infernale_ had covered a space of three leagues. Now that it is over I
have some shudderings. It does not signify! we have made a good
journey, and I marvel to see with what indifference we may regard the
most frightful death, for, besides the prospect of being dashed about on
our way, we had that of gaining the sea; and how long should we have
lived then? I am glad to have seen this--happier yet at having to
narrate it to you. These Germans who surround us are brave people, and
we have been as well cared for as the resources of the little spot will
allow.
"P.S.--I have just reached Hanover with my companions, and re-open my
letter to tell you so. The King has sent an aide-de-camp to us. Are we
at the end of our reverses? At any rate, I am consoled to think they
can no longer laugh at us in Paris. We have kept our promises, and
more."
Making some allowance for the palpable exaggeration of small details,
this excitable Frenchman's description of the ascent is the best that we
have seen, therefore we have given it in full.
The accounts given by other members of the party corroborate most of it,
and correct a few of its errors. For instance, where Monsieur Arnould
represents the anchor as dragging off the _roof_ of a house, another
account states that it tore away one of the rafters; and while he tells
us that large trees were "cut through by the car as clean as if by a
woodman's hatchet," Monsieur Godard says that they were knocked down or
uprooted! But, upon the whole, after comparing the several narratives,
we are of opinion that, with all his tendency to exaggeration and the
use of inflated language, Monsieur Arnould has found it impossible to
convey by means of words an adequate conception of this, perhaps, the
most wonderful and thrilling balloon voyage on record.
Many dangerous voyages of thrilling interest have been undertaken since
this ascent of Monsieur Nadar. We shall just give a brief account of
two of these, which occurred at a comparatively recent date, to show the
reader that men are not to be deterred by the misfortunes of
predecessors from prosecuting inquiries and experiments in this field.
A _fete_ was held some years ago in the park of Mr North, Basford, near
Nottingham. Amongst the amusements, it was arranged that Mr Coxwell
should make a balloon ascent. The balloon was almost new, but not of
very large dimensions. After it had been fully inflated, Mr Coxwell
tried it, and found there would be some difficulty in ascending in it,
owing to its weight. At this juncture, a Mr James Chambers, of
Nottingham, who had previously made many ascents, stepped forward and
offered to go in his stead, saying that he was lighter than Mr Coxwell,
and that he wished to make the ascent. After some conversation, it was
agreed that Chambers should go up, but Mr Coxwell told him not to
attempt an ascent unless he felt quite confident that he could manage
the balloon. Chambers replied that he had no fear about managing it,
and accordingly he was allowed to make the ascent. The balloon rose
steadily, and was carried somewhat rapidly in a north-easterly direction
towards Nottingham. It proceeded as far as Arno Vale, when it was seen
suddenly to collapse, while still at a considerable altitude, and then
to fall quickly in an unshapely mass. Some young men who were near the
spot where the balloon fell, hastened to render assistance. The balloon
dropped into the car as it descended, completely covering it, and
ultimately both fell in a field near Scout Lane, three miles from
Nottingham. The car struck the ground and rebounded several feet, and
then fell again, when it was seized and stopped by the young men, who
had followed it. At the bottom of the car lay stretched the body of the
unfortunate aeronaut. He was lifted out and found to be breathing, but
quite insensible. He was conveyed to the nearest dwelling, and means
were adopted to restore animation, but without effect. Two medical
gentlemen, named Robertson and Maltby, afterwards saw him, and it was
discovered that his left thigh was fractured, and some of the ribs on
his left side were broken, but they considered it very probable that the
unfortunate man had died through suffocation, as a handkerchief, which
had been found in his mouth, had probably been placed there by himself
when he found that he was in danger of being stifled by the gas from the
collapsing balloon.
