172 Presidentship of Sir Joseph Banks 1785 



after his return, there might be a vacancy. Including the 

 vacancy left over from last year, the meeting decided that 

 four vacancies might be filled up. The Minute then proceeds 

 as follows : 



" The list of Candidates having, for some years past, not been 

 read (for some reason), but the Candidates put to the ballot in the 

 order in which they stood on the List, it was resolved that the 

 whole List of Candidates be always read previous to the election ; 

 which being done the election was proceeded in and the following 

 gentlemen were by ballot duly elected Members, viz. Lieut. -Col. 

 William Calderwood and William Herschel, Eqre." 



The former of these new members had been proposed by 

 General Roy. He was elected into the Royal Society in 

 1776. Herschel's activity as an original genius in the pursuit 

 of astronomical studies had shown no pause since he first 

 came as a visitor to the Club. In this year the King, who 

 had made him Court Astronomer in 1782, furnished him 

 with a grant which enabled him to begin the construction 

 of his great forty-foot mirror, with which when completed 

 on 28th August 1789 he discovered the sixth satellite of 

 Saturn and was enabled to march on to further important 

 discoveries in the stellar universe. 



There were comparatively few foreign visitors at the 

 Club dinners this year. The most interesting personage 

 was the elder of the two brothers Montgolfier who have 

 already been referred to in their connection with the earliest 

 attempts in aerial navigation. Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, 

 born in 1740, was five years older than his brother Jacques- 

 Etienne. Their efforts with hot air were soon eclipsed by 

 the introduction of gas into ballooning. They worked well 

 in the endeavour to devise means of controlling the course 

 of a balloon through the air, for they were ingenious 

 mechanicians ; but they were poor ; the funds supplied to 

 them by friends and admirers were inadequate ; they could 

 get no real assistance from the government of their country 

 and the outbreak of the Revolution put a final stop to their 

 labours. When Buonaparte came into power he bestowed 

 the decoration of the Legion of Honour upon the elder 



