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 2 
 
THE 
 
 RIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 BY 
 
 NADAR. 
 
 • TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH DY JAMES SPENCE HARRY, 
 
 LATE PARIS CORRESPONDENT OP THE “ ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS.” 
 
 WITH 
 
 A PREFACE BY GEORGE SAND. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 CASSELL, PETTER, AND GALPIN, 
 
 la belle sauvage yard, ludgate HILL, E.C. 
 

 CONTENTS. 
 
 Dedication . 
 
 To tiie Passer-by 
 Preface, by George Sand 
 THE EIGHT TO FLY 
 
 Biographical Notice of M. Nadar 
 
NOTE OF THE TRANSLATOR. 
 
 [The translation of the “ Right to Fly ” appears as the simple 
 unpretending transmission of 31. Nadar’s work from French into 
 English. It has been verified by the Author, who preferred occasional 
 crudity of diction to the more complicated adaptation of his ideas to a 
 foreign language, which would in some cases have detracted from the 
 originality which characterises this little volume. The indulgence of 
 the critics is therefore claimed, should the “ well of English undefiled ” 
 appear in some cases to have been rendered somewhat impure.—J. S. H.] 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 I dedicate the English Edition of this little book to the 
 Society recently formed in England for the Study of Aerial 
 Navigation (having His Grace the Duke of Argyle for its 
 President, and the honourable and persevering Mr. Glaisher 
 for its Secretary-General), under the patronage of the power¬ 
 ful British Association for the Advancement of Science. 
 
 I am particularly pleased to have this opportunity of 
 expressing my profound satisfaction at the creation of this 
 new Society. 
 
 Engaged in the common pursuit of such a humanising 
 task, there should be no feeling of petty rivalry or jealousy; 
 a spirit of generous emulation should alone animate the 
 breasts of all the men of good will and good heart united 
 for the interest of the Great Cause. 
 
 NADAR, 
 
 Founding Member of the International Society of 
 Encouragement for the Study of Aviation or Aerial 
 Locomotion by means of Apparatus heavier than the 
 Air (Paris, July 30, 1863). 
 
 Pakis, March 15, 18GG. 
 
TO THE PASSER-BY. 
 
 You were passing. My title, well doing its business as a. 
 title, struck your eye; and here you are, stopped in your 
 course.—You open me promiscuously. 
 
 Should you fall upon any hard word of the savants, don’t 
 be afraid, and stand firm ! 
 
 There is no science here, since it is I who speak to you. 
 
 I ask you only for a grain of good sense, if you can 
 supply it; ten minutes’ attention, if you are capable of 
 o-iving it; moreover, — and listen to this serious reason 
 which generally touches you ,—your interest is at stake in 
 the matter. 
 
 Should you be somewhat of that opinion, when you have 
 read me through,—if I have made you see what you did not 
 dream of looking at,—if I have made you think of what you 
 did not even suspect, then try to aid THE CAUSE —your 
 own Cause! — and insult me for having been of service 
 to you. 
 
 If you do not see, if you do not know, if you do not 
 believe, then never fly,—and continue to walk, simpleton! 
 
 THE RIGHT TO FLY. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Trutii has two modes of existence, marked by 
 two distinct phases; that in which it is merely 
 demonstrated, and that in which it can be 
 proved. 
 
 In the former, it reposes first of all upon 
 the faith which is the instinct of the Good and 
 the Beautiful, then upon reason, and finally 
 upon intellectual certitude. 
 
 In the latter it rests upon the experience 
 acquired by the accomplished fact. 
 
 Honour to those men whose initiative sets 
 free the first hypothesis, the sovereign induc¬ 
 tion, from the chaos of dreams, from the 
 thousand gropings of the imagination struggling 
 with the unknown ! When those great and 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 generous minds have succeeded in well posing 
 the question to be solved, they have already 
 made a grand step : they have opened the way. 
 
 Afterwards come the men of application, 
 not less useful, not less admirable, who, by 
 clever and patient experiments, proceed from 
 the hypothesis to the discovery. From that 
 time, Genius becomes a material force; and the 
 idea which was only a promise becomes the real 
 benefit with which the human race enriches 
 itself. 
 
 Thus it has been with all our conquests in 
 the domains of Science and of Industry. Every 
 light has its precursory dawn, and he who per¬ 
 ceives the one may predict the other. But all 
 do not see the glimmer of the first breaking of 
 a truth, and it is at this earliest stage of unde¬ 
 cided brightness that it is disputed, sometimes 
 even repulsed with passion, so formidable is the 
 apparition of those great stars of progress which 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XI 
 
 upset customary notions, destroy to a certain 
 extent the world of the past, and, on the day 
 when their rays burst forth above the horizon, 
 cause man to enter upon new conditions of 
 existence. 
 
 Thus it was with' steam, with electricity, 
 and with all those surprising inventions which, 
 within the last century, have so essentially 
 modified public and private life in and around 
 us. 
 
 In the little work which follows our brief 
 reflections, and also in the “ Memoir es du Geant 
 (a book so innocently dramatic), read the pro¬ 
 testations, the persecutions even, called forth 
 by every truth passing through the phases of 
 research and demonstration. It is when it 
 stands most in need of consideration, study, 
 and encouragement, that sarcasm find an im¬ 
 patient desire to crush it, rise up about the 
 dawning truth. "Prove thyself! is cried 
 
Xll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 out on all sides, “ and we will believe in 
 thee.” 
 
 Truth replies: “ Assist me to ripen, to 
 “ manifest myself. Give me the means for be- 
 “ coming a fact, and for that, know me; deny 
 “ me not. I am but an idea, a soul, so to 
 “ speak, and yet you expect to touch me before 
 “ you have permitted me to take a body! 
 “ I exist nevertheless ; I exist in a sphere as 
 “ real for the eyes of the understanding as if 
 “ I were already a palpable fact. Respect me, 
 “ alas ! for if you deny me, you deny your- 
 “ selves. I am yours, since I bring you the 
 “ future; and if you affirm that I shall never 
 “ be, you say that you yourselves desire never 
 “ to exist.” 
 
 Among the adepts, the ardent vulgarisers, 
 and the devoted servants of Truth in the stas^e 
 of demonstration, Nadar, who is neither a 
 savant nor a speculator, but, in my opinion, a 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Xlll 
 
 great logician and a man of firm will, here 
 lays before us liis earnest and deliberate 
 Word. 
 
 This Word, summed up in the “ Right to 
 Fly,” possesses a veritable worth and a veritable 
 force. Let it be meditated without prejudice, 
 and every serious mind will acknowledge, that 
 the question of the “Right to Fly” is one of 
 those magnificent questions which cannot re¬ 
 main unsolved from the moment that they are 
 well posed. 
 
 GEORGE SAND. 
 
 Paris, Nov. 2 , 1805 . 
 
« 
 
 THE 
 
 I. 
 
 My estimable colleague, 
 M. Gr. de la Landelle, 
 returned one day from a 
 visit to a most intelligent 
 master clockmaker, who, 
 in the wake of many pre¬ 
 decessors, and, like many 
 others, at a great loss of 
 time and money, bad been bunting after a 
 
 system of directive aerostation. 
 
 He bad told him, time after time, and in 
 every possible manner, that the direction ot 
 balloons,” properly speaking, is a chimera; 
 
16 
 
 THE EIGHT TO ELY. 
 
 —that upon those immense non-resisting 
 surfaces, upon those enormous masses lighter 
 than the volume of air they displace, the slightest 
 current exercises a too easy influence ;— 
 
 —that supposing even it were possible to 
 apply to any description of balloon—round, 
 conical, cylindrical, pisciform, annular, conjoined, 
 or of any other shape—an apparatus of suffi¬ 
 cient power (such as a screw-propeller, spirals, 
 sails, and counter-sails, oars, paddles, rudders, 
 &c.), the envelope of any such balloon, even if 
 it were of steel or of triple brass, would be 
 crushed by the first encounter—as an insect is 
 crushed upon a nail—between two pressures, 
 that of the current of air and that of the oppo¬ 
 sing apparatus;— 
 
 ■—that since the year of grace and deception 
 1783, since the sublime and detestable discovery 
 of the Brothers Montgolfier, the endless series 
 of discomfitures experienced by all the pretend¬ 
 ing “ balloon directors ” demonstrate historically 
 that a balloon in the air is never and can never 
 he anything else than a boat: that it is horn 
 a buoy, and will burst a buoy. 
 
 M. de la Landelle had tired himself out with 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 17 
 
 repeating that neither birds nor insects, neither 
 flying-squirrels nor hats, neither flying-lizards 
 nor flying-fish, are Montgolfiers; and that they 
 do not rise in the air by the effect of the hot air 
 contained in their bodies— 
 
 —(As used to he very seriously affirmed by 
 the Academy, now prudently silent thereanent, 
 since it is incapable of acting.) 
 
 Without mentioning the interior heat of the 
 body of such insects as the Libellule and the 
 Hydrophile, he had in fact proved to the worthy 
 clockmaker, that if a bird rose in the air on the 
 Montgolfierian principle, that is to say, by virtue 
 of the “ hot air” (according to the Academical 
 doctrine) in its bones, feathers, &c., it would be 
 absolutely necessary for the winged creature, in 
 order to turn the provision of “hot air” to 
 account in the ascension, to commence by in¬ 
 flating its envelope or volume seven or eight 
 hundred-fold. 
 
 He had asked him why, if the bird rose 
 through a simple difference of specific weight, 
 the slightest shot in the extremity of its wing 
 should suffice to cause it to sway and fall. 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 He had also asked him whether a bird 
 weighs or not in its flight, when, in being let 
 loose in a room, it comes into contact with and 
 breaks the windows. (') 
 
 With the most apostolical perseverance, he 
 had proved to him superabundantly and a 
 fortiori , that this pretended “hot air,” far from 
 assisting the bird in its flight, would, on the 
 contrary, absolutely prevent it; 
 
 —that, in every order of the animal scale, 
 all the flying creatures rise, sustain themselves, 
 and direct their course, not through the effect 
 of a difference of specific weight, but through 
 
 the admirable and eternal combination of the 
 
 ■ 
 
 mechanical, statical, and dynamic laws ; 
 
 •—that a rocket also rises, in spite of its 
 weight and of that of the motive force it carries 
 with it; 
 
 —and that, finally, an object must be heavieb 
 than the air (or more dense') to exercise an action 
 upon the air, to command the air—in the same 
 way as, in every order of things, it is indis¬ 
 pensable to be the strongest in order not to be 
 beaten. 
 
 (') J. A. Sanson, “Du Point d’Appui,” 1841. 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 19 
 
 All my friend’s preaching produced no effect, 
 alas ! it is so difficult for a new idea, however 
 rational and evident it may be, to take the 
 place of an old prejudice. 
 
