The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1871-01-06
Aerial Navigation.

III tue Ffcnch people have not bceI
able to beat back the waves of German
invasion, they have, through their bal.
loon experiments and successes, made
some contribution to the cause of sci.
ence. Aerial feats, such as were never
before witnessed, have been performed
by the beleaguered Parisians. For tht
first time, the balloon has been EN-
ployed as a public carrier. Thousands
of letters have been regularly dispatch
ed by it. Gambetta, and. one aftel
another of the French generals hav'
made their escape from the doomed
city through the air, and regular Aer
Onautic Company has now been estab
lished, and the price of passage fixed
Another interesting fact is that a con
siderable number of carrier-pigeons art
taken out with each balloon; and these
freighted with news and official dis
| patches, return to the city whenever
desired-nO marksman of the enemy
being expert enough to to arrest them
in their rapid and lofty fight.
How to successfully navigate the all
is a problem which will undoubtedly
command no little share of scientific
attention from this time forward. The
achievements of the Parisians will
stimulate fresh efforts on the part of the
London sGra,,s, who have organized q
society, and offered large rewards fol
the prosecution of the subject, and we
shall probably soon hear of the fOrma-
ton of similar organizations elsewhere.
Final success will undoubtedly crown
these efforts. An age of lightning ex-
press-trains and transatlantic cables,
an age that paints without pencil and
brush, and makes the sun its slave,
will not rest satisfied until 1t has sub
dued the air. @ q b-
"What did we not think of il before?''
wrote the astronomer Lalande, when
the principles of ballooning were first
put in practice. The time is not dis
tant when navigation, as they control
their air inventions, steering them hith-
er and thithcr, will wonder how people
could have been SO long contented with
simply earth and water conyeyances.
1t is noteworthy that while the human
race has made such wonderful strides
in other fields of discovery, during the
last hundred years, the science of aero
station is still in its infancy. Though
nearly ninety years have elapsed since
the first aerial journey excited the ad-
miration Of the educated and the fears
of the ignorant and superstitious, but
little more control is now exercised
over the elements of air than in I7S3.
Some explanation of this backward
ness is to be found in the fact that ae-
rial experiments have zen mostly con.
fined to ballOOning simply, instead of
the construction of air-yesssls more
nearly upon the model of birds. Ma
riOD, the French writer upon the subject
asserts that to this latter principle we
must look for the secret of successful
aerial navigation.
So far as mere balloouing is concern
cd, it is a question in the minds of
many whether the Paiisian aeronats
have not now achieved all that can he
done ir that direction. when they con-
tract to carry passengers and mails
from the city to whatever point the
winds may waft-thcm. As the currents
of these winds at different elevations
become more fully understood, advan-
tage can be taken of the information;
but many doubt whether any new
principle is ever discovered which will
enable a ballOOn-voyager to control his
course, and land at will. slt.!f~,
However this may be, it seems desi-
rable that experiments should now
take the direction of flying machines.
The balloon is not" says Marion,
Z" the master. of the atmosphere; on the
contrary, it is its powerless slave. The
question is to find out new machine
capable of flying in the air, and, at the
covY h |. ~. L.
are, without doubt, the best models to
study. Let US find motive power at
once light and powerful-aluminium
and electricity, for example-and we
will have definitely conquered the en-
pire of air." AS we have before said,
an air-navigator that can be controlled
will doubtless come, sooner or later,
into common use, whether il he an air.
boat, after the Plane model, a flying
machine based on the ancient theories
of Lana and Besnier, or winged bal |
lion invented by the Goddard brothers. |
1t would be strange spectacle to see
our businessmen flying over the house.
tops to their stores and Offices in the |
morning, and back LONE again at |
night; Or ladies from the surrounding |
villages dropping down i'm front of the |
retail bazaars upon town, and again
ASCENDING { into the air, freighted with |
Christmas-bundles. But what would |
our fathers have said had they been
told that their children would be whirl-
ed across the entire American Continet |
in weeks time? What would We
have said had we been told i'm 1850 that
we should be reading European cable
dispatches in 1870, six hours before they
were transmitted ?-Heurth aud Home.