This might be described as an elegant aerostatic pipe dream. Almost as soon as the balloon was invented in 1783 the pilots became thwarted and irritated at not being able to steer or control their vehicles except by rising or falling. Speed and direction were at the mercy of the winds, hence the determination to propel and steer. Blanchard and others tried useless aerial oars and small revolving fans called “moulinets”. The latter were the ancestors of the propeller, but hopelessly ineffective in their diminutive size and man-powered “motor”. The idea of sails, first suggested as far back as 1670 by de Lana, is picturesque but of course completely ineffectual since the balloon is in any case going at the rate of the wind; the addition of sails neither increases nor lessens the speed, nor can they affect direction as they are fixed to a freely moving object. Andree fixed sails to his arctic balloon of 1897, as did other experimenters; but they dropped heavy trail-ropes to drag on land or water and hence provide an extra force to act on the balloon, in combination with which such sails could effect a few degrees variation in the directions of the aircraft. Proper elongated dirigible balloons – or airships – had to wait until 1852 when Giffard made a feasible one, and 1884 when Renard and Krebs succeeded in making a practical vehicle; although the idea of such a machine had been in the minds of many and dates back to 1784 when Meusnier designed but never built his prophetic propeller-driven airship. This charming balloon illustration is one of the most carefully executed engravings of the time and has the added interest of showing a hot-air balloon with a regulator attached to the burner.