 “ A new truth,” says Fontenelle, “ is a 
 “wedge'that only penetrates with time and 
 “ by the wide end.” 
 
 The paradox of yesterday becomes, how¬ 
 ever, the truth of to-morrow, and though the 
 majorities of the morrow are always composed 
 of the minorities of the day before, we know, 
 to our grief, in all such cases, how much time 
 these minorities require to become of age. 
 
 —And my friend La Landelle started home¬ 
 wards downcast and sad, and asking himself 
 how many times it was necessary to repeat the 
 same things in order to succeed in getting them 
 to be understood. 
 
 All of a sudden, he encountered a ladder, 
 which caused him to quit the pavement. 
 
 Just as he deviated from his path, a sponge 
 fell at his feet.—A workman was walking by 
 the side of my colleague. 
 
 Another at work on the top of the ladder 
 called out to his confrere to throw him the sponge. 
 
 b 2 
 
20 
 
 THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 The workman below picked up the sponge, 
 and then looked up at his comrade, 
 
 Who was perched on the top of the high 
 ladder, and busied with the shutters of the 
 second storey. 
 
 Perceiving which, he who had picked up the 
 sponge—WETTED IT IN THE GETTER, 
 
 —and thus rendered it sufficiently heavy to 
 be thrown to its destination. 
 
THE RIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 21 
 
 II. 
 
 What can we add more eloquent than this act 
 of the brave workman, who thus does more, 
 and proves that he therefore knows more, than 
 all the Academies together ? 
 
 Is it necessary to call to mind that of three 
 balls of equal diameter, thrown with equal force 
 against the slightest current: 
 
 —that in lead reaches farther than your 
 eyes can perceive it; 
 
 —that in cork stops within a few feet of 
 you; 
 
 —and that in pith returns to you. 
 
 And if the bottom of a shuttlecock were not 
 heavy, the shuttlecock would not cut through 
 the air:—it would remain attached to the 
 battledore. (*) 
 
 (*) J. A. Sanson, “ Du Point d’Appui.” 
 
09 
 
 THE RIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 Not only do we believe that it is rigorously 
 necessary to be specifically heavier, more dense , 
 than the air to master the air; but I am per¬ 
 sonally convinced that the heavier we are the 
 better we shall travel in the air. 
 
 And I already know that I am no longer the 
 only one of this opinion. 
 
 Where are your proofs ? it may be asked. 
 
 Take a sparrow or a pigeon with you into 
 the car of a balloon, as I have done many times, 
 and when you have ascended some hundreds of 
 yards, open the cage : 
 
 Elsewhere so timid of man and so prompt in 
 flying from his presence, the bird will now 
 remain motionless at the opened door ; 
 
 Because it feels perfectly well that at this 
 height the air is not sufficiently dense to 
 support its flight, and that the assistance of its 
 weak wings could not protect it against the law 
 of its weight. 
 
 Place it upon the edge of the car:—Im¬ 
 pressed with a sensation of fear on finding itself 
 above the space which is no longer its own, it 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 23 
 
 will be seized with giddiness—the vertigo of 
 birds (*)—and whirl itself awkwardly towards 
 the centre of the car, under your very feet. 
 
 Throw the bird out:—You will see it either 
 fall like lead, or turn over and over till in its 
 descent it reaches the denser portion of the 
 atmosphere, where its small size permits it to 
 sustain itself and to re-employ its ordinary 
 movement. 
 
 However, proud and alone, the eagle soars 
 easily to the elevated regions it frequents with 
 one effort, by reason of the great width of its 
 wings, which are in proportion to the weight of 
 its body. And the South American condor 
 sails through the air at an immense height 
 before reaching the summits of the Cordil¬ 
 leras. ( 3 ) 
 
 And why ? 
 
 p) “ Memoires du Geant,” 2d. ed. : E. Dentu, Publisher. 
 
 ( 2 ) “ Humboldt has seen the condor rise to a height of 
 eight thousand yards. There is nothing to prove that it 
 cannot rise to a greater height.”—D’Esterno, “ Du Vol des 
 Oiseaux Paris, 1864. 
 
THE EIGHT TO PLY. 
 
 25 
 
 III. 
 
 So admirable is the order of Nature, that all 
 things hold together by imprescriptible links. 
 Where the most important missions are con¬ 
 fided to servants apparently the least qualified, 
 —where the labour of the most miserable insect 
 is as serious as the force which governs worlds, 
 —nothing is indifferent. There is no detail so 
 imperceptible that it does not cry out to the 
 attentive ear to claim its existence indispen¬ 
 sable to the immeasurable ensemble; there is 
 no sigh so humble or so furtive, the absence of 
 which would not create discord in the wonderful 
 symphony of the Universe. 
 
 Thus it is that, when you have fallen upon 
 a truth, everything announces, everything pro¬ 
 claims, everything imposes this truth upon you. 
 
 You can no longer open your eyes, or take 
 a step, without the truth starting up every¬ 
 where, and without feeling astonished and 
 gratefully delighted in the presence of this 
 
26 
 
 THE EIGHT TO PLY. 
 
 incessant and infinite concordance of the proofs 
 of the Eternal Logic. 
 
 These proofs follow you, attach themselves 
 to you, and if your idle or distracted attention 
 overlooks them, or does not take them into 
 consideration, they return again and again to 
 the attack, obstinate to the rescue. They wait 
 for you, they watch for you, hidden behind this 
 corner of a wall, or that turn of a path,—even 
 in your dreams they will pursue you. 
 
 A few months ago, I was again crossing the 
 plains of Holland, lulled in the somnolent torpor 
 of travel, and vaguely contemplating the inter¬ 
 minable green ribbon that unrolled itself beneath 
 my gaze through the window of the carriage, 
 —a ribbon that appeared to be striped with 
 silver by innumerable streamlets, and diapered 
 by thousands of those fine and peaceful cattle 
 that feed for ever on the inexhaustible grass 
 
 Here and there, white and black, like the 
 Prussian escutcheon, some storks, in quest of 
 frogs and salamanders, seemed to be gravely 
 measuring the pasturage with their red com¬ 
 passes .... 
 
TIIE EIGHT TO PLY. 
 
 27 
 
 I started, awakened as it were by a sudden 
 reflection. 
 
 —These same storks, that I bad so often 
 left behind me without deigning to listen to 
 them; these storks, whose indulgence had not 
 despaired of me, who were waiting for me this 
 time as they had waited before and as they 
 would wait again;—these honest and wise 
 storks also threw to me, on my passage, their 
 certificate in favour of the principle Heavier 
 than the air .... 
 
 Do we not there again encounter the law of 
 truth? Do not the migratory birds, in fact, 
 make up for the insufficiency of each taken 
 isolatedly by the scientific disposition of their 
 masses in the horizontal and vertical arrange¬ 
 ments of their well-organised flights ? 
 
 Do not we Parisians witness every autumn 
 the long and noisy convocation, the raise en 
 train , and the final departure of the ensemble of 
 our swallows, who have ironically chosen the 
 Dome of the Institute for their starting-point: 
 —beautiful sailers, nevertheless, the brave little 
 creatures ! but who understand the advantages 
 
28 
 
 THE EIGHT TO ELY. 
 
 of association quite differently and much, better 
 than our poor human intelligence, perverted by 
 a deplorable and eternal spirit of antagonism. 
 
 And again, how would the heavy quails, with 
 their short wings, succeed in crossing the 
 Mediterranean, if they did not oppose to the 
 stormy winds the resistance offered by the mass 
 of their migratory multitudes ? 
 
 Have we not here the secret of those few 
 despairing creatures, the isolated laggers-behind, 
 sometimes met with by the astonished sports¬ 
 man when they have imprudently failed to 
 respond to the signal of the general departure. 
 
 And who have incurred and undergo the 
 punishment—a sad punishment indeed !—for 
 having neglected to join in the coalition ! 
 
THE RIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 29 
 
 IY. 
 
 I have said that the truth pursues us. 
 
 At the time I was engaged in writing this 
 page, one of our most eminent colleagues, the 
 most patient and the most conscientious of 
 observers, M. L. de Lucy, called to make me 
 acquainted with some tables drawn up by him 
 a few months since, for the purpose of deter¬ 
 mining the proportional relations between the 
 weight of all the flying creatures whatever, and 
 the diameter of their extension. 
 
 From the largest birdt. down to the most 
 weakly coleoptera, from the vulture down to 
 the woodpecker, M. de Lucy had measured and 
 weighed them all with that minute attention 
 and scrupulous accuracy that characterise him. 
 The result of these slow and patient investi¬ 
 gations is entirely in favour of the law of 
 Heavier, much heavier than the air ,—a law un- 
 
30 
 
 THE RIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 known yesterday, dogmatical to-day, and which 
 upsets most singularly all the suppositions 
 hitherto accepted, for it compels us to admit 
 that: 
 
 —The less weighs the animal destined to fly, 
 the wider relatively is the surface of its wings, or 
 of the plan which it opposes to the air; 
 
 And reciprocally, 
 
 The greater the weight of the flying animal, 
 the less considerable is its relative extension. 
 And however paradoxical this law may appear 
 at first sight, I may add that, of the immense 
 quantity of observations which establish it, 
 not one has been found to disagree with the 
 inflexible rule of these invariable proportions. 
 
 For the complete elucidation of the matter, 
 it would be necessary to ascertain the muscular 
 power employed by each of these species in its 
 flight,—an appreciation that it is almost im¬ 
 possible to obtain. 
 
 But, whatever we may have still to learn in 
 this respect, how far are we already from those 
 ultra-Academical calculations, which, proceed¬ 
 ing by the A + B of the goose and of the 
 pigeon, did not permit of the possibility of a 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 31 
 
 man sustaining himself in the air unless pro¬ 
 vided with wings having at least an extended 
 surface of twelve thousand feet! 
 
 I 
 
32 
 
 THE EIGHT TO PLY. 
 
 Y. 
 
 Howeveb, I still hear some persons persist in 
 accusing us of the audacious, the mad preten¬ 
 sion of upsetting all the laws of Nature,— 
 I mean those verified and stamped by the 
 Academicians. 
 
 To set aside at one sweep Montgolfier’s 
 magnificent discovery instead of applying our¬ 
 selves to its improvement, and to attempt at 
 one bound the most unreasonable of struggles 
 against the first and the inexorable law of the 
 weights of bodies,—what impertinence ! 
 
 The problem of Aerial Navigation is in fact 
 double; and if our theory of Heavier than the 
 air be hypothetically and for an instant ad¬ 
 mitted, so far as it concerns the direction pro¬ 
 perly speaking, it is certain that before the 
 direction we ought to commence by the ablation 
 or ascension. If we require td be heavy to 
 direct our movement, it seems indispensable 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 33 
 
 at the outset tliat we should he light in order 
 to rise. 
 
