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Auction: 321 - The Numismatic Collector's Series Sale and Stocks and Bonds of the Americas
Lot: 1603

Transcontinental Aerial Navigation Company, (IL), $100 shares, 1888, No. 694, a steel vacuum balloon flying high above a harbor. A steel vacuum balloon flies over the city, IU, Extremely Fine.

In 1887 the Associated Press described a steel vacuum balloon 144 feet in diameter and 654 feet long, in which Dr. A. De Bausset proposed to carry passengers to the North Pole at incredible speed if they would furnish him with $130,000 to meet construction expenses. The AP wrote; "Here is a most excellent opportunity for all who like to win fame by being one of the party which shall step foot upon that icy ignis fatuus." It may be noted that the inventor of the great steel balloon, after organizing the Transcontinental Aerial Navigation Company and failing to raise all of the $130,000, sought aid from the government. Recommended by the most able military advisers, the initial bill actually passed in the House, but was later defeated on the advice of scientists. Scarce and highly desirable.

Sold for
$575