The Balloon Hoax by Edgar Allan Poe

The Balloon Hoax

[ The following story appeared in the New York Sun in 1844. Although it looked like a real story, it was completely ficticious, created entirely from Poe's imagination. The story caused such excitement that a huge crowd gathered in front of the New York Sun office, all trying to buy copies of the paper. Keep in mind that no one flew anything over the Atlantic for another 75 years. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin built the first zeppelin airship in 1900. The Wright Brothers made their first successful airplane flight in 1903. British aviators Alcock and Brown made the first nonstop airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1919. Dr. Hugo Eckener made the first transatlantic flight in a zeppelin, in 1924. Charles Lindbergh made his famous solo flight in 1927. The first non-powered, human-carrying balloon to actually cross the Atlantic Ocean was "Double Eagle II", in 1978. The balloon attained an altitude of nearly 25,000 feet, just as Poe described. The trip took 6 days. ]

SUN OFFICE
April 13, 10 o'clock A.M.
==================================
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 Hol-
land, Mr. Henson, Mr. Har-
rison Ainsworth, and four
others, in the mm.

STEERING BALLOON
"VICTORIA,"
AFTER A PASSAGE OF
SEVENTY-FIVE HOURS
FROM LAND TO LAND.
---------------
FULL PARTICULARS
OF THE
VOYAGE!!!
---------------

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 inst.: 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 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 weakened 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, in all the experiments made with models at the Adelaide Gallery, it was found that the operation of these fans not only did not propel the machine, but actually impeded its flight. The only propelling force it ever exhibited, was the mere impetus acquired from the descent of the inclined plane; and this impetus carried the machine farther when the vanes were at rest, than when they were in motion -- a fact which sufficiently demonstrates their inutility; and in the absence of the propelling, which was also the sustaining power, the whole fabric would necessarily descend. This consideration led Sir George Cayley to think only of adapting a propeller to some machine having of itself an independent power of support -- in a word, to a balloon; the idea, however, being novel, or original, with Sir George, only so far as regards the mode of its application to practice. He exhibited a model of his invention at the Polytechnic Institution. The propelling principle, or power, was here, also, applied to interrupted surfaces, or vanes, put in revolution. These vanes were four in number, but were found entirely ineffectual in moving the balloon, or in aiding its ascending power. The whole project was thus a complete failure.