Wonderfull Balloon Ascents
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Fulgence Marion >> Wonderfull Balloon Ascents
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"I passed in ten minutes from the temperature of spring to that
of winter; the cold was keen and dry, but not insupportable. I
examined all my sensations calmly; _I_ COULD HEAR MYSELF LIVE,
so to speak, and I am certain that at first I experienced nothing
disagreeable in this sudden passage from one temperature to
another.
"When the barometer ceased to move I noted very exactly eighteen
inches ten lines. This observation is perfectly accurate The
mercury did not suffer any sensible movement.
"At the end of some minutes the cold caught my fingers; I could
hardly hold the pen, but I no longer had need to do so. I was
stationary, or rather moved only in a horizontal direction.
"I raised myself in the middle of the car, and abandoned myself
to the spectacle before me. At my departure from the meadow the
sun had sunk to the people of the valleys; soon he shone for me
alone, and came again to pour his rays upon the balloon and the
car. I was the only creature in the horizon in sunshine--all the
rest of nature was in shade. Ere long, however, the sun
disappeared, and thus I had the pleasure of seeing him set twice
in the same day. I contemplated for some moments the mists and
vapours that rose from the valley and the rivers The clouds
seemed to come forth from the earth, and to accumulate the one
upon the other. Their colour was a monotonous grey--a natural
effect, for there was no light save that of the moon.
"I observed that I had tacked round twice, and I felt currents
which called me to my senses. I found with surprise the effect
of the wind, and saw the cloth of my flag: extended horizontally.
"In the midst of the inexpressible pleasure of this state of
ecstatic contemplation, I was recalled to myself by a most
extraordinary pain which I felt in the interior of the ears and
in the maxillary glands. This I attributed to the dilation of
the air contained in the cellular tissue of the organ as much as
to the cold outside. I was in my vest, with my head uncovered.
I immediately covered my head with a bonnet of wool which was at
my feet, but the pain only disappeared with my descent to the
ground.
"It was now seven or eight minutes since I had arrived at this
elevation, and I now commenced to descend. I remembered the
promise I had made to the Duke of Chartres, to return in half an
hour. I quickened my descent by opening the valve from time to
time. Soon the balloon, empty now to one half, presented the
appearance of a hemisphere.
"Arrived at twenty-three fathoms from the earth, I suddenly threw
over two or three pounds of ballast, which arrested my descent,
and which I had carefully kept for this purpose. I then slowly
descended upon the ground, which I had, so to speak, chosen."
Such is the narrative of the second aerial voyage. After such a
memorable ascent one is astonished to learn that Professor
Charles never repeated his experiment. It has been said that, in
descending from his car, he had vowed that he would never again
expose himself to such perils, so strong had been the alarm he
felt when the peasants ceasing to hold him down he shot up into
the sky with the rapidity of an arrow. But after him a thousand
others have followed the daring example he set. With this ascent
the memorable year 1783 closed, and the seed which had been sown
soon began to be productive.
PART II.
The History of Aerostation from the Year 1783.
Chapter I. The Open Route--Travels and Travellers--Great
Increase in the Number of Air Voyages--Lyons, Ascent of "Le
Flesselles--Milan, Ascent of Adriani--Flight of a Balloon from
London--Lost Balloons in the Chief Towns of Europe
From the year 1783, in which aerostation had its birth, and in
which it was carried to a degree of perfection, beside which the
progress of aeronauts in our days seems small, a new route was
opened up for travellers. The science of Montgolfier, the
practical art of Professor Charles, and the courage of Roziers,
subdued the scepticism of those who had not yet given in their
adhesion to the possible value of the great discovery, and
throughout the whole of France a feverish degree of enthusiasm in
the art manifested itself Aerial excursions now became quite
fashionable. Let it be understood that we do not here refer to
ascents in fixed balloons, that is, in balloons which were
attached to the earth by means of ropes more or less long.
M. Biot narrates that, in his young days, when aeronautic ascents
were less known than they are in these times, there was in the
plain of Grenelle, at the mill of Javelle, an establishment where
balloons were constantly maintained for the accommodation of
amateurs of both sexes who wished to make ascents in what were
called "ballons captifs," or balloons anchored, so to speak, to
the earth by means of long ropes They were for a considerable
time the rage of fashionable society, and it is not recorded that
any accidents resulted from the practice. Of course it may be
easily understood with these safe balloons the adventurous
aeronauts never ascended to any great height. The reader will
find this subject treated under the chapter of military
aerostation.
