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These vanes were four in number, but were found entirely ineffectual in
moving the balloon, or in aiding its ascending power. The whole project
was thus a complete failure.
"
It was at this juncture that Mr. Monck Mason (whose voyage from Dover
to Weilburg in the balloon, "Nassau," occasioned so much excitement in
837,) conceived the idea of employing the principle of the Archimedean
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screw for the purpose of propulsion through the air--rightly
attributing the failure of Mr. Henson's scheme, and of Sir George
Cayley's, to the interruption of surface in the independent vanes.
He made the first public experiment at Willis's Rooms, but afterward
removed his model to the Adelaide Gallery.
"Like Sir George Cayley's balloon, his own was an ellipsoid. Its
length was thirteen feet six inches--height, six feet eight inches. It
contained about three hundred and twenty cubic feet of gas, which, if
pure hydrogen, would support twenty-one pounds upon its first inflation,
before the gas has time to deteriorate or escape. The weight of the
whole machine and apparatus was seventeen pounds--leaving about four
pounds to spare. Beneath the centre of the balloon, was a frame of light
wood, about nine feet long, and rigged on to the balloon itself with
a network in the customary manner. From this framework was suspended a
wicker basket or car.
"
The screw consists of an axis of hollow brass tube, eighteen inches in
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