Rozier made the first ascent attempted by a human being. But to Charles is due the credit of making the balloon a moderately safe vehicle in which the aëronaut could ascend or descend at will by varying the relation between the amounts of ballast and of gas retained. Although many thousands of ascents have been made since 1783, the total number of lives recorded to have been lost does not exceed fifty.
It is somewhat remarkable that after the ascents made by Pilâtre de Rozier and others at Paris in the latter part of 1783, the first ascent accomplished elsewhere was in America, a country not only separated by a broad ocean from France, but at that time young in resources, and scarcely beginning to recover from the disastrous effects of the struggle for independence. It is true that in November of that year an Italian, Count Zambeccari, exhibited in London a small hydrogen balloon, which was sent into the air without any living freight; but no one rose from English ground in a balloon until a year after Charles had been successful in France. The news of Montgolfier's experiment of the 5th of June reached Philadelphia about the last of November, and the local newspapers of December 24th contained the accounts just received in regard to Charles's experiment of the 27th of August. David Rittenhouse, the friend of Franklin, and the most distinguished American astronomer of his time, was practicing his profession as a maker of philosophical instruments, and especially of clocks. One of his most intimate associates was Francis Hopkinson, an eminent jurist, whose interest in science was almost as great as in law. Both of these men were members of the American Philosophical Society which had been organized by Franklin. No sooner was the news from France received, than they began to test the use of hydrogen for balloons. On the 28th of December an ascent was made by the first American aeronaut, the account of which is perhaps best given in the language of an eye-witness, Francois Simonin, whose letter to the "Journal de Paris" was published May 13, 1784. In the "Gentleman's Magazine" of the following month a translation of it appeared, from which the following is an extract: "Messieurs Ritnose [Rittenhouse] and Opquisne [Hopkinson] began their experiments with bladders, and then with larger machines; they joined several together and fastened them round a cage, into which they put animals. The whole ascended, and was drawn down again by a rope. The next day, which was yesterday, a man offered to get into the cage, provided the rope was not let go. He rose about fifteen feet, and would not suffer them to let him go higher. James Wilcox, a carpenter, engaged to go in it for a little money. He rose twenty feet or upward before he made a signal to be drawn down. He then took instructions from Messieurs Ritnose and Opquisne, and after several repetitions on the ground consented to have the rope cut for fifty dollars. Dr. Jaune [Jones], the principal medical person in the city, attended in case of accident. The crowd was incredible, who shouted after the English fashion when they saw
