Year: 1873

The idea of aerial navigation in some
forms is almost as old as the human race.
The Imagination of the early tribes of
mankind teemed with images Of gods and
demi-gods flying through space. The
classic divinities of Greece and Rome
were ever and anon upon the wing, and
our later epics like "Paradise Lost" have
borrowed this form of locomotion for
angels and other beings, who are depicted
with poetic license, winging their way
between heaven and earth, or between
earth and the lower abyss. Considering
how many ages it is that the idea of fly
Ing through the air has been familiarized
to the human mind, and how prodigious
is the advantage in rapidity of transit
welded by the feathered tribes, it seems
singular that no well-authenticated use of
the principle of aeronautics can be traced
before the year 1884 and still more sfngu-
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
of the Frenchman, MOntgolfier.


The first scientific statement of the
principle which lies at the basis of aero
nautics, .. e., atmospheric buoyancy ap-
pears to be found in the writings of Roger
Bacon, the admirable dOctOr'' of the
thirteenth century. This great scholar,
whose penetrating mind seems to have
graspcd the elements of many scientific
truths not developed for centuries after
his death, assumed that the atmosphere
was substance of some consistency,
which could float any material lighter
than itself. He also describes with clear
ness a scheme for navigating the air, by
the help of large hollow globe, wrought
extremely thin and filled with ethereal
air or liquid fire" This globe, he pro-
ceeds, might be launched from some ele-
waited point into the atmosphere, where it
would float like vessel on the water
Bacon even went farther and maintained
that "there may be made some flying 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 bird flying"


1t does not 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
writer upon the art of flying. His period
was the middle of the seventeenth CEN
tury. In his treatise on Mechanical
Motion" he has a 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-
tions held by Bishop Wilkins on the sub
ject may be gathered by the following
four different plans by which, he says, fly
ing in the air might be attempted:
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,
turies before.


Francis Lana, a Jesuit, put forth in 1870
theory of navigating the air in boat
sustained by four hollow globes of thin
copper, each twenty feet in diameter, and
exhausted of air. This almost precisely
prefgures Professor Wises scheme, eX-
cept as to the material of the balloons and
the means of creating buoyancy.


The flying apparatus of the Frenchman
Besnier, in 1878, and of the friar De Guz-
man, in 1909, were nothing more than
mechanical contrivances to create sub
stitute 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 thing can lift itself up.


In 1855 appeared Joseph Gallien's trea-
tise entitled, ~ Art de NaUiger danSles
Aigs," setting forth the theory that bag
filled 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 1882 ever got be-
yond theory. 1t was reserved for the
brothers Montgolfier, not only to make the
first balloon which would rise by its own
levity in the atmosphere, but also to effect
the first aerial transit with human passen-
gers. Their primary experiment was
based upon the idea that light paper bag
would float, if filled with smoke or hot
air, lighter than the surrounding atmos-
phere, Accordingly they made bag at