THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR. 3^1 



King and Queen. This procured them an invitation from the 

 Academy of Science, and to honour the occasion they made up 

 their minds to do something great, viz., to build a balloon which 

 would carry a person. They constructed a specimen painted in 

 ail the colours of the rainbow, 26 metres high, 15 in diameter, 

 ending in a narrower part of 5 metres diameter with a wooden 

 gallery, on which a person could move. The question arose, who 

 was to travel in it. Finally the King ordered that the journey was 

 to be made by a criminal condemned to death, who should be 

 pardoned if he came safely to earth again. Everything had been 

 arranged when Pilatre de Kozier declared that it would be a dis- 

 grace to mankind if a murderer were the first person who ever 

 travelled in a balloon, and he offered himself. It was a great dis- 

 appointment to the criminal ; but for humanit}' it was more 

 dignified. The ascent took place on November 21st, with Pilatre 

 de Rozier and the Marquis d' Arlandes on board. The landing 

 was also safely accomplished ; but the balloon was destroyed by 

 superstitious farmers. On this followed again a Charlifere with 

 Charles and Robert on board, on December ist, 1783. 



It is the year 1870. We are again at Paris. The air is full of 

 strange noises and the roar of cannons. Shrapnels draw their fiery 

 courses across the horizon. Paris, the centre of culture and civili- 

 sation, lies within the iron grip of the German army. Food, coal, 

 and wood have almost disappeared. The streets are in the deepest 

 darkness. The gas works have ceased to work for want of fuel. 

 Only at one of them a few lamps light up a large yard. Solid and 

 black rises the huge gas tank. In the middle of the yard appears 

 a large yellow sphere, growing larger and larger. A roaring noise 

 indicates that gas is forced with considerable pressure into the 

 balloon. A net is being spread over the yellow sphere and men 

 are busily hooking sand bags into the lower meshes. The inflating 

 is now complete. A cage is fixed to the net. Provisions, clothing, 

 and furs are placed inside. Men pass the lines of the Mobilgardes 

 without trouble with post bags from the Parisienne Government to 

 the Government of the National Defence. Two persons enter the 

 balloon, and it is high time, for the men can no long-er hold the 

 balloon, which, under the rushing of a violent wind, moves back- 

 wards and forwards like a wounded monster. 



Mtention, en avant ! With lightning-like speed the balloon 

 rises into the darkness. What will be its fate? The bold aeron- 

 auts are no longer troubled by the gale, because they now float 

 with it and to them everything is calm itself. A hissing and roar- 

 ing noise of a passing shrapnel, however, tells them that they have 

 not yet left the danger zone. Instinctively one of the aeronauts 

 drops a sand bag. The balloon makes another leap although it 

 is not noticed by the passengers. But a stolid Pomeranian Grena- 

 dier wonders no little that in France it rains sand in a clear sky. 

 The night passes. Belgium must by now be reached. As the sun 

 rises and the fog disappears the aeronauts notice 300 feet below 

 them the stormy sea. They take the situation calmlv. but at the 

 same time they are careful of their sandbags. The short winter 

 day comes and goes, the second night appears. Deeper and deeper 



