evil that might be in that strange monster.
The fear of the people was so great that the Government saw fit to issue
a proclamation, explaining the invention. Any one seeing such a globe,
like the moon in an eclipse, so read the proclamation, should be aware
that it is only a bag made of taffeta or light canvas covered with
paper and "cannot possibly cause any harm and which will some day prove
serviceable to the wants of society."

Franklin wrote a description of the Montgolfier balloon to Sir Joseph
Banks, President of the Royal Society of London:

"Its bottom was open and in the middle of the opening was fixed a kind
of basket grate, in which faggots and sheaves of straw were burnt.
The air, rarefied in passing through this flame, rose in the balloon,
swelled out its sides, and filled it. The persons, who were placed in
the gallery made of wicker and attached to the outside near the bottom,
had each of them a port through which they could pass sheaves of
straw into the grate to keep up the flame and thereby keep the balloon
full.... One of these courageous philosophers, the Marquis d'Arlandes,
did me the honor to call upon me in the evening after the experiment,
with Mr. Montgolfier, the very ingenious inventor. I was happy to see
him safe. He informed me that they lit gently, without the least shock,
and the balloon was very little damaged."

Franklin writes that the competition between Montgolfier and Charles has
already resulted in progress in the construction and management of the
balloon. He sees it as a discovery of great importance, one that "may
possibly give a new turn to human affairs. Convincing sovereigns of
the folly of war may perhaps be one effect of it, since it will be
impracticable for the most potent of them to guard his dominions." The
prophecy may yet be fulfilled. Franklin remarks that a short while ago
the idea of "witches riding through the air upon a broomstick and
that of philosophers upon a bag of smoke would have appeared equally
impossible and ridiculous." Yet in the space of a few months he has
seen the philosopher on his smoke bag, if not the witch on her broom.
He wishes that one of these very ingenious inventors would immediately
devise means of direction for the balloon, a rudder to steer it; because
the malady from which he is suffering is always increased by a jolting
drive in a fourwheeler and he would gladly avail himself of an easier
way of locomotion.

The vision of man o