The Dominion of the Air: The Story of Aerial NavigationBacon, John M. (John Mackenzie)
History
The Dominion of the Air: The Story of Aerial Navigation
Bacon, John M. (John Mackenzie)
Aeronautics -- History; Balloons
A little while after this de Fonvielle, on a visit to England, had a
most pathetic interview with the veteran Charles Green, who was living
in comfortable retirement at Upper Holloway. The grand old man pointed
to a well-filled portfolio in the corner of his room, in which, he
said, were accounts of all his travels, that would require a lifetime to
peruse and put in order. Green then took his visitor to the end of the
narrow court, and, opening the door of an outhouse, showed him the old
Nassau balloon. "Here is my car," he said, touching it with a kind of
solemn respect, "which, like its old pilot, now reposes quietly after
a long and active career. Here is the guide rope which I imagined in
former years, and which has been found very useful to aeronauts.... Now
my life has past and my time has gone by.... Though my hair is white and
my body too weak to help you, I can still give you my advice, and you
have my hearty wishes for your future."
It was but shortly after this, on March 26, 1870, that Charles Green
passed away in the 85th year of his age.
De Fonvielle's colleague, M. Gaston Tissandier, was on one occasion
accidentally brought to visit the resting place of the earliest among
aeronauts, whose tragic death occurred while Charles Green himself
was yet a boy. In a stormy and hazardous descent Tissandier, under
the guidance of M. Duruof, landed with difficulty on the sea coast of
France, when one of the first to render help was a lightkeeper of the
Griz-nez lighthouse, who gave the information that on the other side of
the hills, a few hundred yards from the spot where they had landed, was
the tomb of Pilatre de Rozier, whose tragical death has been recorded in
an early chapter. A visit to the actual locality the next day revealed
the fact that a humble stone still marked the spot.
Certain scientific facts and memoranda collected by the talented French
aeronaut whom we are following are too interesting to be omitted. In the
same journey to which we have just referred the voyagers, when nearly
over Calais, were witnesses from their commanding standpoint of a very
striking phenomenon of mirage. Looking in the direction of England, the
far coast line was hidden by an immense veil of leaden-coloured cloud,
and, following this cloud wall upward to detect where it terminated, the
travellers saw above it a greenish layer like that of the surface of
the sea, on which was detected a little black point suggesting a walnut
shell. Fixing their eyes on this black spot, they presently discerned
it to be a ship sailing upside down upon an aerial ocean. Soon after, a
steamer blowing smoke, and then other vessels, added themselves to the
illusory spectacle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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