30 John Ruskin, quoted in Fort, p.234
31 Fort, pp.218–19
32 Ibid., p.225
33 Ibid.
34 Glaisher, Travels in the Air, pp.50–5; Astra Castra, pp.385–9
35 The Times, 10 September 1862, p.10
36 J.L. Hunt, p.329
37 Glaisher, Travels in the Air, p.54
38 The Times, 10 September 1862, p.10
39 Ibid.
40 Glaisher, Travels in the Air, p.57
41 The Times, 10 September 1862, p.10
42 See Michael Doughty, ‘James Glaisher’s 1862 Account of Balloon Sickness: Altitude, Decompression Injury, and Hypomexia’, Neurology, No. 60, 25 March 2003
43 Glaisher, Travels in the Air, pp.60–1
44 The Times, 11 September 1862, p.8
45 Gaston Tissandier, Histoire de mes ascensions: Récit de vingt-quatre voyages aériens, Paris, 1868–77
46 Glaisher, Travels in the Air, pp.71–2
47 Ibid., pp.62, 50
48 J.L. Hunt, p.327
49 Glaisher, Travels in the Air, pp.84–94
50 J.L. Hunt, p.329
51 John D. Cox, The Storm Watchers, pp.20–3
52 Michael Doughty, 2003
53 Glaisher, Travels, pp.61–2
54 Hatton Turnor to The Times, 12 July 1863, in Astra Castra, p.245
55 Glaisher, Travels in the Air, p.62
56 Ibid., pp.79, 100
57 Ibid., pp.99–100
58 Ibid., pp.81–2
59 James Glaisher, ‘Address to the Young Men’s Christian Association’, Good News, 1875; reprinted in Astra Castra, pp.387–8
60 Ibid., pp.386–9
CHAPTER 9: MARINERS OF THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE
1 Fonvielle, in Travels in the Air, London, 1871, p.265
2 Gaston Flammarion, in Travels in the Air, London, 1871, p.112
3 Ibid., p.120
4 Michael J. Crowe, The Extra-Terrestrial Life Debate, 1998, pp.378–9
5 R.H. Sherard, ‘Flammarion the Astronomer’, in McClure’s Magazine, 1894
6 Crowe, p.386
7 Ibid., p.383
8 Camille Flammarion, L’Astronomie populaire, Paris, 1880
9 Camille Flammarion, L’Atmosphère, Paris, 1888, p.163
10 Sherard, 1894
11 Flammarion, in Travels in the Air, London, 1871, p.105
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid., p.122
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid., pp.123, 142, 106
16 Stan Yorke, Weather Forecasting Made Simple, Countryside Books, 2010, pp.6–8
17 Flammarion, in Travels in the Air, London, 1871, p.111
18 Ibid., p.123
19 Ibid., p.179
20 Ibid., pp.123, 136
21 Ibid., p.174
22 Ibid., p.136
23 Ibid., p.140
24 Jason Chapman et al., ‘Vertical-Looking Radar: A New Tool for Monitoring High-Altitude Insect Migration’, BioScience, Vol. 53, No. 5, May 2003
