,
shed by the stars, and drawn by the sun, in the heat of the day, back to
its native skies. Many people even went the length of asserting that an
egg, filled with the morning dew, would, as the day advanced, rise
spontaneously into the air. Indeed one man, named Father Laurus,
speaks of this as an observed fact, and gravely gives directions how it is
to be accomplished. "Take," says he, "a goose's egg, and having filled it
with dew gathered fresh in the morning, expose it to the sun during the
hottest part of the day, and it will ascend and rest suspended for a few
moments." Father Laurus must surely have omitted to add that a
goose's brains in the head of the operator was an element essential to
the success of the experiment!
But this man, although very ignorant in regard to the nature of the
substances, with which he wrought, had some quaint notions in his
head. He thought, for instance, that if he were to cram the cavity of an
artificial dove with highly condensed air, the imprisoned fluid would
impel the machine in the same manner as wind impels a sail. If this
should not be found to act effectively, he proposed to apply fire to it in
some way or other, and, to prevent the machine from being spirited
away altogether by that volatile element, asbestos, or some
incombustible material, was to be used as a lining. To feed and support
this fire steadily, he suggested a compound of butter, salts, and
orpiment, lodged in metallic tubes, which, he imagined, would at the

same time heighten the whole effect by emitting a variety of musical
tones like an organ!
Another man, still more sanguine than the lest in his aerial flights of
fancy, proposed that an ascent should be attempted by the application
of fire as in a rocket to an aerial machine. We are not, however, told
that this daring spirit ever ventured to try thus to invade the sky.
There can be no doubt that much ingenuity, as well as absurdity, has
been displayed in the various suggestions that have been made from
time to time, and occasionally carried into practice. One man went the
length of describing a huge apparatus, consisting of very long tin pipes,
in which air was to be compressed by the vehement action of fire below.
In a boat suspended from the machine a man was to sit and direct the
whole by the opening and shutting of valves.
Another scheme, more ingenious but not less fallacious, was
propounded in 1670 by Francis Lana, a Jesuit, for navigating the air.
This plan was to make four copper balls of very large dimensions, yet
so extremely thin that, after the air had been extracted, they should
become, in a considerable degree, specifically lighter than the
surrounding medium. Each of his copper balls was to be about 25 feet
in diameter, with the thickness of only the 225th part of an inch, the
metal weighing 365 pounds avoirdupois, while the weight of the air
which it should contain would be about 670 pounds, leaving, after a
vacuum had been formed, an excess of 305 pounds for the power of
ascension. The four balls would therefore, it was thought, rise into the
air with a combined force of 1220 pounds, which was deemed by Lana
to be sufficient to transport a boat completely furnished with masts,
sails, oars, and rudders, and carrying several passengers. The method
by which the vacuum was to be