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RICHARD HOLMES
Falling Upwards
How We Took to the Air
Copyright
William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
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London SE1 9GF
This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2013
Copyright © Richard Holmes 2013
Richard Holmes asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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Source ISBN: 9780007476510
Ebook Edition © April 2013 ISBN: 9780007467259
Version: 2019-10-24
To Eleanor Tremain and John Lightbody
with love and balloons
Contents
9. Mariners of the Upper Atmosphere
Voices Overhead
‘A Cloud in a paper bag’
JOSEPH MONTGOLFIER, 1782
‘Someone asked me – what’s the use of a balloon?
I replied – what’s the use of a new-born baby’
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 1783
‘Practical flying we may leave to our rivals the French.
Theoretical flying we may claim for ourselves’
SIR JOSEPH BANKS, 1784
‘I would make it death for a man to be convicted of flying, the moment he could be caught’
WILLIAM COWPER, 1794
‘O Thou who plumed with strong desire
Would float above the Earth – beware!
A shadow tracks thy flight of fire –
Night is coming!’
P.B. SHELLEY, 1818
‘There’s something in a flying horse,
There’s something
