Bravo Brown!
The Correspondence of Charles Henry
Brown - Aeronaut
Terence FitzSimons
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche National- bibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Brown, Charles Henry, 1827-1870, author. | FitzSimons, Terence, 1939- editor.
Title: Bravo Brown! : the correspondence of Charles Henry Brown--aeronaut / [edited by] Terence FitzSimons.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019044250 (print) | LCCN 2019044251 (ebook) | ISBN 9781789973105 (paperback) | ISBN 9781789973112 (ebook) | ISBN 9781789973129 (epub) | ISBN 9781789973136 (mobi)
Subjects: LCSH: Brown, Charles Henry, 1827-1870--Correspondence. | Balloonists--Australia--Correspondence. | Balloonists--Australia--Biography. | Aeronautics--Australia--History--19th century.
Classification: LCC TL620.B755 A3 2020 (print) | LCC TL620.B755 (ebook) | DDC 629.13092 [B]--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019044250
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019044251
Cover design by Brian Melville
ISBN: 978-1-78997-310-5 (print) • ISBN 978-1-78997-311-2 (ePDF)
ISBN 978-1-78997-312-9 (ePub) • ISBN 978-1-78997-313-6 (mobi)
© Peter Lang AG 2020
Published by Peter Lang Ltd, International Academic Publishers,
52 St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3LU, United Kingdom
[email protected], www.peterlang.com
Terence tfitzSimons has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this Work.
All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
This publication has been peer reviewed.
About the author
Terence FitzSimons is an Honorary Research Fellow at Federation University Australia and an honorary historian with Sovereign Hill Museums Association, an affiliated institute of the university. His research interests are centred on Victorian social history.
About the book
These are the letters received and sent by Charles Henry Brown between the years 1847 and 1864.
As an aeronaut, Brown’s lifelong obsession with aerostation took him from his native Great Britain to Australia. While his aeronautical endeavours met with only limited success he was, however, determined to record his contribution to the science, and from an early stage established a vital correspondence with a number of leading figures in the world of ballooning.
The letters provide insights into the developing field of aeronautics, and reveal the tensions, rivalries and downright underhand conduct of some of the pioneers of aviation.
Brown’s intention was to publish his collected correspondence, but his failure to fully realise his own lifelong ambition as an aeronaut of note led him in despair to take his life before he achieved his objective of bringing the compiled correspondence to print.
The manuscript was later recovered by a relative and deposited at the State Library of Victoria where it sat receiving but scant attention until now.
This eBook can be cited
This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.
Contents
PART ICorrespondence: England, 1843–1857
CHAPTER 7 1851
CHAPTER 8 1852
CHAPTER 9 1853
CHAPTER 10 1854
CHAPTER 11 1855
CHAPTER 12 1856
CHAPTER 13 1857
PART IICorrespondence: Australia, 1858–1864
CHAPTER 14 1858
CHAPTER 15 1859
CHAPTER 16 1860
CHAPTER 17 1861
CHAPTER 18 1862
CHAPTER 19 1863
CHAPTER 20 1864
Bibliography
Index
I wish to acknowledge the encouragement and financial support I received from Professor Terry Lloyd, then CEO of the Sovereign Hill Museums Association, Ballarat. I thank also Professor Alice Mills and Doctor Jan Croggin, who were enthusiastic supporters of this endeavour to get Charles Henry Brown’s correspondence into print.
Dr Kate Simons patiently proofread the drafts and endured the peculiarities of Victorian era grammar and punctuation.
Thanks