CHAPTER 1: THE FALLING DREAM
1 Ovid, Metamorphoses, translated by David Raeburn, Penguin Classics, 2004, pp.303–6
2 Carole Rawcliffe and Richard Wilson (eds), Norwich Since 1500, Hambledon and London, 2004; Hilaire Belloc, ‘A Norfolk Man’, On Something, 1925; New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, John Money; J.E. Hodgson, The History of Aeronautics in Great Britain, Oxford, 1924, pp.179–85
3 Norwich Since 1500, pp.80–2
4 Ibid., pp.80–3
5 L.T.C. Rolt, The Aeronauts: A Dramatic History of the Great Age of Ballooning, London, 1966 (republished as The Balloonists, 2006), p.95
6 J.E. Hodgson, The History of Aeronautics in Great Britain, Oxford, 1924, p.183
7 Don Cameron, Preface to L.T.C. Rolt
8 John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 2, lines 1049–55
9 See Julian Nott, official website
10 Sources: ‘Freedom Balloon’ by John Dornberg, Popular Mechanics, February 1980; Ballonflucht, Günter Wetzel official website; Night Crossing, film treatment
11 Airey Neave, They Have Their Exits: The First Briton to Make the Home Run from Colditz, London, 1970; and Pat Reid, The Latter Days at Colditz, London 1953
12 See Raymonde Fontaine, La Manche en ballon, Paris, 1982, pp.67–72
13 Thomas Baldwin, Airopaedia, or Narrative of a Balloon Excursion from Chester in 1785, London, 1786, p.204
14 J.E. Hodgson, The History of Aeronautics in Great Britain, Oxford, 1924, pp.132, 131
15 Blanchard, Journal of my Forty-Fifth Ascension, Paris, 1793
16 Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico
17 David King-Hele, Erasmus Darwin, London 1999, p.187
18 Joseph Banks, The Scientific Correspondence of Joseph Banks, Vol. 2, 1782–1784, Neil Chambers, Pickering & Chatto, London, 2007, Letter 380
19 Richard Holmes, The Age of Wonder, London, 2008, pp.135–6
20 Joseph Banks, Letter 377
21 Richard Hamblyn, Terra: Tales of the Earth, London, 2010, p.121
22 See ‘Balloon Flying Handbook’, Federal Aviation Authority, official website; and ‘Balloon Lift Statistics’, Chemistry Hawaii, official website
23 Tiberius Cavallo, FRS, A Treatise on the History and Practice of Aerostation, London, 1785, pp.164–5
24 Ibid., pp.192–3
25 Ibid., pp.144–7
26 Ibid., p.189
27 Ibid., p.323
28 Cyrano de Bergerac, Journey to the Moon, translated by Andrew Brown, Hesperus Classics, London, 2007, pp.36, 34
29 Cyrano de Bergerac, Comical History of the Moon, partially reprinted in Astra Castra, pp.390–5 (see Bibliography)
30 See Robert Poole, Earthrise: How Man First Saw the Earth, Yale, 2008, pp.1–2
CHAPTER 2: FIERY PROSPECTS
1 Sophia Banks’s scrapbook, British Library LR.301.3
2 Ibid., item no. 48c
3 Ibid., items nos 41t, 43t, 43b
4 Reported by Lieutenant G.E. Grover, Military Ballooning, 1862, p.9
5 See Wilfrid de Fonvielle, ‘La Premiere Compagnie des Aérostiers’, Aventures aériennes, pp.117–39
6 See I.F. Clarke, Voices Prophesying War: Future Wars 1763–3749, OUP, 1993
7 Rolt, pp.104–9
8 Hodgson, pp.218–20
9 Christopher Hatton Turnor, Astra Castra: Experiments and Adventures in the Atmosphere, London, 1865, p.115
