AEROSTATION. 
451 - 
Messrs, de Morveau and Bertrand ascended from Dijon in April, 
to the height of about thirteen thousand feet, with an inflammable air- 
balloon ; the thermometer was observed to stand at twenty-five de- 
grees. They were in the air during an hour and twenty-five minutes, 
and went to the distance of about eighteen miles. The clouds floated 
beneath them, and secluded them from the earth; and they jointly 
repeated the motto inscribed on their aerostat ; — “ Surgit nunc gallus 
ad aethera.’' In May, four ladies and two gentlemen ascended with a 
montgolfier at Paris above the highest buildings : the machine was 
confined by ropes ; it was seventy-four feet high, and seventy-two in 
diameter. 
In a second voyage, performed by M. Blanchard from Rouen, in 
May, it was observed that his wings and oars could not carry him in 
any other direction than that of the wind. The mercury in the baro- 
meter descended as low as 20.57 inches ; but on the earth, before he 
ascended, it stood at 30.16. On the twenty-third of June, a large 
aerostat, on the principle of rarefied air, ninety-one and a half feet high, 
and seventy-nine in diameter, was elevated by Montgolfier at Versailles, 
in the presence of the royal family and the king of Sweden. M. Pila- 
tier de Rozier, and M. Proust ascended with it, and continued fortwent}'^- 
eight minntes at the height of eleven thousand seven hundred and 
thirty-two feet, and observed the clouds below them, that reflected 
the rays of the sun to the region which they occupied ; the tempera- 
ture of the air being five degrees below the freezing point ; and in 
three-quarters of an hour they travelled to the distance of thirty-six 
miles. In consequence of this experiment, the king granted to M, 
Rozier a pension of two thousand livres. 
On the twenty-fifth of July, the Duke of Chartres, the two brothers, 
Roberts, and another person, ascended with an inflammable air-balloon 
of an oblong form, fifty-five and a half feet long, and thirty-four feet 
in diameter, from the park of St. Cloud : the machine remained in 
the atmosphere about forty-five minutes. This machine contained an 
interior small balloon, filled with common air, by which means it was 
proposed to make it ascend or descend without any loss of inflamma- 
ble 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, the balloon 
was lost in the clouds, and involved in a dense vapour. An agitation 
of the wind, resembling a whirlwind, alarmed the aerial voyagers, 
and occasioned several shocks, which prevented their using any of 
the instruments and contrivances prepared for the direction of the 
balloon. Other circumstances concurred to increase their danger ; and 
when the mercury, standing in the barometer at 24.36 inches, indicated 
their height to be about five thousand one hundred feet, they found it 
necessary to make holes in the bottom for discharging the inflammable 
air ; and having made a vent of between seven and eight feet, they 
descended very rapidly, and at last came safely to the ground. 
The longest and most interesting voyage, which w as performed about 
this time, was that of Messrs. Roberts and M. Collin Hullini, at Paris, 
on the nineteenth of September. This aerostat was filled with inflam- 
mable air. Its diameter was twenty-seven feet and three-quarters, 
