CHAP, v.] AERIAL NAVIGATION. 99 



used. The aeronaut Garnerin was the first (1802) who dared to trust to 

 an apparatus of this kind : he descended from a height of 1,000 metres ; 

 but as no one had yet thought of making an opening at the top of the 

 parachute to allow the escape of the air, he experienced several severe 

 shocks, owing to the masses of air which escaped laterally, sometimes 

 on one side and sometimes on the other. Unless in very bad accidents, 

 or considerable rents in the balloon, aeronauts agree that the manage- 

 ment of the descent of the aerostat itself is as safe as that of the 

 parachute, which, in the majority of ascents, would be only an incum- 

 brance and useless weight. 



ILL APPLICATION OF AEROSTATION TO MILITARY PURPOSES, T-O 

 THE STUDY OF METEOROLOGY AND TERRESTRIAL PHYSIC'S. 



It now remains for us to point out rapidly the uses aerostation can 

 be put to and the services it has already rendered. In 1794, the 

 Committee of Public Safety decided on the formation of companies of 

 aeronauts or aerostiers, their work being to observe, by the help of 

 captive balloons, the movements and positions of hostile armies. 

 This new kind of spy was first turned to account at the battle of 

 Fleurus ; in 1815, Carnot used it at the defence of Antwerp; lastly, 

 in the great War of Secession, military aerostation was restored with 

 honour by the United States Government. A system of electric 

 telegraphy enabled the Federal army to communicate with the 

 aeronaut. 



During the last Franco-German war balloons played a certain part, 

 but they were not, properly speaking, used for military purposes. 

 Paris, invested, and deprived of all direct communication with the rest 

 of France, was able to send its despatches, correspondence, and a 

 number of men charged with military or political missions, by the 

 help of balloons, which were sent up when a favourable wind blew 

 towards the parts not occupied by their enemies. 



Fifty-four balloons, carrying 2,500,000 letters, representing a total 

 weight of nearly 10 tons, were thus sent by the Government of 

 National Defence, and carried out of Paris ne<ws from the great 

 besieged town and the assurance of the heroic resolution which it 

 had formed to resist till the last extremity. Unfortunately, the return 



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