25 Flammarion, in Travels in the Air, London, 1871, pp.154, 160
26 Ibid., pp.128, 140, 136
27 Ibid., pp.169, 166
28 Ibid., pp.179, 183–4
29 Ibid., pp.120, 147
30 Ibid., pp.147–8
31 Tissandier, in Travels in the Air, London, 1871, p.291
32 Ibid.
33 Ibid., p.292
34 Ibid.
35 Ibid., p.295
36 Ibid.
37 Ibid., p.296
38 Ibid.
39 Ibid., pp.296–7
40 Ibid., p.301
42 Ibid., p.311
43 Ibid., p.322
44 Ibid., pp.350–3
45 Gaston Tissandier, ‘Histoire d’un ballon’, Le Magasin pittoresque, Tome XXXVIII, 1870, Tissandier Collection, Library of Congress, Washington
46 Ibid. ‘Histoire d’un ballon’, Chapitre XII, ‘Les Courants d’air’
47 Gaston Tissandier, Voyages aériens, Paris 1870
48 Tissandier, in Travels in the Air, London, 1871, p.398
49 The copy of Travels in the Air, with Glaisher’s manuscript comments, is held at the Royal Astronomical Society; J.L. Hunt, p.332
CHAPTER 10: PARIS AIRBORNE
1 Paul Maincent, Genèse de la poste aérienne du siège de Paris, Paris, 1951, p.58
2 The Times, original paper copies held in the London Library archive
3 Robert Baldick, The Siege of Paris, Batsford, 1964, p.28
4 The Times, 17 September 1871
5 Maincent, p.60
6 Henry Labouchère, in Baldick, p.28
7 Baldick, pp.29–31
8 Gaston Tissandier, ‘Les Ballons du siège de Paris’, Magasin pittoresque, Tome XL, 1872, p.1, Library of Congress Archive, Tissandier Box 11
9 Baldick, p.128
10 Théophile Gautier, Les Plus belles lettres de Théophile Gautier, présentées par Pierre Descaves, Calmann-Levy, Paris, 1962, p.139
11 Baldick, p.145
12 The Times, 3 October 1870, p.9
13 Victor Debuchy, Les Ballons du siège de Paris, Paris, 1973, Annexe: ‘Envols des ballons’, pp.408–22
14 Gaston Tissandier, ‘Les Ballons du siège de Paris’, Magasin pittoresque, Paris, 1872, p.i
15 Prinet and Dilasser, pp.173, 187; Maincent, p.56
16 Prinet and Dilasser, p.175; Maincent, p.66
17 Prinet and Dilasser, p.174; Maincent, p.60
18 Maincent, p.66
19 Ibid., p.91
20 Debuchy, p.408
21 Prinet and Dilasser, p.173
22 Maincent, p.102
23 Fonvielle, Aventures Aériennes et expériences mémorables, 1876, p.364
24 John Fisher, Airlift 1870: The Balloon and Pigeon Post in the Siege of Paris, Max Parrish, 1965, p.21; Fonvielle, Aventures aériennes, p.364
25 The Times, 28 September 1871, p.5, partly quoted in Prinet and Dilasser, pp.179–80
26 Fisher, p.23
27 Tissandier, ‘Les Ballons du siège de Paris’, p.2
28 Prinet and Dilasser, p.184
29 Ibid., pp.182–3
30 Fisher, p.34
31 Hugo, Choses vues, in Joanna Richardson, Paris Under Siege: A Journal of the Events of 1870–1871, London, 1982
32 Fisher, p.36
33 Gambetta’s despatch quoted Stephens, p.107
34 Account taken from Moniteur Universel (Tours edition), 7 October 1870; Stephens, pp.106–7; and Tissandier, ‘Les Ballons du siège de Paris’
35 Rolt, p.174
36 For a complete list of all siege balloons, with their launch dates and a landing map, see Stephens, pp.106–10
37 Prinet and Dilasser, p.184
38 Baldick, p.126
39 David L. Bristow, Sky Sailors, Farrar Straus Giroux, 2010, pp.89–91
40 Debuchy, pp.236–8; Rolt, p.176
41 Théophile Gautier, Tableaux du siège, Paris, 1871, p.42
42 Tissandier, ‘Les Ballons du siège de Paris’, p.11
43 Baldick, pp.114–15
44 Prinet and Dilasser, p.186
45 Baldick, pp.116–18