 Now certain savants well up in their tables 
 of logarithms object: “ It is acknowledged on 
 “ the one hand, that a body falls sixteen feet in 
 “ the first second. 
 
 “ On the other hand, it is proved that the 
 “ maximum force of man could not enable him 
 “ to rise more than three feet in a second. 
 
 “ Therefore, subtracting 3 for the rise from 
 “16 for the fall, there will remain 13 ; and 
 “ consequently the prohibition for man to fly !” 
 
 “ As regards locomotion in the midst of 
 “ the waters,” add others of the same learned 
 body, “ Creation has arrived at sufficiently gi- 
 “ gantic proportions in giving us the whale ; 
 “ but in the matter of aerial locomotion, Provi- 
 “ dence stopped , and forcibly , at the eagle and 
 “ the condor.—In the same manner, by afflict- 
 “ ing him with his weight, the same Providence 
 “ notified as an ultimatum to man that the 
 “ ground was to be for ever his veritable and 
 “ invariable place.” 
 
 I 
 
 According to these reasoners, who hold to 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 tlieir creed with remarkable coolness, the 
 ostrich must have been forbidden to fly;—the 
 pterodactyls and the epiornis, long since dead 
 and buried, exist no more to reply to them. 
 
 —And, in order still further to prohibit 
 man from exceeding certain proportions of 
 Nature, let us piously affirm that the Great 
 Eastern is less voluminous than the whale;— 
 let us ordain that the horse exceeds in speed 
 and size the locomotive and its train of car¬ 
 riages ;—let us decree that the electric tele¬ 
 graph reaches less far than the human voice, 
 and that the eye of the fantastic lynx is opti¬ 
 cally stronger than the telescope (engineers ! 
 hats off before the aureola of the castor!);— 
 and let us at once stop up the tunnel through 
 Mount Cenis out of deference for the rabbit- 
 hole. 
 
 For the requirements of the cause they 
 advocate, they have forgotten their usual 
 theme,—Universal Order created entirely for 
 the wants and for the satisfaction of mankind. 
 Impious blasphemers of the Deity, whom they 
 measure by their own rod, insolent towards the 
 Creator and the created, they would at present 
 deny the miraculous intelligence given to God’s 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 35 
 
 image, by the aid of which Man has triumphed 
 in every order of the faculties possessed by ani¬ 
 mals, in proportion as he has willed and 
 merited to triumph. 
 
 Wliat, then, Man — speedier than the stag, 
 prompter than sound, equally at home in the 
 domain of the fish and of the mole, and who 
 lias acquired dominion, even to slavery, over 
 the impalpability called light, — Man, this fa¬ 
 vourite of Providence, this image of the 
 Divinity, should not rise in the air, like the 
 miserable caterpillar of yesterday, or like the 
 filthy fly born of corruption ! (*) 
 
 Q) “ Memoires de Geant.” 
 
36 
 
 THE EIGHT TO PLY. 
 
 
 YI. 
 
 The Law of Weight! 
 
 But, 0 Academicians! you who have deter¬ 
 mined, regulated, fixed, and decreed the Law of 
 the Weight of Bodies, now that your very learned 
 work is finished, will you have the goodness to 
 tell us what Weight is ? 
 
 —How much does the boy’s kite in the 
 clouds weigh ? 
 
 —How much does the soaring bird weigh ? 
 
 —How much does the flying arrow weigh ? 
 
 —A skater of ordinary weight, say ten stone, 
 is supported by ice of from two to four inches’ 
 thickness. Gliding along with all the celerity 
 due to the force of impulsion, he arrives at a 
 crevice where the ice is not more than half an 
 inch thick, and passes over it again and again 
 without having cracked it.—How much do the 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 37 
 
 ten stone of our skater weigh upon the cre¬ 
 vice ? 
 
 —How often, in America especially, have 
 suspension bridges been seen to give way through 
 a train stationing upon them,—bridges which 
 had till then supported without budging the 
 passage of thousands of fast trains heavily laden? 
 
 —Four men are engaged in letting out slowly 
 a bent cable, to the end of which is attached an 
 enormous mass of stone; the said stone, lowered 
 gradually from the roof, arrives at last, by almost 
 imperceptible movements, upon the ground. 
 
 But let one of the four men neglect for a 
 second the regularity of his movements, and let 
 go too quickly an inch of his share of the cordage: 
 with the promptitude of lightning the mass, 
 perfectly balanced just before, will be suddenly 
 precipitated, and will draw down with it the four 
 men, their scaffolding, and even the wall which 
 was the support of the entire operation. 
 
 —How much did the stone weigh in the for¬ 
 mer case ? How much did it weigh in the latter ? 
 And again, in the interval between the'one and 
 the other case, how much did it weigh ? 
 
38 
 
 THE EIGHT TO ELY. 
 
 —Upon what basis does your weight agree 
 with the science of Ballistics,—and at what point 
 in its traject does a cannon-hall commence to 
 become fatigued ?—At what other instant will it 
 no longer he able to resist the want of repose ? 
 
 —Why do not the stars fall ?—And by what 
 right does a cloud retain till a given moment its 
 charge of snow, or rain, or hail ? 
 
 I 
 
 —Why ? 
 
 —Because, like all other physical laws, the 
 law of weight is not an absolute but a relative 
 law. 
 
 Because, according to the different circum¬ 
 stances of its constitution, its action, and its 
 medium, the same body that weighs at one 
 moment does not weigh at another moment. 
 
 Because, in combining,^) two different forces 
 
 Q) “ Whatever may be the intensity of any absolute force, 
 “ the slightest other force applied to it angularly, immediately 
 “ gives birth to a new force, foreign to the first two as to 
 “ direction, and often also as to intensity .... In aerial 
 “ locomotion, there are the 'primary , the composing , and the 
 “ resultant forces.”—(Michel Loup, “ Solution du Probleme 
 “ de la Locomotion Adrienne Paris and Lyons, 1853.) 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 39 
 
 —weight and projection, for instance—produce 
 compound effects, effects so much the more vari¬ 
 able ad infinitum,'that the forces in question are 
 called upon to act in a medium capricious itself 
 in its degrees of resistance or assistance;—and 
 therein only do we think it probable to solve the 
 mysteries of the immense problem of Aerial 
 Navigation. 
 
 —“ The weight of man is the eternal obstacle to 
 “ the flight of man,” says the Academy; “ and 
 “ against this weight the force of man must for ever 
 “ remain powerless ! ” 
 
 But the Academy ought to tell us first of all 
 what is the maximum it has decreed for human 
 force. 
 
 In our opinion, human force is human in¬ 
 telligence, and that force cannot certainly be 
 estimated by avoirdupois or any other weight. 
 
 It is this true force that enables me to turn 
 and re-turn a cubic block of granite, weighing a 
 couple of tons, on all its sides,—a block which, 
 without this force, and limited to the simple em¬ 
 ployment of my muscles, I should not be able 
 even to shake. 
 
40 
 
 THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 This same force enables the servant, who 
 could scarcely carry two pailfuls of water for 
 several minutes, to raise in the body of a pump, 
 per second, and during one hour, a column of 
 water measuring more than thirty-two feet. 
 
 Fix limits to, and place obstacles in the way 
 of human muscular force: human intelligence 
 upsets your obstacles and sets aside your limits 
 almost without an effort. 
 
 The Ancient Hercules was a man in all the 
 vigour of mature age, with salient and elastic 
 muscles. 
 
 The Modern Hercules is a child leaning upon 
 a lever. 0 
 
 0 Louis de Lucy, “Le Probleme de l’Aeromotion’ 
 (L’Aeronaute, No. 4). 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 41 
 
 VII. 
 
 Who would be bold enough to swear, in this age 
 of scientific miracles, that man’s weight (“the 
 “ eternal obstacle to the flight of man,” by order 
 of the Academy), will not be the very weight 
 turned to account by man himself as his primary 
 motive power for raising himself in the air ? ( x ) 
 
 —“Nothing is easier than that which was 
 “ accomplished yesterday,” said Biot; “ and 
 
 “ nothing is more difficult than that which will 
 “ be accomplished to-morrow.” 
 
 f 1 ) Just as I am writing tliese lines, an Italian gentleman 
 requests the Institute to answer several Papers he had 
 addressed to that learned body more than twenty years ago ! 
 —In one of those Papers the author proposed and de¬ 
 veloped the means for employing the weight of the human 
 body as a motive agent. 
 
42 
 
 THE EIGHT TO PLY. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 But, if we wish to arrive at any result whatever, 
 let us be upon our guard against acquired for¬ 
 mulae ; let us closely examine all recognised tra¬ 
 ditions ; and especially, men of good will, my 
 friends ! let us stop up our ears as we pass the 
 Institute! 
 
 It might too readily be suggested to me, that 
 I have my reasons for avoiding the savants .— 
 Agreed. 
 
 But all the respect which I owe to Official 
 Science will not prevent me from examining 
 the archives of its proceedings, the endless Mar- 
 tyrology of Truth and Common Sense. 
 
 There is no necessity for us to go back so far 
 as Galileo, and we will also leave Salomon de 
 Caus out of the question for the present. 
 
 But did not Official Science decree that the 
 attempt to cross the Atlantic with steam was 
 equivalent to the idea of travelling to the moon ? 
 
 —that the wheels of locomotives would 
 
THE RIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 43 
 
 always slide along tlie rails without advan¬ 
 cing ? 
 
 —that, moreover, the speed of traction would 
 be sure to stifle the travellers ? 
 
 —that lighting by gas was an absurdity and 
 an impossibility, &c. ? 
 
 We might almost affirm that, in the long list 
 of discoveries due to the exercise of human 
 intelligence, there is not one but what was at 
 first denied and opposed by the Scribes and 
 Pharisees of Science. 
 
 Is it necessary to call to mind such discoveries 
 as vitrification, the loadstone, phosphorus, gun¬ 
 powder, spectacles, the microscope, &c., all due, 
 as well as a multitude of others, to ignorant 
 hazard alone,—to prove that if Official Science is 
 opposed to those who wish to run, it is because 
 Official Science itself is only capable of walking. 
 
 In truth, when, with the History of the Past 
 before me, I contemplate the great scientific game 
 played by humanity ever since the world has 
 been a world, I am obliged to recognise this fact: 
 
 —That as the game has advanced, the savants 
 
44 
 
 THE EIGHT TO PLY. 
 
 are really unrivalled in the art of making the 
 points: 
 
 —But it was not they who played the 
 game !. 
 
 I firmly believe that Official Science never 
 heaped so many heresies and absurdities as those 
 we are about to meet with against the possibility 
 of Bational Aero-locomotion. 
 
 We may state first of all, that at the com¬ 
 mencement of the Montgolfiers the Academy of 
 Paris did not hesitate in encouraging the re¬ 
 searches made with the view to the direction of 
 balloons properly speaking, which eighty years of 
 vain attempts have now proved to be perfectly 
 chimerical. The Academies of Lyons and of 
 Dijon (I do not know what was said by the 
 others) also joined their deceptive encourage¬ 
 ments to those of the Academy of Paris. 
 
