298 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Rozier made the first ascent attempted by a human being. But to 

 Charles is due the credit of making the balloon a moderately safe 

 vehicle in which the aeronaut could ascend or descend at will by vary- 

 ing the relation between the amounts of ballast and of gas retained. 

 Although many thousands of ascents have been made since 1783, the 

 total number of lives recorded to have been lost does not exceed fifty. 

 It is somewhat remarkable that after the ascents made by Pilatre 

 de Rozier and others at Paris in the latter part of 1783, the first ascent 

 accomplished elsewhere was in America, a country not only separated 

 by a broad ocean from France, but at that time young in resources, and 

 scarcely beginning to recover from the disastrous effects of the strug- 

 gle for independence. It is true that in November of that year an 

 Italian, Count Zambeccari, exhibited in London a small hydrogen bal- 

 loon, which was sent into the air without any living freight ; but no 

 one rose from English ground in a balloon until a year after Charles 

 had been successful in France. The news of Montgolfier's experiment 

 of the 5th of June reached Philadelphia about the last of November, 

 and the local newspapers of December 24th contained the accounts 

 just received in regard to Charles's experiment of the 27th of August. 

 David Rittenhouse, the friend of Franklin, and the most distinguished 

 American astronomer of his time, was practicing his profession as a 

 maker of philosophical instruments, and especially of clocks. One of 

 his most intimate associates was Francis Hopkinson, an eminent jurist, 

 whose interest in science was almost as great as in law. Both of these 

 men were members of the American Philosophical Society which had 

 been organized by Franklin. No sooner was the news from France 

 received, than they began to test the use of hydrogen for balloons. On 

 the 28th of December an ascent was made by the first American aero- 

 naut, the account of which is perhaps best given in the language of an 

 eye-witness, Francois Simonin, whose letter to the " Journal de Paris" 

 was published May 13, 1784. In the "Gentleman's Magazine" of the 

 following month a translation of it appeared, from which the following 

 is an extract : " Messieurs Ritnose [Rittenhouse] and Opquisne [Hop- 

 kinson] began their experiments with bladders, and then with larger 

 machines ; they joined several together and fastened them round a 

 cage, into which they put animals. The whole ascended, and was 

 drawn down again by a rope. The next day, which was yesterday, a 

 man offered to get into the cage, provided the rope was not let go. 

 He rose about fifteen feet, and would not suffer them to let him go 

 higher. James Wilcox, a carpenter, engaged to go in it for a little 

 money. He rose twenty feet or upward before he made a signal to be 

 drawn down. He then took instructions from Messieurs Ritnose and 

 Opquisne, and after several repetitions on the ground consented to 

 have the rope cut for fifty dollars. Dr. Jaune [Jones], the principal 

 medical person in the city, attended in case of accident. The crowd 

 was incredible, who shouted after the English fashion when they saw 



