f 
1798.) French Abrofiatic Inftitute....Amufements of the Poor. 339 
adopted with the moft prudent forefight 
and the utmoft fecurity, and efpecially 
when we are more particularly acquainted 
with the cool unaffuming tteadinefs of 
Conté, the direStor of the whole. 
When the return of peace {hall allow 
more leifure, and fhall favour the em- 
ployment of this apparatus in other ex- 
eriments than thofe immediately con- 
nected with the military fervice, we may 
expect to debive from it the moft import- 
ant and diverfifed advantages to natural 
{cience. The experiments will then be 
conduéted under the direction of a com- 
-mittee of naturalifts, from the national 
inftitute, with a view of making difco- 
veries innatural philofophy, meteorology, 
and other branches. When the labours 
of the aéroftatic inftitute fhall have ac- 
complifhed ends fo important to the arts, 
and of fo great general utility, there will be 
printed a particular account of the eftab- 
lifhment, ‘and of the courfe of experi- 
ments purfued: at prefent, thefe matters 
are kept from the knowledge of the 
public. 
The moft recent invention ef Conté, 
admirable for its fimplicity and precifion, 
is the aéroftatic telegraph. It confifts of 
eight cylinders of varnifhed black filk, 
ftretched on hoeps, and refembling thofe 
little pecket lanterns of crimped paper, 
which draw out and fold down again on 
themfelves. Thele eight movable cylin- 
ders, eachthree feet in diameter, and of 
@ proportionate length, are fufpended from 
the bottom of the car, connected toge- 
ther with cords, and hanging one above 
another, at the diftance of four feet. By 
‘ means of cords pafling through the bot- 
tom of the car, the aéronautic obfervers 
dire& thofe cylinders, give them differ- 
eat pofitions at will, and thus carry on 
their telegraphic correfpondence from the 
regions of the air. : 
~ Conté has further applied his 
thoughts to the invention of a fimilar 
aéroftatic telegraph, which, without the 
afliftance of a great balloon, or an acrial 
sorrefpondent, fhould be managed by a 
perfon ftanding on the ground, by mean: 
of cords; the apparatus being fulpendec 
‘to a fmall balloon, of oniy twelve fee 
diameter. 
CovuTEL, captain of the -c€ronautic 
eorps, was the man who afcended with 
the Entreprenant balloon on the 26th of 
June, 1794, and who conduéted the won- 
derful and important fervice of reconnoi- 
tring the hoftile armies at the battle of 
Fleurus, accompanied by an adjutant and 
a general. He afcended twice on that 
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1 
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t 
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day, to obferve, from an elevation of four 
hundred and forty yards, the pofition and 
“manceuvres of the enemy. On each o¢- 
cafion he remained four hours in the air, 
and, by means of preconcerted fignals 
with flags, carried on a correfpondence 
with General Jourdan, the commander of 
the French army. © 
His intended afcent had been made 
known to the enemy, who, at the mo- 
ment when the balloon began to take its 
flight, opened the fire of a battery again 
the a€ronauts. The firft volley was’ di- 
rected too low: one ball, neverthele{s, 
paffed between the balloon and the car, 
and fo near to the former, that Course. 
imagined it had ftruck it. When the 
fubfequent difcharges were made, the 
balloon had aiready reached fuch a de-* 
gree of altitude, as to be beyond the 
reach of cannon fhot, and the aéronauis 
{aw the balls flying beneath the car. Ar~ 
‘rived at thelr intended height, the ob~ 
feryers, remote from danger, and undif- 
turbed, viewed all the evolutions of the 
enemies, and, from the peaceful regions 
of the air, commanded a diftin&t and 
comprehenfive prolpeét of two formidable 
armies engaged in the work of death. 

To the Editor df the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
N your Magazine for July appeared a 
paper on the innocent amufements of 
the poor; and among the numereus {pe- 
ulations which have lately taken place 
on the means of bettering the condition 
of fo larye a portion of our fpecies, Tam 
glad to fee this point propofed for dif- 
cuffion. I was in hopes to have read in 
your interefting publication fox Augautt 
{ome -propolals from other -quarters, 
agreeably to the benevolent. detire ex- 
prefled by the writer of the paper alluded 
to; but finding myfelf difappointed, I 
have determined to offer a circumftance 
relative thereto for the confideration of 
your readers; and if it fhould anfwer no 
other end than to prevent this fubject from 
dropping, I thall. be content. 
I thall draw my remarks from a fource 
very contiguous to the fcene of the nar- 
rative already related, and ftate to you, 
that on my firft commencing a refidence 
of fome years in Yorkthire, I was led one 
Monday evening to a pottery at Caftle-~ 
ford; and on my near approach to it, was 
agrecably furprifed by th 
both vocal and inftrumental, which my 
-companion informed me was produced by 
aconcert of potters. On my entering the 
manu- 
e found of mufic 
