The aeronaut was
consequently compelled to have his machine partly re-fitted in
great haste, and in the course of a few hours he made the ascent
alone in the usual way. Blanchard should have known the
uselessness of oars, though he did not abandon their employment
in subsequent ascents. The Brothers Montgolfier had dreamed of
the employment of oars as a means of guidance, but had ultimately
rejected the idea. Joseph wrote to his brother Etienne, about
the end of the year 1783:
"For my sake, my good friend, reflect; calculate well before you
employ oars. Oars must either be great or small; if great, they
will be heavy; if small, it will be necessary to move them with
great rapidity. I know no sufficient means of guidance, except
in the knowledge of the different currents of air, of which it is
necessary to make a study; and these are generally regulated by
the elevation." The two brothers often recurred to this idea.
The pictures of the first ascent of Blanchard from the Champ de
Mars on the 2nd of March, 1784, in the presence of a vast
multitude, show us the oars and the mechanism of his
flying-machine fitted to a balloon. The design which we here
give seems to us deserving of being considered only as one of the
caricatures of the time, especially when we look at the personage
dressed in the fool's head-gear, who sits behind and accompanies
the triumphant ascent of the aeronaut with music.
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