Meanwhile the advocates of the dirigible balloon had not remained idle, many of them attempting to utilize the principle of the aeroplane in connection with a balloon. Some of these machines were of most fantastic design, but one in particular, that of Mr. Henri Giffard, succeeded so well, and proved to be dirigible to such an extent, that Giffard is sometimes referred to by enthusiastic admirers as "the Fulton of aerial navigation." In principle, and indeed in general appearance, this balloon was not unlike some of the balloons built by Santos-Dumont fifty years later. It had the now-familiar cigar shape, common to most modern dirigible balloons; and beneath was suspended a car carrying a steam-engine that worked a screw propeller. The rudder, placed at the stern just below the balloon in a position corresponding to the rudder of a ship, was a large canvas sail set in a frame. The envelope of the balloon was one hundred and fifty feet long and forty feet in diameter and contained about ninety thousand cubic feet of coal-gas. To lessen the danger of igniting this from the engine, Giffard arranged the chimney so that it pointed downward, and suspended it some forty feet below the envelope. On September 24, 1852, he rose from the Paris Hippodrome, and succeeded in making a headway of from five to seven miles an hour in the face of a strong wind. In response to the rudder his balloon performed some difficult evolutions, turning right or left at the will of the operator. He continued his maneuvers for some time, and then extinguishing his fire, opened the valve and returned safely to the ground. This was a great victory for the advocates of the dirigible balloon, and was indeed a performance that has not until recently been surpassed in the fifty years that have intervened since that time. But despite this initial success, Giffard soon renounced the field of aeronautics, and no worthy successor appeared to take his place for more than a quarter of a century. THE VOYAGES OF THE _GIANT_