Shelley Sonnet on Ballooning

Bright ball of flame that thro the gloom of even Silently takes thine ethereal way And with surpassing glory dimmst each ray Twinkling amid the dark blue depth of Heaven; Unlike the Fire thou bearest, soon shalt thou Fade like a meteor in surrounding gloom, Whilst that, unquenchable, is doomed to glow A watch-light by the patriot’s lonely tomb, A ray of courage to the opprest and poor…

 James Sadler Describes the Scientific Potential of Balloo...

Aerostation is too intimately connected with the entire range of Science, its exhibitions are too brilliant and interesting, not to deserve the patronage which a liberal public always confers on desert … It is so well calculated to throw light on the obscure science of Meteorology, to develop many interesting facts in Magnetism, and to assist the progress of Chemistry and Electricity, that its success must be regarded as interesting to Philosophy [science] in general.