In the midst of a frame of light wood
sits the operator, steadying himself with one hand, and with the
other fuming a cremaillere, which appears to give a very quick
rotatory movement to two glass globes revolving upon a vertical
axis. The friction of the globes is supposed to develop
electricity to which his power of ascending is ascribed.
To wings, however, aerial adventurers mostly adhered. The
Marquis de Racqueville flew from a window of his hotel, on the
banks of the Seine, and fell into a boat full of washerwomen on
the river. All these unfortunate attempts were lampooned,
burlesqued on the stage, and pursued with the mockery of the
public.
Up to this time, therefore, the efforts of man to conquer the air
had miscarried. They were conducted on a wrong principle, the
machinery employed being heavier than the air itself But, even
before the time of Montgolfier, the principles of aerostation
began to be recognised, though nothing was actually done in the
way of acting upon them. Thus, in 1767, Professor Black, of
Edinburgh, announced in his class that a vessel, filled with
hydrogen, would rise naturally in the air; but he never made the
experiment, regarding the fact as capable of being employed only
for amusement.
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