Balloon Ascensions 185 



surpassed even the fabulous height that the English balloonist 

 said he had reached. We read, in fact, in the Proceedings of the 

 Academy of Sciences of Paris: 32 



M. Bonafoux writes that on the occasion of the marriage feast of 

 the hereditary Prince of Savoy, M. Comaschi made a balloon ascent 

 at Turin, in which, if there was no mistake in the barometer readings, 

 M. Comaschi rose to 9474 meters above sea level; but the difference in 

 temperature would seem to indicate a lesser height. 



The story of Hobard, if it does not give information of great 

 precision, at least appears credible; it is inserted in the Courrier 

 francais of October 9, 1835: 



August 17, 1835, an aeronaut, M. Hobard, ran the greatest risks 

 in an ascent which he made at Lynchburg, in Virginia; he mounted 

 at seven o'clock in the evening, and in less than an hour landed about 

 13 leagues from the city. M. Hobard in his account says that a few 

 minutes after his departure he lost sight of the earth completely. At 

 half past seven he made his last observation and judged that he was 

 more than a league high. He saw then two meteors, one in the north 

 and the other in the west; the latter seemed to be approaching rapidly, 

 but it disappeared suddenly, to the great satisfaction of M. Hobard, 

 who feared that it would set his balloon on fire. Shortly after, a 

 squall seized the balloon and whirled it aloft to a height which the 

 aeronaut estimated as not less than 26,000 feet (7925 meters), judging 

 by the difficulty of breathing and the entire loss of hearing. He wished 

 to let gas escape by opening the valve; but not being able to hear, 

 he could not judge, as usual, the escape of the gas by the noise it 

 makes as it issues. He saw nevertheless that the balloon was not 

 deflating much, and he feared it would burst; he feared also that some 

 of his veins would burst, since the rarefaction of the air had made 

 them dilate greatly. The first of his fears was soon realized. Without 

 entirely bursting, the balloon split above and rapidly deflating de- 

 scended with great speed. Happily for M. Hobard, the fall of the 

 balloon was broken by a young fir whose flexible trunk protected 

 him from the terrible shock he would have experienced. However he 

 was thrown out of the basket and considerably bruised, but what were 

 a few contusions in comparison with the cruel death he expected! M. 

 Hobard based his estimate that his greatest elevation was 26,000 feet 

 on the fact that the rarefied air had affected his organs in a more 

 painful way than was experienced by aeronauts who had risen to 

 25,000 feet, the maximum height hitherto reached in balloon ascen- 

 sions. 



We must refer to the memorable ascent of MM. Barral and 

 Bixio, July 27, 1850, to find scientific certainty and precision. But 

 from our point of view, this ascent, so useful to meteorology, has 

 only moderate interest. In fact, under the influence of a barometric 

 pressure of 315 mm., corresponding to a height of 7016 meters, in 