We are at present specially engaged with the narrative of the
first attempts in aerostation--the first experiments in the new
discovery. We have followed with interest the exciting details
of the first adventurous ascents, in which the genius of man
first essayed the unexplored paths of the heavens. Yet a
continued record of aerial voyages would not be of the same
interest. The results of subsequent expeditions, and the
impressions of subsequent aeronauts are the same as those already
described, or differ from them only in minor points. No
important advance is recorded in the art. We shall therefore
endeavour not to confine ourselves to the narrative of a dry and
monotonous chronology, but to select from the number of ascents
that have taken place within the last eighty years, only those
whose special character renders them worthy of more detailed and
severe investigation.
In order to give an idea of the rapid multiplication of
aeronautic experiments, it will suffice to state that the only
aeronauts of 1783 are Roziers, the Marquis d'Arlandes, Professor
Charles, his collaborateur the younger Robert, and a carpenter,
named Wilcox, who made ascents at Philadelphia and London.
A number of balloons were remarkable for the beauty and elegance
which we have already spoken of. Among the most beautiful we may
mention the "Flesselles" balloon and Bagnolet's balloon.
Of the ascents which immediately succeeded those that have been
treated in the first part of our volume, and which are the most
memorable in the early annals of aerostation, that of the I7th of
January, 1784, is remarkable. It took place at Lyons. Seven
persons went into the car on this occasion--Joseph Montgolfier,
Roziers, the Comte de Laurencin, the Comte de Dampierre, the
Prince Charles de Ligne, the Comte de Laporte d'Anglifort, and
Fontaine, who threw himself into the car when it had already
begun to move.
A most minute account of this experiment is given in a letter of
Mathon de la Cour, director of the Academy of Sciences at
Lyons:--"After the experiments of the Champ de Mars and
Versailles had become known," he says, "the citizens of this town
proposed to repeat them" and a subscription was opened for this
purpose. On the arrival of the elder Montgolfier, about the end
of September, M. de Flesselles, our director, always zealous in
promoting whatever might be for the welfare of the province and
the advancement of science and art, persuaded him to organise the
subscription. The aim of the experiment proposed by Montgolfier
was not the ascent of any human being in the balloon. The
prospectus only announced that a balloon of a much larger size
than any that had been made would ascend--that it would rise to
several thousand feet, and that, including the animals that it
was proposed it should carry, it would weigh 8,000 lbs. The
subscription was fixed at L12, and the number of subscribers was
360."
It was on these conditions that Montgolfier commenced his balloon
of 126 feet high and 100 feet in diameter, made of a double
envelope of cotton cloth, with a lining of paper between. A
strength and consistency was given to the structure by means of
ribbons and cords.
The work was nearly finished when Roziers went up in his
fire-balloon from La Muette. Immediately the Comte de Laurencin
pressed Montgolfier to allow him to go up in the new machine.
Montgolfier was only too glad of the opportunity--refused up to
this time by the king--of going up himself. From thirty to forty
people made application to go with the aeronauts; and on the 26th
of December, 1678, Roziers, the Comte de Dampierre, and the Comte
de Laporte, arrived in Lyons with the same intention. Prince
Charles also arrived; and as his father had taken one hundred
subscriptions, his claim to go up could not be refused.
But while the public papers were full of ascents at Avignon,
Marseilles, and Paris, it is impossible to describe the vexation
of Roziers, when he discovered that Montgolfier's new balloon was
not intended to carry passengers, and had not been, from the
first, constructed with that view. He suggested a number of
alterations, which Montgolfier adopted at once.
On the 7th of January, 1784, all the pieces of which the balloon
was composed were carried out to the field called Les Brotteaux,
outside the town, from which the ascent was to be made. This
event was announced to take place on the 10th and at five o'clock
on the morning of that day; but unexpected delays occurred, and
in the necessary operations the covering was torn in many places.
