The Romance of Ballooning : The Story of the Early Aeronauts

PREFACE

Some 200 years ago, one of man's oldest dreams came true - he soared into the skies. The Montgolfier brothers pointed the way with their fire balloons, making all else possible. From this time forward, man was able to travel the heavens, and compete with the birds and with the clouds. It is difficult to imagine today* the enthusiasm of those who hailed the miracle come true, the incredulity of the unbelievers. Imagination caught fire, everything seemed possible, even the wildest dreams, so rapidly did the invention achieve its present, perfected form. In these great events, France took an early lead, Frenchmen were the first to fly, and, typically, French charlatans provoked the greatest excesses on the part of the public. Great Britain, the United States and Italy did not lag far behind, and the movement spread rapidly. Thanks to these early pioneers, ballooning ceased to be quite so dangerous, quite so much a matter of blind chance. Experience showed how risks could be foreseen, and reduced to a minimum. Still, however, aeronauts were frustrated in their attempts to control the course of their balloons. All dreamed of the day when their airy machines would change into practical methods of travel from point to point. When, however, the aero plane and the controllable airship arrived, the balloon was freed from its utilitarian aspirations, its place taken by the noisy heavier - than - air monsters. Thus, the free balloon seemed to have finished its career it had been, in changing circumstances, the attraction of fetes and the skies' decoration at times of national rejoicing ; the observation post of the soldier, and the laboratory of the scientist ; and reached its finest hour as the link between besieged Paris and unoccupied France.

( ... ) In this book, we have given pride of place to the actors and witnesses who actually made the history of ballooning. These are no dry impersonal accounts, but the colorful, real - life, breathless descriptions of the new enthusiasm that seized the world. And the reader too, so immediate is the writing and illustration, will be borne along on the wings of the winds.

J. Jobé

* 1971.