filled with the morning's dew; the heat of the sun, by its | attractive power on the dew, raised him up to the middle region of the atmosphere, whence, some of the flasks being broken, the adventurer sank again to the ground. Other aeronautical ideas occur in the romance.

Cardan proposed that ascensional power might be applied as in a rocket; and one Honoratus Fabry has described a huge apparatus, consisting of long tin pipes, worked by air compressed by the action of fire.

The most noted scheme for navigating the air promulgated previously to the successful experiments of the Montgolfiers, is due to a Jesuit, Francis Lana, and was proposed by him in a work entitled Prodromo dell'Arte Maestra, Brescia, 1670. His idea, though useless and

of very large dimensions, yet so extremely thin that after the air was exhausted from them they would be lighter than the air displaced, and so would rise; and to those four balls he proposed to attach a boat, with sails, &c., and which would carry up a man. He submitted the whole matter to calculation, and proposed that the globes should be about 25 feet in diameter andth of an inch in thickness; this would give from all four balls a total ascensional force of about 1200 b, which would be quite enough to raise the boat, sails, passengers, &c. But the obvious objection to the whole scheme is, that it would be quite impossible to construct a globe of so large a size and of such small thickness which would even support its own weight without falling to pieces if placed on the ground, much less bear the external atmospheric pressure when the internal air was removed. Lana himself noticed the latter objection, but he thought that the spherical form of the copper shell would, notwithstanding its extreme thinness, enable it, after the exhaustion was effected, to sustain the enormous pressure, which, acting equally on every point of the surface, would tend to consolidate rather than to break the metal. Of course this assumed the ball to be absolutely spherical, a state of affairs as impossible as indifferent equilibrium actually is. He proposed to exhaust the air from the globes by attaching each to a tube 36 feet long, fitted with a stopcock, and so produce a Torricellian vacuum. He was thus apparently ignorant of the invention of the airpump by Otto Guericke about 1650; and though his project is noteworthy as the hydrostatics of it is correct, still Lana displays his ignorance of philosophical facts known in his day, quite as much as his originality; and his proposition has, since Montgolfier's discovery, received a greater share of notice than it deserves.

So late as 1755, and not long before the invention of balloons, a very fanciful scheme was proposed by Joseph Galien, a Dominican friar, and professor of philosophy and

theology in the papal university of Avignon. This visionary proposed to collect the diffuse air of the upper regions, and to enclose it in a huge vessel extending more than a mile every way, and intended to carry fifty-four times as much weight as did Noah's ark. It is unnecessary to notice at greater length this absurd chimera, which is merely mentioned here at all because it is sometimes referred to, though only on account of the magnitude of the fantastic scheme.

to the atmosphere.

It is proper here to remark, that nearly all the early pro- False ideas jectors imagined that the atmosphere was of no great with regard height, and that it covered the earth like a shallow ocean, having a well-defined boundary; and the aerial vessels which they proposed were intended to float on the surface of this ocean, exactly as ships do on the sea, with their upper portions in the ether or diffuse air, or whatever the fluid might be, that lay above. And these ideas were, of course, not dispelled till after the invention of the barometer and the discovery of the law of the decrease of atmospheric pressure with elevation.

Bacon on

Some writers have stated that Francis Bacon first pub- Confused lished the true principles of aeronautics. This assertion we ideas of cannot help noticing, because it has really no foundation aeronautics. except in the propensity, fostered by indolence, which would gladly refer all the discoveries ever made to a few great names. They mistake, indeed, the character of Bacon who seek to represent him as an inventor. His claim to immortality rests chiefly on the profound and comprehensive views which he took of the bearings of the different parts of human knowlege; for it would be difficult to point out a single fact or observation with which he enriched the store of physical science. On the contrary, being very deficient in mathematical learning, he disregarded or rejected some of the noblest discoveries made in his own time.

