1847. In the United Service Magazine for September, 1847, Mrs. Borron,[[21]] of Shrewsbury, published some remarks tending to impeach the fact that Neptune, the planet found by Galle,[[22]] really was the planet which Le Verrier and Adams[[23]] had a right to claim. This was followed (September 14) by two pages, separately circulated, of "Further Observations upon the Planets Neptune and Uranus, with a Theory of Perturbations"; and (October 19, 1848) by three pages of "A Review of M. Leverrier's Exposition." Several persons, when the remarkable discovery was made, contended that the planet actually discovered was an intruder; and the future histories of the discovery must contain some account of this little afterpiece. Tim Linkinwater's theory that there is no place like London for coincidences, would have been utterly overthrown in favor of what they used to call the celestial spaces, if there had been a planet which by chance was put
near the place assigned to Neptune at the time when the discovery was made.
EARLY IDEAS OF AVIATION.
Aerial Navigation; containing a description of a proposed flying machine, on a new principle. By Dædalus Britannicus. London, 1847, 8vo.
In 1842-43 a Mr. Henson[[24]] had proposed what he called an aeronaut steam-engine, and a Bill was brought in to incorporate an "Aerial Transit Company." The present plan is altogether different, the moving power being the explosion of mixed hydrogen and air. Nothing came of it—not even a Bill. What the final destiny of the balloon may be no one knows: it may reasonably be suspected that difficulties will at last be overcome. Darwin,[[25]] in his "Botanic Garden" (1781), has the following prophecy:
"Soon shall thy arm, unconquered Steam! afar
Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car;
Or, on wide-waving wings expanded, bear
The flying chariot through the fields of air."
Darwin's contemporaries, no doubt, smiled pity on the poor man. It is worth note that the two true prophecies have been fulfilled in a sense different from that of the predictions. Darwin was thinking of the suggestion of Jonathan Hulls,[[26]] when he spoke of dragging the slow barge: it is only very recently that the steam-tug has been employed on the canals. The car was to be driven, not drawn, and on the common roads. Perhaps, the flying chariot will