HISTORY OF AEROSTATION. 75 



that stormy vapour in which they had beeu involved. They now 

 -aw tlic sun without a cloud; but the heat of his ra\s, with the di- 

 minished density of the atmosphere, had such au eflect on the in. 

 tiammable air, that the balloon seemed every moment ready to 

 burst. To prevent this they introduced a stick through the tube, 

 in order to push away the inner balloon from its aperture ; but the 

 expansion of the inflammable air pushed it so close, that all at- 

 tempts of this kind proved ineffectual. It was now, howevt r, become 

 absolutely necessary to give vent to a very considerable quantity of 

 the inflammable air ; for which purpose the Duke de Chartres him. 

 self bored too holes in the balloon, which tore open for the length 

 of seven or eight feet. On this they descended with great rapidity ; 

 and would have fallen into a lake, had they not hastily thrown out 

 sixty-pounds of ballast, which enabled them just to reach the 

 water's edge. This scheme for raising or lowering aerostatic ma. 

 chines by bags filled with common air being thus rendered dubious, 

 another method was thought of. This was to put a small aeiostatic 

 machine, with rarefied air, under an inflammable air-balloon, but at 

 such a distance that the inflammable air of the latter might be per* 

 fectly out of the reach of the fire used for inflating the former; 

 and thus, by increasing or diminishing the fire in the small machine, 

 the absolute weight of the whole would be considerably diminished 

 or augmented. This scheme was unhappily put in execution by the 

 celebrated M. Pilatre de llo/ier and M. llomaine. Their inflam- 

 mable air-balloon was about thirty-seven feet in diameter, and the 

 power of the rarefied air one was equivalent to about sixty-pounds. 

 They ascended without any accident; but had not been long in the 

 atmosphere when the inflammable air-balloon was seen to swell very 

 considerably, at the same time that the aeronauts were observed, by 

 means of telescopes, very anxious to get down, and buried in pulling 

 the valve and opening the appendages to the balloon, in order to fa- 

 cilitate the escape of as much inflammable air as possible. Shortly 

 after this the machine took tire, at the height of about three quar. 

 lers of a mile from the ground. No explosion was heard; and the 

 silk of the balloon seemed to resist the atmosphere for about a mi- 

 uute, after which it collapsed, and descended along with the two un- 

 fortunate travellers so rapidly, that both of them were killed. 1'i- 

 latre seemed to have beeu dead before he came to the ground ; but 

 M. Romanic was alive when some persons came up to him, though 

 fce expired immediately after. 

 The first aerial voyage in England was performed on the 15lb of 



