THE ROYAL SOCIETY 71 



About this time all Europe was diverted with the new 

 and wonderful experiments in aerostation. Sir Joseph 

 Banks, in common with most of the leading philosophers 

 of the day, took immense interest in them. It is not 

 certain that Banks financed many of these essays of the 

 balloonists. But, obviously, there were attempts made 

 to get him to do so. It is possible that Lunardi, if any 

 one, was successful in tapping the financial resources of 

 Soho Square. Jeffries, from America, who made the 

 first voyage across the English Channel, probably gained 

 Sir Joseph's patronage ; since he wrote from Guines an 

 exultant story of his exploit and his reception by the 

 municipality of Calais. Blanchard carried on an Aero- 

 static Academy, and was frequently engaged in con- 

 veying parties of adventurous English gentry, with 

 more or less success, for trips toward the sky. There was 

 Henry Smeathman, who had done some work in Africa 

 in Natural History, and he kept in touch with Banks ; 

 invented a steer able balloon, and persisted in hoping for 

 Banks's conversion to his plan after having been assured 

 that there was too much hazard about it. 



Dr. Blagden's letters of the period are full of ballooning 

 adventures, and observations in company with Aubert, 

 Dryander, and others, who mounted roofs and observa- 

 tories with sedulous zeal in the philosophic side of the 

 question 



The public craze lasted in some vigour for two or three 

 years. There seemed to be no bound to its possibilities, 

 after development on the lines of inflation by a gas lighter 

 than common air. Naturally, the scoffer was in force. 

 Ballooning lent itself easily to caricature. And there were 

 many found to defy the tremendous innovation, on the 

 ground that its utility was yet to be discovered, and it 

 was only fit to " gratify idle Curiosity and promote 

 Dissipation." Yet the sport was undeniably popular, 

 as it has never ceased to be. And the character of the 