On the 15th the balloon was inflated in seventeen minutes, and
the gallery was attached in an hour--the fire from which the
heated air was obtained requiring to be fed at the rate of 5 lbs.
of alder-wood per minute; but the preparations had occupied so
much time, that it was found, when everything was complete, that
the afternoon was too far advanced for the ascent to be made.
This machine was destined to suffer from endless misfortunes. It
took fire while being inflated, and, several days afterwards, it
was damaged by snow and rain. Put nothing discouraged Roziers
and his companions. Places had been arranged in the gallery for
six persons. After the balloon was at last inflated, Prince
Charles and the Comes de Laurencin, Dampierre, and Laporte threw
themselves into the gallery. They were all armed, and were
determined not to quit their places to whoever might come.
Roziers, who wished at the last to enjoy a high ascent, proposed
to reduce the number to three, and to draw lots for the purpose.
But the gentlemen would not descend. The debate became animated.
The four voyagers cried to cut the ropes. The director of the
Academy, to whom application was made in this emergency, admiring
the resolution and the courage of the four gentlemen, wished to
satisfy them in their desire. Accordingly the ropes were cut;
but at that moment M. Montgolfier and Roziers threw themselves
into the gallery. At the same time a certain M. Fontaine, who
had had much to do in the construction of the machine, threw
himself in, although it had not previously been arranged that he
should be of the party. His boldness in jumping in was pardoned,
on the ground of his services and his zeal.
In going away the machine turned to the south-west, and bent a
little. A rope which dragged along the ground seemed to retard
its ascent; but some intelligent person having cut this with a
hatchet, it began to right itself and ascend. At a certain
height it turned to the north east. The wind was feeble, and the
progress was slow, but the imposing effect was indescribable.
The immense machine rose into the air as by some effect of magic.
Nearly 100,000 spectators were present, and they were greatly
excited at the view. They clapped their hands and stretched
their arms towards the sky; women fainted away, or (for some
reasons best known to themselves) found relief for their
excitement in tears; while the men, uttering cries of joy, waved
their handkerchiefs, and threw their hats into the air.
The form of the machine was that of a globe, rising from a
reversed and truncated cone, to which the gallery was attached.
The upper part was white, the lower part grey; and the cone was
composed of strips of stuff of different colours. On the sides
of the balloon were two paintings, one of which represented
History, the other Fame. The flag bore the arms of the director
of the Academy, and above it were inscribed the words "Le
Flesselles."
The voyagers observed that they did not consume a fourth of the
quantity of combustibles after they had risen into the air, which
they consumed when attached to the earth. They were in the
gayest humour, and they calculated that the fuel they had would
keep them floating till late in the evening. Unfortunately,
however, after throwing more wood on the fire, in order to get up
to a greater altitude, it was discovered that a rent had been
made in the covering, caused by the fire by which the balloon had
been damaged two or three days previously. The rent was four
feet in length; and as the heated air escaped very rapidly by it,
the balloon fell, after having sailed above the earth for barely
fifteen minutes.
The descent only occupied two or three minutes, and yet the shock
was supportable. It was observed that as soon as the machine had
touched the earth all the cloth became unfolded in a few seconds,
which seemed to confirm the opinion of Montgolfier, who believed
that electricity had much to do in the ascent of balloons. The
voyagers were got out of the balloon without accident, and were
greeted with the most enthusiastic applause.
On the day of the ascent, the opera of "Iphigenia in Aulis" was
given, and the theatre was thronged by a vast assemblage,
attracted thither in the hope of seeing the illustrious
experimentalists. The curtain had risen when M. and Madame de
Flesselles entered their box, accompanied by Montgolfier and
Roziers. At sight of them the enthusiasm of the house rose to
fever pitch. The other voyagers also entered, and were greeted
with the same demonstrations. Cries arose from the pit to begin
the opera again, in honour of the visitors. The curtain then
fell, and when it again rose, after a few moments, the actor who
filled the role of Agamemnon advanced with crowns, which he
handed to Madame de Flesselles, who distributed them to the
aeronauts. Roziers placed the crown that had been given to him
upon Montgolfier's head.
When the actress who played the part of Clytemnestra, sung the
passage beginning--
"I love to see these flattering honours paid,"
the audience at once applied her song to the circumstances, and
re-demanded it, which request the actress complied with,
addressing herself to the box in which the distinguished visitors
sat. The demonstrations of admiration were continued after the
opera was over; and during the whole of the night the gentlemen
of the balloon ascent were serenaded.