10 Jacques Garnerin, Three Aerial Voyages, 1803; Patrick Stephens, The Romance of Ballooning: The Story of the Early Aeronauts, Patrick Stephens Ltd with Edita Lausanne, 1971, p.78
11 John Wise, Through the Air, 1873, pp.127, 129
12 Rolt, p.108
13 Raspe, “The Frolic’, Chapter XII, The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, London, 1895
14 La Part du rêve: De la Montgolfière au Satellite, Grand Palais exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1983; Dictionnaire universelle, 1854, p.216
15 J. Martin, The Almanac of Women and Minorities in World Politics, HarperCollins, 2000, p.466
16 A facsimile of this letter, together with several of Lisa Garnerin’s posters, appears in F.L. Bruel, Histoire aéronautique, 1909
17 Gentleman’s Magazine, Vol. 89, Part 2, July 1819, pp.76–7
18 John Poole, Crotchets in the Air, 1838, pp.79–80; reprinted in Astra Castra, pp.399–414
19 Monck Mason, Aeronautica, or Sketches Illustrative of the Theory and Practice of Aerostation, London, 1838, pp.261–2; Hodgson, pp.223–4; Rolt, pp.115–16
20 Aeronautica, p.263
21 Ibid., p.262; Hodgson, pp.223–4; Rolt, pp.115–16
22 Hodgson, p.224
23 La Part du rêve; and Hodgson, p.207, Fig. 65
24 Jane Loudon, The Mummy!, London, 1827, pp.50, 123, 217
25 Ibid., p.83
CHAPTER 3: AIRY KINGDOMS
1 Elaine Freedgood, Victorian Writing About Risk, CUP, 2000, pp.74–81
2 Mary Shelley, The Last Man, Vol. 1, 1825
3 See Mary Shelley, Journal, 4 August 1816
4 Mayhew in Astra Castra, pp.223ff. The largely satirical accounts of flying with Green, by Poole and Smith, can also be found in Astra Castra
5 Rolt, p.120
6 Aeronautica, pp.151–2
7 Rolt, pp.117–21
8 New Zealand government: Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) Interim Report No. 12-001, Carterton, 7 January 2012
9 Aeronautica, p.49; Rolt, p.124
10 Aeronautica, p.33
11 Ibid., p.40
12 Ibid., p.46
13 Ibid., p.49
14 Ibid., pp.52–3
15 Gaston Flammarion, in Travels in the Air, London, 1871, p.207
16 Aeronautica, p.55
17 Ibid., p.57
18 Ibid.
19 Ibid., p.59
20 Ibid., pp.59–60; there is a slightly different version in Stephens, p.89
21 Edgar Allan Poe, ‘The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall’, 1835; in Astra Castra
22 For the view that Poe rather than Mary Shelley was the father/mother of science fiction, see Adam Roberts, ‘An Infinity Plus Introduction to Hans Pfaall’, 2002. Internet website Infinityplus
23 Aeronautica, pp.62–3
24 Ibid., p.65
25 Ibid., pp.68, 70. William Parry made four major expeditions into the Arctic, in 1819, 1821, 1824 and 1827
26 Ibid., pp.66–7
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid., pp.66–8 and footnote
29 Ibid., p.77 and the not entirely reassuring footnote by Mason
30 Rolt, p.124
31 Thomas Hood, ‘Ode to Messrs Green …’, poem, 1836
32 Aeronautica, pp.175–86
33 Ibid., p.171
34 Ibid., p.183
35 Elaine Freedgood, Victorian Writing About Risk, CUP, 2000, pp.74–81
36 John Poole, ‘Crotchets in the Air’, 1838; reprinted in Astra Castra, pp.408–10
37 Tennyson, ‘Locksley Hall’, 1842, lines 119ff
38 Aeronautica, p.26
39 Ibid., p.21
40 Charles Green interview, Astra Castra, pp.179–80
41 Daniel Burgoyne, ‘Coleridge and Poe’s Scientific Faith’, Romanticism on the Net, February 2001
