AEROSTATION. 



by which means it was proposed to make 

 it ascend or decend without any loss of 

 inflammable air or ballast. The boat was 

 furnished with a helm and oars, intended 

 for guiding- it. At the place of departure 

 the barometer stood at 30.12 inches. 

 Three minutes after ascending 1 , the bal- 

 loon was lost in the clouds, and involved 

 in a dense vapour. An agitation of the 

 air, resembling- a whirlwind, alarmed the 

 aerial voyagers, and occasioned several 

 shocks, which prevented their using any 

 of the instruments and contrivances pre- 

 p;i rd for the direction of the balloon. 

 Other circumstances concurred to in- 

 crease their danger ; and when the mer- 

 cury, standing in the barometer at 24.36 

 inches, indicated their height to be about 

 5100 feet, they found it necessary to make 

 holes in the bottom for discharging the 

 inflammable air : and having made a rent 

 Of between seven and eight feet, they de- 

 scended very rapidly, and at last came 

 .safely to the ground. The first aerial 

 voyage in England was performed in Lon- 

 don, on the 15th of September, by Vin- 

 cent Lunardi, a native of Italy. His bal- 

 loon was made of oiled silk, painted in 

 alternate stripes of blue and red. Its di- 

 ameter was 33 feet. From a net which 

 went over about two-thirds of the bal- 

 loon, descended 45 cords to a hoop hang- 

 ing below the balloon, and to which the 

 gallery was attached. The balloon had 

 no valve ; and its neck, which terminated 

 in the form of a pear, was the aperture 

 through which the inflammable air was 

 introduced, and through which it might 

 be let out. The air for filling the balloon 

 was produced from zinc, by means of di- 

 luted vitriolic acid. M. Lunardi depart- 

 ed from the Artillery Ground at two 

 o'clock ; and with him were a clog 1 , a cat, 

 and a pigeon. After throwing out some 

 sand to clear the houses, he ascended to a 

 great height. The direction of his mo- 

 tion was at first north-west by west; 

 but as the balloon rose higher, it fell into 

 another current of air, which carried it 

 nearly north. About half after three he de- 

 scended very near the ground, and landed 

 the cat, which was almost dead with cold : 

 then rising, he prosecuted his voyage. 

 He ascribes his descent to the action of 

 on oar; but as he was under the necessi- 

 ty of throwing out ballast in order to re- 

 ascend, his descent was probably occa- 

 sioned by the loss of inflammable air. 

 At ten minutes past four he descended 

 on a meadow, near Ware, in Hertford- 

 shire. The only philosophical instrument 

 which he carried with him was a ther- 



mometer, which in the course of hi;'; . 

 age stood as low as 29, and he observed 

 that the drops of water which collected 

 round the balloon were frozen. 



The longest and the most interesting- 

 voyage, which was performed about this 

 time, was that of Messrs. Roberts and M. 

 Collin. HulJin, at Paris, on the 19th of 

 September. Their aerostat was filled 

 with inflammable air. Its diameter was 

 27^ feet, and its length 46 feet, and it 

 was made to float with its longest part pa- 

 rallel to the horizon, with a boat nearly^ 

 17 feet long, attached to a net that went 

 over it as far as its middle. To the boat 

 were annexed wings, or oars, in the. form 

 of an umbrella. At 12 o'clock they as- 

 cended with 450 pounds of ballast, and, 

 after various manoeuvres, descended at 

 4 ) minutes past six o'clock near Arras, in 

 Artois, having still 200 pounds of their 

 ballast remaining in the boat. Having risen 

 about 1400 feet, they perceived storray 

 clouds, which they endeavoured to avoid; 

 but the current of air was uniform from 

 the height of 600 to 4200 feet. The 

 barometer on the coast of the sea was 

 29.61 inches, and sunk to 23.94 inches. 

 They found that, by working with their 

 oars, they accelerated their course. In 

 the prosecution of their voyage, which 

 was 150 miles, they heard two claps of 

 thunder; and the cold occasioned by the 

 approach of stormy clouds made the 

 thermometer fall from 77 to 59, and 

 condensed the inflammable air in the bal- 

 loon, so as to make it descend very low. 

 From some experiments they concluded, 

 that they were able by the use of two 

 oars to deviate from the direction of the 

 wind about 22. But this experiment re- 

 quires repetition, in order to ascertain 

 with accuracy the effect here ascribed to 

 oars. The second aerial voyage in Eng- 

 land was performed by Mr. Blanchard 

 and Mr. Sheldon, professor of anatomy 

 to the Royal Academy, the first English- 

 man who ascended with an aerostatic ma- 

 chine. This experiment was performed 

 at Chelsea, on the 16th of October. The 

 wings used on this occasion seemed to 

 have produced no deviation in the ma- 

 chine's track from the direction of the 

 wind. Mr. Blanchard, having landed his 

 friend about the distance of 14 miles from 

 Chelsea, proceeded alone, with different 

 currents, and ascended so high as to expe- 

 rience great difficulty of breathing; a pi- 

 geon, also, which flew away from the 

 boat, laboured some time with its wings, 

 in order to sustain itself in the rarefied 

 air, and after wandering for a good vvhHe, 