We can find only two passages in Bacon's works which can be considered as referring to aeronautics, and they both occur in that collection of loose facts and inconclusive reasonings which he has entitled Natural History. The first is styled Experiment Solitary, touching Flying in the Air, and runs thus "Certainly many birds of good wing (as kites and the like) would bear up a good weight as they fly; and spreading feathers thin and close, and in great breadth, will likewise bear up a great weight, being even laid, without tilting up on the sides. The farther extension of this experiment might be thought upon." The second passage is more diffuse, but less intelligible; it is styled Experiment Solitary, touching the Flying of unequal Bodies in the Air:-"Let there be a body of unequal weight (as of wool and lead or bone and lead); if you throw it from you with the light end forward, it will turn, and the weightier end will recover to be forwards, unless the body be over long. The cause is, for that the more dense body hath a more violent pressure of the parts from the first impulsion, which is the cause (though heretofore not found out, as hath been often said) of all violent motions; and when the hinder part moveth swifter (for that it less endureth pressure of parts) than the forward part can make way for it, it must needs be that the body turn over; for (turned) it can more easily draw forward the lighter part." The fact here alluded to is the resistance that bodies experience in moving through the air, which, depending on the quantity of surface merely, must exert a proportionally greater effect on rare substances. The passage itself, however, after making every allowance for the period in which it was written, must be deemed confused, obscure, and unphilosophical.

We now come to the discovery of the balloon, which Discovery was due to Stephen and Joseph Montgolfier, sons of Peter of the Montgolfier, a large and celebrated papermaker at Annonay, balloon.

The bro

a town about 40 miles from Lyons. The brothers had thers Mont- observed the suspension of clouds in the atmosphere, and golfier. it occurred to them that if they could enclose any vapour of the nature of a cloud in a large and very light bag, it might rise and carry the bag with it into the air. They accordingly made experiments, inflating bags with smoke from a fire placed underneath, and found either that the smoke or some vapour emitted from the fire did ascend and carry the bag with it. Being thus assured of the correctness of their views, they determined to have a public ascent of a balloon on a large scale. They accordingly invited the States of Vivarais, then assembled at Annonay, to witness their aerostatic experiment; and on June 5, 1783, in the presence of a considerable concourse of spectators, a linen globe of 105 feet in circumference was inflated over a fire fed with small bundles of chopped straw, and when released rapidly rose to a great height, and descended, at the expiration of ten minutes, at the distance of about 1 mile. This was the discovery of the balloon. The brothers Montgolfier imagined that the bag rose because of the levity of the smoke or other vapour given forth by the burning straw; and it was not till some time later that it was recognised that the ascending power was due merely to the lightness of heated air compared to an equal volume of air at a lower temperature. Air, like all other fluids, expands by heat, and thereby becomes rarefied, so that any volume of hot air weighs less than the corresponding volume of air at a lower temperature. If, then, the air inside the balloon be so heated that it, together with the balloon, weighs less than the air displaced, the balloon will rise till it arrives at such a height that it and the enclosed air are equal in weight to that of the displaced air, when equilibrium will be obtained. In Montgolfier's first balloon, no source of heat was taken up with it, so that the air inside rapidly cooled, and the balloon soon descended.

Ascent of the first

The news of the experiment at Annonay rapidly spread over Europe, and at Paris attracted so much attention that air-balloon. M. Faujas de Saint-Fond, a naturalist, set on foot a sub

