As for the idea of making use of a sail to direct the balloon, as
one directs a vessel, that also was a delusion; for the whole
machine, globes and sails, being freely thrown into the air,
would infallibly follow the direction of the wind, whatever that
might be. When a ship lies in the sea, and its sails are
inflated with the wind, we must remember that there are two
forces in operation--the active force of the wind and the passive
force of the resistance of the water; and in working these forces
the one against the other, the sailor can turn within a point of
any direction he pleases. But when we are subjected wholly to a
single force, and have no point of support by the use of which to
turn that force to our own purposes, as is the case with the
aeronaut, we are entirely at the mercy of that force, and must
obey it.
After the flying-machine of Lana there was constructed by Galien
(who, like the former, was an ecclesiastic) an air-boat, less
chimerical in its form, looked at in view of the conditions of
aerial navigation, but much more singular. Galien describes his
air-boat, in 1755, in his little work entitled, "The Art of
Sailing in the Air." His project was a most extraordinary one,
and its boldness is only equalled by the seriousness of the
narrative.
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