Balloon and Rudder of Blanchard.

ion, after having risen a few feet from the earth, they descended with a severe shock; but Blanchard, who now took the sole management, rose to the height of a mile; and, after having been driven through various currents of air during nearly two hours, he descended in safety.

In September, 1784, the Duke of Orleans, accompanied by Messrs. Charles and Robert, ascended in a balloon furnished with oars and a rudder; to this a small balloon was attached, for the purpose of being inflated with bellows, and thus supplying the means of descent without waste of the hydrogen gas.

Having attained the altitude of 1400 feet, they were greatly alarmed at the sombre aspect of the horizon, and the reverberation of distant peals of thunder; being also, for a considerable time, exposed to the fury of a whirlwind. From a sudden change of temperature they began rapidly to descend, but, on discharging some ballast, they reascended to the height of 6000 feet, the balloon continuing to be greatly agitated.

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Having surmounted the stormy region, the rays of the sun, unobscured by a cloud, caused so great an expansion of the gas, that they entertained serious apprehensions of a rupture of the balloon. In this exigency the duke pierced it in several places with his sword, to facilitate the escape of the gas, and, having narrowly escaped falling into a lake, they descended unhurt, after an excursion of five hours.

The first experiment in England was made by Count Zambeccari. On the 25th of November, 1783, a balloon of oiled silk, richly gilt, and filled with hydrogen gas, ascended from Moorfields, London. At the latter end of the same year, Mr. Sadler sent up one from Oxford. But the first aërial voyage in England was made by Signor Lunardi, who ascended from London on the 21st of September, 1784; he subsequently repeated the experiment in various parts of Great Britain.

In January, 1785, M. Blanchard and Dr. Jeffries undertook an excursion from Dover across the British Channel. The balloon rose slowly, and their progress was considerably impeded by the stillness of the air.

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When an hour had elapsed they began to descend, and threw out the whole of their ballast; on arriving midway between England and France, they threw out their books and provisions; still the ascensive power was so greatly diminished, that they parted with their anchors and ropes, stripped off their clothes, and secured themselves with slings, intending to cut away the car, when suddenly the balloon arose and approached the French coast; and after a perilous journey of nearly three hours, they descended in the neighborhood of Calais. To possess the power of floating in the atmosphere, or descending at pleasure, without waste of gas or ballast, had long been the wish of the French naturalists. A combination of the two kinds of balloon was recommended for this purpose, and M. Pilatre de Rozier unfortunately undertook the task of putting the plan in execution. One of the balloons was inflated with hydrogen gas, and below it was suspended a fire-balloon, at such a distance as to remove every apprehension of danger from the

fire. A short time, however, had elapsed, when the upper balloon was seen to be rapidly expanding, while the aëronauts (M. M. de Rozier and Romain) made every exertion to facilitate the escape of the gas. Soon afterwards the whole apparatus appeared to be on fire, and the remains of the machine descended from a height of three quarters of a mile with the mangled bodies of the voyagers.

In July, 1785, Major Money ascended in a balloon of his own construction, which unfortunately burst, and he was precipitated into the German Ocean. For five hours he remained in a situation of imminent suffering and peril, clinging to the wreck of the balloon, by the aid of which he contrived to keep himself floating. He was picked up by the Argus sloop of war, off the coast of Yarmouth. (See the next page.)

Several ascensions during this year were made by Mr. Lunardi, a Frenchman. Here is a picture of his balloon.

balloon was furnished with wings and other apparatus for steering; when he had reached an elevation of three thousand feet, the distension of his balloon gave him serious apprehensions of a rupture; he therefore descended in a cornfield, in the plain of Montinorenci. An immense crowd ran eagerly to the spot; and the proprietor of the field, exasperated at the injury his crop had sustained, seized M. Testu, and demanded indemnification; the aëronaut made no resistance, but persuaded the peasant, that having lost his wings, he could not possibly escape. The ropes were seized by a number of persons, who attempted to drag the balloon towards the village; but as, during the procession, it had acquired considerable buoyancy, Testu, cut the cords, and left the disappointed peasants overwhelmed with astonishment. The temperature was at the freezing

point, and particles of ice floated around him. As night approached, the blast of a horn attracted his attention, and seeing a party of huntsmen, he suffered some gas to escape, and descended. He now resigned his wings as a useless incumbrance, and reascended through a mass of electric matter. Shrouded in darkness, he was wafted about for three hours in the gloomy region of the gathering storm.

The surrounding terrors, the lightning's flash, and the roaring of thunders, accompanied by copious drifts of sleet and snow, did not damp his courage: a flag ornamented with gold frequently emitted sparks of fire, and was ultimately torn in pieces by the lightning. At length the elemental conflict ceased, and the stars began to appear; between two and three, the ruddy streaks of light in the east announced the approach of day; and after behold

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ing the rising of the sun, he descended uninjured, about 70 miles from Paris.

In August, 1787, M. Blanchard, during a voyage from Strasburg, tried an experiment with a Parachute, to which was appended a dog in a basket: at an altitude of six thousand feet he let go the parachute, which, being caught by a whirlwind, soon disappeared. Some time afterward, he fell in with the parachute, when the dog testified his satisfaction by barking. Blanchard descended in safety, and the parachute reached the earth shortly afterwards.

an expanding top, somewhat similar to a large umbrella, and with a small deep basket attached to it, in which the aeronaut sits. It was suspended to the balloon by ropes, so contrived as to be loosened at the pleasure of the voyager, while sailing in the air. When this was done, the balloon rapidly ascended, and the parachute, on the contrary, dropped downwards, with a frightful rapidity, until the top was forced open by the power of the air. In this form the parachute was blown about in various directions, and a zigzag and perilous de

In 1802, he visited England, and ascended from Ranelagh Gardens, London, accompanied by a naval officer. Such was the rapidity of their voyage, that in less than an hour they reached Colchester, having suffered greatly from the boisterous state of the atmosphere. In July and September of the same year, Garnerin repeated his experiments, and on the latter occasion descended in a parachute; the result of this voyage was similar to the one mentioned above. Below is a picture of the various positions of the parachute, during its perilous de

scent.

In October, 1803, Count Zambeccari, Dr. Grassetti, and Signor Andreoli, as

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cended from Bologna. The cold was so intense that the Count and the Doctor fell into a profound sleep; but Signor Andreoli, who had resisted this lethargic propensity, was able to rouse his companions previous to their descent into the sea. They immediately discharged ballast, &c., and again arose they were afterwards driven towards the coast of Istria, and nearly across the Adriatic, remaining upon its surface for nearly five hours; at length, they were taken on board a vessel which lay at the distance of twenty miles from the coast.

But, among the most perilous ascents on record, are those of Mr. Sadler, from Bristol, in 1810, and Dublin, in 1812; on both occasions the balloon descended in the sea on the latter, the wind forced it for some time along the surface of the waves with great velocity; a flock of sea-fowl crowded around, and boldly devoured what remained of the provisions. The car now sank, and Mr. S. supported himself by the net-work; in this dangerous situation he was dragged through the water until a vessel approached; and, there being no alternative, the balloon was pierced with the bowsprit, and the sinking and nearly exhausted adventurer taken on board.

During the French revolution, an aërostatic institution was founded at Mendon, not far from Paris, for the education of a corps of aëronauts, with the view of introducing balloons into armies, as a means of watching the movements of the enemy. But they were soon laid