scription for paying the expense of repeating the experiment. The balloon was constructed by two brothers of the name of Robert, under the superintendence of M. Charles, professor of natural philosophy in Paris, and afterwards a member of the Academy of Sciences. It had at first been suggested to copy the process of Montgolfier, but Charles proposed the application of hydrogen gas, which was adopted. The filling of the balloon, which was made of thin silk varnished with a solution of elastic gum, and was about 13 feet in diameter, was commenced on August 23, 1783, in the Place des Victoires. The hydrogen gas was obtained by the action of dilute sulphuric acid upon iron filings, and was introduced through leaden pipes; but as the gas was not passed through cold water, great difficulty was experienced in filling the balloon completely; and altogether about 500 lb of sulphuric acid and twice that amount of iron filings were used. Bulletins were issued daily of the progress of the inflation; and the crowd was so great that on the 26th the balloon was moved to the Champ de Mars, a distance of 2 miles. This was done secretly, in the middle of the night, to avoid the crowd; and the appearance of the balloon being thus removed, preceded by lighted torches and escorted by a detachment of soldiers, is described as having been very remarkable. On the next day, August 27, an immense concourse of people covered the Champ de Mars, and every spot from which a view could be obtained was crowded. About five o'clock a cannon was discharged as the signal for the ascent, and the balloon when liberated rose to the height of about 3000 feet with great rapidity. A shower of rain which began to fall directly after the balloon had left the

earth in no way checked its progress; and the excitement was so great, that thousands of well-dressed spectators, many of them ladies, stood exposed, watching it intently the whole time it was in sight, and were drenched to the skin. The balloon, after remaining in the air for about threequarters of an hour, fell in a field near Gonesse, about 15 miles off, and terrified the peasantry so much that it was torn into shreds by them. Hydrogen gas was at this time known by the name of inflammable air; and balloons inflated with gas have ever since been called by the people air-balloons, the kind invented by the Montgolfiers being designated fire-balloons. French writers have also very frequently styled them after their inventors, Charlières and Montgolfières.

duck.

On the 19th of September 1783 Joseph Montgolfier Ascent of a repeated the Annonay experiment at Versailles, in the pre- sheep, a sence of the king, the queen, the court, and an immense cock, and a number of spectators. The inflation was commenced at one o'clock, and completed in eleven minutes, when the balloon rose to the height of about 1500 feet, and descended after eight minutes, at a distance of about two miles, in the wood of Vaucresson. Suspended below the balloon, in a cage, had been placed a sheep, a cock, and a duck, which were thus the first aerial travellers. They were quite uninjured, except the cock, which had its right wing hurt in consequence of a kick it had received from the sheep; but this took place before the ascent. The balloon, which was painted with ornaments in oil colours, had a very showy See Plate I. appearance.

de Rozier

The first human being who ascended in a balloon was Ascent of M. François Pilâtre de Rozier, a young naturalist, who, M. Pilâtre two years afterwards, was killed in an attempt to cross and the the English Channel in a balloon. On October 15, 1783, Marquis and following days, he made several ascents (generally d'Arlandes. alone, but once with a companion, M. Girond de Villette), in a captive balloon (i.e., one attached by ropes to the ground), and demonstrated that there was no difficulty in taking up fuel and feeding the fire, which was kindled in a brazier suspended under the balloon, when in the air. The way being thus prepared for aerial navigation, on November 21, 1783, M. Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes first trusted themselves to a free fire-balloon. The experiment was made from the Jardin du Chateau de la Muette, in the Bois de Boulogne. The machine employed, which was a large fire-balloon, was inflated at about two o'clock, and leaving the earth at this time, it rose to a height of about 500 feet, and passing over the Invalides and the Ecole Militaire, descended beyond the Boulevards, about 9000 yards from the place of ascent, having been between twenty and twenty-five minutes in the air. The result was completely successful; and it is scarcely necessary to add, the excitement in Paris was very great.

Charles

See Plate I.

