554 Comparative Statement relative to the Kennet and Avon, {Jan.¥, 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
IVE me leave, through the channel 
B of your truly scientific, and enter- 
taining Miscellany, to communicate to 
the public the following account of an 
eérostatic experiment made with an in- 
flammable air-balloon, at Ciapton, on 
the 25th instant, at which I was pre- 
sent. 
The balloon was of a spherical form, 
three feet six inches diameter, made of 
fine paper, and covered with a coat of 
varnish and elastic gum, which rendered 
it perfectly air-tight. ‘The process of 
filling it commenced at one o’clock in 
the afternoon; and about ten minutes 
after two, the balloon appeared suff- 
ciently inflated : the aperture at the bot- 
tom, which admitted the gas from the 
barrels, was now closed; and a paper 
parachute connected to the bottom of- 
the balloon, by means of touch-string. 
dt was now found that the balloon would 
easily carry the whole appendage, 
when the touch-string being lighted, the 
balloon was launched into the air. At 
first it ascended very slowly, ina direc- 
tion ‘nearly west-north-west, and in less 
than a-minate dropped the parachute, 
which fell into the brick-feld, opposite 
Hackney new church. The balleon now 
ascended more rapidty in the same di- 
rection for several minutes, when it met. 
a different current of air, and was ob- 
served to travel towards the south: ina 
few miuutes more, at a very great height 
i the air, its Course was again altered by 
a third current, which carried it in a di- 
rection apparently north-east; when it 
passed again over the northern part of 
the parish of Hackney, and was distinctly 
seen from the place of its ascent. About 
twenty minutes before three o’ciock, it 
evidently came in with a fourth Current 
of air, being observed to go nearly north- 
north-west-by-north. It now very soon 
became invisible to the naked eye, bat 
was diseerned through a telescope: tiil 
about ten minutes before three; when 
the person who launched it, saw it sink- 
ing down very fast; after which it was 
no more seen. Its rapid descent is to be 
attributed to its bursting, occasioned by 
such a diminution of atmospheric pres- 
sure in the higher regions. 
At the time of the balloon’s ascent, the 
mercury in the barometer stood at 
30:28. Thermometer, according to 
Falirenheit’s scale, 574.' The Hyg. 0-5. 
Wind variabie, and very gentle; a few 
elouds in the sky. of the imodification 
called Cirrus, Any observations which 
may have been made on this balleon, 
when up, by any of your correspondents, 
communicated to me through your Ma- 
gazine, will mach oblige, 
Clapton, Hackney, 
Oct. 27, 1809. 
Your’s, &c. 
Tuomas ForsTER. 
For the Monthly Magazine, 
A COMPARATIVE STATEMENT, relative to 
the KENNET and avon, and WILTs and 
BERKS CANALS. Communicated by MR. 
I. E. BICHENO, Of NEWBURY. 
a hae opening of a water commun 
cation between London and Bris- 
tol, by the Wilts and Berks, and Ken- 
net and Avon Canals, is at present a 
subject of very general interest; and it 
may, perhaps, be useful to some of your . 
readers, to have a comparative view of 
the two lines of navigation by which 
this is to be effected; and to be ac- 
quainted with those facts, which will 
affeet the competition that will be at- 
tempted between them. As it would be 
useless to repeat the history of . these 
Canals, I shall only mention those cir- 
cumstances which enter into the present 
question. 
The Kennet and Avon Canal, is fifty- 
seven miles in length, communicating 
with the Kennet navigation at Newbury, 
-which enters the Thames at Reading, 
distant 184 miles; making the whole dis- 
tance from Bath to Reading, where the 
two lines meet, 75£ miles. By the 
Wilts and Berks Canal, the distances 
are as follows:.- ~ Bae AS 
Kennet and Avon Canal to Se- 
mington 
15 
"Wilts and Berks ditto, to Abingdon 52 
Thames to Reading - 32 
Total 99 
heing 222 miles more than the Kennet 
and Avon line. The K. and A. Canal, 
is constructed for barges of sixty tons 
burden; the W. and B. for boats of 
twenty-five tons onlv. 
The object of the W. and B. Canal, 
when first projected, was to supply coal 
to the Vales of North Wilts, and White 
Horse, a tract very ill provided with 
fuel ; and doubtless, mach of that article 
_will be brought hither from Somerset- 
shire: but it is at present problematical, 
how far it will be carried, as the Stafford- 
shire coal meets it at Abingdon, which 
will probably be supplied at a cheaper — 
‘rate. By thus communicating, however, 
with the Oxford Canal, a source of profit © 
is opened by supplying the West of Eng- 
land with the manufactures of the 
North. - 
. The 
