"Aerostation" in Iconographic Encyclopaeda, 1889
- 'The Iconographic Encyclopædia of the Arts and Sciences. Translated from the German of the Bilder-Atlas (Iconographische Encyclopædie). Revised and enlarged by eminent American specialists. Published by special arrangement with the proprietor, F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig, Germany. Philadelphia: Iconographic Publishing Co.
- Vol. 5. Constructive Arts. Based upon the German of Dr. Wilhelm Fränkel and Rudolf Heyn, professors at the Royal Polytechnic College of Dresden. Augmented by William H. Wahl, A.M. Ph.D., secretary of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. 1889
- "Aerostation": pp. 363–378. Plates 60–61.
Online at Internet Archive.
Gives various firsts.
- Invention of balloon, they credit to Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão, but they spend more time on the usual story about Montgolfiers, Charles, et al. (and vessel types: , etc.)
- First military use: Battle of Fleurus
- High-altitude flights: Louis Joseph Gay-Lussac (23,000', 16 September 1804), James Glaisher (29,000'+?, 5 September 1862)
Gas: hot air (montgolfières) v. hydrogen charlières v. illuminating gas (= coal gas?)
Nassau Balloon of Charles Green; 500-mile voyage from London to Weilburg (in Nassau), accompanied by Robert Holland and Monck Mason.
With Prof Joseph le Conte, the authors consider the airplane "physically impossible" and heap scorn upon the fools who work this barren soil:
Indeed, the efforts to solve the problem preceded by many centuries the invention of the balloon, by which alone thus far the art of aërial navigation is practicable; and, like the pursuit of that other ignis fatuus, perpetual motion, the search for the solution of the flying machine problem has been barren of results. Fig 10 (pl. 60) represents the appearance of one of the numberless extravagant and grotesque designs that have been prepared to solve the difficult problem of a flying-machine.
A volume might be written descriptive of the multitude of devices that have been proposed to accomplish this object,l but the only thought they would awaken in the mind of the man of science would be one of regret at the exhibition of an amazing amount of ingenuity expended uselessly. (377–378)
