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

ment, and especially for the interest they have exhibited in the progress of aerostation. The project, at
the desire of Mr. Osborne, was kept a profound secret
from the public —the only persons intrusted with
the design being those actually engaged in the construction of the machine, which was built (under the
superintendence of Mr. Mason, Mr. Holland, Sir Everard Bringhurst, and Mr. Osborne) at the seat of the
latter gentleman near Penstruthal, in Wales. Mr.
Henson, accompanied by his friend Mr. Ainsworth,
was admitted to a private view of the balloon on
Saturday last-when the two gentlemen made final
arrangements to be included in the adventure. We
are not informed for what reason the two seamen
were also included in the party-but, in the course
of a day or two, we shall put our readers in possession of the minutest particulars respecting this extraordinary voyage.
The balloon is composed of silk, varnished with the
liquid gum caoutchouc. It is of vast dimensions,
containing more than 40,000 cubic feet of gas; but, as
coal gas was employed in place of the more expensive
and inconvenient hydrogen, the supporting power of
the machine, when fully inflated, and immediately
after inflation, is not more than about 2,500 pounds.
The coal gas is not only much less costly, but is easily
procured and managed.
For its introduction into common use for purposes
of aerostation, we are indebted to Mr. Charles Green.
Up to his discovery, the process of inflation was not
only exceedingly expensive, but uncertain. Two, and
even three, days have frequently been wasted in futile
attempts to procure a sufficiency of hydrogen to fill a
balloon, from which it had great tendency to escape
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