Further Reading on Aerostation (Ballooning)

The most important works that have appeared on the subject of aerostation are --

Dadaelus, or Mechanical Motions, by Bishop Wilkins, London, 1648; A Treatise on the Nature and Properties of Air and other Permanently Elastic Fluids, by Tiberius Cavallo, Lond 1781; Account of the First Aerial Voyage in England, in a Series of Letters to his Guardian, by Vincent Lunardi, London, 1784; History and Practice of Aerostation, by Tiberius Cavallo, London, 1785; Annals of some Remarkable Aerial and Alpine Voyages, including those of the author, by T. Forster, London, 1832; Aeronautica, by Monck Mason, London, 1838; A System of Aeronautics, comprehending its Earliest Investigations, by John Wise, Philadelphia, 1850; Astra Castra, Experiments and Adventures in the Atmosphere, by Hatton Turnor, London 1865; Voyages Aeriéns, par J. Glaisher, C. Flammation, W. de Fonvielle, et G. Tissandier, Paris, 1870; the same translated into English and published, edited by James Glaisher, under the title, Travels in the Air, London, 1871.

All the above books we have seen ourselves, and used in the preparation of the present article. Astra Castra is a work of 530 pp. large quarto; it consists chiefly of extract from other works and writings, and it is useful as affording data for a history rather than as a history itself. On pp. 463-465 is a list of books and papers on aeronatics, which seems fairly complete up to the date 1864. In the list are also included memoirs and papers which we have not noted in the last paragraph, as the most important of them are referred to under their special subjects in the course of this article. We should advise any one desirous of studying the history of aeronautics to consult Mr. Turnor's list in Astra Castra, which is the most perfect we have met with. He has marked with an asterisk those works that may be consulted by the public in the library of the Patent Office, which contains, besides books, a valuable collection of prints and broadsheets on the subject of aerostation. (J. G.)





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Aeronautics - Table of Contents



The above article was written by: James Glaisher, F.R.S., F.R.A.S., author of Travels in the Air.