On another occasion, still more recent, a perilous balloon voyage was
accomplished by an aeronaut named Vouens. He ascended from the Bellevue
Gardens, near Huddersfield, in a balloon which was capable of containing
20,000 cubic feet of gas. Its height was 50 feet, and it expanded to
100 feet in circumference. Away floated the balloon in a westerly
direction, oscillating for a considerable distance in a most
extraordinary and unusual manner. Mr Vouens experienced a stronger
breeze than he had anticipated, and, the current changing rapidly, his
energy and knowledge as an aeronaut were very severely taxed. A fresh
current drove him to the east for a time, but presently another gust
unexpectedly sent him in the direction of Halifax, and thence towards
Bradford, in a northerly course. After the lapse of twenty minutes the
balloon and its occupant pierced the clouds. Mr Vouens then began to
make observations, for the purpose of selecting a suitable site, on
which to descend; and in a few minutes concentrated his attention upon a
field, in which a _fete_ was being held. The breeze, however, carried
him some three miles further, and a second time Mr Vouens attempted to
lower himself in a field adjoining some farm-houses at Denholme.
Cautiously opening the escape-valve, he continued the journey downwards,
and threw out the grapnels. Impetuous blasts of wind increased the
difficulty of bringing the balloon to anchor. A strong wind prevailing,
it became unmanageable, and drifted over fields and stone walls with
amazing velocity. The flukes of the grapnels penetrated the ground and
uprooted the earth as they followed in the wake of the balloon, while
the aerial chariot dashed onwards, making, in its career, wide gaps in
several stone walls. Mr Vouens, preparing to encounter the worst fate,
wrapped the end of the cord which opens the escape-valve round one of
his wrists, and, burying himself in the car, permitted the balloon to
proceed until the breeze subsided, when, after the car had been thrice
capsized, and every article which it contained thrown out, Mr Vouens,
who received no injuries, anchored, and completed a voyage of many
miles, which occupied half-an-hour in its accomplishment.
CHAPTER NINE.
WAR-BALLOONS.
As the French were the first to teach mankind the art of navigating the
air by means of balloons, so they were the first to set the example of
applying them to the art of war.
It may not be generally known, perhaps, that balloons have actually been
used in war. They were first introduced to this new field of action at
Valenciennes in 1793, and the result of the experiment was a failure;
not, however, owing to the fault of man, but to the unpropitious nature
of the winds. The garrison, being hard pressed by the English and their
allies, attached a letter, addressed to the National Assembly, to a
small balloon, or parachute, and committed it to a breeze which blew in
the direction of Paris. Towards evening the wind changed, and the
faithless messenger fell into the enemy's camp!
About the same time the subject of war-balloons was brought before the
Committee of Public Safety, who commissioned a young captain of
Engineers, named Coutelle, to make experiments, and report on the
matter. He made a balloon twenty-seven feet in diameter, with a car to
hold two persons, which, when filled with hydrogen gas, was capable of
lifting about a quarter of a ton, and cost a little above 80 pounds. It
was not intended that this balloon should go free. It was to be held
down by two guy-ropes, each between four and five hundred yards in
length, by which, when at the full length of its tether, the balloon was
to be hauled about in any direction, pulled down, or allowed to rise in
obedience to the wishes of the aeronaut, who was to communicate his
orders by means of a system of signals. Reports of what he might be
thus enabled to discover of the enemy's position were to be written on
slips of paper, put into small sandbags, and tossed overboard. Small
coloured flags were attached to each bag, so that it might be easily
observed in its descent.
After several satisfactory ascents to the height of above 500 feet had
taken place--the balloon being held easily by ten men, five to each
guy-rope--an order was given, in April 1794, for the formation of a
company of military aeronauts--styled _aerostiers_, to which Coutelle
was appointed captain-commandant. His company consisted of one
lieutenant, one sergeant-major, one sergeant, two corporals, and twenty
privates, who wore a dark blue uniform, with black velvet facings, and
were armed with pistols and swords.
This new and peculiar company of aerostiers was very soon sent to join
the army at Maubeuge, and was regarded with some ridicule and contempt
by the rest of the army. Coutelle, however, took an effectual method of
commanding respect. He begged that he and his men might be allowed to
take part in a projected _sortie_. They were permitted, and went; an
officer and private were wounded, and the corps behaved with such
gallantry that it was from that time treated with becoming respect.
