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POE'S BALLOON HOAX.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE NATION:
SIR: In view of the interest excited by Walter Wellman's recent attempt to cross the Atlantic in a dirigible balloon, Edgar Allan Poe's famous “balloon hoax” deserves some notice In that remarkable canard, which first appeared in the New York Sun of April 13, 1844, Poe announced the arrival near Charleston, S. C., of a party of English aeronauts who had crossed the Atlantic in a dirigible balloon in the short space of seventy-five hours.
With all of Poe's well-known scientific interest, it is not surprising that he was interested in aerostation, as it was then generally called, but the extent of his knowledge and use of the aeronautical literature of his time has, I believe, never been carefully investigated. In 1844 and thereabouts there was great interest in aeronautics, and several aeronauts, especially Charles Green and John Wise, the most prominent balloonists in England and America, respectively, had proposed to try crossing the Atlantic.
Poe, however, in narrating the voyage of his party of aeronauts, depended chiefly upon the account by Monck Mason of an actual balloon trip made by Charles Green, Monck Mason, and Robert Holland in November, 1836. These three started from Vauxhall, London, on November 7, and landed the next day near Weilburg, in the German duchy of Nassau. Soon after the trip, Monck Mason published his narrative: “Account of the late Aeronautical Expedition from London to Weilburg, accomplished by Robert Holland, Esq., Monck Mason, Esq., and Charles Green, Aeronaut.” It was first published in London in 1836 by F. C. Weatley, and was reprinted in New York in 1837 [page 390:] by “Theodore Foster, Basement Rooms corner of Pine-Street and Broadway.” The American edition is the only one I have been able to examine, but it was probably Poe's source. His mistake in giving the date of the trip from London to Weilburg as 1837 may be due to confusion with the date of the imprint.
Poe's use of the account is shown by a comparison of certain accounts, the references being to the American edition of Mason and to Harrison's Virginia edition of Poe, volume five. In speaking of the use of coal gas for inflation instead of the hydrogen gas formerly employed, they say:
[[Mason]]
Up to the period of that discovery, the process of inflation was one the expense of which was only to be equalled by its uncertainty; two, and sometimes even three, days of watchful anxiety have been expended in the vain endeavors to procure a sufficiency of hydrogen to fill a balloon, from which, on account of its peculiar affinities, it continued to escape. . . . I allude to the superior facility with which the latter is retained in the balloon, owing to the greater subtility of the particles of hydrogen and the strong affinity which they exhibit for those of the surrounding atmosphere. In a balloon sufficiently perfect to retain its contents of coal gas unaltered in quality or amount for the space of six months, an equal quantity of hydrogen could not be maintained in equal purity for an equal number of weeks. — Mason, p. 7 and note.
[[Poe]]
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, owing to its extreme subtlety, and its affinity for the surrounding atmosphere. In a balloon sufficiently perfect to retain its contents of coal-gas unaltered, in quantity or amount, for six months, an equal quantity of hydrogen could not be maintained in equal purity for six weeks. — Poe, pp. 229. 230.
In the description of the guide rope or equilibrator, a device Mason, Poe, and Wellman all united in using, there is equal similarity:
[[Mason]]
The progress of the guide rope being delayed to a certain extent by its motion
over the more solid plane of the earth's surface, while the movement of the balloon is as freely as ever controlled by the propelling motion of the wind, it is evident that the direction of the latter when in progress, must ever in advance of the former; a comparison therefore of the relative positions of these two objects by means of the compass, must at all times indicate the exact direction of her course; while with equal certainty, an estimate can at once be obtained of the velocity with which, she is proceeding, by observing the angle formed by the guide rope, and the vertical axis of the machine. . . . when the rope is dependent perpendicularly, no angle of course te formed, and the, machine can be considered as perfectly stationary. or at least endowed with a rate of [column 2:] motion too insignificant to be either appreciable or important. — Mason, p. 10, note.
[[Poe]]
The rope drags, either on land or sea, while the balloon is free; the latter, consequently, is always in advance, when any progress whatever is made: a comparison, therefore, by means of the compass, of the relative positions of the two objects, will always indicate the course. In the same way, the angle formed by the rope with the vertical axis of the machine, indicates the velocity. When there is no angle — in other words, when the rope hangs perpendicularly, the whole apparatus is stationary; but the larger the angle, that is to say, the farther the balloon precedes the end of the rope, the greater the velocity; and the converse. — Poe, p. 232.
Other similarities between the two accounts are in the various contrivances carried, particularly a coffee warmer using slacked lime; the carrying of passports directed to all parts of the continent of Europe, and the sudden explosions during the trip, caused, as each explain, by the changes in temperature. Everything, indeed, indicates that Poe depended very largely on Mason's narrative, even retaining at times some of his very phrases.
WALTER B. NORRIS.
U. S. Naval Academy, October 21
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Notes:
None.
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[S:0 - TNNY, 1910] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - A Poe Bookshelf - Poe's Balloon Hoax (Walter B. Norris, 1910)