Only ten days later, viz., on December 1, 1783, MM. Ascent Charles and Robert ascended from Paris in a balloon in- of MM. flated with hydrogen gas. The balloon, as in the case of and Robert the small one of the same kind previously launched from in a balloon the Champ de Mars, was constructed by the brothers inflated Robert. It was 27 feet in diameter, and the car was sus- with hydrǝ- | pended from a hoop surrounding the middle of the gen gas. balloon, and fastened to a net which covered the upper hemisphere. The balloon ascended very gently from the Tuileries at a quarter to two o'clock, and after remaining for some time at an elevation of about 2000 feet, it descended in about two hours at Nesle, a small town about 27 miles from Paris, when M. Robert left the car, and M. Charles made a second ascent by himself. He had intended to have replaced the weight of his companion by a nearly equivalent quantity of ballast; but not having any suitable means of obtaining such ready at the place of descent, and it being just upon sunset, he gave the word

Ascent of

seven per

sons at

Lyons.

American

to let go, and the balloon being thus so greatly lightened, ascended very rapidly to a height of about 2 miles. After staying in the air about half-an-hour, he descended 3 miles from the place of ascent, although he believed the distance traversed, owing to different currents, to have been about 9 miles. In this second journey M. Charles experienced a violent pain in his right ear and jaw, no doubt produced by the rapidity of the ascent. He also witnessed the phenomenon of a double sunset on the same day; for when he ascended, the sun had set in the valleys, and as he mounted he saw it rise again, and set a second time as he descended.

All the features of the modern balloon as now used are more or less due to Charles, who invented the valve at the top, suspended the car from a hoop, which was itself at tached to the balloon by netting, &c. The M. Robert who accompanied him in the ascent was one of the brothers who had constructed it.

On January 19, 1784, the largest balloon on record (if the contemporary accounts are correct) ascended from Lyons. It was more than 100 feet in diameter, about 130 feet in height, and when distended had a capacity, it is said, of over half-a-million cubic feet. It was called the Flesselles (from the name of its proprietor or owner, we believe), and after having been inflated from a straw fire in seventeen minutes, it rose with seven persons in the car, viz., Joseph Montgolfier, Pilâtre de Rozier, Count de Laurencin, Count de Dampierre, Prince Charles de Ligne, Count de Laport d'Anglefort, and M. Fontaine, the last gentleman having leaped into the car just as the machine had started. The fire was fed with trusses of straw, and the balloon rose majestically to the height of about 3000 feet, but descended again after the lapse of about a quarter of an hour from the time of starting, in consequence of a rent in the upper part.

It is proper here to state that researches on the use of aerostatic gas for inflating balloons seem to have been carried on at experiment Philadelphia nearly simultaneously with the experiments in 1783. of the Montgolfiers; and when the news of the latter reached America, Messrs Rittenhouse and Hopkins, members of the Philosophical Academy of Philadelphia, constructed a machine consisting of forty-seven small hydrogen gas-balloons attached to a car or cage. After several preliminary experiments, in which animals were let up to a certain height by a rope, a carpenter, one James Wilcox, was induced to enter the car for a small sum of money; the ropes were cut, and he remained in the air about ten minutes, and only then effected his descent by making incisions in a number of the balloons, through fear of falling into the river, which he was approaching.

Remarks

on the discovery of

the balloon.

The improvements that have been made in the management and inflation of balloons in the last ninety years have only had reference to details, so that as far as essential principles are concerned the subject is now in pretty much the same state as it was in 1783. We have therefore arrived at a point in the history of the balloon where it is well to consider how much the Montgolfiers and Charles owed to their predecessors; and it is proper here to state that, although we have assigned the invention to the two brothers, Stephen and Joseph-as no doubt they both conducted the early experiments together-still there is reason to believe that the share of the latter was very small. Stephen, however, although the originator of balloons, does not appear ever to have ascended himself, and Joseph did not repeat the ascent just mentioned in the Flesselles. The Montgolfiers had studied Priestley's Experiments relating to different kinds of Air, whence they first conceived the possibility of navigating the atmosphere; but their experiment was so simple as to require scarcely any philosophical knowledge. They had seen smoke ascend,

