Arizona republican., 1910-02-06
THE FIRST BALLOON
 E iuD ElRlY FtlehIs
Interesting and Timely Facts From
 an Old English EneiyeIopedia.

In these days when everybody is either flying or trying to. almost any, thing on the subject of aviation is of '-some passing interest so reference to the birth of areonautics may be worth while. J. c. Goodwin of Tempe has in his possession set of The New Encyclopedia or Modern Unl- versai Dictionary" published in two volumes. in England. previous to l795 or about that date. for 1t covers the ground in respect of the subjects treated of, to about that date. The books themselves are unique and would be prized by most any biblio- Phile. They are about 10 inches wide by fifteen inches long. and two ar three inches thick being rather odd in shape. The print is large and well executed but the reading is a little tedious for in those days the letter f was used for a letter s. The books bear no publication date But all that is preliminary. the matter in hand is what the books cantain on the sub ject of navigating the air. 3 -- Six pages are devoted to the subject of "aerostation' which is the term used for air navigation and twelve pages are devoted to "aerology," the science of the air, which is discussion of a much wider field. Under aero station is given the whole history of air navigation down to that time and there are numerous pictures of gas balloons which in general form and appearance are quite identical with the modern gas bags; that is the nom t,-,o A4l ed much as they are these days, the chief difference being that some of the earlier balloons were very ornamental and were livened up by the painting of pictures all over the bags.
 The first trip across the Engllish channel was made by M. Blanchard and Dr. Jeffries. Frenchmen, January :. l1S5, or just l25 years ago. This was only three years after the first silk smoke bag was made by Stephen and John Montgolfier. also French men. in 1ss2. or about thirteen years before the book was published. The reader will recall that the first man to cross the channel in an aeroplane. was M. Bleriot in 1909, also a Frenchman, 121 years later. IL appears that the French have always led the process sior in aeronautics. however much other races may improve on their first principles.
 = The first balloon as mentioned above.-was made by the Nontgolfiers They were paper manufacturers and ccrceiving the idea of imprisoninx heated air for lifting power. they made silk bag of large proportions nI {, paper, then made an ascension, at taining the awful height of 70 feet, which by the way is higher than some people vet care to go with smoke bag
 The next year. 19S3. the first ami mals to navigate the air, were sheep, cock and a duck The duck and the cock were fairly well equip ped with wings in the case of an ac- cident but il would seem that the ex- perimenters made something of goat" out of the sheep. But it did not hurt him. The experiment was made at F'auxbourg of St. Germain and the animals were enclosed in a wicker basket, attached to d balloon 50 feet high and 43 feet in diameter, painted inside and out with water
 
 colors, the whole being constructed in four days and nights. Evidently they were in a hurry. wanted to pull off the first aviation meet" in the world and did not propose to have any one get ahead of them. This bal loon was much more pretentious than the one used the year before and was regarded as huge success. 1t ascend ed to the height~of 1i40 feet and came | down without harm to any of the anl- mals. though it was torn in two. places | by the wind, before the ascension was made. Ie remained eight minutes in | the air and came down lo.200 feet dis tant from the starting point so 1t l must have been sent up in pretty | lively wind
 After this quite successful experi- | ment 1t is recitcd that men began | making flights.