AERONAUT

(Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.) One who travels in a balloon. AERONAUTICS. {Gx.kni,air,s.n.Avoe.vrnto;,of or belonging to ships.) The art of sailmg in and navigating the air. From the earliest ages men have been actuated by a wish to be able to participate in the advantages conferred on the lower animals, and having succeeded in navigating the sea, to be able also to mount, like the eagle, into the air. The story of Daedal us, who is said to haVfc escaped from Crete to Sardinia, by means of wings AESTHETICS. conlnved to a ist him, is known to every cla ical reader, and proves, at least, the antiquity of attempts of this sort. But the fate of his companion Icarus, seems to have had a greater influence in deterring from similar attempts, than the reported succe of the artificial dove, constructed by the geometer Archytas, which is said to have wafted itself through the air by means of internal springs. During the middle ages, when the nature of the atmosphere and the sound principles of mechanical philosophy were alike unknown, many rude and nece arily unsucce ful attempts were made to realize this difficult problem. But it was not till the composition of the atmosphere had begun to be ascertcdned, and that means had been devised of filling ve els with heated air, or other air lighter than Ptmospheric air, and consequently capable of floating on it, that there came to be a rational prospect of succeeding in the " audacious attempt " of riding in the air. At length, in 1782, the brothers Montgolfier succeeded in constructing a balloon; and on the 21stof October, 1783, Pilatre de Rozier, a young naturalist, and the Marquis d'Arlandes, ascended from Paris to an elevation of more than 3000 feet,-and alighted safely from their " aerial tour," after describing a circuit of about six miles. Since that time ascents in balloons have become comparatively common. {See Balloon, and the article.aeronautics in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 7th edit.) [s. 31]