172 Balloons How Moved and Used. 



fireworks while rising up from a garden near Paris in 1796. 

 Her balloon caught fire, and she was dashed to pieces. 



3. An English a'er-o-naut or balloonist made 1,400 

 ascensions, crossing the English Channel three times 

 and falling into it twice. In the highest strata of air reached 

 by balloons men suffer severely from cold, no matter how 

 hot the day may be on the ground they leave. The breath- 

 ing becomes difficult, the pulse much quickened, and the 

 throat parched. The highest mountain in the world is 5^ 

 miles high, but in 1862 two Englishmen ascended to the 

 height of 37,000 feet, or 7 miles. Both, however, were 

 nearly killed by the cold. 



4. A balloon moves about very easily in the 

 air, so that a very slight change of weight will 

 affect it seriously. 



5. Soon after the invention of balloons they 

 were used in war, being held fast by a long rope, 

 while some officers looked down from them to 

 see what was going on in the enemy's camp. 



6. In the last war in the United States a bal- 

 loon corps (kor) was organized, and news was 

 telegraphed from these balloons to headquar- 

 ters. 



7. On one occasion General Fitz-John Porter was observ- 

 ing the enemy's lines from a balloon, when the rope broke 

 and he was carried rapidly towards the enemy. Pulling the 

 valve-string, he caused an escape of gas. This admitted 

 enough outside or heavier air, lowered the balloon and 

 brought him into a different current of air, which fortu- 

 nately took him back to where he started from. 



8. When Paris was besieged by the Germans in 1870, 

 fifty-four balloons were sent off at different times by the 