Ascents were made daily in the balloon for reconnoitring purposes, and
the Austrians fired at their audacious and inquisitive enemy both with
muskets and cannon, but without effect.
After a time the balloon was ordered to take the road, and join that
part of the army which was marching on Charleroi. Its march through the
country in leading-strings was curious to spectators and harassing to
the aerostiers. The car, with all its appurtenances, was placed on a
cart, over which the balloon was allowed to float at a height sufficient
to admit of the passage of cavalry under it. Twenty men, marching in
single file, held it down by twenty stays; but they had a sad time of
it, for their charge was headstrong and restive, jerking and tugging at
them continually, not only with its own inherent power of ascension, but
with the irregular impetus derived from gusts and squalls of wind, which
caused it to make sudden and violent charges against trees, houses, or
whatever chanced to come in its way, and sometimes to beat its blunt
forehead wildly on the ground as if it had been a monster in despair!
It reached Charleroi, however, on the 22nd of June, after a journey of
three days, and took part in the battle of Fleurus on the 26th. A high
wind rendered it necessary, on the day of battle, to fasten its
guy-ropes to thirty horses--fifteen to each rope--and, thus secured, it
remained in the air eight hours, passing from place to place, and making
observations. Its services were so highly appreciated by the generals
on that occasion that a second balloon was made and sent to the field of
action. The first one, which was named _l'Entreprenant_, met with
accidents which rendered it necessary that it should be sent to Maubeuge
for repair; but it afterwards rejoined the army and took part in the
battle of Aldenhoven, at the capture of Bonn, and at the operations
before Ehrenbreitstein, in all of which it escaped without a wound,
although frequently exposed to a furious fire of musketry and shells
from the exasperated Austrians.
Nevertheless, its natural enemy, the wind, did not allow it to escape
scatheless, as Coutelle shows in one of his letters. He writes thus:
"I received orders to make a reconnaissance of Mayence. I accordingly
posted myself between our lines and the town, at about half cannon-shot
distance. The wind was very high, so, to counteract its effects as far
as lay in my power, I ascended alone, with two hundred pounds additional
buoyancy. I was at a height of five hundred metres when three
successive gusts dashed me to the ground with such violence that several
portions of the car were smashed to bits. Each time the balloon darted
up again with so much force that sixty-four men--thirty-two at each
guy-rope--were dragged to some distance. Had the guys been made fast to
grapnels, as had been suggested to me, they must infallibly have given
way."
Notwithstanding this rough treatment, the aerial warrior managed, during
a lull in the wind, to count the number of the enemy's guns.
But the successes of these war-balloons were sadly intermingled with
reverses of fortune and harassing difficulties. The aeronauts had,
indeed, won the respect and admiration of the army, but this did not
compensate for the terribly fatiguing work of holding on, with scarcely
a moment's intermission, to the ropes of the intractable monsters during
long and frequent marches. The second balloon at length succeeded in
breaking loose, and was so much damaged as to become unserviceable, and
the first one was afterwards found riddled with balls--destroyed, it was
supposed, by its own men, who had become tired of the hardships to which
they were continually subjected. The balloon was repaired, but was
taken prisoner at Wurtzburg in September 1796, after a short but
brilliant, and, it is said, useful career.
After this the war-ballooning fell into disrepute. Some attempts have
been made in modern times to revive it, but these are not worth
mentioning.
CHAPTER TEN.
AERIAL LOCOMOTIVES, ETCETERA.
Having treated of the balloon in all its different aspects, it is both
just and appropriate to conclude with an account of the theory and
construction of that curious machine which is, according to some
enthusiastic aeronauts, to supplant the balloon altogether, and enable
us to accomplish that which has been one of the great aims and desires
of mankind from the earliest ages, namely, the directing of our flight,
or steering a course, not only through, but, if need were, in opposition
to the winds.
Monsieur Nadar being, perhaps, the most zealous advocate of this
machine, we draw our information chiefly from his writings. Of course
the reader will understand that we do not support the views which we are
about to set forth; neither, however, do we treat them lightly, because
we have lived long enough to see proposals which, not many years ago,
would have been deemed worthy of the most visionary of lunatics, carried
out to a successful issue and reduced to sober facts.
