Balloon Ascensions 175 



ion at greater length in the collection of journals of my ascents which 

 I intend to give the public. The nature of your paper, gentlemen, 

 would not permit me so long a discussion. 



M. de la Condamine, says my illustrious antagonist, is the only 

 man who has observed the barometer at the lowest level, and he 

 observed it, he adds, at 15 inches 11 lines. It would be of no use to 

 remind him that I said that I had seen it at 14 inches in my ascent 

 from Lille with the Chevalier de l'Epinard, and lower yet in England, 

 because, words not being proofs, he would be just as incredulous in 

 the matter. Knowing all M. de Lalande's superiority, I shall take 

 care to contend with him only with victorious arms; and as facts 

 sometimes give the lie to the most careful calculations, I limit myself 

 now to inviting him, as I have just done in a personal letter, to do 

 me the honor of accompanying me in my next ascent; he will then 

 be convinced that the best arguments have no effect against the cer- 

 tainty of a fact. Yours, etc. 



Blanchard, 



Citizen of Calais, pensioner of the King. 



We know that de Lalande replied to the challenge. 



One should read in the Journal de Paris, 8 his curious corre- 

 spondence with Blanchard on this subject. On the 8th of Thermidor 

 in the year VII, they both ascended with the famous flotilla of 

 five balloons invented by the celebrated aeronaut. They hoped, by 

 making use of currents, to go as far as Gotha "to see with delight" 

 said Lalande, "a prince and a princess who, by their learning and 

 their zeal for the sciences, give an example to everyone"; but alas! 

 one of the balloons burst, and the astronomer and the citizen of 

 Calais fell ingloriously into the Bois de Boulogne. 



But let us drop stories lacking precision and perhaps truth. 

 We enter the domain of scientific attempts with the remarkable 

 ascents of Robertson and, soon after, of Gay-Lussac. 



The most important ascent of the French physicist Robertson 9 

 took place at Hamburg, July 18, 1803. He started at 9 o'clock in 

 the morning, accompanied by M. Lhoest, his colleague and com- 

 patriot; the barometer marked 28 inches, the Reamur thermom- 

 eter 16°: 



During the different tests with which we were busied, we felt 

 an uneasiness, a general discomfort; the buzzing in the ears from 

 which we had for some time been suffering increased still more as 

 the barometer dropped below 13 inches. The pain we felt was some- 

 thing like that which one feels when he plunges his head below 

 water. Our chests seemed expanded and lacked resilience, my pulse 

 was hurried; that of M. Lhoest was less so: like mine, his lips were 

 swollen, his eyes bloodshot; all the veins were rounded out and stood 

 up in relief on my hands. The blood had rushed to my head so much 

 that I noticed that my hat seemed too small. The cold increased 



