Balloon Ascensions 183 



Robertson expressed some doubts about the exactness of Mme. 

 Blanchard's barometric readings. The note he sent to the Journal 

 de Paris -- contains details about the sufferings which he and 

 Lhoest had experienced in their ascent of July 1803, which are not 

 included in the account we quoted above: 



The elevation to which you state that Mme. Blanchard rose lately 

 at Turin must surprise your readers all the more as it must be 

 regarded as the last degree of human temerity .... First I must admit 

 that I think it impossible for anyone, with an aerostat of 20 feet 

 diameter, which Mme. Blanchard ordinarily uses, to rise high enough 

 to make the mercury drop to 10 inches .... 



When one reaches the elevation of 3600 fathoms, one yields grad- 

 ually and unconsciously to a lethargic sleep; the mental faculties 

 succumb long before the physical faculties. First one has no memory, 

 no cares for the present or the future; one forgets to supervise the 

 aerostat; soon a soft and gentle sleep, which one cannot resist, lulls 

 all the members and holds the aeronaut in a complete asphyxia, which 

 no doubt is fatal if it is prolonged .... 



In July, 1803, I made an ascent at Hamburg with M. Lhoest .... 

 The barometer dropped to 12 inches and some lines (while we were 

 still in possession of our faculties). The sky seemed to us to be brown; 

 the sun lacked brilliance; we could gaze at it without being dazzled; 

 we had a slight hemorrhage, and experienced all that Mme. Blanchard 

 has just mentioned. We succumbed to sleep in this ascent; but the 

 lower part of the balloon .... released the gas which was driven 

 out by expansion. We roused from this torpor simultaneously and 

 suddenly, without being able to tell what had happened, except that 

 there had been a break in the continuity of our ideas. 



Eugene Robertson,- 3 one of the sons of the celebrated aeronaut, 

 rose on October 16, 1826, from Castle Garden in New York, to 

 21,000 feet (6400 meters) ,-* in a balloon of 16,000 cubic feet, 

 inflated with hydrogen: 



Respiration was painful and difficult, the faculties were blunted, 

 the cold unbearable, especially in the hands. (Therm, at 21 °F.) 



February 12, 1835, this same aeronaut 25 rose from Mexico to a 

 height of 5928 meters. He examined from close at hand the crater 

 of the former volcano the Chicle and rose "above a nursery of 

 mountains." 



The famous English aeronaut Green, who made, according to 

 Glaisher, 20 more than fourteen hundred ascents, certainly rose 

 several times to great heights; but he seems to have been rather 

 careless about exact measurements, and his figures show evidence 

 of great exaggeration. 



One of his ascents, which took place in 1821, is curious because 



