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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 1147.PDF
MAY 28TH, 1942 FLIGHT FLICHTS OF FANCY times in every civilised language. Iji an account of his life and his,travels, Cyrano de Bergerac describes his flight into the stratosphere, telling how at Toulouse he built a small wooden chamber topped by a large glass sphere into which 20 strong lenses col lected the rays of the sun. Through the sun's rays the atmo sphere inside the glass sphere was rare fied and the light air which thus developed raised tfae apparatus, with Cyrano inside, inf/the air. Thus the poetic imagination of this curiously romantic character, this Cyrano who was the greatest brawler, swash- "dUfpkler, swordsman and one of the most gifted writers and physicists of his day, anticipated the method by which, many years later, the brothers Montgolfier raised their first balloon into the air by filling it with a sub stance lighter than the surrounding atmosphere. Dewdrop Lift This, however, was not the only solution for getting to the moon sug gested by the ingenious Cyrano. He had no less than seven methods of stratosphere flying, among which was the device of hanging globes filled with dewdrops on his belt—the sun's raj^, drinking up the dew, would raise him into the air. There was also the plan of letting him self be carried away by the tide when there was a full moon. The theory that the ocean tide is influenced by the gravita tional power of the moon was already known in Cyrano's time and it was a joke on this theory that Cyrano'suggested travelling to the moon by this means. 20-goose Take-off Of course, all these were merely humorous fancies of Cyrano's imagination, but they made him one of the most fashionable authors of his time and showed the trend of the public's interest. Another story about a moon voyage was printed at Nurn- burg in the year 1C84. One of the illustration's to this novel shows the intrepid stratospheric traveller being carried toward the moon by a score of geese harnessed to a wooden frame ; another displays a "moon scape " and, far below, the tiny terrestrial sphere. All these stories were frankly The fabulous country of Cacklogallinia, or the Wise Fowls. (Above) The apparatus for stratosphere flying in which the Wise Fowls carried the hero of Samuel Brunt's story up to the moon.' The flying decachord. Ten American ducks carry the first intrepid stratosphere flyer up to the moon—on paper. From Bishop Godwin's romance^ "A Man in the Moon," publishe"d.jn 1638. Cyrano de Bergerac on his way to the moon in the "flying chamber " which he invented according to the principles which later led to th* experiments of the Brothers Montgolfier. imaginative, freaks of fancy, and were regarded as such. A Viennese humorist, however, whose name has not come down to posterity, must have vastly enjoyed the huge joke that lay in the fact that a similar story which he invented was seriously believed by his contem poraries and scientifically discussed. What is more, even posterity believed him and bewailed the loss of the wonderful vehicle in which the unknown in ventor accomplished a stratosphere voyage. On June 1st, J^f€g, a journal of Vienna pub lished a report on the "Flying Ship," with a picture and an account of the first flight accom plished in it. The report does not re veal the secret "of the power which raises and propels this "Flying Ship," but calls it "an invention th^t will be of great use to armies in war." The writer goes on to say that in the course of his first voyage he was attacked by various beasts, but escaped, thanks to his rapid loco \ ;N n^wcw-Y
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