High Strain Rate Planetary Mechanics

 About this book Read this bookJournal of the Conversations of Lord Byron: Noted During a Residence with ... By Thomas Medwin: "Who would not wish to have been born two or three centuries later said he putting into my hand an Italian letter Here is a savant of Bologna who pretends to have discovered the manner of directing balloons by mea ns of a rudder and tells me that he is ready to explain the nature of his invention to our Government I suppose we shall soon travel by air vessels make air instead of sea voyages and at length find our way to the moon in spite of the want of at mosphere Cos Mm ipsum petimtts stultitia said I There is not so much folly as you may suppose and a vast deal of poetry in the idea replied Lord Byron Where shall we set bounds to the power of steam Who shall say Thus far shall thougo and no farther We are at present in the infancy of science Do you imagine that in former stages of this planet wiser creatures than ourselves did not exist All our boasted inventions are but the shadows of what has been the dim images of the past the dream of other states of existence Might not the fable of Prometheus and his stealing the fire and of Briareus and will be destroyed, men will not tear rocks from their foundations by means of steam, and hurl mountains, as the giants are said to have done, against the flaming mass? -- and then shall have traditions of Titans again, and wars with Heaven. "