Omaha daily bee., 1910-11-25
PoE'S FAMOUS BALLOON HOAX
How the whoIe world was Fooled
with a FlyinE Machine story
in 1S4A.

The recent attempt Of Walter weuman 70
cross the Atlantic ocean in a dirigihle bal
loon and the admission OF Edgar Allen Poe
in the Hall Of Fame recall one OF the
greatest fakes IN history Poe came to New
York from Philadelphia In 1874 His wife
was lll and he was without employment.
He had just $3.50 and he was determined to
make some money. He wrote the great
balloon hoax and sold it to the New York
Sun. That paper published the story as
fact on April 10. 1874 and the whole world
was amazed. The story related that a
Monck Mason had invented a steering bal
loon In which he had crossed the Atlantic
ocean in three days. Mason carried seven
passengers, among them Robert Holland,
Harrison Ainsworth. a well-known author:
Sir George Cayley and others Scientists
In America and Europe hastened to con-
graduate the aeronaut, but before the hoax
was exposed Poe himself confessed the
fake. The story occupied four columns of
detailed information and shows the bril-
liant imagination OF the unfortunate Poe
Here are some extracts from the story,
showing the wealth Of detail that fooled
the public:
The great problem is at length solved
The air as well as the earth and the
ocean, has been subdued by science and
will become a common and convenient
highway for mankind. The Atlantic has
been actually crossed in a balloonl and
this, too, without Neutrality-suspicious. any
great apparent danger-with thorough con-
troll Of the machine-and in the inconceiv-
ably brief period Of seventy-nve hours from
shore to shore BY the energy Of an agent
at Charleston, S. c., we are enabled to be
the first to furnish the public with de-
led .g ~
voyage, which was performed between Sat
urday, the 9Th instant at II a. m, and 2
p. m. on Tuesday the sth instant. by Sir
Edward Bringhurst, Mr.. Osborne, a nephew
Of Lord Bentincks: Mr. Monck Mason and
Mr. Robert Holland the well-known aero
nauts; Mr.. Harrison Ainsworth author of
Jack Sheppard" etc. and Mr. Henson
the protector Of the late unsuccessful flying
maohine-with two seamen from woolwich
in all, eight persons The particulars fur
nished below may be relied on as authentic
and accurate in every respect, as with a
slight exception they are copied verbatim
from the joint diaries of Mr.. Monck Mason
and Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, to whose DO
likeness our agent Is indebted for much
verbal information respecting the balloon
itself, its construction and other matters
Of interest. The only alteration in the MS.
received has been made for the purpose of
throwing the hurried account of our agent,
Mr.. Forsyth, into connected and intelli-
BILE form.
1T was at this juncture that Mr.. Monck
Mason (whose voyage from Dover to Well
burg in the balloon Nassau occasioned so
much excitement in 1879 conceived the idea
Of employing the principle Of the Archime-
dean screw for the purpose Of propulsion
through the ajr-rightly attributing the
failure Of Mr.. Henson's scheme and OF Sir
George Cayley's to the interruption of sur
face in the Independent vanes. He made
the first public experiment at Willis
rooms, but afterward removed his model
to the Adelaide gallery
Like Sir George CRyIey's balloon, his own
was an elipsOid. It's length was thirteen
feet six inches, height six feet eight inches.
1t contained about 800 cubic feet of gas,
which II pure hydrogen would support
twenty-one pounds upon its first initiation
before the gas has time to deteriorate or
escape. The weight OF the whole machine
ana apparatus was seventeen pounds
leaving about four pounds to spare Be-
meath the center OF the balloon was n
frame Of light wood about nine feet long
and rugged on TO the balloon itself with a
network in the customary manner. From
this framework was suspended a wicker
basket or car.
The screw consists Of an axis Of hol-
low brass tube eighteen inches in length,
through which upon q semi-spiral inclined
at 10 degrees pass a series OF steel wire
radu two feet long and thus projecting q
foot on either side, These radu are con-
nected at the outer extremities by two
bands Of hattenod wire. the whole in this