CHAPTER 4: ANGEL’S EYE
1 Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, 1851, pp.295–7
2 Illustrated London News, 18 September 1852
3 Charles Dickens, ‘Vauxhall Gardens by Day’, Sketches by Boz, 1836
4 Charles Dickens, Household Words, Contents Index, British Library X981/10221
5 Richard Hengist Horne, ‘Ballooning’, Household Words, Vol. IV, 25 October 1851
6 Charles Dickens, ‘Lying Awake’, Household Words, 30 October 1852
7 Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico
8 ‘Newcastle on Fire’, Illustrated London News, 14 October 1854
9 David Coke and Alan Borg, Vauxhall Gardens: A History, Yale UP, 2011
1 Tom D. Crouch, The Eagle Aloft: Two Centuries of Ballooning in America, Smithsonian Institution, 1983, pp.222–4
2 Ibid., p.224
3 Ibid., pp.234–5
4 Ibid., pp.227–9
5 Wise, Through the Air, 1873, pp.27–31
6 Ibid., p.248; Crouch, pp.183–4
7 Wise, A System of Aeronautics, 1850, pp.260–1; Crouch, pp.186–7
8 Wise, 1850, p.261
9 Charles M. Evans, War of the Aeronauts: A History of Ballooning in the Civil War, Stackpole Books, USA, 2002, p.31
10 Crouch, p.189
11 Ibid., pp.197ff
12 Wise, 1873, Chapter XLV, p.530
13 Wise, 1850, p.261
14 Rolt, p.141; Crouch, p.248
15 Brian Holden Reid, The Civil War and the Wars of the Nineteenth Century, series editor John Keegan, Smithsonian Books, USA, 2006
16 Crouch, p.249
17 Rolt, pp.141–2
18 Wise, 1873, p.494
19 Crouch, p.689
20 Wise, 1873, p.510
21 Crouch, p.254
22 Wise, 1873, pp.493–4
23 Ibid., p.499
24 Ibid., p.508
25 Charles Dickens diary – letter to John Forster, see Forster, Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. 3, 1872–74, pp.240–60, 1842
26 Stephens, p.96
27 Wise, 1873, p.504
28 Ibid., pp.504–7
29 Ibid., p.507
30 Ibid., p.508
31 Stephens, p.96; Rolt, p.141
32 Wise, 1873, p.508; Crouch, p.252
33 Wise, 1873, p.509
34 Wise, 1873, pp.508–10; Crouch, pp.252–3;
35 Wise, 1873, p.513
36 Ibid., p.510
37 Ibid., p.514
38 Ibid., p.518
39 Crouch, p.254
40 Wise, 1873, pp.517–18
41 Crouch, pp.255–61
42 Evans, War of the Aeronauts, p.1
43 Lowe, My Balloons in Peace and War, p.3, quoted Evans, War of the Aeronauts, p.39
44 Lowe, My Balloons, quoted Crouch, p.264
45 Crouch, p.264
46 Ibid., p.275
47 Ibid., p.276
48 Lowe, My Balloons, pp.32–4
49 Crouch, p.277
CHAPTER 6: SPIES IN THE SKY
1 Evans, War of the Aeronauts, p.63
2 Reid, p.77. West Virginia refused to secede and was admitted to the Union in 1863
3 Ibid., p.86
4 Ibid., p.81
5 Evans, War of the Aeronauts, p.261
6 Crouch, p.368
7 Evans, War of the Aeronauts, p.9
8 Crouch, p.277
9 Ms of Lowe’s letter held in Library of Congress, and quoted Crouch, p.346
10 Lowe, My Balloons, p.69; Evans, War of the Aeronauts, p.73
11 Evans, War of the Aeronauts, p.85
12 Crouch, pp.343–4
13 Evans, War of the Aeronauts, p.130
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid., pp.98–9, 130
16 Ibid., p.143
17 Lowe, My Balloons, p.194
18 Reid, pp.77–80
19 Evans, War of the Aeronauts, p.133
20 For more on Lowe’s wartime experiences, see Gail Jarrow, Lincoln’s Flying Spies, USA, 2010; and Stephen Poleskie, The Balloonist: The Story of T.S.C. Lowe, USA, 2007, a partly fictionalised biography
