Edgar Allan Poe - A Collection

The Balloon Hoax

SUMMARY: Newspaper story about balloon travel.

***

HISTORY:

[ The following story appeared in the New York Sun in 1844. Although it looked like a real story, it was completely ficticious, created entirely from Poe's imagination. The story caused such excitement that a huge crowd gathered in front of the New York Sun office, all trying to buy copies of the paper. Keep in mind that no one flew anything over the Atlantic for another 75 years. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin built the first zeppelin airship in 1900. The Wright Brothers made their first successful airplane flight in 1903. British aviators Alcock and Brown made the first nonstop airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1919. Dr. Hugo Eckener made the first transatlantic flight in a zeppelin, in 1924. Charles Lindbergh made his famous solo flight in 1927. The first non-powered, human-carrying balloon to actually cross the Atlantic Ocean was "Double Eagle II", in 1978. The balloon attained an altitude of nearly 25,000 feet, just as Poe described. The trip took 6 days. ] - the source of where this info came from is unknown to me at this point.... sorry. 

***

THE STORY:

SUN OFFICE

April 13, 10 o'clock A.M.

==================================

ASTOUNDING

NEWS!

BY EXPRESS VIA NORFOLK:

---------------

THE

ATLANTIC CROSSED

IN

THREE DAYS!

---------------

SIGNAL TRIUMPH

OF

MR. MONCK MASON'S

FLYING

MACHINE!!!

---------------

Arrival at Sullivan's Island,

near Charlestown, S. C., of

Mr. Mason, Mr. Robert Hol-

land, Mr. Henson, Mr. Har-

rison Ainsworth, and four

others, in the mm.

STEERING BALLOON

"VICTORIA,"

AFTER A PASSAGE OF

SEVENTY-FIVE HOURS

FROM LAND TO LAND.

---------------

FULL PARTICULARS

OF THE

VOYAGE!!!

---------------

The great problem is at length solved. The air, as well as the earth and the ocean, has been subdued by science, and will become a common and convenient highway for mankind. The Atlantic has been actually crossed in a Balloon; and this too without difficulty -- without any great apparent danger -- with thorough control of the machine -- and in the inconceivably brief period of seventy-five hours from shore to shore! By the energy of an agent at Charleston, S.C., we are enabled to be the first to furnish the public with a detailed account of this most extraordinary voyage, which was performed between Saturday, the 6th instant, at 11, A.M., and 2, P.M., on Tuesday the 9th inst.: by Sir Everard Bringhurst; Mr. Osborne, a nephew of Lord Bentinck's; Mr. Monck Mason and Mr. Robert Holland, the well-known aeronauts; Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, author of "Jack Sheppard," &c.; and Mr. Henson, the projector of the late unsuccessful flying machine -- with two seamen from Woolwich -- in all, eight persons. The particulars furnished below may be relied on as authentic and accurate in every respect, as, with slight exception, they are copied verbatim from the joint diaries of Mr. Monck Mason and Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, to whose politeness our agent is also indebted for much verbal information respecting the balloon itself, its construction, and other matters of interest. The only alteration in the MS. received, has been made for the purpose of throwing the hurried account of our agent, Mr. Forsyth, into a connected and intelligible form.