Aeronautica; or, Sketches Illustrative of the Theory and Practice of Aerostation

Monck Mason's Aeronautica is his second published account of a historical balloon flight he made from London, England to Weilburg, Germany in 1836. Accompanied by fellow famed balloonists Charles Green and Robert Holland, the trio travelled nearly 500 miles, a record distance for the time. Mason's personal detailed narrative, which includes illustrations made from his own sketches, launched him to momentary fame and provided inspiration for Edgar Allan Poe's balloon hoax published in the New York Sun newspaper in 1844. Poe boastfully claimed that Mason had traversed the Atlantic Ocean in three days by means of a navigable balloon, something that wouldn't be achieved, though it took nearly twice the time, until 1978.