FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   >>  
to an immense ant-hill. Look at the crowd piled up on the quays. The Zeil diminishes. We are above the church of Dom. The Mein is now only a white line dividing the city, and this bridge, the Mein-Brucke, looks like a white thread thrown between the two banks of the river." The atmosphere grew cooler. "There is nothing I will not do for you, my host," said my companion. "If you are cold, I will take off my clothes and lend them to you." "Thanks!" "Necessity makes laws. Give me your hand, I am your countryman. You shall be instructed by my company, and my conversation shall compensate you for the annoyance I have caused you." I seated myself, without replying, at the opposite extremity of the car. The young man had drawn from his great coat a voluminous portfolio; it was a work on aerostation. "I possess," said he, "a most curious collection of engraving, and caricatures appertaining to our aerial mania. This precious discovery has been at once admired and ridiculed. Fortunately we have passed the period when the Mongolfiers sought to make factitious clouds with the vapour of water; and of the gas affecting electric properties, which they produced by the combustion of clamp straw with chopped wool." "Would you detract from the merit of these inventions?" replied I. "Was it not well done to have proved by experiment the possibility of rising in the air?" "Who denies the glory of the first aerial navigators? Immense courage was necessary to ascend by means of those fragile envelopes which contained only warm air. Besides, has not aerostatic science made great progress since the ascensions of Blanchard? Look, Monsieur." He took from his collection an engraving. "Here is the first aerial voyage undertaken by Pilatre des Rosiers and the Marquis d'Arlandes, four months after the discovery of balloons. Louis XVI. refused his consent to this voyage; two condemned criminals were to have first attempted aerial travelling. Pilatre des Rosiers was indignant at this injustice and, by means of artifice, succeeded in setting out. This car, which renders the management of the balloon easy, had not then been invented; a circular gallery surrounded the lower part of the aerostat. The two aeronauts stationed themselves at the extremities of this gallery. The damp straw with which it was filled encumbered their movements. A chafing-dish was suspended beneath the orifice of the balloon; when the voyagers wished to ascen
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   >>  



Top keywords:

aerial

 

voyage

 

Pilatre

 

balloon

 

discovery

 

Rosiers

 

engraving

 

collection

 
gallery
 

inventions


replied

 

Besides

 

aerostatic

 
progress
 

chopped

 
science
 
detract
 
envelopes
 

possibility

 
experiment

proved

 

navigators

 

rising

 

denies

 

Immense

 

courage

 

ascensions

 

contained

 

fragile

 
ascend

months
 
aerostat
 
aeronauts
 

stationed

 

extremities

 

surrounded

 
management
 
invented
 
circular
 

filled


orifice
 

beneath

 

voyagers

 

wished

 

suspended

 

encumbered

 

movements

 

chafing

 

renders

 

Arlandes