Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-09-11
THE ART OF FLYING.


The idea of aerial navigation in some
f0ras is almost as old as the human race.
TIE imagination of the early tribes of
mankind teemed with images OF gods and
deni-gods flying through space. The
classic divinities of Greece and Rome
wee ever and anon upon the wing, and
our later epiCs, like paradise Lost" have
b rgowed this form of locomotion for
angels and other beings, who are depicted
with poetic license, winging their way
between heaven and earth or between
cath and the lower abyss. Considering
how many ages it is that the idea of fiy-
in through the air has been familiarized
to the human mind, and how prodigious
Is tie advantage in rapidity of transit
welded BY the feathered tribes, it seems
singular that no ell-authenticated use of
the principle Of aeronautics can be traced
before the year 1884, and still more singu-
lar that the spirit of scientific research
and invention has made little or no adj
vance on the first rude conception of the
balloon, as it came from the experiments
q the Frenchman, Moptgolfer
The first scientific statement of the
principle which lies at the basis of aero
nauticS, /. G., atmospheric buoyancy an
Bacon, the admirable DOCTOR of the
thirteenth century This great scholar,
whose penetrating mind seems to have
grasped the elements Of many scientific
truths not developed for centuries after
his death, assumed that the atmosphere
was a substance Of some consistency,
winch could feat any material lighter
than Itself He also describes with clear
ness scheme for navigating the air, by
tae AClp Of q large hollow globe wrought
extremely thin and filled with ethereal
alI ~ liquid FIRE" This globe, he pro
cccds might be launched from some ele-
Natto point into The atmosphere, where it
1oui. float like vessel on the water.
Recon even went farther, and maintained
thai "thcre may BE made some fiving in
struments, SO that a man sitting in the
middle Of the instrument, and turning
some mechanism, may put in motion
some artificial wings, which may beat the
air like 2 birt} flying"
Il does 80. appear that Roger Bacon
ever came near realizing these notions of
aerial lOcomotion by positive experiment
john wilkins, Bishop Of Chester, man
OF learning, whose science is everywhere
overlaid with fantastical notions and base
less superstitions, was the next notable
was the middle Of the seventeenth cen
tusy In his treatise on Mechanical
Motion" he has chapter on the art OF
flying by the aid of wings, which he fan
Cied might be moved back and forth by
the operation of powerful, yet light,
springs, similar TO those used in watches.
How full of absurdity were the concep-
lions held by Bishop wilkins on the sub
ject may be gathered by the following
four different ptans by which, he says, fly
lng in the air might be attempted
g Firstly, by spirits or angels; secondly,
by The help Of fowls; thirdly, by wings
fastened Immediately to the body; and,
fourthly, by flying chariot" Those who
have maintained that Bishop Wilkins was
the discoverer Of the art of flying overlook
the fact that all which is not near fantasy
in his book was clearly foreshadowed,
and even expressed, by Roger Bacon cen
turtles before.
Francis Lana, Jesuit, put forth in 1870
theory of navigating the air in a boat
sustained by four hollow globes of thin
copper, each twenty feet in diameter, and
exhausted OF air This almost precisely
prctigures Professor Wise's scheme, ex-
Cept as to the material of the balloons and
the means OF creating buoyancy.
Il
Besnier, IN 1878. and Of the friar De Guz-
man, in 1909, were nothing more than
mechanical ContrlvanCCs to create sub
st1tute for wings. The latter provided the
motive power for his flying man by pair
Of bellows! This is another of the com
pick schemes based upon the unfounded
notion that a thing can lift itself up.
In 1865 appeared Joseph Gallien's trea
tise entitled, ~ ART de Napiqer dansles
Airs," setting forth the theory that a bag
filed with any substance lighter than the
atmosphere would enable anyone to float
on an aerial voyage But none of the nu-
merous theorists who wrote upon this fas-
Cinating subject prior to 1899 ever got be-
You'd theory. 1t was reserved for the
brothers MOntgolfier not only to make the
first balloon which would rise by its own
leyity in the atmosphere, but also to effect
the first aerial transit with human passen-
gers. Their primary experiment was
based upon the idea that a light paper bag
would float, if filled with smoke or hot
air, lighter than the surrounding atmos-
phere Accordingly they made a bag at
first Of an oblong shape, and containing
only forty cubic feet. To the lower part
Of this bag, containing an orifice, they APP
pied burning paper, and soon had the
satisfaction OF seeing the bag float upward
to the ceiling ofthe room in which the ex
pertinent was performed
This was at Avignon, in November,
11o2, Encouraged by the success of this
first simple test, the brothers constructed
All envelope of about 600 cubic feet and of
a spherical shape, which, being inflated as
before, rose in the open air to the beieht
of 600 or 700 feet. This was the first bal
loon (French baton, from the round
short-necked vessel of that name used in
chemistry, and it demonstrated at
once the entire feasibility of con
structing a machine that would fly,
and the fact that the larger the receptacle
of heated air was made, the higher it
would ascend. Public experiments fol-
lowed with larger balloons. The new art
was hailed with acclamations by some,