21 Lowe, My Balloons, p.113
22 Detroit Press, ‘The Yankee Balloon’, 1886, quoted ibid.
23 George Townsend (newspaper reporter), ‘Fitzjohn Porter Views the Confederate Army from a Balloon’, quoted in Henry Steele Commager, The Blue and the Gray, Vol. 1, 1950
24 Lowe, My Balloons, pp.29–30
25 Evans, War of the Aeronauts, p.184
26 Lowe, My Balloons, p.32
27 Ibid., passim
28 Lowe, ‘The Balloons with the Army of the Potomac: A Personal Reminiscence’, p.3; quoted in Evans, War of the Aeronauts, p.329. See also the Lowe website at civilwarhome.com
29 Lowe, My Balloons, p.86
30 Henry Coxwell, My Life and Balloon Experiences, London, 1887, p.178
31 Evans, War of the Aeronauts, p.167. However, it is difficult to believe that some aerial photographs will not eventually be found in the ever-expanding Civil War archives
32 Lowe, ‘The Balloons with the Army of the Potomac’, p2
33 Ibid., p.1
34 Reid, p.92
35 Crouch, p.387
36 Evans, War of the Aeronauts, pp.168–9
37 St James’s Magazine, 1863, pp.96–105, quoted Crouch, p.387
38 Lieutenant G.E. Grover, Military Ballooning, 1862, p.21; also quoted in Coxwell, p.178
39 Frederick Beaumont and George Grover, On Balloon Reconnaissances, 1863, British Library X639/1795
40 General George C. Custer, ‘War Memoirs’, The Galaxy: A Magazine of Entertaining Reading, Vol. XXII, November 1876, pp.685–7; see also Evans, War of the Aeronauts, pp.184–8; Crouch, pp.383–6 and note p.699
41 Evans, War of the Aeronauts, pp.205–6. The documentary discovery of the real ‘silk dress balloon’ must largely be credited to the brilliant archival research of Charles M. Evans
42 Cheeves to Longstreet, 1896, from ibid., p.206
43 Evans, War of the Aeronauts, p.236
44 Crouch, p.394
45 Lowe, My Balloons, p.143
46 Evans, War of the Aeronauts, p.237
47 Ibid., p.222
48 Ibid., p.223
49 Ibid., p.235
50 Ibid., p.228; Lowe, My Balloons, p.135
51 Evans, War of the Aeronauts, p.240
52 Opinion of Major-General A.W. Creeley, cited in Lowe, My Balloons, p.140
53 Evans, War of the Aeronauts, p.243
54 Ibid., pp.242–3
55 Lowe, My Balloons, p.145
56 Ann Rinaldi, Girl in Blue, USA, 1988, pp.199–200
57 General James Longstreet, Century Magazine, 1896, quoted Crouch, p.393
58 Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, Part 33, composed c.1867, partly about the Civil War: ‘By the cot in the hospital reaching lemonade to a feverish patient …’
59 Stephen Crane, ‘The Price of the Harness’, Scribner’s Magazine, September 1898
60 Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage, 1895
61 Evans, War of the Aeronauts, p.299
62 Lowe, My Balloons, pp.204–5
63 Ibid., p.208
64 Evans, War of the Aeronauts, p.308
65 Ibid., p.309
66 Ibid.
CHAPTER 7: GIGANTIC VOYAGES
1 Richard Holmes, ‘Monsieur Nadar’, Sidetracks: Explorations of a Romantic Biographer, HarperCollins, London, 2000, pp.57–8
2 Jean Prinet and Antoinette Dilasser, Nadar, Collection Kiosque, Librairie Armand Colin, Paris, 1966, p.124
3 Holmes, ‘Monsieur Nadar’
4 Félix Nadar, Quand j’étais photographe, 1894, p.121
5 Ibid.; Prinet and Dilasser, pp.134–5
6 Nadar, Quand j’étais photographe, pp.113–14; see Stephan Bann, ‘Nadar’s Aerial View’, Seeing from Above; The Aerial View in Visual Culture, I.B. Tauris online publisher, 2012
7 Prinet and Dilasser, p.135
8 Nadar, Quand j’étais photographe, 1894, p.121
9 Prinet and Dilasser, p.140
10 Félix Nadar, Mémoires du Géant, 1864, pp.24–7
11 Prinet and Dilasser, pp.145, 142; cover of L’Aéronaute in La Part du rêve: De la Montgolfière au Satellite, Grand Palais exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1983, p.141