and thought that if they could imprison it in a bag, the bag might ascend too; and the observation and reasoning were both such as might occur to anybody. This does not detract from their merit; it, on the contrary, adds to it. The fact that millions of persons must have observed the same thing, and had not derived anything practical therefrom, only enhances the glory of those who in such wellworn tracts did make a discovery; but the simplicity of the invention shows that it is needless to inquire whence the brothers were led to make it, and how far any part of the credit is due to their predecessors. It is scarcely possible to imagine anything more remarkable than that the fact that a light bag held over a fire would ascend into the air was not discovered till 1783, notwithstanding that men in all ages had seen smoke ascend from fire (though, of course, the fire-balloon does not ascend for exactly the same reason that smoke does). It might be supposed that the connection of the Montgolfiers with a paper manufactory gave them facilities for constructing their experimental balloons of thin paper; and perhaps such was the case, although we can find no evidence of it. With regard to Charles's substitution of hydrogen gas, there are anticipations that must be noticed. As early as 1766 Cavendish showed that this gas was at least seven times lighter than ordinary air, and it immediately occurred to Dr Black, of Edinburgh, Dr Black's well known as the discoverer of latent heat, that a thin bag experifilled with hydrogen gas would rise to the ceiling of a room. He provided, accordingly, the allantois of a calf, with the view of showing at a public lecture such a curious experiment; but for some reason it seems to have failed, and Black did not repeat it, thus allowing a great discovery, almost within his reach, to escape him. Several years afterwards a similar idea occurred to Tiberius Cavallo, Cavallo who found that bladders, even when carefully scraped, are inflated too heavy, and that China paper is permeable to the gas. soap bubBut in 1782, the year before the invention of the Monthydrogen golfiers, he succeeded in elevating soap-bubbles by in- gas in flating them with hydrogen gas. The discovery of 1782. fire-balloons might have taken place almost at any time in the world's history, but the substitution of hydrogen gas for heated air could not have been made previously to the latter half of the last century; and although all the honour of an independent discovery belongs to the Montgolfiers, Charles, by his substitution of "inflammable air" for heated air, merely showed himself acquainted with the state of chemical science of his day. Charles never again ascended after his double expedition on the 1st of December 1783.

ments.

bles with

balloons in

We now return to the history of aerial navigation, and commence with an account of the first ascents of balloons First in this country. Although the news of the Annonay and ascents of subsequent experiments in France rapidly spread all over Europe, and formed a topic of general discussion, still it England. was not till five months after the Montgolfiers had first publicly sent a balloon into the air that any aerostatic experiment was made in England. In November 1783 Count Zambeccari, an Italian, who happened to be in London, made a balloon of oil-silk, 10 feet in diameter, and weighing 11 b. It was publicly shown for several days, and on the 25th it was three-quarters filled with hydrogen gas, and launched from the Artillery ground at one o'clock. It descended after two hours and a half near Petworth, in Sussex, 48 miles from London. This was the first balloon that ascended from English ground. On February 22, 1784, a hydrogen gas balloon, 5 feet in diameter, was let up from Sandwich, in Kent, and descended at Warneton, in French Flanders, 75 miles distance. This was the first balloon that crossed the Channel. The difficulties and dangers of aerial navigation having been surmounted by the end of the year

Andreani,

Blanchard.

Tytler.

Lunardi.

1783, the ascents of balloons were now multiplied in all quarters. It will therefore be sufficient to notice very briefly only the more remarkable of the succeeding ascents. The Chevalier Paul Andreani, of Milan, constructed a fireballoon 68 feet in diameter, and on February 25, 1784, ascended from Milan with two brothers of the name of Gerli, and remained in the air for about twenty minutes. This is usually regarded as the first ascent in Italy (but see Monck Mason's Aeronautica, p. 247). Andreani ascended again on March 13, with two other persons.

