There
are few more tantalising stories in the annals of invention than
this. So much had been accomplished when Roziers made his first
aerial voyage above the astonished capital of France that all the
rest seemed easy. The new highway appeared to have been thrown
open to the world, and the dullest imagination saw the air
thronged with colossal chariots, bearing travellers in perfect
safety, and with more than the speed of the eagle, from city to
city, from country to country, reckless of all the obstacles--the
seas, and rivers, and mountains--which Nature might have placed
in the path of the wayfarer. But from that moment to the present
the prospect which was thus opened up has remained a vision and
nothing more. There are--as those who visited the Crystal Palace
two years ago have reason to know--not a few men who still
believe in the practicability of journeying by air. But, with
hardly an exception, those few have abandoned all idea of
utilising the balloon for this purpose. The graceful "machine"
which astonished the world at its birth remains to this day as
beautiful, and as useless for the purposes of travel, as in the
first hour of its history. The day may come when some one more
fortunate than the Montgolfiers may earn the Duke of Sutherland's
offered reward by a successful flight from the Mall to the top of
Stafford House; but when this comes to pass the balloon will have
no share in the honour of the achievement.
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