The following appeared in one of our public journals of the dateindicated
To the Editor of the Tribune.
Sir:--You rightly appreciate the interest with which the popularmind regards all efforts in the direction of navigating the air.
One man of my acquaintance was deeply interested to know theresults of the California Experiment, because he alone, as he believed,had questioned Nature and learned from her the great secret of aerialnavigation.
To-day's Tribune brings us the full account of the machine, itsperformance and modus operandi; and without the authority of myfriend, I can pronounce at once that the thing is simply ridiculous. It isthe same old useless effort, with the same impossible agents. But to-day,within twenty miles of Trinity steeple, lives the man who can give tothe world the secret of navigating the air, in calm or in storm, withthe wind or against it; skimming the earth, or in the highest currents,just as he wills, with all the ease, and all the swiftness, and all theexactitude of a bird.
My friend is only waiting for an opportunity to perfect his plan, whenhe will make it known.
Yours truly,
W. H. K.
New York; June 14th, 1869.
Two years have passed and no progress has been made in aerialnavigation.
The California Experiment failed. The great Airship "City of NewYork," had previously escaped the same fate, only because more prudentthan her successor she declined a trial. The promising and ambitiousenterprise of Mr. Henson has hardly been spoken of for a quarter of acentury. And notwithstanding the fact that the number of ascensions inballoons in the United States and Europe must be counted by thousands,and although the exigencies of recent wars have made them useful, yetit must be confessed that the art of navigating the air remains inmuch the same state in which the brothers Montgolfiers left it at theclose of the last century.
The reason for this want of progress in the art referred to, is not tobe sought in any want of interest in the subject, or of enthusiasm inprosecuting experiments. Certainly not for want of interest in thesubject because to fly, has been the great desideratum ofthe race since Adam. And we find in the literature of every agesuggestions for means of achieving flight through the air, inimitation of birds; or for the construction of ingenious machines foraerial navigation. And if history and traditions are to be credited,it would be equally an error to suppose that our age alone hadattempted to put theory into practice in reference to navigating theair.
Even the fables of the ancients abound with stories about flying: thatof Dedalus and his son Icarius, will occur to every reader. And therepresentations of the POETS, and the allusions in HOLY WRIT equallyprove how natural and dear to the mind of man is the idea ofpossessing "wings like a dove."
But it is safe enough to assert, that hitherto, all attempts atnavigating the air have been failures.
Floating through the atmosphere in a balloon, at the mercy not only ofevery wind but of every breath of air, is in no adequatesense aerial navigation. And I do not hesitate to say, that balloonsare absolutely incapable of being directed.
All the analogies by which inventors have been encouraged in theirexpectations are false, the rudders of ships and the tails of birdsare no exceptions. They will never be able to guide balloons as