We have also lately had a touch or two of what may be correctly styled Bogus Ballooning. I refer to more than one report about a cross-Channel run, which never took place, as I have ascertained after ample enquiry. However I am well aware that the press cannot always escape this sort of imposition being practised upon reporters who are not proof against a hoax. I remember that when Henson’s flying machine was completed, a morning newspaper of high standing contained thrilling details of a first flight, which was merely a flight of fancy after all, as the ponderous mass never budged an inch.
In a later volume of my experiences I shall have to notice, on arriving at the proper date, the impediments and drawbacks to the advancement of ballooning.
It is known to those who admire and aim at promoting this subject that a few would-be inventors and so-called scientific men, who trade and traffic in this and other cognate arts actually retard instead of furthering aërostatics, they hold out false hopes, hoist false colours, and deceive the very elect, the result being that aërostation is at a stand still, or, in fact, loses caste to some extent.
Let us trust that these hints will lead to a new and brighter era, when military and meteorological ballooning will be further applied to useful objects, and that both combined, aided by sincere and competent abettors, will bring about the solution of aërial navigation.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Perceived typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.
Some German words and phrases that are obviously misspelled have been retained as printed.
On page [31], it appears that a word is possibly missing in the sentence beginning ‘Somewhat lower down, at a hard where boats could be pulled up...’