 By a perfectly logical contradiction, the 
 Academy, to keep up its natural consequence in 
 the absurd, ought necessarily to deny the possi¬ 
 bility of the solution, immediately the problem of 
 Aviation was placed upon its veritable terms in 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 45 
 
 the name of Heavier than the air. This is the 
 course it has at present taken. 
 
 Let us therefore examine the arguments 
 opposed by Official Science to the theory of 
 Mechanical Flight. 
 
46 
 
 THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Let tlie Academicians, let Bacon, and Leibnitz, 
 and Buffon, and Cuvier, and even tbe Encyclo¬ 
 paedia, persist in maintaining that the bird (and 
 consequently also tlie butterfly) rises in the air, 
 like the Montgolfier, by virtue of the hot air it 
 contains. 
 
 (By the way, Buffon, the great diviner, 
 penned the phrase : To sustain itself in the air, 
 the bird has only to flutter its wings feebly .) ( : ) 
 
 First of all, Borelli( 2 ) agrees with the Dutch¬ 
 man Nieuwentyt ( 3 ) in calculating that the effort 
 spent by the bird in its flight exceeds ten thousand 
 times the weight of its body;—in other* terms, 
 he attributes to the muscles of the wings of a 
 goose weighing six pounds an effort of sixty 
 thousand pounds, that is to say, the force of five 
 
 
 P) “ Discours sur la Nature des Oiseaux.” 
 
 ( 2 ) “ De Motu Animalium.” 
 
 ( 3 ) “Merveilles de la Nature,” 171-5. 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 47 
 
 thousand men , or of five hundred horses —whichever 
 you like ! 
 
 Then we have the Academician Coulomb 
 (1780), who, for sustaining a man in the air, 
 demands wings of twelve thousand feet surface, 
 one hundred and eighty feet long. 
 
 —Although a goose weighs more pounds 
 than it has square feet of wing surface; and 
 although each wing of a windmill of two hundred 
 square feet surface produces an effort far superior 
 to the weight of a man^ 1 ) 
 
 Then comes the ardent Lalande, who, not 
 satisfied with endorsing the twelve thousand feet 
 of wing demanded by Coulomb, estimates that, 
 for the requirements of certain movements, it 
 would he necessary to double, if not to triple 
 
 that unlikely surface. 
 
 % 
 
 “ Therefore ,” concludes Lalande, “ the impos- 
 “ sibility of keeping up by striking the air is as 
 “ certain as the impossibility of bodies void of 
 “ air rising by their specific weight.” 
 
 ( x ) Dubochet. 
 
48 
 
 THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 And, exactly one year afterwards, month for 
 month, the ascension of the first Montgolfier 
 gave to these cool assertions a first and a brilliant 
 contradiction,—while waiting for the second. 
 
 And I find, this other phrase in a letter 
 (dated 28 Messidor, an I.) addressed by the same 
 Lalande to Garnerin concerning an ascension 
 made by the said Garnerin :— 
 
 —“ . . . Why was I not of the party 
 
 Always the same story: “ I am a bird, look 
 “ at my wings ! ” (*) 
 
 Then again we have a Report presented to 
 the Academy, and signed by such names as those 
 of Condorcet, Monge, and Bossut, if you please ! 
 —which Report re-affirms the demand for twelve 
 thousand feet of wings. 
 
 And the Academy unanimously approves this 
 Report, “ intending to prevent the undertaking of 
 foolish and dangerous attempts.” 
 
 But all these assertions of the savants were 
 
 Q) “ Je suis oiseau, voyez mes ailes ! ”— Fables de 
 Lafontaine. 
 
THE EIGHT TO FEY. 
 
 49 
 
 in vain : tlie ignorant truthseekers, unwilling to 
 abandon the flag of Mechanical Aerial Naviga¬ 
 tion, persevered in returning to the charge. 
 
 It was then that the Academy, in order to 
 finish with the question once for all, hurled at 
 the obstinate theorists one of its best calculators, 
 Navier, who drew up a new Report (dated 
 September G, 1830), no less affirmative, no less 
 prohibitory, no less approved of by the unani¬ 
 mous Academy;—and it is with this Report, 
 this Act of Faith, this Academical Credo, that 
 our opponents endeavour to crush us at present. 
 
 —Maqister dixit. 
 
 Let us give a specimen of the Absurd carried 
 to the Fantastic. Listen to the Report: 
 
 “ Man,” affirms doctorally the learned Navier, 
 “ Man does not possess, all proportions taken 
 “ into consideration, the ninety-second part of 
 “ the strength spent by a bird to sustain itself in 
 “ the air (!) 
 
 “ When a bird hovers, it beats its wings about 
 “ twenty-three times in a second (! !) 
 
 “When it hovers, the quantity of action 
 “ spent by the bird in a second is equal to that 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 THE EIGHT TO ELY. 
 
 • c which it would require to raise its own weight 
 “ twenty-four feet (!!!) 
 
 “ When it moves horizontally, the quantity 
 “ is equal to that which it would require to 
 “ raise its own weight about pour hundred 
 “ yards (!!!!) 
 
 “ Tii e quantity of action is so much the less, 
 “ for the rapid flight, that the density of the 
 “ air is not so great.” (!!!!!) 
 
 And, I repeat, the Academy unanimously 
 approves and countersigns such extravagant 
 assertions! 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 51 
 
 X. 
 
 The Folly of Figures ! 
 
 Apply these terrible calculations of Xavier 
 to the salmon for example, that the thinnest 
 line stops, and behold the salmon called upon 
 to employ for its ordinary circulation a force 
 equal to that of a steam-engine of fifty-horse 
 power ! 
 
 But, it may be observed, the medium is no 
 longer the same. 
 
 That may be. So let us remain with the 
 honourable M. Xavier; and thereanent he has 
 forgotten one point, which is, that the learned 
 calculations heaped up by him to deprive man of 
 his right to fly should also prevent birds from 
 flying, since they require from a goose the force 
 of four men for its slowest flight. 
 
 Touching advantage of our sweet ignorance ! 
 We simpletons, who do not seek the mira¬ 
 culous, have only to raise our eyes to perceive, 
 
 d 2 
 
52 
 
 THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 without the aid of any algebraical calculations 
 whatever, that—as our children say in playing—• 
 
 Our Bird flies !!! 
 
 Some birds fly a whole day. If, by Acade¬ 
 mical order, we were to admit the figures of the 
 mathematician Navier, what an incalculable 
 outlay of force must have been incurred by 
 such birds when evening arrives; and how is 
 it possible for them to have supported such 
 fatigue ? 
 
 The bird Frigate, which is not a web-footed 
 bird, is encountered at a distance of four hundred 
 leagues from land. 
 
 Four hundred leagues to come and four 
 hundred leagues to return, make eight hundred 
 leagues, without reckoning the detours and the 
 deviations. 
 
 How many millions of pounds has this 
 Frigate therefore raised since the morning, ac¬ 
 cording to your figures, 0 good M. Navier? 
 
 Other birds, provided only with the least 
 perfect appliances, — the quail, for instance, —• 
 travel several hundred leagues in a single flight; 
 and this incommensurable effort is accomplished 
 without even having experienced the want of 
 
THE EIGHT TO ELY. 
 
 53 
 
 repairing their strength, without repose, without 
 eating, and without drinking ! . . . 
 
 How then has man been so blind or so 
 stupid hitherto as not to have used for industrial 
 purposes such reservoirs of inexhaustible force P 
 
 But let us pass on to the consideration of 
 serious questions. 
 
54 
 
 THE EIGHT TO PLY. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Op all the Physical Laws, there is not one which 
 has been so little and so imperfectly studied 
 down to the present time as that of the flight of 
 birds and insects. 
 
 —“We speak of the muscular power of 
 “ birds,” wrote Captain A. Girard, in 1858 : “ the 
 “ cause which enables them to sustain themselves 
 “ in the air is as completely ignored as was, 
 “ before Pascal, that of the rising of water in the 
 “body of a pump, which used to be explained 
 “ by Nature’s horror of a vacuum.” 
 
 Quite contrarily to the supposed and formid¬ 
 able calculations we have just cited, we consider 
 that, of all the means of locomotion, flight is 
 perhaps that which requires the smallest outlay 
 of force. 
 
 When we examine the relative weakness of 
 sea-birds, which, better than all others, soar with 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 perfect ease in the midst of the most violent 
 tempests, it appears to ns that the strength of 
 the pectoral muscles has been over-exaggerated 
 by certain pre-occupations which prevented the 
 observation from being accurate. 
 
 This pretended exorbitance of strength is as 
 fanciful as the idea of ascension by means of 
 specific lightness, which was so long and so 
 obstinately maintained. 
 
 And if Nature has endowed certain birds 
 with considerable pectoral development not met 
 with in other flying species, it was not for the 
 requirements of flight properly speaking, which 
 is not at all produced solely by a dynamical 
 cause ; the pectoral development in question was 
 given in view of other necessities, such as rising 
 rapidly and vertically in given cases,( ! ) stopping 
 suddenly the flight, combating and carrying off 
 prey, &c. ( 2 ) 
 
 If, in fact, the faculty of flying depended also 
 principally upon the strength of those muscles, 
 how should it happen that a grain of lead sent 
 
 Q) Michel Loup. 
 
 ( 2 ) Lubocliet.—J. A. Sanson. 
 
56 
 
 THE EIGHT TO ELY. 
 
 into the extremity of the wing,—a single feather 
 twisted,—nay, still less, and without touching 
 the feathers, the simple ligature of the feet,— 
 suffices to prevent or to stop the flight of the 
 strongest bird ? 
 
 There is therefore in the phenomenon of 
 flight something quite different from the simple 
 dynamical question; and that is, a primordial 
 correlation with other elements of interest quite 
 as essential,—statical, mechanical, &c. 
 
 All the more or less arbitrary estimates by 
 order of which Official Science has insisted and 
 still insists upon interdicting to man the possi¬ 
 bility of imitating the flight of the bird,—all 
 those estimates, we repeat, were they even correct, 
 could not he admitted to have any weight in the 
 cause, because they are isolated. An uncorro¬ 
 borated witness is no witness^ 1 ) 
 
 In all justice, that is to say, in all reason, 
 they cannot he accepted without taking into 
 parallel consideration, with an equipollent pre¬ 
 occupation, the other phenomena whose combined 
 
 0) “ Testis unus, testis nullus.” 
 
THE RICHT TO FLY. 
 
 57 
 
 action is necessary to flight,—phenomena whose 
 action is at least equal, as we have said, perhaps 
 superior, to the dynamical effect which Official 
 Science has hitherto obstinately persisted in alone 
 considering. 
 
