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Sir, your letter of the 15th is received, but Age has long since obliged
me to withhold my mind from Speculations of the difficulty of those of
your letter, that there are means of artificial buoyancy by which man
may be supported in the Air, the Balloon has proved, and that means
of directing it may be discovered is against no law of Nature and is
therefore possible as in the case of Birds, but to do this by mechanical
means alone in a medium so rare and unassisting as air must have the
aid of some principle not yet generally known. However, I can really
give no opinion understandingly on the subject and with more good
will than confidence wish to you success.
Thomas Jefferson
27 April, 1822
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