The
    rush for the “sole paper which had the news,” was something beyond
    even the prodigious;  and, in fact, if (as some assert) the
    “Victoria” _did_ not absolutely accomplish the voyage recorded, it
    will be difficult to assign a reason why she _should_ not have
    accomplished it.] 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 instant, by Sir
      Everard Bringhurst; Mr. Osborne, a nephew of Lord Bentinck’s; Mr.
      Monck Mason and Mr. Robert Holland, the well-known æronauts; 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 a 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. “THE BALLOON. “Two very decided failures, of late—those of Mr. Henson and Sir
      George Cayley—had much weakened the public interest in the
      subject of aerial navigation. Mr. Henson’s scheme (which at first
      was considered very feasible even by men of science,) was founded
      upon the principle of an inclined plane, started from an eminence
      by an extrinsic force, applied and continued by the revolution of
      impinging vanes, in form and number resembling the vanes of a
      windmill. But, in all the experiments made with models at the
      Adelaide Gallery, it was found that the operation of these fans
      not only did not propel the machine, but actually impeded its
      flight. The only propelling force it ever exhibited, was the mere
      _impetus_ acquired from the descent of the inclined plane; and
      this _impetus_ carried the machine farther when the vanes were at
      rest, than when they were in motion—a fact which sufficiently
      demonstrates their inutility; and in the absence of the
      propelling, which was also the _sustaining_ power, the whole
      fabric would necessarily descend. This consideration led Sir
      George Cayley to think only of adapting a propeller to some
      machine having of itself an independent power of support—in a
      word, to a balloon; the idea, however, being novel, or original,
      with Sir George, only so far as regards the mode of its
      application to practice. He exhibited a model of his invention at
      the Polytechnic Institution. The propelling principle, or power,
      was here, also, applied to interrupted surfaces, or vanes, put in
      revolution. 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 1837,) conceived the idea of employing the
      principle of the Archimedean 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 length, through which, upon a semi-spiral inclined at
      fifteen degrees, pass a series of steel wire radii, two feet
      long, and thus projecting a foot on either side. These radii are
      connected at the outer extremities by two bands of flattened
      wire—the whole in this manner forming the framework of the screw,
      which is completed by a covering of oiled silk cut into gores,
      and tightened so as to present a tolerably uniform surface. At
      each end of its axis this screw is supported by pillars of hollow
      brass tube descending from the hoop. In the lower ends of these
      tubes are holes in which the pivots of the axis revolve. From the
      end of the axis which is next the car, proceeds a shaft of steel,
      connecting the screw with the pinion of a piece of spring
      machinery fixed in the car. By the operation of this spring, the
      screw is made to revolve with great rapidity, communicating a
      progressive motion to the whole. By means of the rudder, the
      machine was readily turned in any direction. The spring was of
      great power, compared with its dimensions, being capable of
      raising forty-five pounds upon a barrel of four inches diameter,
      after the first turn, and gradually increasing as it was wound
      up. It weighed, altogether, eight pounds six ounces. The rudder
      was a light frame of cane covered with silk, shaped somewhat like
      a battle-door, and was about three feet long, and at the widest,
      one foot. Its weight was about two ounces.