The works of Edgar Allan Poe; newly collected and edited, with a memoir, critical introductions, and notes, by Edmund Clarence Stedman and George Edward Woodberry; the illustrations by Albert Edward Sterner.

THE BALLOON HOAX

detailed account of this most extraordinary voyage,
which was performed between Saturday, the 6th
instant, at II, A.M., and 2, P.M., on Tuesday, the 9th
instant, by Sir Everard Bringhurst; Mr. Osborne, a
nephew of Lord Bentinck's; Mr. Monck Mason and
Mr. Robert Holland, the well-known aeronauts; Mr.
Harrison Ainsworth, author of "Jack Sheppard," &c.;
and Mr. Henson, the projector of the late unsuccessful
flying machine —with two seamen from Woolwich —
in all, eight persons. The particulars furnished below
may be relied on as authentic and accurate in every
respect, as, with a slight exception, they are copied
verbatim from the joint diaries of Mr. Monck Mason
and Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, to whose politeness our
agent is also indebted for much verbal information
respecting the balloon itself, its construction, and
other matters of interest. The only alteration in the
MS. received has been made for the purpose of throwing the hurried account of our agent, Mr. Forsyth,
into a connected and intelligible form.
THE BALLOON.
Two very decided failures, of late- those of Mr.
Henson and Sir George Cayley-had much weak.
ened the public interest in the subject of aerial navigation. Mr. Henson's scheme (which at first was
considered very feasible even by men of science) was
founded upon the principle of an inclined plane,
started from an eminence by an extrinsic force, applied and continued by the revolution of impinging
vanes, in form and number resembling the vanes of
a windmill. But, on all the experiments made with
models at the Adelaide Gallery, it was found that the
205