46 Ibid., pp.117–18; Fisher, pp.70–2; Rolt, p.175; Prinet and Dilasser, p.186. Not surprisingly, each gives slightly different figures (see n.48, below). The whole process is described by Nadar in Quand j’étais photographe
47 Prinet and Dilasser, p.186; Baldick, p.116
48 Statistics from Baldick, p.118, and Rolt, p.177. Victor Debuchy estimates 407 carrier pigeons released, carrying 95,642 individual messages, with seventy-three pigeons making it home. But he makes no specific claim for the total number of messages actually delivered by them. As with all wartime statistics, these figures have to be treated with caution. Debuchy, pp.402–4
49 Baldick, p.120
50 Richardson, p.92
51 ‘Une Bombe aux feuillantes’, in Victor Hugo, L’Année terrible, Paris, 1871, p.126
52 Hugo, pp.116–18
53
Fisher, p.128
54 Hugo, pp.116 –17; also Fisher, p.129
55 This irony of war is discussed by Graham Robb, Victor Hugo, Picador, 1997, p.145
56 Fisher, p.139
57 Debuchy, Annexe: ‘Les Ballons’; Stephens, flight list, pp.106–10; Rolt, p.176
58 Coxwell, pp.179–82
59 Rolt, p.176
60 Debuchy, pp.224–36
61 Coxwell, p.181; Rolt, p.176; Debuchy, pp.398–9
62 Prinet and Dilasser, p.184
63 Fulgence Marion, Wonderful Balloon Ascents, Paris, London and New York, 1874, p.220
64 J.L. Hunt, p.333
65 Rolt, p.177
66 Fisher, fig. X
67 Rolt, pp.198–9; La Part du rêve, 1983
68 Rolt, p.152
CHAPTER 11: EXTREME BALLOONS
1 See Thor Hanson, Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle, Basic Books, 2012
2 Rolt, p.214
3 Album Maupassant, Pléiade, Gallimard, 1987, pp.248–9, 186
4 H.G. Wells, The War in the Air, 1908, Chapter 3, ‘The Balloon’, Penguin Classics, 2005, p.53
5 Ibid., Chapter 4, ‘The German Air-Fleet’, p.79
6 All posters from the Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico
7 Dolly Shepherd (with Peter Hearn), When the ’Chute Went Up: Adventures of a Pioneer Lady Parachutist, London, 1970. See also the Ashby de la Zouche Museum, Leicestershire. Dolly lived to raise a family, serve in the First World War, and fly (but not jump) with the Red Devils parachute team in the 1980s
8 Ibid., p.129
9 Ibid., pp.48–9
10 Salomon Andrée, The Andrée Diaries, Being the Diaries and Records of S.A. Andrée, Nils Strindberg and Knut Fraenkel … Discovered on White Island in 1930. Translated by Edward Adams-Ray, London, 1931, pp.6–10
11 Alec Wilkinson, The Ice Balloon, Fourth Estate, 2012, p.39
12 Ibid., p.15
13 David Hempleman-Adams, At the Mercy of the Winds, Bantam, 2001
14 Andrée Diaries, pp.9–11
15 Rolt, p.153
16 George Putnam, Andrée: The Record of a Tragic Adventure, New York, 1930, p.87
17 Andrée Diaries, p.28
18 Putnam, pp.88–118
19 Andrée Diaries, p.30
20 Ibid., pp.35–6
21 Ibid., pp.36, 34
22 Ibid., p.36
23 Ibid., pp.29–31; Wilkinson, p.88; Rolt, pp.153–5
24 Rolt, pp.153–4
25 Andrée Diaries, p.31
26 Ibid., p.35
27 Ibid., p.38
28 Putnam, pp.75–6
29 Nansen quoted ibid.; and Wilkinson, p.130
30 Wilkinson, p.162
31 Andrée Diaries, p.68
32 Ibid., p.ix
33 Strindberg almanac, ibid., p.419
34 Ibid., p.422
35 Andrée Diaries, p.111
36 Ibid., pp.76–7
37 ‘Height of the Balloon during its Flight’, a graph profile, Andrée Diaries, p.81
38 Strindberg almanac, ibid., p.428
39 Ibid.; Andrée Diaries, p.84
40 Andrée Diaries, p.348
41 Strindberg, ‘Letter to Anna’, ibid., p.431
