Ballooning and Aeronatics magazine, 1907

In a box of delights posted by a friend down south we found four issues of a magazine on ballooning and aviation from 1907. Ballooning and Aeronatics was a monthly, costing a shilling, and we have the first four numbers, from January to April. Actually, it’s possible these are all the issues before the magazine fizzled out, because I can find no reference to this magazine anywhere.

Not just that, but ours are in lovely condition. A bit bigger than A5 size, it would have been dwarfed by the larger and thicker publications on the shelves in WH Smith’s. Curiously, each issue was never quite the same size as any other. It was entirely black and white, on quality paper, with a green card cover.

Contributors included C.S. Rolls, Percival Spencer, Lord Northcliffe, Frank Hedges Butler and May Assheton Harbord, all noted balloonists. The magazine predated others intended for a wider readership (such as Flight, launched two years later, and associated with the Aero Club). I wonder if our magazine was just too far ahead of the curve to succeed. Ballooning was popular with the daring well-to-do in 1907, and crossing by balloon into France was the thing. However, nobody in this country had managed a successful powered flight of any significant distance. Most aeroplanes described in the magazine are models, using wound springs, some with flapping wings, others ‘bird-shaped’. As far as I can see, none was able to support the weight of an internal-combustion engine. A spring-driven ‘hélicoptère’ is described, although a petrol-engine-driven example, the Cornu, is photographed as a one-third-scale model.

Published by Guide and Co. of London, potential subscribers to the magazine were evidently targeted by publicity before the launch, suggesting this was always going to be low volume. It certainly has the feel of a digest, or conference proceedings. There does not appear to be any connection with the Aero Club or any other concerned society of the time.

Ads are for ladies’ fashions, including for the ‘sporting’ woman – the ‘Stalker’ coat and matching skirt could be had for five guineas. Other ads are for photographers, aeronautical engineers (who could make you an aeroplane or balloon), whisky and… trusses. The Aero Club took a slot in each issue promoting its Exhibition at the Royal Agricultural Society hall. How the Calorit (‘for aeronauts’) worked defeats me – this provided for a hot meal on the go, rather like a thermos flask, but apparently using steam? Ladies could also purchase wigs or toupets, such as Maison David’s Pompadour Transformation and Toupet, available for ‘morning, evening or court wear, in any style’, starting at four guineas.

As an aside, the magazine was printed by E.T. Heron, on which a blog will appear in due course.