On the 2d of March M. Jean Pierre Blanchard, who had been for some years before occupied with projects for flying, made his first voyage from Paris in a balloon 27 feet in diameter, and descended at Billancourt, near Sévres. Just as the balloon was about to ascend, a young man jumped into the car, and, drawing his sword, declared his determination to ascend with Blanchard. He was ultimately removed by force. The episode is worth noting, as it has sometimes been stated that the young man was Napoleon Bonaparte, but this is untrue; his name was Dupont de Chambon. Blanchard made subsequently, it is said, more than thirty aerial voyages, and he is one of the most celebrated of the earlier aeronauts. He also crossed the English Channel, as noticed further on. On July 15, 1784, the Duc de Chartres and the two brothers Robert ascended from St Cloud; but the neck of the balloon becoming choked up with an interior balloon filled with common air, intended to regulate the ascending and descending power, they were obliged to make a hole in the balloon, in order to allow of the escape of the gas, but they descended in safety.

The first person who rose into the air from British ground appears to have been Mr J. Tytler,1 who ascended from the Comely Gardens, Edinburgh, on August 27, 1784, in a fire-balloon of his own construction. He descended on the road to Restalrig, about half-a-mile from the place where he rose. A brief account appeared in a letter, under date August 27, in the London Chronicle, and we have seen a picture of the balloon copied in some journal from a "ticket in the British Museum." Mr Tytler's claims were for a long time entirely overlooked, the honour being invariably assigned to Lunardi, till attention was called to them by Mr Monck Mason in 1838. After Lunardi's successful ascents in 1785, Mr Tytler addressed a set of verses to him (quoted in Astra Castra, p. 108), in a note, to which he gives a modest account of his own "misfortunes," describing his two "leaps." This is, perhaps, the most correct name for them, as his apparatus having been damaged at different times, he merely heated the air in the balloon, and went up without any furnace, being seated in an ordinary basket for carrying earthenware. He reached a height of from 350 to 500 feet.

Although by a few days Tytler has the precedence, still his attempts and partial success were all but totally unknown; whereas Lunardi's experiments excited an enormous amount of enthusiasm in London, and it was he that practically introduced aerostation into this country in the face of very great disadvantages. We have already referred to the extraordinary apathy displayed in England with regard to aerostatic experiments, one consequence of which was that their introduction was due to a foreigner. Vincent Lunardi was secretary to Prince Caramanico, the Neapolitan ambassador, and his published letters to his guardian, the Chevalier Compagni, written while he was carrying out his project, and detailing all the difficulties, &c., he met with as they occurred, are very interesting, and give a See Plate 1. vivid account of the whole matter. His balloon was 33 1 Mr Tytler contributed largely to, and, indeed, appears to have been virtually editor of, the second edition (1778-83) of the Encyclopædia Britannica.

