The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-11-22

Machines intended for propelling
ones self through the air are older than
balloons. After the Montgolier broth
ers. of France, made a successful ascen-
sion i'm balloon formed of paper and
inflated with heated air, inventive talent
turned its attention to finding better
materials for the covering and filing.
The first was found in silk, rendered
gas-tight by means of varnish, and the
second in hydrogen gas. As there We're
no very strong motives 10 tempt per-
sons to make aerial voyages it is aston
fishing how much money has been ex-
pended in the construction OF balloons,
and how many fatal accidents have re-
suited from their use. Observations
made in the use of balloons have been
of considerable advantage to science,
but in other matters they have been of
little benefit to the world. They were
employed in McClellan's army for pur-
poses of observation, and were produc-
tive of some good. During the invest
ment of Paris they were employed to
good purpose to the besieged inhabi-
tants. Gambetta, then one of the chiefs
of the Government, made his escape In
one. During the siege there were sixty
four ascensions In several cases the
Prussians fired at the balloons, but with
out effect. Sixty-two of the balloons
made successful voyages. One floated
to South Africa, where it was discovered
several years afterward, and one was
supposed to be lost at sea.
The loss of Donaldson and Grim
wood, who made an ascension from the
lake shore, in this city, three years ago,
operated to damp the ardor for aerial
navigation in this country. In England,
however, there is great interest liz the
matter. The War Department supports
corps of balloon engineers, and pro-
vides them, not only with balloons, but
with apparatus for initiating them and
carriages for drawing them about. The
Eronautical Society of Great Britain
was formed over twelve years ago, and
numbers among its members persons as
distinguished as the Duke of Argyll and
Earl Dufferin. 1t has cabinet and
! library devoted to models of balloons,
parachutes, and fying-machines and
boats pertaining to the navigation of
the air. At present it is devoting its
attention to fying-machines and giving
encouragement 10 INVENTORS. Lie ue-
sire appears to be to construct a simple
apparatus whereby man may make
flights at pleasure after the manner of
"the birds of the air." The members of
the society seem to think that balloon
is too cumbrous and unwieldy to use
in making ascensions, while a steam
engine is not desirable thing to have
on board craft that is to sail in the
air. They desire to make their pleas
ure trips over church spires and tree
tops by means OF an apparatus as simple
and as easily operated as velocipede
or canoe. They do not expect to do
away with muscular exertion. Indeed,
they do not desire to, as physical
strength and endurance are things the
English gentleman holds in high es-
TEEN and wishes to encourage by educa-
ton and practice. The prospects of
success for fying-machine are not en-
couraging, nor does there seem to be
any very great necessity for navigating
in the air. Still, an air-carriage may be
invented, and useful as well as a
pleasurable employment be found for it.
-CUjcnOO Times