 Now, in the phenomenon of flight, we have 
 already acquired a primary truth of the highest 
 import. 
 
 It is beyond doubt, in fact, that the weight 
 of the flyer is regulated by each movement of 
 the wings, and that it is compensated and decom¬ 
 posed in proportion with the force of progression, 
 aided by the different inclinations of the wing- 
 surface^ 1 ) 
 
 Other deductions, not less interesting, may 
 be at once drawn from this primary truth. 
 
 —In the continued flight, there is no 
 
 ACCELERATED FALL. 
 
 —The active force of one time of 
 
 P) D’Esterno, “Du Yol des OiseauxParis, 1864. 
 Consult again, and constantly, Michel Loup. 
 
58 
 
 THE EIGHT TO ELT. 
 
 MOVEMENT IS PROFITABLE TO THE TIME FOLLOW¬ 
 ING. 
 
 —The fall at the first moment is almost 
 
 NULL, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE SUSPENDED BODY 
 HAS A LARGE SUPERFICIES. 
 
 The FIRST PRINCIPLE OF CONTINUED FLIGHT 
 IN THE BIRD IS THAT IT NEVER ALLOWS ITS FALL TO 
 COMMENCE. 
 
 To resume, and consequently : 
 
 —All the Academical and ultra-Academical 
 estimates of the force spent by the bird in its 
 flight have been exaggerated ad abmrdum. 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 59 
 
 XII. 
 
 From these incontestable data, collected or 
 appreciated long since by such observers as 
 Meerwein, Huber, Chabrie, J. A. Sanson, senior 
 and junior, the Swede Tollin, Peniau and 
 Pubochet (of Nantes), Jourdan, Yignal and 
 Michel Loup (of Lyons), Cagniard de Latour, 
 Franchot, Babinet, J. A. Barral, Beleguic, Emm. 
 Liais, de Semalle, d’Esterno, Fline, de la Lan- 
 delle, Taillepied de la Garenne, Yaussin-Char- 
 danne, L. de Lucy, Arwed Salives, Artb. 
 Gandillot, Jules Yerne, Bourcart, F. du Temple, 
 Henry Bright, Alph. Moreau, Preslier, Lau- 
 bereau, Jullienne, Julien (of Yillejuif), Lord 
 Carlingford, Parisel, Briant du Lescoet, L. 
 Grandeau, A. Sanson, Tb. Maurand, Serres, 
 Piallat, Bicbard, Camille Yert, de Ponton d’Ame- 
 court, Telescbeff, George Cayley, Panafieu, Lan- 
 dur, Tige, Steiner, Piesbacb, Garapon, Engel, de 
 Louvrie, Marescbal, Panduran, Poctor Juge, 
 Poctor Wolf, Poctor Tavernier, Yandal, Brochon, 
 
60 
 
 THE EIGHT TO ELY. 
 
 Besnard, O’Frion, Perree, G uyot, Davelouis, 
 Lacan, Brisson, Mure, de Montdesir, Van 
 Monckooven—(I ask pardon of those whose 
 names I forget),—it would seem to result that 
 there is some chance of the possibility of man 
 rising, sustaining himself, and directing his 
 movements in the air in imitation of the flying 
 animals. 
 
 Or, at any rate, that the study of this grand 
 question cannot be considered as an illusory 
 folly. 
 
 As to ourselves, personally, we consider the 
 question of human flight as solved from the 
 mere fact of its having been posed. 
 
 For whenever man, for the satisfaction of 
 his wants, has sought to imitate Nature, he has 
 equalled, and often surpassed, his model. 
 
 He did not possess the four swift legs of the 
 horse, the stag, or the greyhound: — yet with 
 the locomotive he has completely distanced the 
 greyhound, the stag, and the horse. 
 
 He did not possess a natatory apparatus like 
 the fish:—yet he goes not only upon the water, 
 but, like the fish, under the water. — He was 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 61 
 
 weak, but be armed bimself, and the most for¬ 
 midable animals fly before him.—He has sub¬ 
 dued the very flames themselves, and commanded 
 them to carry him. 
 
 The empire of the world was really given to 
 man. He conquered all, as soon as he deter¬ 
 mined upon conquering. When it pleased him 
 to realise the prodigy of being more rapid than 
 sound, electricity bore his words from one pole 
 to the other with the speed of lightning. 
 
 When he shall have determined upon doing 
 so, man will fly like the bird, better than the 
 bird; for, without entering here into abstract 
 details, it is certain to us that man will be 
 obliged to fly better than the bird, in order to 
 fly merely as well. 
 
 The means for accomplishing this triumph 
 will not be wanting; for if what has been said 
 be true, that a question well posed is on that 
 account already half-solved, the hour has come 
 for the realisation of the grandest of all human 
 conquests. 
 
 The continued observation of natural pheno¬ 
 mena indicates henceforth to man the rational 
 and certain course he has to pursue. 
 
62 
 
 THE EIGHT TO ELY. 
 
 The Titanic strength of birds, which used to 
 intimidate our savants, is centupled by the in¬ 
 telligent hand of man, more powerful than any 
 other force. 
 
 Mechanical art, which already in the course 
 of the last century produced Speaking Heads, 
 and Ducks ( x ) that imitated even the most 
 mysterious of Nature’s acts and movements,— 
 that same art now places at his disposal more 
 means than are required for passing from the 
 theory to the practice of Aerial Navigation. 
 
 In 1784 Launoy and Bienvenu exposed to 
 public curiosity a little mechanical helicoptera 
 that rose automatically in the air with its motive 
 power, a simple clockspring with a trigger, 
 wherein the force was, it must be acknowledged, 
 previously laid in store. This was, we believe, 
 the first practical demonstration of the future 
 rational aero-navigation; but the interesting ex¬ 
 periment was no sooner exhibited than forgotten. 
 
 In 1849 the Lyonnese Vignal re-invented and 
 exhibited a similar model with as little success. 
 
 (*) Those of Vatica n son. 
 
THE EIGHT TO ELY. 
 
 63 
 
 A few years later, in 1853, MM. de la Lan- 
 delle and Ponton d’Amecourt—and, almost at 
 the same time, Mr. Bright, a very distinguished 
 English engineer—sent np and developed in the 
 air a like description of apparatus. 
 
 On witnessing these mere toys rise auto¬ 
 matically in the air, the illustrious savant M. 
 Babinet had the courage (Academician against 
 the Academy!) to place himself under our flag, 
 and to exclaim : 
 
 —“ The discussion is closed ! It is now 
 
 “ ONLY AN AFFAIE OF TECHNOLOGY AND OF 
 
 “ Money !” 
 
 And, entering at once upon the disputed 
 question of the first possibility of the ascension 
 of heavy bodies, he supported and confirmed, 
 with all the weight of his great authority, this 
 theory, still so paradoxical in appearance, hut 
 which we have never hesitated in advancing ; 
 namely, that the more powerful the apparatus 
 employed for mechanical flight, the lighter relatively 
 will it become. 
 
 Beyond the fact that a large machine is 
 always more efficacious than a small one, it is 
 
G4 
 
 THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 evident that one force of two-horse power weighs 
 less than two forces of one-horse power each; 
 and the higher we raise our proportions, the 
 more we recognise that onr weight diminishes 
 relatively as onr force increases.' The progres¬ 
 sion of our lightness will therefore augment 
 proportionately with our increase of power, and, 
 far from opposing an obstacle, our amplification 
 will, on the contrary, he the very means of 
 guaranteeing our success. 
 
 —“ Since you have succeeded in raising a 
 “ mouse,” writes our learned master Babinet, 
 “ you will have much less difficulty in 
 “ raising an elephant.” 
 
 The means of Ablation or ascension once 
 acquired, the question of Direction is merely one 
 of secondary consideration. 
 
 Without speaking of mechanical means, the 
 simple theory of the parachute—of the parachute 
 really directed by the aeronaut—suffices to prove 
 that a body falls on the side to which it inclines; 
 so that, the elevation once obtained, the aerial 
 navigator has effectively/ placed at his command a 
 capital of force of which he can afterwards dis¬ 
 pose as he may think proper. 
 
THE EIGHT TO ELY. 
 
 65 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Let us remark, moreover, and from another point 
 of view, that Nature has only given to Man the 
 aspirations which are in accordance with his 
 aptitudes. 
 
 “The attractions,” said Fournier, “are pro- 
 “ portioned to the destinies.” 
 
 Now, from Icarus, and the Scythian Abaris 
 (mentioned by Diodorus)—for the principle of 
 Heavier tlian the air has had its heroic period— 
 man has never ceased to raise his eyes towards 
 the dominion of the air, which he feels to belong 
 to him. Everywhere, and always, man has 
 sought the means for travelling in the air:'— 
 but never was there a human brain sufficiently 
 “ardent” to occupy itself with a project for 
 living in the fire. 
 
 There is no one who has not thought of 
 passing freely through space, both before and 
 since Lana, who, preceding Montgolfier by the 
 
 E 
 
GG 
 
 THE EIGHT TO ELY. 
 
 invention of Ins globes void of sir, Ctilled tins 
 aeroniania the Reasonable Roily (sapientem stul- 
 titiam). There is not one of us whose aspirations 
 have not indulged in the ecstacy of the immensi¬ 
 ties without horizon, and who has not dreamt, 
 with our great poet Victor Hugo, of 
 
 “ La liberte dans la lmniere ! ” 
 
 There is no city without its more or less 
 vague tradition of the flying man, from Simon 
 the magician, who rose in the air at Rome in the 
 presence of Hero, and the Saracen who accom¬ 
 plished the same feat before the Emperor 
 Comnenus at Constantinople,—from Dante of 
 Perouse and the flying monk of Lisbon, down to 
 the Viennese Deghen and the Parisian Marquis 
 de Bacqueville. 
 
 Most of these attempts failed, others partly 
 succeeded, and a few met with complete success 
 and were even happily repeated. 
 
 All these attempts were witnessed by dense 
 crowds of people, predisposed to jeer, because 
 man’s vanity is always ticklish on the score of 
 being exposed to deception; notwithstanding, 
 they felt themselves irresistibly attracted by the 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 67 
 
 profound and instinctive sentiment of the Possible, 
 as well as by the secret and insnppressible feeling 
 of Hope. 
 
 Plow is it tben tbat, in spite of tbis uni¬ 
 versal pre-occupation at every period of tbe 
 world’s progress, in spite of tbis unwearied ex¬ 
 pectation, in sjiite of these oft-repeated and 
 sometimes successful attempts, and in the pre¬ 
 sence of a possibility so rationally established,— 
 bow is it tbat tbe problem of Aerial Navigation 
 has not long since been solved ? 
 
