Suggestions of Magnificence: Bloated and Bumpy SteamPunk Aviation, 1830's.

JF Ptak Science Books      Post 2004

Question: What is 150’ in diameter, weights 80 tons, carries 60 scientists, a cannon, a big rooster, an escape pod for women, and makes transcontinental flights? 

Answer:  nothing.  

And so: what is ten times bigger, and carries ten times more people? Bigger but still the same nothing--though a more-magnificent nothingness. 

The first example  did however live in print as the great balloon La Minerve, the  prankish gesture of the Belgian optico-magician, physics experimenter/exhibitionist  and general experimenter  (and probable crumbun)  “Dr. Roberston”, who was actually Étienne-Gaspard Robert (1763-1837).  Robert did have vast experience with balloons—he was Commandant des Aerostiers during the war, serving under General Jourdain in Belgium and Holland in 1803/4, providing valuable observations on the enemy troops and movements from tethered (and not) balloon observing stations;  he is also regarded by some as the inventor of the parachute.  He had a wide interested in optics and toys, making a very profitable tour with Brewster mirrors, demonstrating all manner of specters and floating bodies and such for a paying audience.

 He came up with this sci-fi-ish idea in the early 19^th century, and published his dream broadsided swipe at other aeronauts in 1820 under the title of La Minerve, vaisseau aérien, destiné aux découvertes et proposé à toutes les Académies de l'Europe par le physicien Robertson.  There was nothing about this balloon that would’ve worked, and Robertson knew it, intending his pamphlet to be more of caricature of existing attempts in flight than as a science fiction creation.  (The pamphlet reads a little mean-spirited to me regarding the Minerve; other sections, which dealt with single-occupant air-transport devices of imaginative construction, seem less so.)

In any event, Roberston provided large creature comforts for his travelers, not the least of which was a ship (which seems to be 175 feet long) holding 60 scientists and providing enough space for long-distance sleeping arrangements, laboratories, observation decks, a kitchen, food supplies, water and the like.  There is a (large!) cannon in the bow of the Minerve, which is also topped by an enormous cock (I figure it to be 50 feet from tail to beak), a gigantic and heavy symbol for vigilance (at what price?) .  There are several small out buildings, as well as a smaller balloon that housed the women who accompanied the all-male crew on these long distance jaunts.

There is an enormous anchor where the power source for forward motion should be.  Alas!  Roberston has provided no means of thrust, trusting the winds to take the massive balloon to-and-fro.

(“Minerva” is the Roman goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce and crafts, as well as the goddess of warriors.  She also invented music.)  

And the next example of the magnificent nothing, the Great Monster, appeared in 1837.  It was supposed to support 80 houses, steam powered with a large coalhouse and raintanks; it supported gardens and other ammenities, and was to support upwards of 1,000 people--it would be crowded, though, even though the thing was supposed to be 14,000 feet in diameter and 682' high.  It was huge, tall, and travelled at 100 mph

Even though the Minerve was a smaller undertaking, its 19th-century Baroque crenulations and insistence upon levels of dangling laddered bits make it a peculiar favorite in spite of the 2.5-mile diameter of the monsterosu Great Monster.



Notes

The following is from Gaston Tissandier’s  La Navigation Aérienne L'aviation:



 "...le célèbre physicien Robertson publia plus tard, en 1803, une brochure qui eut un grand succès, et dans laquelle il décrivit sous le nom de la Minerve, un immense ballon à voile de 50 mètres de diamètre, capable d'élever 72 000 kilogrammes et destiné à faire voyager dans tous les pays du monde «60 personnes instruites choisies par les académies», pour faire des observations scientifiques et des découvertes géographiques.

"Nous donnons à la page suivante le dessin de ce ballon gigantesque . Il suffit de le considérer pour voir que Robertson a voulu se jouer de son lecteur, ou plaisanter, comme nous venons de le dire, les inventeurs d'aérostats dirigeables. Nous donnons d'après lui la description suivante de l'appareil:

"En haut de la machine est un coq, symbole de la vigilance: «un observateur intérieurement placé à l'œil de ce coq, surveille tout ce qui peut arriver dans l'hémisphère supérieur du ballon; il annonce aussi l'heure à tout l'équipage.»"

Comments

[Jeff Donlan]

I wonder where this sensibility comes from--the all-in-one, self-sufficient aircraft--and I thought of Noah's Ark and even more of a pirate ship sailing free over the seas. It seems to be one manifestation of the wish for almost magical freedom and yet at the same time it is
imagined in a way that is curiously bound by earthly constraints. But that's the magical part, I guess--the quarter-mile wide sphere going 100 mph. The ability to fly is dream-like; the sources of power supernatural. It all seems to express desire rather than a proposal. It's much more Howl's Moving Castle than Leonardo's sketches of flying machines. (Aah! Battery's low. Must go.)

[John F. Ptak]

Very interesting idea, Jeff: *you* should've written this post. Noah probably went too far, taking everything (and then 2x that in some cases). I guess travel with everything would've been limited to ships, as you said--and then to monstrous airships, which in the second case here would've been a floating thing that was about as big as anything humans had ever made, and certainly the largest movable thing. And then it flew, fast.

I like the freedom-but-not-so-much-of-it-that-I-could-afford-to-leave-so-much-behind pathos.

[John F. Ptak]

Oh yes--then there's the Going-on-a-trip-with-all-your-importnat-stuff, but DEAD, category. Too bad the folks in the Monster Balloon weren't revealed as being dead at the end of the script.