42 Strindberg almanac, Andrée Diaries, pp.428–9; Andrée Diaries, p.112
43 Andrée Diaries, p.353
44 Ibid., p.352
45 Ibid., p.353
46 Ibid., pp.352–3
47 Ibid., p.88
48 Rolt, p.155
49 Strindberg almanac, Andrée Diaries, p.433
50 Andrée Diaries, p.92
51 Ibid., p.95; Strindberg almanac, ibid., p.434
52 Rolt, p.157
53 Strindberg almanac, Andrée Diaries, p.443
54 Strindberg ‘Letter to Anna’, ibid., p.451
55 Andrée Diaries, p.184; and see ‘Andrée Polar Expedition’ map
56 Ibid., p.189
57 Strindberg ‘Letter to Anna’, ibid., p.451
58 Andrée Diaries, pp.189, 444
59 Ibid., pp.ix, 169
60 Ibid., p.199
61 Ibid., p.412
62 Strindberg almanac, ibid., p.434
63 Andrée Diaries, pp.414–15; Wilkinson, p.221
64 Strindberg almanac, Andrée Diaries, p.435
EPILOGUE
1 As so often in ballooning, her true story has partly been told in fiction, in the novel Anna’s Book, by George MacBeth, 1983
2 This remarkable phenomenon can be explored at various internet sites, such as HotAirBalloonEvents.org
3 Coral Reefs: Research Methods, D. R. Stoddard, UNESCO, 1987
Bibliography
ARCHIVES AND MUSEUMS
The London Library
The British Library, London
The Royal Society, London
The Penn-Gaskell Collection, Science Museum, London
The Cuthbert-Hodgson Collection, National Aerospace Library, Royal Aeronautical Society, Farnborough, Hampshire
The British Balloon Museum and Library. Internet: http://www.bbml.org.uk/
The Ashby de la Zouche Museum, Leicestershire
Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace, Le Bourget, Paris
Château de Balleroy, Musée de Ballons, 14490 Balleroy, Normandy, France
The State Library of New South Wales, Australia
The Tissandier Collection, Library of Congress, Washington DC
The National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC
The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Dulles International Airport, Washington DC
The Smithsonian Library, Washington DC
The Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum, New Mexico, USA
The Andrée Expedition Polar Centre, Gränna, Sweden
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aeronautica – see Monck Mason
Salomon Andrée, The Andrée Diaries, Being the Diaries and Records of S.A. Andrée, Nils Strindberg and Knut Fraenkel … Discovered on White Island in 1930. Translated by Edward Adams-Ray, London, 1931
The Marquis d’Arlandes, ‘My Ascent with Pilâtre de Rozier’, Paris, 21 November 1783; partly reprinted in Astra Castra, and Fontaine
Astra Castra – see Charles Hatton Turnor
Robert Baldick, The Siege of Paris, London, 1964
Thomas Baldwin, Airopaedia, or Narrative of a Balloon Excursion from Chester in 1785, London, 1786
R.M. Ballantyne, Up in the Clouds, London, 1870
Joseph Banks, The Scientific Correspondence of Joseph Banks, Vol. 2, 1782–1784, ed. Neil Chambers, Pickering & Chatto, London, 2007
Stephan Bann, ‘Nadar’s Aerial View’, Seeing From Above: The Aerial View in Visual Culture, I.B. Tauris online publisher, 2012
Cyrano de Bergerac, The Comical History of the Empires of the Worlds in the Moon and the Sun, 1687; from the original French, Histoire comique … de la Lune, 1657; available as Journey to the Moon, translated by Andrew Brown, Hesperus Classics, London, 2007
Jean-Pierre Blanchard, Journal of my Forty-Fifth Ascension and the First in America, Philadelphia, 1794; partly reprinted in Astra Castra