12 Nadar, from L’Aéronaute, 1863, quoted R.M. Ballantyne, Up in the Clouds, 1870
13 Prinet and Dilasser, p.150
14 Rolt, pp.145–50; L’Aéronaute, 1863, quoted in R.M. Ballantyne, Up in the Clouds, London, 1870
15 L’Aéronaute, 1863, quoted in Ballantyne
16 Prinet and Dilasser, p.150; Stephens, p.101; La Part du rêve p.141; Nadar, Mémoires du Géant
17 Prinet and Dilasser, p.150
18 Rolt, p.147
19 Nadar, Mémoires du Géant; see commentary by Stephen Bann
20 Nadar, Mémoires du Géant; Stephens, p.103
21 Nadar, Mémoires du Géant; Stephens, p.101
22 Prinet and Dilasser, p.154
23 Nadar, Mémoires du Géant, pp.352–84
24 Notre Dame de Paris, 1831; Prinet and Dilasser, pp.154, 163
25 Ibid., pp.155–61
26 Ibid., p.157
27 Ibid., p.158
28 Hugo quoted ibid.; see I.F. Clarke, Voices Prophesying War: Future Wars 1763–3749, OUP, 1993, p.3
29 Quoted Prinet and Dilasser, pp.157–8, translation Richard Holmes
30 Quoted ibid., p.158
31 Quoted ibid., p.160
32 Quoted ibid., pp.158–9
33 Quoted ibid., p.161
34 Quoted ibid., p.162
35 Fonvielle, in Travels in the Air, London, 1871, p.233
36 Ibid., pp.251–3
37 Prinet and Dilasser, p.161
38 Arthur B. Evans, Jules Verne Rediscovered: Didacticism and the Scientific Novel, Greenwood Press, 1988, pp.18–20
39 Stephens, p.160
40 Arthur Evans, Jules Verne Rediscovered, p.20
41 See Arthur B. Evans, ‘The “New” Jules Verne’, Science-Fiction Studies, XXII: 1, No. 65, March 1995, pp.35–46
42 Arthur Evans, Jules Verne Rediscovered, p.21
43 Ibid., p.20
44 Jules Verne, Five Weeks in a Balloon, 1864; Wordsworth Classics, 2002, pp.166–7
45 Ibid., pp.172, 177
46 Ibid., pp.184, 185
47 Ibid., p.166
48 Ibid., p.188
49 Ibid., p.176
50 Percy Bysshe Shelley, ‘A Defence of Ballooning’, in ‘Shelley at Oxford’, by T.J. Hogg, New Monthly Magazine, 1832; republished in Hogg’s unfinished Life of Shelley, 1858
51 Verne, Five Weeks in a Balloon, Wordsworth Classics, 2002, p.226
52 Ibid., p.207
53 Ibid., p.354
54 Ibid., p.213
55 Ibid., p.354
CHAPTER 8: VERTICAL EXPLORATIONS
1 Cornelius O’Dowd (sic) in Blackwood’s Magazine, October 1864; reprinted in Astra Castra, p.434
2 Rolt, pp.188–9
3 Glaisher, Travels in the Air, pp.27–8; Hodgson, p.21; Rolt, pp.188–9
4 Rolt, p.191
5 Fonvielle, in Travels in the Air, London, 1871, p.329. Many of Charles Green’s papers are now in the Cuthbert-Hodgson Collection, National Aerospace Library, Royal Aeronautical Society, Farnborough, Hampshire
6 Ibid., p.330
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid., pp.330–1
9 Hodgson, p.268; Rolt, p.191
10 J.L. Hunt, ‘James Glaisher’, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 37, 1996; Rolt, p.192
11 Glaisher, Travels in the Air, pp.34–5; Rolt, Appendix, pp.248–50
12 Glaisher, Travels in the Air, p.42; Astra Castra, pp.228–9
13 Glaisher, Travels in the Air, p.22
14 Ibid.
15 Rolt, p.192
16 Tom Fort, Under the Weather, Arrow Books, 2007, pp.220–2
17 Rolt, pp.190, 192; J.L. Hunt, p.328
18 Glaisher, Travels in the Air, p.31
19 Ibid., pp.31, 33
20 Ibid., pp.38–40
21 Rolt, p.250
22 J.L. Hunt, p.327
23 Ibid.
24 Glaisher, Travels in the Air, p.43
25 Ibid., pp.44–7
26 Stan Yorke, Weather Forecasting Made Simple, 2010, p.46
27 See ibid., chapter ‘Old Tales’, pp.56–7
28 Edmund Halley’s weather chart is held by the National Meteorological Archive, Great Moor House, Exeter
29 Dove’s ‘Law of Storms’, 1858, described in John D. Cox, The Storm Watchers: The Turbulent History of Weather Prediction, 2003, p78
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.s385–9
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
41 Ibid., pp.305–6
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