The "latest news" of new inventions in
balloons we shall comprise within the period
of the last ten or eleven years. A writer in
the "Polytechnic Journal" (1840) thought he
had discovered a certain means of propelling
balloons at the will of the aëronaut. He proposed
to do this without taking up an additional
power, or engine, but simply by a new
application of the weight, as well as the
strength, of the aëronaut and his passengers.
A fan-wheel is to be constructed to act upon
the air, for the direction of the course of the
balloon; and this wheel is to be worked after
the manner of the tread-mill. When a certain
impulse, in a direction against the wind, is to
be given, the aëronaut and his friends will get
into the wheel, and work it round by the
usual process. If more power is needed, they
must use their hands, and also carry weights
on their shoulders!

Passing over M. Poitevin's equestrian
performances in the air as simply censurable,
we come at once to the three or four
announcements which have last interested the
lovers of "this delightful art," as Monck
Mason terms it. Of the Spanish nobleman
lately arrived in Paris, who is to fly in a
new machine, accompanied by his daughter,
we are unable to say more than he has himself
put forth, which amounts to nothing
but the announcement. Respecting the New
American Flying Ship, with its copper boilers,
and engines of twelve horse-power, which are
to cause a revolution of floats, not yet being
finished, (owing to the unhandsome hanging-back
of the American public in the amount of
dollars still necessary to be subscribed,) we
make no remarks—but offer a word or two
on the invention of M. Petin, a respectable
tradesman of Paris, who has devoted many
years to "this delightful art." Instead of
sailing horizontally, he proposes alternately
to ascend and descend in an oblique direction;
and at each ascent and descent he contends
that the balloon can be driven forward. The
apparatus he employs is gigantic. First, there
is an immense frame-work, seventy yards long
by ten wide, and to it three large balloons are
to be attached; connected with the framework
are large frames of sail-cloth, which
open and close, somewhat like those of a conservatory.
When all these frames are closed,
the resistance of the air is alike on all, and
the machine swims horizontally; but when
some at one end are opened, the resistance of
the air becomes unequal, and the machine
rises or descends. Advantage is taken of this
movement to propel the balloon by means of
a screw, worked by a mechanical apparatus.

But the French are not to carry off all the
honours of these aërial fancies. We have a
Steam Aërostation Society, with an Office in
the Strand, London, where it is announced that
"Lectures explanatory of the object will be
given, on the payment of five shillings, which
constitutes a Perpetual Associate, with
privilege to attend the progress of the Machine
now building on the premises." The Duke of
Brunswick is also hard at work on a new
Aërial Machine.

In the Great Exposition, we have had the
pleasure of examining the new Aërial
Machine invented by Mr. E. Mason, of
Brompton, together with the Locomotive
Balloon, and Locomotive Parachute of Mr.
H. Bell, of Millbank. The former of these
presents the appearance of a huge vegetable
marrow, with a broad Dutch rudder at the
stern, and an apparatus of revolving sails at
each bow; Mr. Bell's invention is a long
silver fish, for a boat, with revolving fans, in
place of fins, for progression, and sustained
by a balloon of blue silk. (It is said that Marshal
Ney expended a considerable sum in
experiments Avith a balloon of the fish-shape;
but it could not be made to swim the air as
he wished.) Mr. J. Brown, of Leadenhall
Street, has a most solid-looking model, like a
mahogany Dutch boat, sustained by an immense
inflated bonnet, or closed hood, and
guided by a jib in front, with a tri-sail for a
rudder. Mr. H. Plummer has a machine, to
fly with wings only, the power to be derived
from the action of springs, &c. Mr. G. Graham
exhibits a steering apparatus for a balloon.
It resembles some enormous fire-work case, or
skeleton of some great fabulous bird. These long
wings are, in fact, to be used as immense oars;
a project somewhat resembling that of Messrs.
Aine and Robert, in 1784. Mr. W. Sadd, of
Wandsworth, exhibits a singularly light, and
curious aërial machine, evidently the result of
immense consideration in its principles and
details, and if ever we ventured up in an
experimental trip of this kind, we should be
disposed to give this——but it is good to
be careful, and better still, perhaps, not to
venture for a long time to come. All these
machines have a wonderfully eccentric look,
of course; and there are no explanations to
any of them, excepting the following:—

A pamphlet has just been published by
Mr. Luntley, with a frontispiece of a very
new kind of balloon, in form not unlike
two bagpipes of the early Italian shepherds,
sewed together. It is to be of prodigious
magnitude. The principle of propulsion will
be that of the screw; but the balloon is
to be its own screw, and work itself, by rotation,
through the air. A wheel and strap are
to give the rotatory motion; and the inventor
is convinced that one end of the bag-pipe
(or queer curled point) will propel, and
the other attract the air in its embrace, which
will enable the aëronaut to advance in any
direction he pleases. His power is to be
derived from steam; and the weight of cargo
he expects to be able to carry (besides the
weight of his machine and apparatus) is the
moderate amount of twenty-seven tons—
about the weight of six full-grown elephants,
with their "castles."

Well, we take our breath after all this; but,
supported by the opinion of many scientific