454 
AEROSTATION. 
flammable air, or hydrogen gas balloon, from Ranalegb gardens, on 
the south-west of London, between four and five o clock in the after- 
noon ; and in exactly three-quarters of an hour they descended near 
the sea, at the distance of four miles from Colchester. The distance 
of that place from Ranelagh is sixty miles, therefore they travelled 
at the astonishing rate of eighty miles per hour. It seems that the 
balloon had power to keep them up four or five hours longer, in which 
time they might have gone safely to the continent ; but prudence 
induced them to descend when they discovered the sea not far off. 
The singular experiment of ascending into the atmosphere with a 
balloon, and of descending with a machine called a parachute, was 
performed by M. Garnerin on the 21st of September 1802. He 
ascended from St. George’s parade. North Andley-street, and de- 
scended safely in a field near the Small-pox Hospital at Pancras. 
The balloon was of the usual sort, viz, of oiled silk, with a net, from 
which ropes proceeded, that terminated in, or were joined to, a sin- 
gle rope at a few feet below the balloon. To this rope the parachute 
was fastened in the following manner. The reader may easily form 
to himself an idea of this parachute, by imagining a large umbrella 
of canvass, of thirty feet in diameter, but destitute of the ribs and 
handle. Several ropes, of about thirty feet in length, which proceeded 
from the edge of the parachute, terminated in a common joining, from 
which shorter ropes proceeded, to the extremities of which a circular 
basket was fastened, and in this basket M. Garnerin placed himself. 
The single rope passed through a hole in the centre of the parachute, 
also through certain tin tubes, which were placed one after the other 
in the place of the handle or stick of an umbrella, and was lastly fast- 
ened to the basket, so that when the balloon was in the air, by cut- 
ting the end of the rope next to the basket, the parachute with the 
basket would be separated from the balloon, and in falling down\vards 
w^ould be naturally opened by the resistance of the air. The use of 
the tin tubes w'as to let the ropes slip off with greater certainty, and 
to prevent its being entangled with any of the other ropes, as also to 
keep the parachute at a distance from the basket. The balloon began 
to be filled about two o’clock. There were thirty-six casks filled 
with iron filings and diluted sulphuric acid, for the production of the 
hydrogen gas. These communicated with three other casks, or gene- 
ral receivers, to each of which was fixed a tube that emptied itself into 
the main tube attached to the balloon. At six, the balloon being quite 
full of gas, and the parachute, &c. being attached to it, M. Garnerin 
placed himself in the basket, and ascended majestically amidst the 
acclamations of innumerable spectators. The weather was the clear- 
est and pleasantest imaginable ; the wind was gentle, and about 
west-by‘South ; in consequence of which M. Garnerin went in the 
direction of nearly east* by-north. In about eight minutes the balloon 
and parachute had ascended to an immense height, and M. Garne- 
rin in the basket could scarcely be perceived. While every spectator 
was contemplating this grand sight before, them, M. Garnerin cut 
the rope, and in an instant he was separated from the balloon, trust- 
ing his safety to the parachute. At first, viz. before the parachute 
opened, he fell with great velocity, but as soon as the parachute was 