Two days afterwards, Roziers having appeared at a ball, received
further proofs of admiration and honours; and when, on the 22nd
of January, he departed for Dijon on his return to Paris, he was
accompanied as in a triumph by a numerous cavalcade of the most
distinguished young men of the city.
There was, however, at Paris, much discontent with the ascent of
"Le Flesselles;" and the Journal de Paris de Paris, which notices
so enthusiastically the other ascents of that epoch, speaks
slightingly of that at Lyons.
The next great ascent took place at Milan, on the 25th of
February, 1784, under the direction of the Chevalier Paul
Andriani, who had a balloon constructed by the Brothers Gerli, at
his own expense. We read that this balloon was 66 feet in
diameter, and that the envelope was composed of cloth, lined in
the interior with fine paper.
The balloon was not in all respects constructed like that which
rose at Lyons. The grating which supported the fire that kept up
the supply of hot air was placed at the mouth of the opening. It
was made of copper, was six feet in diameter, and was secured by
a number of transverse beams of wood. M. Andriani thought it
best to place his fire--contrary to general usage--a little way
above the mouth of the opening, and he found out that the
activity of the fire was in proportion with that of the air which
entered and fed it.
In place of making use of a gallery like that employed by
Montgolfier, as much to manage the fire as to carry the traveller
and the fuel, he substituted a wide basket, suspended by cords to
the edge of the opening of the balloon, at such a distance that
fuel could be thrown on with the hand without being
inconvenienced by the heat.
Everything being in readiness, the machine was carried to
Moncuco, the splendid domain of Andriani, where the first
experiments were made; for this gentlemen knew that as the
populace are impatient, they are also often un-reasonable, and
jump to the hastiest and most inconsiderate conclusion when, in
witnessing scientific experiments, any of the arrangements happen
to be imperfect, and the results in any respect prove
unsuccessful.
Andriani did not deceive himself, for, sure enough, his first
attempt did not come up to expectation. The reasons for this
failure were the too great quantity of air which the fire drew
in, and the unsuitable character of the fuel used.
On the 25th of February, 1784, a second attempt was made. The
fire was lighted under the machine, at first with dry birch-wood.
and afterwards with a bituminous composition, ingeniously
concocted by one of the Brothers Gerli. In less than four
minutes the balloon was completely inflated, and the men employed
to hold it down with ropes perceived that it was on the point of
rising. The aeronauts then gave the order to let go. Scarcely
was the balloon let off, when it gently rose a short distance,
and then flew in a horizontal direction towards a palace in the
neighbourhood. In order that the structure should not be
destroyed on the walls and the roof of the palace, the voyagers
heaped on the fuel, and the spectators, who had gathered together
from the surrounding villages, then saw this strange vessel of
the air rising with rapidity to a surprising height. Such a
phenomenon was so astonishing, that those who beheld it could
hardly believe their own eyes; and when the balloon disappeared
from view, the delight they had manifested was dashed with fear
for the fate of the bold aeronauts. The latter, seeing that the
balloon was driving through the air towards a range of rocky
hills in the neighbourhood, and perceiving, on the other hand,
that their stock of combustibles was nearly exhausted, judged it
prudent to descend. They diminished their fire, and came
gradually down, warning the multitude below of their intention by
means of a speaking-trumpet.
In the course of the descent the balloon alighted upon a large
tree, to the great peril of the travellers; but as soon as the
fire was increased it again mounted and got clear from the
branches while the people below, grasping the cords that were
hung out to them, guided the machine to the spot which the
voyagers indicated. To descend to terra firma was then a
comparatively easy matter, and it was safely accomplished. The
fire, which in the case of the French balloons had dried,
calcined, and almost consumed the upper part of the balloon, had
no evil effect upon that of Andriani, which came down looking as
fresh as if it had never been used.
The new idea had now passed the frontiers of France, in which it
was originally conceived, and among the other nations, as at
first in France, the power of the inflated balloon came to be
tested everywhere by the construction of small toy globes.
