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.

TALES OF PSEUDO-SCIENCE

forty-five pounds upon a barrel of four inches diameter, after the first turn, and gradually increasing as it
was wound up. It weighed, altogether, eight pounds
six ounces. The rudder was a light frame of cane
covered with silk, shaped somewhat like a battledoor,
and was about three feet long, and at the widest, one
foot. Its weight was about two ounces. It could
be turned flat, and directed upwards or downwards,
as well as to the right or left; and thus enabled the
aeronaut to transfer the resistance of the air, which in
an inclined position it must generate in its passage, to
any side upon which he might desire to act; thus determining the balloon in the opposite direction.
This model (which, through want of time, we have
necessarily described in an imperfect manner) was
put in action at the Adelaide Gallery, where it accomplished a velocity of five miles per hour; although,
strange to say, it excited very little interest in comparison with the previous complex machine of Mr.
Henson-so resolute is the world to despise anything
which carries with it an air of simplicity. To accomplish the great desideratum of aerial navigation, it
was very generally supposed that some exceedingly
complicated application must be made of some unusually profound principle in dynamics.
So well satisfied, however, was Mr. Mason of the
ultimate success of his invention, that he determined
to construct immediately, if possible, a balloon of
sufficient capacity to test the question by a voyage
of some extent —the original design being to cross
the British Channel, as before, in the Nassau balloon.
To carry out his views, he solicited and obtained the
patronage of Sir Everard Bringhurst and Mr. Osborne, two gentlemen well known for scientific acquire208