Of course it may be
easily understood with these safe balloons the adventurous
aeronauts never ascended to any great height. The reader will
find this subject treated under the chapter of military
aerostation.
We are at present specially engaged with the narrative of the
first attempts in aerostation--the first experiments in the new
discovery. We have followed with interest the exciting details
of the first adventurous ascents, in which the genius of man
first essayed the unexplored paths of the heavens. Yet a
continued record of aerial voyages would not be of the same
interest. The results of subsequent expeditions, and the
impressions of subsequent aeronauts are the same as those already
described, or differ from them only in minor points. No
important advance is recorded in the art. We shall therefore
endeavour not to confine ourselves to the narrative of a dry and
monotonous chronology, but to select from the number of ascents
that have taken place within the last eighty years, only those
whose special character renders them worthy of more detailed and
severe investigation.
In order to give an idea of the rapid multiplication of
aeronautic experiments, it will suffice to state that the only
aeronauts of 1783 are Roziers, the Marquis d'Arlandes, Professor
Charles, his collaborateur the younger Robert, and a carpenter,
named Wilcox, who made ascents at Philadelphia and London.
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