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[[start page]] By Authority. [[image - Royal coat of arms of the UK, showing lion and unicorn on either side of the shield, with mottos "DIEU ET MON DROIT" and "HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE"]] A FULL AND CORRECT DESCRIPTION OF THIS EXTRAORDINARY MACHINE, THE FIRST AERIAL SHIP, THE EAGLE. This stupendous Machine is 160 feet long, 50 high, and 40 wide, constructed for establishing a direct communication between the Capitals of Europe. The first experiment of this new system of Aerial Navigation will be made from London to Paris, and back again, early in August. LONDON: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. THOMPSON, 6 GLOUCESTER STREET, LAMBETH. 1835. [[end page]] [[start page]] BALLOON COMMUNICATION BETWEEN LONDON AND PARIS. We perceive that the grand aerial project which occupied so much of the attention of the Parisian quidnuncs about this time last year, is revived--with this difference only, that the scene of operation, or to speak more properly, perhaps, the starting-post, has been shifted from Paris to London. The projectors who have now taken unto themselves the style and title of the "European Aeronautical Society," announce in the newspapers that their "first aerial ship, the Eagle, 160 feet long, 50 feet high, and 40 feet wide," and which is to be (?) "manned by a crew of seventeen persons' may be inspected at a certain dock in the neighbourhood of Kensington, previous to making its first trip "from London to Paris and back again;" after which it is to make similar trips to Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Madrid, &c. till the practicability of establishing an aerial communication between London and the other capitals of Europe is fully and incontrovertibly demonstrated? The scheme is, after all, only a copy, and that but an indifferent one, of a plan that was proposed as far back as 1796, by an engineer, of the name of Campenas, and not only entertained by the French government, but sanctioned by that select body of savans, the French Institute. Campenas wrote a long letter to Bonaparte, then General-in-Chief of the army of Italy, from which we extract a paragraph or two. "General Citizen,--The artist who addresses you, filled with the most lively gratitude, will erect, if the means of execution be afforded him, a vast edifice, whence, at the conclusion of his labours, there will issue an Aerial Vessel, capable of carrying up with you more than 200 persons, and which may be directed to any point of the compass. I, myself, will be your pilot. You can thus, without any danger, hover above the fleets of enemies jealous of our happiness, and thunder against them like a new Jupiter, merely by throwing perpendicularly downwards firebrands made of a substance which will kindle only by the contact and percussion at the end of its fall, but which it will be impossible to extinguish; or perhaps you may think it more prudent to begin at once, by forcing the British cabinet to capitulate, which you may easily do, as you will have it in your power to set fire to the city of London, or to any of the maritime towns of England. From the calculations I have made, I am convinced, that with this machine you may go from Paris to London, and return back again to Paris in twenty-four hours, without descending. The object I propose [[end page]] [[start page]] 5 is to establish in the great ocean of the atmosphere a general navigation, infinitely more certain and more advantageous than maritime navigation, which has ever disturbed the tranquility of mankind--to restore the perfect liberty of commerce, and to give peace and happiness to all the nations of the universe, and unite them as one family. By great labour I have surmounted the multiplied obstacles which presented themselves before me; and my progressive discoveries are developed in a work which I have prepared, consisting of about 400 pages, and divided into five parts." How lucky for England that the "new Jupiter" had other things on hand, to divert his attention from this most appalling (though not more appalling than sensible) scheme of national destruction!