feet in circumference, and was exposed to the public view at the Lyceum in the Strand, where it was visited by upwards of 20,000 people. It was his original intention to have ascended from Chelsea Hospital, but the conduct of a crowd at a garden at Chelsea, which destroyed the fire-balloon of a Frenchman named De Moret, who announced an ascent on August 11, but was unable to keep his word, led to the withdrawal of the leave that had been granted. Ultimately, after some difficulties had been arranged, he was permitted to ascend from the Artillery ground, and on September 15, 1784, the inflation with hydrogen gas took place. It was intended that Mr Biggin, an English gentleman, should accompany Lunardi; but the crowd becoming impatient, the latter judged it prudent to ascend with the balloon only partially full rather than risk a longer delay, and accordingly Mr Biggin was obliged to leave the car. Lunardi therefore ascended alone, in presence of the Prince of Wales and an enormous crowd of spectators. He took up with him a pigeon, a dog, and a cat, and the balloon was provided with oars, by means of which he hoped to raise or lower it at pleasure. Shortly after starting, the pigeon escaped, and one of the oars became broken and fell to the ground. In about an hour and a half he descended at South Mimms, in Hertfordshire, and landed the cat, which had suffered from the cold: he then ascended again, and descended, after the lapse of about three-quarters of an hour, at Standon, near Ware, where he had great difficulty in inducing the peasants to come to his assistance; but at length a young woman, taking hold of one of the cords, urged the men to follow her example, which they then did. The excitement caused by this ascent was immense, and Lunardi at once became the star of the hour. He was presented to the king, and was courted and flattered on all sides. To show the enthusiasm displayed by the people during his ascent, he tells himself, in his sixth letter, how a lady, mistaking the oar which fell for himself, was so affected by his supposed destruction that she died in a few days; but, on the other hand, he says he was told by the judges "that he had certainly saved the life of a young man who might possibly be reformed, and be to the public a compensation for the death of the lady;" for the jury were deliberating on the fate of a criminal, whom they must ultimately have condemned, when the balloon appeared, and every one became inattentive, and to save time they gave a verdict of acquittal, and the whole court came out to view the balloon. The king also was in conference with his ministers; but on hearing that the balloon was passing, he broke up the discussion, remarking that they might resume their deliberations, but that perhaps they might not see Lunardi again; upon which he, Mr Pitt, and the other ministers viewed the balloon through telescopes. The balloon was afterwards exhibited in the Pantheon. In the latter part of the following year (1785) Lunardi made several very successful ascents from Kelso, Edinburgh, and Glasgow (in one of which he traversed a distance of 110 miles): these he has described in a second series of letters. He subsequently returned to Italy, where we believe he still followed the practice of aerostation, and made many ascents. He died on July 31, 1806, at Lisbon, according to the Gentleman's Magazine, but a contemporary newspaper gives Genoa as the place, and adds that he died in a state of very great indigence.

Lunardi's example was soon followed by others, and on Other October 16, 1784, Blanchard ascended from Little Chelsea ascents in with Mr Sheldon, and having deposited the latter at Sun- England. bury, rose again alone, and descended at Romney Marshes. On November 12, Mr James Sadler, sen., ascended from Oxford, and there is every reason to believe that he made a previous ascent from the same place on October 12, four

and Jeffries cross the Channel.

Fate of

.

On March 23, 1785, Count Zambeccari, who had, as we Zambeccari. have seen, launched the first balloon from English ground, ascended for the first time with Admiral Vernon from London. Shortly afterwards he returned to his own country, and there applied himself assiduously to the practice of aerial navigation. He twice, in 1803 and 1804, descended into the Adriatic, and both times only escaped after undergoing much danger. Descending in a fireballoon on September 21, 1812, after a voyage from Bologna, the shock of the grapnel catching in a tree caused the balloon to catch fire; and to save themselves from being burnt, Zambeccari and his companion, Signor Bonaga, leaped from the car. The former was killed on the spot, but the latter, though fearfully injured, escaped with his life.

Fate of

Rozier.

On June 15, 1785, Pilâtre de Rozier made his last fatal Pilâtre de voyage from Boulogne. It was his intention to have repeated the exploit of Blanchard and Jeffries in the reverse direction, and have crossed from Boulogne to England. For this purpose he had contrived a double balloon, which he expected would combine the advantages of both kinds a fire-balloon, 10 feet in diameter, being placed underneath a gas-balloon of 37 feet in diameter, so that by increasing or diminishing the fire in the former it might be possible to ascend or descend without waste of gas. Rozier was accompanied by M. P. A. Romain, and for rather less than half-an-hour after the aerostat ascended all seemed to be going on well, when suddenly the whole apparatus was seen in flames, and the unfortunate adventurers came to the ground from the supposed height of more than 3000 feet. Rozier was killed on the spot, and Romain only survived about ten minutes. A monument was erected on the place where they fell, which was near the sea-shore, about four miles from the starting-point. The Marquis de la Maisonfort had accompanied Rozier to Boulogne, intending to ascend with him, but M. Romain there insisted on a prior promise. Either the upper balloon must have been reached by the flames, and the gas taken fire, or the gas must have poured down into the lower balloon, and so have caused the explosion.