David L. Bristow, Sky Sailors: True Stories of the Balloon Era, Farrar Straus Giroux, 2010
F.L. Bruel, Histoire aéronautique par les monuments, Paris, 1909
Jean Bruno, Les Aventures de Paul enlevé par un ballon, illustrations by J. Desoudré, Paris, Bernardin-Bechet, 1858
Tiberius Cavallo, FRS, A Treatise on the History and Practice of Aerostation, London, 1785
Jason Chapman et al., ‘Vertical-Looking Radar: A New Tool for Monitoring High-Altitude Insect Migration’, BioScience, Vol. 53, No. 5, May 2003
Dr Alexandre Charles, Representation du Globe Aérostatique … avec le récit de son voyage aérien, Paris, December 1783; partly reprinted in Astra Castra, and Fontaine
I.F. Clarke, Voices Prophesying War: Future Wars 1763–3749, OUP, 1993
John D. Cox, The Storm Watchers: The Turbulent History of W
eather Prediction, 2003
Henry Coxwell, My Life and Balloon Experiences, London, 1887
Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage, 1895
Tom D. Crouch, The Eagle Aloft: Two Centuries of Ballooning in America, Smithsonian Institution, 1983
Michael J. Crowe, The Extraterrestrial Life Debate 1750–1900, Dover Books, 1999
General George C. Custer, ‘War Memoirs’, The Galaxy: A Magazine of Entertaining Reading, Vol. XXII, November 1876, pp.685–7; partly reprinted in Crouch, and Evans
Victor Debuchy, Les Ballons du siège de Paris, Editions France-Empire, Paris, 1973
Charles Dickens, ‘Vauxhall Gardens by Day’, Sketches by Boz, 1836
Charles Dickens, ‘Lying Awake’, Household Words, 30 October 1852
Linda Donn, The Little Balloonist, (a novel about Sophie Blanchard), Penguin USA, 2006
Mark Dorrian, ‘On Google Earth’, Seeing From Above: The Aerial View in Visual Culture, I.B. Tauris online publisher, 2012
Michael Doughty, ‘James Glaisher’s 1862 Account of Balloon Sickness: Altitude, Decompression Injury, and Hypomexia’, Neurology, No. 60, 25 March 2003
Arthur B. Evans, Jules Verne Rediscovered: Didacticism and the Scientific Novel, Greenwood Press, 1988
Charles M. Evans, War of the Aeronauts: A History of Ballooning in the Civil War, Stackpole Books, USA, 2002
John Fisher, Airlift 1870: The Balloon and Pigeon Post in the Siege of Paris, Max Parrish, 1965
Camille Flammarion, L’Astronomie populaire, Paris, 1880
Camille Flammarion, L’Atmosphère, Paris, 1888
Camille Flammarion, see James Glaisher, Travels in the Air
Kate Flint, The Victorians and the Visual Imagination, CUP, 2000
Raymonde Fontaine, La Manche en ballon, Paris, 1982
Wilfrid de Fonvielle, Aventures aériennes et expériences mémorables, Paris, 1876
Wilfrid de Fonvielle, see James Glaisher, Travels in the Air
Tom Fort, Under the Weather, Arrow Books, 2007
Elaine Freedgood, Victorian Writing About Risk, CUP, 2000
Théophile Gautier, Tableaux du siège, Paris, 1871
Théophile Gautier, Les Plus belles lettres, Paris, 1962
Charles Gillispie, The Montgolfier Brothers, Princeton UP, 1983
James Glaisher, with Camille Flammarion, Gaston Tissandier and Wilfrid de Fonvielle, Travels in the Air, with 125 illustrations, London, 1871
James Glaisher, ‘Address to the Young Men’s Christian Association’, Good News, 1875; reprinted in Astra Castra
Thor Hanson, Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle, Basic Books, 2012