When we hear of a _flying machine_ which is to rise from the earth at
the bidding of man, and, like the fabulous creations in the _Arabian
Nights' Entertainment_, dart through the air with passengers and luggage
bound for definite localities, turning hither and thither, or alighting
on the earth according to the will of a steersman--we confess to a
feeling which is apt to wrinkle our visage with the smile of
incredulity; but we sternly rebuke the smile, for we know that similar
smiles wreathed the faces of exceedingly wise people when, in former
days, it was proposed to drive ships and coaches by steam, and hold
instantaneous converse with our friends across the Atlantic by means of
electricity!
Let us therefore gravely consider the aerial locomotive.
Monsieur Nadar, as the reader already knows, scouts the idea of steering
balloons.
In reference to this he states with truth that, "a balloon which
presents to the action of the atmosphere a volume of from 22,000 to
42,000 [cubic] feet of a gas from ten to fifteen times lighter than air,
is, by its very nature, smitten with incapacity to struggle against the
slightest current, no matter what may be the resisting motive force
which may be imparted to it. Both by its constitution, and by the
medium which drives it hither and thither at the pleasure of the winds,
it can never become a vessel. It is a buoy, and remains a buoy."
Discarding, therefore, with contempt, the balloon as an aerial
locomotive, he announces his belief that it is the _screw_ which is
destined to drive us, or clamber with us, into the blue vault above, and
convey us from place to place. And here it is right to assure the
reader that the theoretical power of the screw to accomplish the end in
view is not a disputable question. It has been practically proved by
models, and the only point that remains to be settled is the possibility
of applying the power to machines large enough to carry human beings
with a sufficient degree of safety to warrant risking the attempt.
Monsieur Nadar sets out with a statement which he deems self-evident,
namely, that, "in order to contend against the air, we must be
specifically heavier than the air"--a truth which was also, we are told,
announced by the first Napoleon in the epigrammatic sentence, "There can
be no progress without resistance." From this the Frenchman proceeds to
prove that, in order to command the air, it is necessary to support
one's-self upon it, instead of being at its mercy; that we can only rest
upon that which resists, and that the air itself furnishes us amply with
the needful resistance--it being "the same atmosphere which overturns
walls, tears up by the root trees a century old, and enables ships to
ascend impetuous currents." Glowing with the ardour of a man whose
faith is refreshingly great, he tells us that the time has at last come
when the atmosphere must yield to man. "It is for man," he says, "to
restrain and subdue this insolent and abnormal rebellion, which has for
so many years laughed at our vain efforts. We are in turn about to make
it serve us as a slave, just as the water on which we launch the ship,
as the solid earth on which we press the wheel!"
There is a toy called the _spiralifer_, which is common enough in towns,
and which is, doubtless, known to almost every one. It consists of four
flat fans attached to a spindle somewhat after the manner of the arms of
a windmill. It is placed in a hollow tube and made to spin violently by
pulling a string wound round the spindle. The result is that the
spiralifer leaps out of the hollow tube and ascends powerfully as long
as the violent spinning motion continues. If properly constructed, this
toy acts with great force and certainty, and if the spinning motion
could only be kept up, by any means, the ascent would be continued. The
principal here involved is precisely the same as that which causes a
windmill to turn, a screw-propeller to drive a ship, and a cork-screw to
enter a cork. It is pressure against a resisting medium. Air is the
resisting medium in the case of the mill; water and cork respectively in
the other cases. The only difference between the windmill and the
spiralifer is, that the first is moved by the air pressing against it,
the other by itself, in its rotatory action, pressing against the air.
If you turn a bottle upside down, and, while in that position, send a
cork-screw up into the cork, you set in motion the same force which is
applied in the spiralifer. As the screw screws itself up into the cork,
so the spiralifer screws itself up into the air. Of course the screw
remains sticking there when the motive power ceases, because of the
density of the medium through which it moves, while the spiralifer, when
at rest, sinks, because of the fluidity of the air; but the principle of
motion in each is the same. The screw-propeller of a ship is just a
spiralifer placed horizontally, acting on water instead of air, and
having a vessel placed in front of it.
