AEROSTATION. 



being disengaged from the cords thatheld 

 it down, it rose before a prodigious con- 

 course of people in less than two minutes 

 to the height of 3123 feet. It then enter- 

 ed a cloud, but soon appeared again ; and 

 at last it was lost among other clouds. 

 This balloon, after having floated about 

 three quarters of an hour, fell in a field 

 about 15 miles distant from the place of 

 ascent ; where, as we may naturally ima- 

 gine, it occasioned much astonishment to 

 the peasants. Its fall was owing to a rent, 

 occasioned by the expansion of the inflam- 

 mable air in that part of the atmosphere 

 to which it ascended. When the balloon 

 went up, itsspecific gravity was 35 pounds 

 less than that of common air. In conse- 

 quence of this brilliant experiment, many 

 balloons were made on a small scale; 

 gold-beaters' skin was used for the cover- 

 ing; and their size was from 9 to 18 inches 

 in diameter. 



Mr. Montgolner repeated an experi- 

 ment with a machine of his construction 

 before the commissaries of the Academy 

 of Sciences, on the llth and 12th of Sep- 

 tember. This machine was 74 feet high, 

 and about 43 feet in diameter. When dis- 

 tended, it appeared spheroidical. It was 

 made of canvas, covered with paper both 

 within and without, and it weighed 1000 

 pounds. The operation of filling it with 

 rarefied air, produced by means of the 

 combustion of 5 ! J pounds of dry straw, 

 and 12 pounds of chopped wool, was per- 

 formed in about nine minutes; and its 

 force of ascension, when inflated, was so 

 great, that it raised eight men who held 

 it some feet from the ground. This ma- 

 chine was so much damaged by the rain, 

 that it was found necessary to prepare 

 another for exhibition before the king and 

 royal family on the 19th. This new ma- 

 chine consisted of cloth made of linen 

 and cotton thread, and was painted with 

 water colours both within and without. Its 

 height was near 60 feet, and its diameter 

 about 43 feet. Having made tlic necessary 

 preparations for inflating it, the operation 

 xvas begun about one o'clock, on the 19th 

 of September, before the king 1 and queen, 

 the court, and all the Parisians who could 

 procure a conveyance to Versailles. In 

 eleven minutes it was sufficiently distend- 

 ed, and the ropes being cut, it ascended, 

 bearing up with it a wicker cage, in which 

 were a sheep, a cock, and a duck. Its 

 power of ascension, or the weight by 

 which it was lighter than an equal bulk 

 of common air, allowing for the cage and 

 animals, was 696 pounds. This balloon 

 i-ose to the height of about 1440 feet ; and 



being driven by the wind, it descended 

 gradually, and fell gently into a wood, at 

 the distance of 10,200 feet from Versailles. 

 After remaining in the atmosphere eight 

 minutes, the animals in the cage were 

 safely landed. The sheep was found 

 feeding; the cock had received some hurt 

 on one of his wings, probably from a kick 

 of the sheep ; the duck was perfectly 

 well. The successof this experiment in-- 

 duced M. Pilatre de Rosier, with a philo- 

 sophical intrepidity which will be record- 

 ed with applause in the history of aeros- 

 tation, to offer himself as the first adven- 

 turer in this aerial navigation. Mr. Mont- 

 goltier constructed a new machine for 

 this purpose, in a garden intheFauxbourg 

 St. Antoine. Its shape was oval; its 

 diameter being about 48 feet, and its 

 height about 74 feet. To the aperture at 

 the bottom was annexed a wicker gallery, 

 about three feet broad, with a ballustrade 

 about three feet high. From the middle 

 of the aperture was suspended by chains, 

 which came down fron the sides of the 

 machine, an iron grate, or brazier, in 

 which a fire was lighted for inflating the 

 machine ; and port-holes were opened in 

 the gallery, towards the aperture, through 

 which any person, who should venture to 

 ascend, might feed the fire on the grate 

 with fuel, and regulate the dilatation of 

 the inclosed air of the machine at plea- 

 sure. The weight of the aerostat was 

 upwards of sixteen hundred pounds. 

 On the fifteenth of October, the fire being 

 lighted, and the machine inflated, M. P. 

 de Hosier placed himself in the gallery, 

 and ascended, to the astonishment of a 

 multitude of spectators, to the height of 

 84 feet from the ground, and there kept 

 the machine afloat during 4' 25", by re- 

 peatedly throwing straw and wool upon 

 the fire : the machine then descended, 

 gradually and gently, through a medium 

 of increasing density, to the ground ; 

 and the intrepid adventurer assured the 

 spectators that he had not experienced 

 the least inconvenience in this aerial ex- 

 cursion. This experiment was repeated 

 on the 17th and on the 19th, when M. P. 

 de Rozier, in his descent, and in order 

 to avoid danger by re-ascending, evinced, 

 to a multitude of observers, that the ma- 

 chine may be made to ascend and de- 

 scend, at the pleasure of the aeronaut, by 

 merely increasing or diminishing the 

 fire in the grate. The balloon having 

 been hauled clown, M. Giraude de Villiette 

 placed himself in the gallery opposite to 

 M. Rozier ; and being suffered to ascend, 

 it hovered for about nine minutes over 



