CHAPTER I
THE FIRST BALLOONS
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FREE BALLOON—THE CAPTIVE BALLOON—THE DIRIGIBLE—THE BLIMP—THE KITE BALLOON
Ever since man first noticed the flight of a bird through the air he has longed to fly. How often, during the countless ages of unrecorded time, he attempted to soar above the earth we cannot know. That he tried often and failed always we have ample proof; indeed, the phrase, “might as well try to fly,” expressed the acme of the impossible. That many scientific men for nearly two thousand years believed that eventually a mechanical means could be devised to lift man off the ground like the wings of a bird and to propel him through the air, we have evidence in their writings and the history of their lives.
Ancient mythology is full of stories of the heroes who attempted to imitate the flight of the fowls of the air. The earliest efforts of the aeronauts themselves appear to have been along this line. Naturally many of the experimenters lost their lives. A mere enumeration of their names would take too much space for this volume.
Perhaps these struggles to use wings suggested to the tight-rope walker Allard the possibility of performing a novel stunt. At any rate, in 1660 he successfully made several glides for exhibition purposes in France. Seventeen years later another Frenchman named Bosnier also made spectacular glides. These experiments, however, led to the invention of the glider, which finally developed into the aeroplane or the heavier-than-air machine.
A glider consists of a rigid rectangular plane constructed of frail framework, similar to a kite, and covered with linen or cloth, much like the wing of a modern aeroplane. This plane surface might be a dozen or more feet long and two or more feet wide. The early experimenters jumped off hills with this plane fastened to their arms or shoulders, and balancing themselves in the centre, glided several feet over the ground, keeping their equilibrium by means of their feet. Later two planes fastened together like a box-kite were employed, with the flier stretched out on his stomach on the lower planes. Lillienthal and even the Wright brothers learned most about longitudinal and lateral balance by gliding on gliders of the last type. A great deal of sport can be had with these man-carrying kites even to-day.
The experiments of the two French brothers, Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier, with paper bags inflated with hot air started a new period of development in aeronautics, for the paper bags suggested the silk ones, which were, of course, much lighter. On September 19, 1783, they gave an exhibition before the royal family at Versailles.
The authors of the first ascension, the first actual step in the conquest of the air, were two Frenchmen, Marquis d’Arlandes and Pilâtre de Roziers, who made the first ascension near Paris on November 21, 1783. From that time on free ballooning became a very popular sport. The escaping of the hot air or gas, forcing the balloon to descend too suddenly, led to the invention of the parachute as a means of descending slowly from the collapsing bag. The possibility of using this type of balloon for observation purposes was realized by the French, and the first recorded battle that the captive balloon was employed in was at Fleurus June 26, 1794, thus supplying “aerial eyes” for the French army to observe the movements of the Austrians.
The free balloon was, however, entirely at the mercy of the winds, and the captive balloon could not be moved about readily, so that it was thus limited in its sphere of observation, except when attached to some movable conveyance. This showed the necessity of inventing some means of propulsion and steering. The first experiments were attempts to row ordinary spherical balloons, as you would a boat, but the earliest record of any definite progress being achieved in forcing a lighter-than-air craft through the air was the experiment in France of two brothers named Robert in 1784. They constructed a melon-shaped balloon, 52 feet long and 32 feet in diameter, made of proofed silk. The gas employed was pure hydrogen. Underneath this envelope was suspended a long, narrow car, in general idea not unlike that used on some modern airships; and three pairs of oars with blades made like racquet-frames covered with silk, and a rudder of similar material, were the only implements for navigation.