Female We must not omit to mention that on June 4, 1784, acronauts. Madame Thible ascended from Lyons in a fire-balloon with M. Fleurand, in the presence of King Gustavus of Sweden, then travelling under the name of Count Haga. Madame Thible is very likely the only woman who ever ascended in a fire-balloon. The first English woman who ever ascended into the air was Mrs Sage, who accompanied Mr Biggin in his voyage from London on June 29, 1785. Accounts are given of an ascent at Constantinople, made nople. in the presence of the Sultan, by a Persian physician,

A cent at Constanti

accompanied by two Bostangis, early in the year 1786, who, crossing the sea which divides Europe from Asia, descended about 30 leagues from the coast.

manent

We have now given a brief account of all the noteworthy Most of the voyages that took place within the first two or three years subsequent after the discovery of the balloon by Montgolfier. Ascents ascents were multiplied from this time onwards, and it is impos- undertaken merely sible to give even a list of the many hundreds that have for pleataken place since: this omission is, however, of slight sure, and importance, as henceforth the balloon became little better of no perthan a toy, let up to amuse people at fêtes or other public value. occasions. When the first ascents were made in France, the glow of national vanity was lighted up, and the most brilliant expectations were felt with regard to aerostation, and the glory to the nation that would accrue therefrom. These anticipations have not been realised, and the balloon at this moment has received no great improvement since the time of Charles, except the substitution of ordinary coal-gas for hydrogen, which has rendered the inflation of a balloon at any gas-works a comparatively simple matter, bearing in mind the elaborate contrivances required for the generation of hydrogen in sufficient quantities. But in one respect the balloon has been of real service, viz., to science, in rendering the attainment of observations in the higher strata of the atmosphere not only possible but practicable. In regard to such matters the balloon is unique, as the atmosphere is the great laboratory of nature, in which are produced all the phenomena of weather, the results of which we perceive on the earth; and no observations made on mountain-sides can take the place of those made in the balloon, as what is required is the knowledge of the state of the upper atmosphere itself, free from the disturbing effects of the contiguity of the land. Although, therefore, in what follows, we shall notice any particularly remarkable ascents, we shall chiefly confine ourselves to the few that have been undertaken for the sake of advancing science, and which alone are of permanent value. It will be necessary to make one exception to this rule, however, in the case of the parachute, the experiments with which require some notice, although they have been put to no useful purpose. The balloon has also been used in warfare as a means of observing the movements of the enemy; and the applications of it to this purpose deserve notice, although we think not so much use has been made of the balloon in this direction as might have been.

The substitution of coal-gas for hydrogen is due to Mr SubstituCharles Green, the veteran aeronaut, who made several tion of coalhundred ascents, the first of which took place on July 19, gas for hydrogen by 1821, the coronation day of George IV. In this ascent Mr Green. ordinary coal-gas was first used; and every balloon, with very few exceptions, that has ascended since this date has been so inflated. Pall Mall was first lighted by gas in 1807, and at the end of 1814 the general lighting of London by gas commenced; so that coal-gas could not have been available for filling balloons long before it was actually used.

Leaving out of consideration the ascents undertaken for Subsequent scientific objects (very many of which were remarkable for famous the height attained or the distance traversed, and which ascents (non-scienwill be specially noticed further on), we proceed to men- tific). tion the most noteworthy ascents that have taken place and that have not ended fatally (these latter will be referred to separately). Mr Crosbie, a gentleman who was the first to ascend from Ireland (January 19, 1785), on the 19th July 1785 attempted to cross St George's Channel to England, but fell into the sea; he was saved by some vessels that came to his rescue. Lunardi also fell into the sea, about a mile and a half from the shore, after an ascent from Edinburgh in December 1785; he was rescued by a fishing-boat. Richard Maguire was the second person