 —Because nothing comes before its appointed 
 
 hour, and each batching process has its duration ; 
 
 • 
 
 —Because it has been written, tbat every¬ 
 thing shall be reckoned unto man with nicety ; 
 because it is brdained tbat everything be is to 
 enjoy must be first purchased and paid for 
 according to tbe inexorable tariff; because If 
 thou desirest anything, thou must first of all merit it; 
 
 —Because every human conquest is paid for 
 with sweat, with tears, and with blood; and that 
 
 e 2 
 
68 
 
 THE RIGHT TO ELY. 
 
 the greater the conquest, the more costly and 
 the more difficult is the payment; 
 
 —Because he who precedes others on the 
 \vay gets his feet torn by the stones and briars 
 of the new road,—and stops short; 
 
 —Because the eternal mistrust which man 
 has of himself causes him to repel with hatred 
 and contempt, instead of welcoming, the labourer 
 in Nature’s domain who suggests a new or a 
 useful Word. 
 
 —Because—but let us stop here, although 
 many other reasons might be adduced. 
 
THE RIGHT TO PLY. 
 
 69 
 
 XIV. 
 
 To confine ourselves to tlie special question under 
 consideration, was there ever a more multiple or 
 a more complex one ? 
 
 This great Unknown Quantity, which, once 
 set at liberty, will bring about the most gigantic, 
 the most incalculable revolutions in all human 
 relations,—this great Unknown hears at one and 
 the same time upon all the physical sciences, for 
 it proceeds from them all. 
 
 And this primary multiplicity of the sciences 
 essential to or participating in its germination, is 
 also one of the causes which have so fatally 
 retarded the fatidic hour.—Where, then, is the 
 single brain in the world that will offer us the 
 synthetical universality of the knowledge and 
 aptitudes thus called for ? 
 
 Scarcely are we agreed upon the principle, 
 upon the point of departure, and behold, before 
 taking the first step, we are astonished and 
 stupefied by the embarrassing and infinite diver- 
 
70 
 
 THE EianT TO FLY. 
 
 sity of five means of flight with which Nature 
 has endowed insects merely.—Which of these 
 systems ought we to study the first as the most 
 probable, the most assimilable to our relative 
 faculties ? 
 
 To this first objective embarrassment must be 
 added the inherent deficiency of the human mind, 
 which, in every invention, never fails to proceed 
 from the compound to arrive at the simple.— 
 What researches, what combinations, what hypo¬ 
 theses, were made, attempted, and considered 
 before Christopher Columbus’ egg was broken! 
 
 We have everything to do, everything to 
 learn. Nothing remains to us even of those 
 legends of the flying men, who, moreover, only 
 oflered us the embryo of that Aerial Navigation 
 which we desire to realise in the proportions oi 
 the positive practical utility of which it is capable. 
 
 Where are we to begin ? Who is to guide 
 or to advise us? Where, in this case, is the 
 Professor? For our purpose, all acquired and 
 . consecrated Science offers us nothing !—And all 
 that the Academicians have taught us is reduced 
 to zero! 
 
 For the sake of giving an example, we will 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 71 
 
 take the screw-propeller, wliicli, according to all 
 probability, is destined to play a certain part in 
 this matter. “ The screw-propeller,” says M. 
 Maurice Saint-Aguet, “ had been discovered eight 
 “ or ten times since Dallery’s patent in 1793 
 “ (and we may add that he was not its original 
 “ inventor), before it was employed, more than 
 “ thirty years afterwards by two engineers, one 
 “ an Englishman and the other a Frenchman, 
 “ who still continue to dispute very seriously the 
 “ priority of its application.” 
 
 We will leave them to their dispute; but let 
 us hasten to admit, as a beginning, that the 
 screw-propeller—which has now been so long in 
 use, which has been studied, tried, regulated, and 
 verified in all its applications as well as in all its 
 modifications—is perfectly known to us ; we hold 
 it fir m ly in our possession; it is our own.—We 
 are quite sure of that, is it not ? 
 
 Well, a few months since, in a comparative 
 trial before Cherbourg, the Solferino was started 
 at f ull speed, and at such speed that, of the four 
 invariable, indispensable regulation paddles, two 
 were broken. 
 
 What was the result of the unforeseen sup¬ 
 pression of those two paddles ? 
 
72 
 
 THE EIGHT TO ELY. 
 
 —The increase by nearly a third in the 
 
 SPEED ! 
 
 Some time afterwards, a second and a similar 
 trial completely confirmed the result of the first. 
 
 How then, without making an inventory, can 
 we accept any of the assertions of your savants as 
 orthodox ? 
 
 Therefore, and to resume, if we wish to 
 realise the grand- and beautiful dream of the 
 human flight, we must first of all try to discover 
 a mind of the highest order, and universal, 
 having begun by unlearning all that it had 
 learnt from others, and relying wholly upon its 
 own intelligence and experience. 
 
 To this complete and perfect savant of ours, 
 we must afterwards give the Genius which alone 
 makes effects spring out of causes. 
 
 Let us then inspire him with restless cu¬ 
 riosity, panting research, and the noble and 
 insatiable thirst for great things. 
 
 To which let us add, resolute obstinacy of 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 73 
 
 will, absolute self-denial, and unreserved de¬ 
 votion, not to speak, of course, as necessary 
 adjuncts, of the various physical aptitudes, of 
 fundamental courage and of indispensable good 
 health. 
 
 And finally, as inventions are ruinous, and as 
 money is dear, and the wood of the bed of 
 Bernard de Palissy is constantly burning, let us 
 slip a few millions, less or more, into the pocket 
 of this rara avis, 
 
 —and then Aerial Locomotion will become an 
 accomplished fact! 
 
74 
 
 THE EIGHT TO ELY. 
 
 XV. 
 
 In the meantime, hours disappear, days fly 
 past, and ages accumulate, while indolent Hu¬ 
 manity, with eyes upraised towards the regions 
 it contents itself with dreaming about, appears to 
 he waiting for the solution of this great Problem, 
 —the Divine solution which will suppress fron¬ 
 tiers, render war impossible, and tear up even to 
 the last leaf of the different Codes of our bar¬ 
 barous periods, to dictate another and a last one, 
 the Law of Liberty and of Love. 
 
 From time to time, it is true, from one point 
 or another, an isolated aspiration is breathed out, 
 a light breaks forth, an effort is attempted, only 
 to be little heeded, less regarded, and soon 
 entirely forgotten! 
 
 With this sad conviction, and finding that 
 the predestined being we have been waiting for 
 so long to open to us the free career in the 
 immensities of space did not make his appearance, 
 
THE RIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 75 
 
 I thought it was time to provide a centre for all 
 those isolations, and to create a temple for the 
 reception of the communicants. 
 
 And, in the absence of some one more worthy, 
 I resolved upon establishing a point of con¬ 
 centration, of comparative examination, and of 
 cohesion for all the efforts, isolated hitherto, and 
 consequently lost. 
 
 Appealing to all the earnest investigators in 
 quest of the grand discovery, this free Asso¬ 
 ciation, disinterested in everything except the 
 good of the Cause, would receive the contribu¬ 
 tions of each in order to make them, little by 
 little, the treasure of all.—Let there he a sanctum 
 where the inventor, the reviled of all times and 
 of all people, would he sure to meet with a 
 hospitable threshold and willing listeners ! 
 
 So I had the honour of founding our Inter¬ 
 national Society for the Encouragement of Aerial 
 Locomotion by means of Apparatus heavier than 
 the air. 
 
 But the simple foundation of such a Society 
 did not suffice. 
 
 Our Society of Encouragement was, as may 
 well he thought, neither commercial nor civil; 
 
76 
 
 THE BIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 and the modest minimum of six francs a year 
 paid by its members, did not constitute a very 
 exorbitant resource. 
 
 It was necessary to animate it, to give it 
 the means of growing, of propagating itself, of 
 serving. It was necessary, beyond this primary 
 action of concentration, that our Society of 
 Encouragement should complete itself by effica¬ 
 cious encouragement offered to inventors ; — it was 
 necessary, after having conceived, that the 
 Society should produce. 
 
 But where was the money requisite for the 
 creation of the first attempts to come from ? 
 
 If I had thought proper, as I was ardently 
 advised, to open a subscription by way of asking 
 the public for forty or fifty thousand pounds, in 
 order to enable me to try to make a machine that 
 might perhaps endeavour to fly in the air, the 
 amiable public would, no doubt, have made a very 
 pretty outcry! All those who will not look, all 
 those who cannot see, all those who love their 
 gold beyond everything, would have said— 
 
 “ This man is decidedly mad! We used to 
 “fancy that he was, but now he confesses it. 
 “ What! he has the impudence to ask us for fifty 
 
THE RIGHT TO PLY. 
 
 77 
 
 “ thousand pounds to- He is an imper- 
 
 “ tinent fellow, who wants to have the laugh 
 
 “ of us! ” 
 
 I should have received insults, which are 
 much less costly than bank-notes; and some 
 persons, especially those who object to putting 
 their hands into their pockets, would at least 
 have rated me as a thief. 
 
 What more? After this profound observa¬ 
 tion by M. de Grirardin,—“ One of the first 
 “ expenses with which a government ought to 
 “ honour itself should he that of a few millions 
 “ of francs destined to encourage the researches 
 “ bearing upon Aerial Navigation,”—could I 
 address myself to the government ? 
 
 First of all, I do not know how money is 
 asked for from a government; and, moreover, I 
 should not know how to thank it. I think I 
 may confess this defect without inconvenience, 
 for I have been told that it is not contagious. 
 
 
78 
 
 THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 XYI. 
 
 I therefore decided upon earning the money 
 necessary for the constitution of our first trial 
 capital myself. It appeared to me that, as soon 
 as the debt of a few tens of thousands of francs 
 which I had taken upon myself was paid, I might 
 he permitted to make an appeal for assistance to 
 all in the grand interest of all. 
 
 I well know the eternal, the insatiable eager¬ 
 ness with which the public flocks to any aerostatic 
 spectacle; and I said to myself that, in order to 
 realise the conquest of the air with apparatus 
 heavier than the air, and to kill the balloons which 
 have caused us to waste upon a false scent the 
 last eighty years (the richest in respect to 
 acquired science), I would make a balloon —the 
 last balloon !—of such extraordinary proportions, 
 that it would realise what has never been but a 
 dream of the American newspapers; a balloon 
 more than half as high as St. Paul’s Cathedral, 
 — a balloon which, in its wicker house of 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 79 
 
 two storeys, would carry thirty-five or forty 
 passengers with the ordinary coal gas, and more 
 than a hundred with pure hydrogen gas,—which 
 should be able, owing to the enormous ascensional 
 force represented by the weight of its ballast, to 
 remain two, three, or four days, and as many 
 nights, in the air, and thus accomplish veritable 
 voyages over land and sea. 
 
 And, all alone, I rushed headlong into the 
 great undertaking of the Giant, an undertaking 
 which promised such excellent results, but which 
 has hitherto been only disastrous. 
 