It was just about five months after the first experiment at
Annonay--viz., on the 25th of November, 1783--that the first
balloon ascended in London. We are informed, in the History of
Aerostation by Tiberius Cavallo, that an Italian, Count
Zambeccari, who was staying in the English capital, made a
balloon of silk, covered with a varnish of oil. Its diameter was
ten feet, and its weight eleven pounds. It was gilded for the
double purpose of enhancing its appearance and preventing the
escape of air. After having been exposed to public inspection
for several days, it was filled three parts full of hydrogen gas,
a tin bottle was suspended from it, containing an address to
whoever might find it when it should fall, and it was let off
from the Artillery Ground, in presence of a vast assembly.
On the 11th of December, 1783, a little balloon, made of
gold-beaters' skin, was let off publicly at Turin. This was an
experiment similar to that which had been tried at Paris in
September. The balloon was seen to penetrate the clouds, then to
mount still higher, and finally to disappear entirely in five
minutes fifty-four seconds from the time when it was set free.
It was natural, after the experiments made long before with
electric paper kites, to employ the balloon in the investigation
of the electric conditions of the atmosphere. The first to use
it for this purpose was the Abbe Berthelon de Montpellier. He
sent up a number of balloons, to which he had attached pieces of
metal, long and narrow, and terminating in a cylinder of glass,
or other substance suitable for the purpose of isolation, and he
obtained sufficient electricity by these means to demonstrate the
phenomena of attraction and repulsion, as well as electric
sparks.
Cavallo mentions an accident which took place in England about
this time, and which served as a warning to all who had to do
with balloons filled with hydrogen gas. A balloon thus inflated
had been sent up at Hopton, near Matlock, and was found by two
men near Cheadle, in Staffordshire. These ingenious persons
carried it within doors, and having wished to fully inflate
it--half the gas having by this time escaped--they applied a pair
of bellows to its mouth. By this means they only forced out the
volume of the hydrogen gas that was left; and this gas, coming in
contact with a candle that had been placed too near, exploded.
The report was louder than that of a cannon, and so powerful was
the shock that the men were thrown down, the glass blown out of
the windows, and the house otherwise damaged. The men suffered
severely, their hair, beards, and eyebrows being completely burnt
away, and their faces severely scorched.
At Grenoble, in Dauphine, De Baron let off a balloon on the 13th
of January, 1784. It rose, and at first took a northern
direction; but, having encountered a current of air, it was
carried away in a south-easterly direction, and after flying a
distance of three-quarters of a mile, it fell, having traversed
this distance in fifteen minutes.
A society, under the presidency of the Abbe de Mably, having
constructed a balloon thirty-seven feet high and twenty feet in
diameter, sent it off from the court of the Castle of Pisancon,
near Romano, on the same day, the 13th of February. At first it
was carried to the south by a strong north wind, but after it had
risen to 1,000 feet above the surface, its course was changed
towards the north. It was calculated that, in less than five
minutes, this balloon rose to the height of 6,000 feet.
On the 16th of the same month the Count d'Albon threw off from
his gardens at Franconville a balloon inflated with gas, and made
of silk, rendered air-tight by a solution of gum-arabic. It was
oblong, and measured twenty-five feet in height, and seventeen
feet in diameter. To this balloon a cage, containing two
guinea-pigs and a rabbit, was suspended. The cords were cut, and
the inflated globe rose to an enormous height with the greatest
rapidity. Five days afterwards it was found at the distance of
eighteen miles, and it is remarkable that, in spite of the cold
of the season, and particularly of the elevated region through
which the balloon had been passing, the animals were not only
living, but in good condition.
On the 3rd of February, 1784, the Marquis de Bullion sent up a
paper balloon, of about fifteen feet in diameter. A flat sponge,
about a foot square, placed in a tin dish and drenched with a
pint of spirits of wine, was the only apparatus made use of to
create a supply of heated air. It rose at Paris, and three hours
afterwards it was found near Basville, about thirty miles from
the capital.
On the 15th of the same month Cellard de Chastelais sent up a
paper balloon. Heated air was supplied on this occasion by a
paper roll, enclosing a sponge, and soaked in oil, spirits of
wine, and grease. A cage, which contained a cat, was attached to
this air globe. In thirty-five minutes it had mounted so high
that it looked but like the smallest star, and in two hours it
had flown a distance of forty-six miles from the place where it
was thrown off. The cat was dead, but it was not discovered from
what cause.
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