taken from the Place des Victoires to the Champ de Mars during the night of the 26th August, 1783. The few people who saw it were so frightened that it is said they fell on their knees, though they made no attempt to treat it so roughly as the Spanish peasants did Madame Poitevin’s balloon the other day, who, probably to avenge themselves on it for the fright it had caused them, proceeded to cut and beat it to pieces as soon as it reached the ground:—it met, however, with precisely the same fate from the peasantry in the district where it fell. The next day was fixed for the ascent, and in the presence of an immense crowd of people the cord which held it to the ground was cut on a signal being given by the firing of a mortar, and it shot up into the clouds, and was soon lost sight of. It did not travel far, however; it either burst, or the gas escaped, and it came down in a field about fifteen miles from Paris.
Several imitative experiments succeeded this, which are not worth notice; nor a second one, made by the younger Montgolfier a few days after that just described, further than to say that it was made with a balloon covered inside and outside with paper, which was larger than the one they first made, and was found capable of raising a weight of five hundred pounds. The first ascent made in which living creatures were concerned was on the 10th September, 1783. It took place at Versailles, in the presence of the king and queen; and the occupants of the wicker-basket attached to the balloon were a sheep, a cock, and a duck. Owing to some extensive rents made in it, it did not remain in the air many minutes; but when it reached the ground it was discovered that the animals were so little impressed by the novelty of the voyage that the sheep was found feeding on the hay which had been placed in the car, and the two fowls were uninjured, except a slight hurt in one of the wings of the cock.
Montgolfier’s next attempt was made with a balloon seventy feet in height and forty-six feet in diameter. It had a wicker gallery round the orifice, with openings to enable the person occupying it to keep up the fire in the brazier. The person who was bold enough to occupy this gallery was Pilatre de Rozier. On the 15th of October of the year just mentioned he took his place in the car, and was gently raised to a height of eighty feet, where he maintained his position by burning straw and wool on the fire. Four days afterwards he made a second ascent to three times the height, when the balloon was pulled down and a second person entered the car, and together they were raised to a height of nearly three hundred and fifty feet. Just one month after this successful essay, a still bolder attempt was made. The balloon was made by Montgolfier of the same flimsy materials he had used previously; and its dimensions were the same as that just mentioned. The place from which it rose was the Chateau de la Muette, belonging to the king, situated not far from Paris. Eight minutes were occupied in inflating it, and then Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes got into the car. Before the ropes were cut the balloon was dashed by the wind on one of the walks and several rents made in it, but these were soon sewn up, and the ascent began in earnest in less than two hours afterwards. This time the balloon was free to take its own course; and after mounting to a height which was computed to be about three thousand feet, they allowed it to descend at a distance from the place whence they had started of between four and five miles. The official account of this aerial trip was signed by Franklin, the Dukes of Polignac and Guines, and several dignitaries of the court.
The first scientific ascent was made by the Messrs. Charles and Robert already mentioned. The ascent was made under extremely favourable circumstances as regarded the weather, and the comfort of the voyagers was looked to by their friends in a way which might perhaps be worthy of imitation by the friends of Mr. Glaisher and Mr. Coxwell, everybody seeming to think that champagne was a particularly suitable drink for the locality to which they were about to ascend, and that they could not have too many blankets and furs. The balloon rose steadily till the light wind which was blowing caught it and carried it away in its course. As it was intended by M. Charles to make a second ascent alone, the balloon was allowed to touch the ground, when it was laid hold of by a number of peasants, and Robert got out. The Duke de Chartres, the Duke de Fitz-james, and Mr. Farrer, who had followed the balloon on horseback, rode up at the moment, and after a hasty embrace between these parties and the aeronauts, the balloon was liberated, and re-ascended with professor Charles stretched at full length in the car, his right hand holding the valve-string and a pen, and his left a watch and a sheet of paper; and in this attitude he was elevated in a few minutes to an altitude of nine thousand feet. He had with him a barometer and other scientific instruments; but his observations, though interesting at the time, have no interest for us now. He had the satisfaction of seeing the sun set twice on that day, he says. It was probably from their recollection of this ascent that the mob, when they invaded the Louvre, a few years later, refrained from entering the apartments he occupied there, or of molesting him in any way.
In 1785 Mr. Crosbie made an ascent from Dublin in a balloon and car, which are described as “beautifully painted, and the arms of Ireland emblazoned on them in superior elegance of taste.” The description of the aeronaut and his dress is worth reading. “His figure is genteel; his aerial dress consisted in a robe of oiled silk lined with white fur, his waistcoat and breeches in one, of white satin, quilted, morocco boots, and a Montero cap of leopard-skin.” The Duke of Leinster, Lord Charlemont, and other persons of note, did not think it beneath their dignity to arm themselves with white staves and regulate the proceedings. At the time this ascent was made, the Londoners were crowding to the Lyceum, in the Strand, to see a balloon exhibited there by Count Zambecarri,—who was, on a subsequent ascent at Bologna, dashed to pieces by jumping from his balloon to save himself from being first burnt along with it, like Bittorf, who