Excerpt from Balloning; A Concise Sketch of Its History and Principles: From the Best Sources, Continental and English The employment of electricity as a motive power shows how closely men have followed a beaten track in this field. In early ages, when men knew nothing of any but animal power, flight was to be effected by means of our muscular strength. No sooner had the steam engine become a practical machine, than it was adopted by the aeronaut. The storage battery has scarcely become a marketable commodity, and flight is to be accomplished by its means. If some new agent or motive power were to be introduced to-morrow, it also would be resorted to by those who endeavour to make further improvements. It is time, to think. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.