The aeronautical competitions at the St. Louis Exhibition, in America, have given a great impetus to one branch at least of aeronautics, while the labour of many scientific workers throughout the whole world is directed to the improvement of our present modes of exploring the heavens, and the turning to best account of the means already at our disposal. Never since the days when the Montgolfier brothers floated their first frail craft has so much interest as now been manifested in the conquest of the sky, and never has progress been more rapid and sure. Whether the day will ever come when man will rule the atmosphere as he now does the sea is, as yet, uncertain, but there are many who hope and believe not only that he will, but that the day is not far distant when the birds will no longer hold undisputed sway over the empire of the air. Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. Edinburgh & London Transcriber’s Notes Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced quotation marks retained. Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Balloons, Airships, and Flying Machines, by Gertrude Bacon