Rufus Porter, the Traveling Balloon, and a Curious World
“The Traveling Balloon,” Scientific American (New York, N.Y.), September 18, 1845, by Rufus Porter, American, 1792-1884. Courtesy American Antiquarian Society
Rufus Porter’s desire to create art, invent new machines and devices, and find ways to disseminate useful information made him a legendary figure in nineteenth-century America. As shown in the recent exhibition, Rufus Porter’s Curious World—regrettably now closed until further notice—Porter founded Scientific American, painted large murals of the New England landscape, experimented with the camera obscura to quickly paint portraits, and among my favorites of his works, drafted a plan for what he dubbed “The Travelling Balloon.”
Beginning in the 1830s, Porter dreamed of building a traveling balloon that would carry passengers from New York to California in three days. The first plane would not take off for over another 70 years, but, intrigued by the idea of passenger aircraft, Porter dedicated part of his life to planning and later prototyping the device. The balloon was intended to be 500 feet long and was meant to include a cabin for passengers. At the time he began drafting up his design, Porter still believed passenger aircraft to be decades away. It intrigues me that he devoted such attention to this quixotic dream.
Although the balloon never took off, Porter remained optimistic that another inventor would have more success with a flying passenger aircraft. Porter passed away in 1884, just two decades before the Wright brothers’ first successful flight of a heavier-than-air vehicle. I imagine that if Porter were to see a commercial airliner today, he would already be working on the next improvement.
Rebeca Perez Bernal ’20Student Communications Assistant
Bowdoin College Museum of Art