Now, Monsieur Nadar's aerial locomotive is a huge spiralifer, made
strong enough to carry up a steam-engine which shall keep it perpetually
spinning, and, therefore, perpetually ascending. Perhaps we should have
said that his locomotive is a huge machine to which several spiralifers
are attached, so that while one set raises or (by reversing the engine)
depresses it, other sets drive it sideways. The theory is perfect, and
the practice has been successfully attempted in models. Messieurs
Ponton d'Amecourt and de la Laudelle, we are told--"the one a man of the
world, and the other a man of letters"--engaged the services of two
skilled mechanics, Messieurs Joseph of Arras and J. Richard, who
constructed models of machines which ascended the atmosphere, carrying
their motive power (springs) along with them.
Besides horizontal screws, it is proposed to furnish additional guiding
power to the locomotive by means of inclined planes. These, by being
arranged in various positions, while the machine is in motion, would act
on the air, as do the wings of a bird, and give it direction.
No doubt, despite the simplicity of all this, difficulties will present
themselves to most minds, some of which may perhaps bulk very large in
the minds of mechanicians--such as the power of materials to withstand
the violence of the forces, to which they are to be applied, etcetera.
We do not know; however, no difficulties seem to have afflicted Monsieur
Nadar, who thus grandly waives them all aside, and revels in the
contemplation of the triumphant flights that lie before him in the
future:--
"It will be understood," he writes, "that it belongs not to us to
determine at present either the mechanism or the necessary manoeuvres.
Neither shall we attempt to fix even approximately the future velocity
of the aerial locomotive. Let us rather attempt to calculate the
probable velocity of a locomotive gliding through the air, without the
possibility of running off the rails, without any oscillation, without
the least obstacle. Let us fancy such locomotive encountering on its
way, in the midst, one of those atmospheric currents which travel at the
rate of forty leagues an hour, and following that current; add together
these formidable data, and your imagination will recoil in adding still
further to these giddy velocities, that of a machine falling through an
angle of descent of from 12,000 to 15,000 feet in a series of gigantic
zigzags, and making the tour of the globe in a succession of fantastic
leaps."
Truly Monsieur Nadar seems to us to be right! There are few men or
women, we suspect, who would not recoil from such "fantastic leaps," and
unless the prospect of a more sedate style of travelling be held out, it
is not probable that aerial locomotives will receive much patronage from
the general public.
Lord Carlingford, who mistook the sentiments of Monsieur Nadar in regard
to the aerial locomotive, claimed for himself, in 1863, the honour of
having previously invented and successfully launched an aerial chariot,
weighing seventeen stone, which rose on the air without any assistance
but that of the wind, and, having arrived at a horizontal position on
the air, it remained stationary there until pulled down.
Monsieur Nadar, at the conclusion of a courteous letter in reply to this
claim, gives his intentions and opinions on the subject pretty clearly
as follows:--
"In fine, and that there may be no possible mistake on the part of any
one regarding what I am attempting, I desire to find the necessary
resources for the constitution of a society, which shall be the centre
of all hitherto isolated and therefore lost attempts to solve a question
so profound, so vast, so complex that it does not seem to belong to a
single individual to achieve it. I have my system, which I believe to
be good, since it is mine; but I shall aid with all the strength of my
will, and with all the energy of my perseverance, every system which
shall be proved to be better than mine. The question to me is not at
all who may have determined the great problem; it is that the solution
may be found at last. The fruit is ripe; I long to see it plucked, no
matter by whom; and this is the sole cause of the agitation which I have
endeavoured to call forth, and which I am now pursuing."
A man who takes up a subject with such hearty enthusiasm, and in such a
liberal spirit, is, we hold, entitled to the utmost respect. As we
have, however, done our best to lay his case before the public, we feel
entitled to express with all humility some of the doubts which have been
suggested to our own mind while meditating on the subject.