 Of a speculative mind, perhaps, hut very 
 badly endowed as a speculator, averse to the 
 counsels of prudence, rebellious towards all 
 arithmetical calculations, confiding to a folly, 
 the last three years of my life have been a series 
 of every description of grief, disappointment, and 
 anguish. 
 
 I do not speak of slight wounds, of insult, or 
 of sarcasm, although my skin, as a former cari¬ 
 caturist, is naturally more sensitive than ano¬ 
 ther’s ; and if I confess to take a little pleasure 
 still in ridiculing others, yet I own I do not like 
 to be jeered at myself. 
 
80 
 
 THE EIGHT TO PLY. 
 
 Now, no scientific discovery, no political 
 occurrence, has ever given rise to more quod- 
 libets, both in rhyme and in caricature, than 
 Aerostation. I possess an engraving of the 
 time, representing the ascent of the first Mont¬ 
 golfier balloon. On the top of it may be read : 
 
 “ Confusion of the sorry jesters!” 
 
 —In 1783,—already ! 
 
 I have sought for the reason of the fecundity 
 of this constant pitiless opposition to Aerostation; 
 and I believe I have discovered it. 
 
 Practical aerostation presents in reality no 
 sort of danger; I mean when intelligence pre¬ 
 sides over it, but not when it is abandoned—as 
 is nearly always the case, alas !—to the igno¬ 
 rance of the mountebanks into whose bands it 
 has fallen since its birth.—“ All aerostatic acci- 
 ‘ dents, says J. A. Sanson, “ have been owing 
 “ to ignorance, to impudence, and especially to 
 “ drunkenness !” 
 
 There is, therefore, not the least courage in 
 going up in a balloon, because there can be no 
 courage where there is no danger. 
 
 For all that, the practice of aerostatic voy¬ 
 ages still continues to be an extraordinary source 
 
THE RIGHT TO ELY. 
 
 81 
 
 of fear to many persons,—women excepted, wlio 
 are always more truly brave than the men. 
 
 I imagine, therefore, that those who would 
 not dare to go up in a balloon avenge themselves 
 by an easy system of raillery on a courage that 
 offends and humiliates them, f 1 ) 
 
 If at any meeting one of the speakers shows 
 himself more ironical, more disdainful, more 
 d ifficult to satisfy than the others with respect 
 to some aerostatic fact, feel his pulse:—assuredly 
 you will find him to be the coward of the 
 assembly. 
 
 By touching upon balloons I had let loose 
 upon myself the whole pack of scoffers. I 
 readily got used to their bites, from which blows 
 of a more serious description were soon to dis¬ 
 tract my attention. Ruined, become the prey of 
 all sorts of parasitism, deceived, betrayed, robbed, 
 and wounded, I passed through a succession of 
 repugnant contacts, bitternesses, anguishes, and 
 the most scandalous iniquities. In a word, I 
 was vanquished. 
 
 P) “ Et je tiens pour affront le courage d’autrui.”— 
 Victor Hugo. 
 
 P 
 
82 
 
 THE RIGHT TO ELY. 
 
 But I am not ashamed of that, for my past 
 defeat has never for an instant disheartened 
 me, and I have not once doubted of my future 
 victory. I am not displeased even at having 
 been vanquished at the outset: it is good, it is 
 often an honour and a greatness, to be con¬ 
 quered. 
 
 I knew what I was about .... 
 
 Besides, what concerned myself personally 
 mattered little. Had not the great principle of 
 future Aerial Locomotion been established ? 
 Had I not created in France and everywhere 
 else, for the advantage of the Cause of Aviation, 
 an Agitation manifested every day by verbal 
 discussion, and in numerous publications,—a 
 salutary and a fruitful Agitation, that will only 
 be extinguished by the solution of the great 
 problem ? 
 
 Our International Society for the Encourage¬ 
 ment of Heavier than the Air is constituted; and, 
 while waiting for the time when the ascensions 
 of the Giant will provide the primary elements 
 of action, it is investigating, it is studying, it is 
 collecting information and experience. 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 83 
 
 i 
 
 To our first appeal in the name of Heavier 
 than the Air, a few, from different centres and 
 unknown to each, other, had promptly responded 
 with timidity and embarrassment. Afterwards, 
 the workmen of the first hour counted their 
 forces; and as their Faith was the same, a 
 spirit of fraternal confidence was at once engen¬ 
 dered, and each drew from under his cloak 
 what he had brought for the examination and 
 consideration of his brothers. 
 
 A few gentlemen, eminent for their science, 
 their courage, and their devotion, did not 
 hesitate to brave our “ French poltroonery,” 
 and put themselves at the head of this little 
 group of convinced and resolute minds. The 
 first names on the list of our staff were those of 
 MM. Babinet (of the Institute), J. A. Barral, 
 Verdonnet, Franchot, and Baron Taylor. 
 
 Another man of firm will, and an earnest 
 apostle of the faith he had already preached 
 during many years, undertook the heaviest 
 task, that of practically guiding, day by day 
 and hour by hour, 'the destinies of our Asso¬ 
 ciation ; and no one could have been better 
 
 f 2 
 
84 
 
 the right to fly. 
 
 endowed with the qualities of gravity, energy, 
 and prudence required for the presidence of our 
 nascent Society. Formerly an officer in the 
 navy, and a clever writer, M. G. de la Landelle 
 had abandoned all his avocations in older to 
 devote himself entirely to the Grand Cause, 
 and I regard my meeting with that gentleman 
 as really providential. 
 
 Every tree produces but its own fruit. A 
 pear-tree does not bear apples any more than 
 an apple-tree bears pears. To conquer is some¬ 
 thing, but to keep is all. 
 
 I possessed, perhaps, a little of what was 
 required in the way of devotion and active en¬ 
 thusiasm. Neither believing nor loving by 
 halves, I felt at liberty to risk the bread of 
 those belonging to me, and my own life, in my 
 undertaking. 
 
 But all that, and more, was wanting to 
 bring this enterprise to a final termination, a 
 great amount of patience, order, method, and 
 persistence. By the side of the voice that 
 produces the noise, we stood in need of a case 
 to preserve the sound. 
 
 Thanks to La Landelle, thanks to the 
 
THE EIGHT TO PLY. 
 
 85 
 
 phalanx of elite who grouped themselves around 
 him, our Society, so humble at the outset, is 
 now organised, has a standing, and has passed 
 nearly three years in the pursuit of its labours. 
 Engineers, army and navy officers, manufac¬ 
 turers, working men, public functionaries of the 
 highest rank, physicians, chemists, mathemati¬ 
 cians, (some Academicians even !), have flocked 
 to us in daily-increasing numbers. Under the 
 constant influence of I)e la Landelle, all this 
 little world of well-intentioned people has 
 grouped itself into different committees accord¬ 
 ing to the peculiar aptitudes of each. There 
 is the engineers’ corner, the arithmeticians’ 
 corner, the naturalists’ corner; and there is also 
 a goodly muster of men of the world who have 
 been attracted to us by the extreme interest of 
 the researches we have undertaken. Projects 
 are addressed to us from all quarters; for the 
 large class of inventors, generally so distrustful, 
 at once understood that the Insubstantial Beinaf 
 called the Society of Encouragement was a 
 disinterested and a devoted Being. 
 
 And thus we pursue our weekly labours, 
 studying and preparing the way till the day 
 arrives when, to facilitate our passage from 
 theory to practice, the Giant will call upon 
 
86 
 
 THE RIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 each of the capitals of the world to pay its 
 share in the ransom of Heavier titan the Air. 
 
 While awaiting this approaching day, and 
 even when it shall have appeared, if, 0 Reader! 
 you have become convinced, not of our zeal 
 and self-denial, but that we are engaged in the 
 pursuit of an Idea destined to bring about the 
 most generous, the grandest of the revolutions 
 of humanity,—assist our International Society of 
 Encouragement , and join your efforts, whatever 
 they may be, to ours, for the propagation of 
 our labours. 
 
 If I am dreaming, let me dream on,—but I 
 defy any one to awaken me !—Let me con¬ 
 template the air studded with barques tra¬ 
 velling with such rapidity as to humiliate the 
 Ocean and all the locomotives of the Earth! 
 
 From all the points of the world I see 
 man rising with the promptness of electricity, 
 soaring in the air, and descending like a bird 
 when and where he wishes. 
 
 Books relate that people formerly travelled 
 on roads of iron in horrible box:es with in¬ 
 tolerable slowness, and exposed to insup¬ 
 portable annoyances .... A frightful lacing- 
 
THE EIGHT TO FLY. 
 
 87 
 
 motion backwards and forwards shook the 
 traveller from his departure till his arrival; 
 and a dinning chorus of chains, wood, and 
 shivering windows, was the funereal-music 
 accompaniment of those unpleasant trains. 
 Daring the long journey, the dust entered 
 through the air-holes of those cruel boxes in 
 such quantities as to cover the unfortunate 
 traveller with its stifling winding-sheet.—At 
 that time, a voyage was a fearful trial, not 
 undertaken with anything like cheerfulness.— 
 Who would believe that man had only to will 
 in order to deserve the aerial routes which now 
 appear to us so charming, and that he pre¬ 
 ferred suffering for many ages such atrocious 
 torments !. 
 
 Those poor people used to think they had 
 made a great progress because they travelled 
 somewhat faster on their roads of iron than in 
 their carriages drawn by horses, which were 
 the beginning of all locomotion. They en¬ 
 deavoured to console themselves with certain 
 statistical returns, which seemed to prove that 
 the number of road accidents was somewhat 
 diminished.—Let it be noted, en passant , that 
 they had not even been able to discover the 
 equivalent of our parachutes ! 
 
88 
 
 the right to fly. 
 
 Their statistics were perhaps tolerably cor¬ 
 rect ; bat when an accident did happen, what 
 disastrous results! — Hundreds of people 
 crushed, burnt, annihilated, through a mere 
 trifle having been placed across one of their 
 pitiful roads ! 
 
 How different from our aerial voyages, 
 without shocks, without concussions, and free 
 from noise, dust, fatigue, and danger ! 
 
 And how is it that the human race has 
 waited during so many ages for deliverance, 
 when, for its redemption, it had only to make 
 an intelligent employment of the first elements 
 of Statics and Mechanics ?(’). 
 
 NADAR. 
 
 Paris, March, 1866. 
 
 P) “ Memoires <lu Geant.” 
 
 ggj- The agent of the International Society for the Encourage¬ 
 ment of Aerial Navigation by Apparatus Heavier than the Air 
 (35, Boulevard des Capucines, Paris) will forward its Statutes 
 gratuitously on demand. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 
 
 OF 
 
 M. NADAR. 
 
 Felix Nadar, the son of a very worthy Lyonnese 
 bookseller, was born in Paris on the 5th of April, 1820. 
 On leaving school, he was entered as a student at the 
 School of Medicine, and attended the Lectures, some¬ 
 times at Paris and sometimes at Lyons, during two 
 years and a half. Being without any patrimony, he 
 was obliged to earn his livelihood at the same time that 
 he pursued his studies, and thus began his career as a 
 newspaper writer at the early age of sixteen. 
 
