PROFESSOR THADDEUS LOWE
BOOKS WITH OR ABOUT THADDEUS LOWE - 1983
The Eagle Aloft by Tom D. Crouch
Dr. Tom Crouch of the Smithsonian Institute with webmaster Lance Ferm on May 17, 2011
Two Centuries of the Balloon in America
(Webmaster 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.
Chapter 1 - Flight and the Founding Fathers
Chapter 2 - The "New Born Babe" Comes to America
Chapter 3 - Jeffries and the Channel
Chapter 4 - Blanchard in America
Chapter 5 - The French Connection
Chapter 6 - The First American Aeronauts
Chapter 7 - A Golden Age Begins
Chapter 8 - The Golden Decade
Chapter 9 - Higher and Farther
Chapter 10 - To Navigate the Air
Chapter 11 - Aeroports, Aereons, and Avitors
Chapter 12 - The Civil War Aloft: Origins
Chapter 13 - The Civil War Aloft: Operations
Chapter 14 - The End of an Era
Chapter 15 - There's No Business Like Show Business
Chapter 16 - Captain Tom and Sergeant Ivy
Chapter 17 - The Sport of Kings
Chapter 18 - Racing with the Wind
Chapter 19 - Destination Stratosphere
Chapter 20 - Ballooning in the Space Age
LINKS TO OTHER THADDEUS LOWE WEBSITES