PROFESSOR THADDEUS LOWE
BOOKS WITH OR ABOUT THADDEUS LOWE
The Eagle Aloft - 1983
Two Centuries of the Balloon in America
(Steve & Patrice Demory Collection)
Jacket Cover Narrative
From the moment in 1783 that word reached America of the first manned balloon ascent in France, citizens were enamored of the possibility that at last man could fly. Within one year a thirteen-year-old became the first American to rise into the sky beneath a balloon.
During the next two centuries, Americans remained enchanted with ballooning. They turned out in huge crowds to witness the ascent of French aeronauts who toured the Republic during the first decades of the nineteenth century and they applauded the generations of native Americans who followed. Newspapers were filled with stories of the latest feats of aeronautical derring-do. The public thrilled to reports of long-distance flights, of projected ocean crossings, and to tales of lost balloonists and near disasters in the sky.
With the coming of the airplane, public attention turned away from the adventures of ballooning, but sportsmen and scientists continued to ride the winds beneath balloons. The free balloon, now two centuries old, has retained its charm and utility in this age of lunar landings and planetary explorations.
A comprehensive history of the balloon in the United States, The Eagle Aloft is filled with new information gathered from a variety of primary sources. Handsomely illustrated, it is fully annotated and offers a full bibliography of the subject. The crowd-pleasing exhibition balloonists of the nineteenth century, long-distance aerial voyagers, Civil War ballooning, balloon racing, and scientific ballooning are all covered in detail.
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