 Young Nadar’s taste for letters very soon caused 
 him to abandon the study of medicine ; and he became 
 the secretary of one of the members of the Opposition 
 during Louis Philippe’s reigu. But finding that situa¬ 
 tion too calm and too quiet for his feverish organisation, 
 he attached himself to the editorial department of Le 
 Commerce newspaper, then under the management of 
 M. Charles de Lesseps. He passed five years in this 
 
90 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OP M. NADAR. 
 
 occupation, during winch, besides his numerous political 
 contributions to the journal, he found time to publish 
 “ La Mort de Dupuytren,” a little chef-d’oeuvre, after¬ 
 wards translated into every language, and reproduced in 
 so many provincial and foreign papers, that it is said to 
 have had six hundred editions! This success, so en¬ 
 couraging for a young man, was followed by a three- 
 volume novel, entitled “ La Robe de Dejanire.” 
 
 While thus fairly launched on the waves of litera¬ 
 ture, the Revolution of 1848 broke out, and his lively 
 sympathy with the sufferings of the Poles induced the 
 enthusiastic Nadar to join the Polish Legion : he still 
 continues to regard this action as one of the most rea- 
 sonable of his life. He and all his companions were, 
 however, arrested and imprisoned, first of all in the 
 casemates of Magdeburg; but they were afterwards 
 removed to another Prussian town, Eisleben, where 
 they were detained several months. 
 
 As soon as he was restored to liberty, Nadar re¬ 
 turned to France, and threw himself into the political 
 turmoil of journalism, at that time free from its ordinary 
 restrictions. During the agitation which prevailed 
 throughout the Republic on the subject of the nomi¬ 
 nation of a president, Nadar worked day and night, 
 with his pen and with his pencil, in the Charivari , in 
 the Journal pour Eire, and in a very celebrated work 
 called La Revue Comique, now no longer procurable ; 
 and all his talent was employed against the election of 
 Prince Louis Bonaparte. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF M. NADAR. 91 
 
 After the coup-d’etat Nadar retired from journalism, 
 the restrictions upon which imposed by the law of 1852 
 deprived him of the entire liberty which men of his 
 stamp require for wielding that powerful weapon the 
 pen. 
 
 At this time he terminated the ParrtMon Nadar, an 
 immense lithograph (printed upon a single sheet) con¬ 
 taining the portraits of all the well-known men in 
 France. From his continual and intimate relations 
 with those who represent what may be called the aris¬ 
 tocracy of the mind, no one was more capable of giving 
 the exact “ charge ” of the two hundred and fifty cele¬ 
 brities, or semi-celebrities, comprised in this artistic 
 production, now become very rare. 
 
 At about the same time Nadar founded a noble 
 photographic atelier, which soon became very fashion¬ 
 able, and is still the most important establishment of the 
 kind in Paris. He was the first to apply the electric 
 light to the art of Photography, and published some 
 very curious views of Underground Paris, — sewers, 
 catacombs, &c., taken by this new process. 
 
 Nadar had long thought of turning Photography to 
 account for making planispheric or strategical plans, by 
 employing apparatus taken up with him in a balloon. 
 And here let it be mentioned, that Aerostation has 
 always pre-occupied and attracted his attention. The 
 purpose just alluded to presented him with a pretext for 
 ballooning, and with that object in view he made about 
 thirty ascents, the results of which practically proved, 
 
92 
 
 BIOGKAPHICAL NOTICE OP M. NADAB. 
 
 what lie had previously supposed, that the direction of 
 balloons, properly speaking, is a chimerical impossibility. 
 But believing, on the other hand, that man has the 
 power of going everywhere an animal can go, Nadar 
 commenced an extensive agitation in favour of the 
 future Rational Aero-navigation by means of appa¬ 
 ratus specijkally denser than the air; gave himself up, 
 heart and soul, to this work*of progress; and, indifferent 
 to obloquy and incredulity, boldly attached his name to 
 his project, and founded an International Society for the 
 Encouragement of Studies relating to Aerial Locomotion. 
 As a proof of his zeal and heartiness in the Cause, he 
 set apart a portion of his residence for the meetings of 
 the new Society, of which, moreover, he himself fur¬ 
 nished the first pecuniary resources. 
 
 Shortly afterwards M. Nadar, setting aside all per¬ 
 sonal interest, neglecting the management of his photo¬ 
 graphic establishment, and sacrificing everything to the 
 object he had in view, showed no. hesitation (in a 
 country where all initiative is so rare, and where 
 every one is accustomed to rely upon the Government) 
 towards engaging himself, personally and alone, in the 
 outlay of 200,000 francs for the fabrication of the 
 aerostatic monster “ The Giant.” With the receipts 
 he expected to obtain from a certain number of ascents, 
 he hoped to realise an experimental capital for the 
 Society of Encouragement. 
 
 The first departure of “ The Giant” took place 
 from the Champ de Mars, in Paris, on the 4th of 
 
BIOGRAFHICAL NOTICE OF M. NADAR. 
 
 93 
 
 August, 1863. The balloon rose with its valve open, in 
 consequence of the oversight of its primary constructors, 
 the Brothers Godard ; and it fell, four hours after, at a 
 few leagues’ distance from the starting-point. 
 
 For u The Giant’s ” first ascent, Nadar wished to 
 upset a popular superstition attached to the number 13, 
 the number of its passengers, amongst whom was the 
 Princess de la Tour d’Auvergne and Prince Eugene de 
 Sayn-Wittgenstein. 
 
 A fortnight after, a second ascent was made from the 
 same place at six o’clock in the evening. During the 
 night, just as the balloon was approaching the German 
 Ocean near Amsterdam, a spirit of revolt was mani¬ 
 fested by some of the passengers; and the Brothers 
 Godard insisted upon descending at any cost. Nadar 
 immediately seized the cord commanding the valve with 
 one hand, while in the other, it is said, he held a re¬ 
 volver, and so re-established order u on boardbut 
 the occurrence was of unfavourable omen. 
 
 A breeze from the coast then acting upon the bal¬ 
 loon, carried it towards Germany, where, after con¬ 
 tinuing its course wildly for some time, it fell at 
 Nieuburg, in Hanover. 
 
 The entire world has been made acquainted with 
 the terrible catastrophe so dramatically related in the 
 “ Memoires du Geant.” In the space of about fifteen hours, 
 the balloon had travelled over eight hundred miles, the 
 most considerable voyage on record in aerostatic annals. 
 The force of the wind was fifteen leagues an hour; and 
 
94 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF M. NADAR. 
 
 two of the most important cords soon snapped just 
 like threads. As it was impossible to disinflate “ The 
 Giant” quickly enough by the orifice of the valve, 
 which had been left too narrow in spite of the reiterated 
 observations made by M. Nadar to the Brothers Godard 
 during the construction of the balloon, it was dragged 
 through a space of seven leagues in thirty minutes, 
 striking against the ground in a series of leaps of from 
 one to thirty yards in height; the car at times scraping 
 over the obstacles it encountered in its flight with the 
 rapidity of a locomotive, while the passengers held on 
 by the cordages during the succession of terrible shocks. 
 Of the nine passengers, one of whom was M. F. de 
 Montgolfier, some fell and others slipped through the 
 openings made by the injuries to the car. The Brothers 
 Godard, forgetting, in the presence of the danger, every 
 feeling of responsibility, were the first to jump out; and 
 the balloon, thus lightened, continued its wild course 
 with fresh violence. 
 
 Madame Nadar, yielding to a dark presentiment 
 which had taken possession of her mind with regard 
 
 i • ^ 
 
 to this voyage, had accompanied her husband, who, 
 holding on to the cordages and squeezing his wife to his 
 breast, to protect her as much as possible against the 
 shocks, remained in the balloon with his precious bur¬ 
 den, till “The Giant” at length stopped and fell over 
 them both. 
 
 One of the passengers had his arm broken; 
 M. Nadar got his right leg fractured; and Madame 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF M. NADAR. 95 
 
 Nadar received injuries which confined her for several 
 months to her bed. 
 
 A strange circumstance characterised the second 
 ascent of “ The Giant,” at which the Emperor 
 Napoleon, without having announced his intention, 
 unexpectedly assisted. M. Nadar, whose political 
 opinions are very decided, refused for some time to 
 receive his visitor. Some of the English papers gave 
 an account at the time of this singular interview, of 
 
 which Nadar certainly had not sought the honour,_ 
 
 and of the aeronaut’s more than glacial attitude before 
 the present sovereign of the French people, little accus¬ 
 tomed to the display of such deliberate coolness in 
 answer to offers of assistance, politely but firmly refused 
 by Nadar. Notwithstanding, it is said that the Em¬ 
 peror takes all the more interest in the trials and cou¬ 
 rageous attempts of a man whom he cannot do otherwise 
 than respect. 
 
 From the interest attached to the adventures of 
 “ The Giant,” the managers of the Crystal Palace 
 were desirous of organising an ascent in London; the 
 wounded condition of its captain rendered the execution 
 of that idea impossible, but as soon as the doctors per¬ 
 mitted, M. Nadar accompanied his balloon to Sydenham, 
 where, as will be remembered, it was exhibited durino- 
 
 O 
 
 a month. 
 
 Since then, three fortunate ascents have been made 
 at Brussels, at Lyons, and at Amsterdam, under the 
 direction of M. Nadar, assisted by a new lieutenant, 
 
96 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF M. NADAR. 
 
 M. Camille d’Artois, in the place of the Brothers 
 Godard. 
 
 We have thus very rapidly sketched the life of a 
 inan whose name is known all over the world. Won¬ 
 derfully endowed in every respect, tall and robust, 
 active, lively, of an indomitable courage, and pro¬ 
 verbially frank and honest, Nadar has scarcely the 
 consciousness of his worth. Absolute and absorbing, 
 he has touched upon almost every subject with success. 
 As a man of letters, he has distinguished himself by 
 the authorship of “ Quand j’etais Etudiant,” “ La Robe 
 de Dejanire,” u Le Miroir aux Alouettes,” u Les 
 Memoires du Geant,” and, finally, of the “ Droit au 
 Yol,” the French title of our “ Right to Fly.” As a 
 caricaturist, he took the foremost place for wit and 
 cleverness in the ranks of his brother artists; and now, 
 faithful ever to the logic of his famous motto, “ Quand 
 Meme!” and in spite of every discouragement and dis¬ 
 appointment, he is busied in the pursuit of the study of 
 that all-absorbing problem of the future, as to the ulti¬ 
 mate successful solution of which M. Nadar is perfectly 
 convinced. 
 
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