"The Balloon-Hoax" - читать интересную книгу автора (Poe Edgar Allan)

1850
THE BALLOON-HOAX
by Edgar Allan Poe

ASTOUNDING NEWS BY EXPRESS, VIA NORFOLK!- The Atlantic Crossed in
Three Days!- Signal Triumph of Mr. Monck Mason's Flying Machine!-
Arrival at Sullivan's Island, near Charlestown, S. C., of Mr. Mason,
Mr. Robert Holland, Mr. Henson, Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, and four
others, in the Steering Balloon, Victoria, after a Passage of
Seventy-five Hours from Land to Land! Full Particulars of the Voyage!

The subjoined jeu d'esprit with the preceding heading in magnificent
capitals, well interspersed with notes of admiration, was originally
published, as matter of fact, in the New York Sun, a daily
newspaper, and therein fully subserved the purpose of creating
indigestible aliment for the quidnuncs during the few hours
intervening between a couple of the Charleston mails. The rush for the
"sole paper which had the news" was something beyond even the
prodigious; and, in fact, if (as some assert) the Victoria did not
absolutely accomplish the voyage recorded it will be difficult to
assign a reason why she should not have accomplished it. E. A. P.

THE GREAT problem is at length solved! The air, as well as the earth
and the ocean, has been subdued by science, and will become a common
and convenient highway for mankind. The Atlantic has been actually
crossed in a Balloon! and this too without difficulty- without any
great apparent danger- with thorough control of the machine- and in
the inconceivably brief period of seventy-five hours from shore to
shore! By the energy of an agent at Charleston, S. C., we are
enabled to be the first to furnish the public with a detailed
account of this most extraordinary voyage, which was performed between
Saturday, the 6th instant, at 11 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," etc.; 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