--Mechanics' Magazine Extract from the Morning Advertiser SIR,--It gives me great satisfaction to find that the scheme for conducting air ballons, suggested by me in your paper, meets the approbation of so experienced a gentleman as Mr. F. Stanhope appears to be. I will now, with your permission, offer a few remarks on the aerial ship which at present occupies so considerable a share of the public attention. The propelling of a ballon by means of artificial wings, bears a close analogy to the rowing of a boat with oars. Now, in order to acquire a power equal to the stroke of an oar, the aerial ship would require a pair of wings, each of them measuring at least one hundred feet in length. Such a pair of wings would be a mere incumbrance--they could never be worked effectively. Want of length cannot be compensated by extending the lateral surface, because the propelling power is required almost wholly by the length and quickness of the stroke. Even with wings of this extravagant length, and assuming that they could be worked, the effect would fall very much short of that of a pair of oars upon a Thames wherry. The boat skims upon the surface of the water, and in making the back stroke the oar is lifted out, whereas the balloon is wholly immersed in the fluid through which it has to be propelled, and in the returning stroke the wings cannot be lifted out like the oars, so that the back stroke of one wing will in a great measure neutralise the effect produced by the forward stroke of another. This disadvantage seems to have been entirely overlooked in constructing the wings, or rather fins, of the aerial ship. They ought to have been made capable of being folded like the wing of a bird, or a lady's fan; or perhaps it might answer equally well, and would be easier in practice, to have had them made upon the principle of the Venetion blind, so that in making the back stroke the wing would pass through them. The Aerial Ship can never be propelled by such wings as she has now got. The Morning Herald says they are imitations of the fins of the dolphin. If the gentlemen of the "European Aeronautical Society" will step down to the side of the river, they may see every day fifty working models that would suit there purpose a great deal better than the dolphin. Let them take away those ridiculous flaps; or dolphin fins, and substitute a pair of light paddle-wheels similar in form os those of a steam vessel. Nothing can be more simple to work; they could be fixed upon one spindle cranked in the middle, to form a handle, and turned by the persons standing [[end page]] [[start page]] 6 or sitting in the car. Ten or twelve men would produce more effect in this way than thirty or forty with wings or flaps, and that without any complication of machinery whatever. But it should be observed that the paddle-boards must be made in the Venetian-blind fashion, so that the air may pass freely through the upper part of the wheel. It appears to me that this is the best, and indeed almost the only mode in which any good can be done with a balloon by manual power, because the paddle-wheel gives a continuous propelling power. But after all, this is only "making a toil of a pleasure." Nothing whatever can be done with sails in directing the course of a balloon; put up a sail in whatever way you will, it will only cause the balloon to whirl round till it adjusts itself to the current; it will then proceed in the same direction that it did before the sail was put up. The large rudder or sail of the aerial ship will have an effect exactly the same as the tail of the weathercock, in whatever direction the wind may blow the rudder will be sure to go foremost; it ought to have been made so that it might be folded up or extended as occasion might require. I did not "recommend the employment of pigeons for the conductors of the aerial ship to Paris," as your correspondent "Fog" asserts (some relative of "Frosty-faced Fogo," I presume). I am aware that it would require a very great number of pigeons to produce any effect upon a machine so vast and unweildly as the aerial ship; but I must take the liberty to say, that even geese would be more serviceable to the conductor than those foolish flaps that "Fog" has honoured with the appellation of "mechanical wings." I do not propose to build an aerial ship large enough to carry a garrison for the purpose of compelling cabinets to submit to the flat of a "new Jupiter." My designs are much more modest. What I propose is, to construct a balloon large enough to carry one, or at most two persons, and to attach it to forty, sixty, or even one hundred pigeons, if necessary, and in this manner I am satisfied, from experiments that I have made upon a small scale, that I should be enabled to conduct the balloon in any direction I pleased, provided the weather was moderately calm. Bishop Burnett said, "the time would come, when there would be no more surprise felt at a gentleman calling for his wings to take a flight, than if he called his boots to take a walk." I will not go the whole length of the bishop. I will leave the "mechanical wings" for others to manage; I have a much higher opinion of the natural wing. However, I will venture to give this opion, that, in no very great length of time, it will be nothing uncommon for a gentleman to call for his balloon and his birds as he now calls for his carriage and horses. Yours, &c. T.S. MACKINTOSH. [[end page]] ^[[341 - handwritten in pencil in bottom right corner of page]]