the first free and unfettered balloon voyage was performed very soon after the event mentioned at the end of the last chapter. it was a daring attempt, and attended with great danger.
a balloon made by montgolfier was used. it was 75 feet high, 45 feet wide, and spheroidal in form—heated air being the motive power. the bold aeronauts, on this occasion, were the naturalist rozier and the marquis d’arlandes, a major of infantry. from the gardens of the château of muetta they ascended on the 21st november 1783.
in the car there was a quantity of ballast, and a provision of straw to feed the fire. the balloon mounted at first with a majestic steady motion, gazed at in breathless wonder by thousands of spectators, who assembled not only in the neighbourhood of the château, but clustered on every point of vantage in paris.
when the daring voyagers reached a considerable height, they took off their hats and waved them to their friends below, and the multitude—realising, perhaps, that that which in former ages had been deemed the dream of visionaries, was at last an accomplished fact—responded with enthusiastic acclamations until the balloon passed upwards through the clouds and was lost to view.
it would seem that these first aeronauts were of different temperaments; for, after they had reached a height of nearly 3000 feet, and the earth was no longer distinguishable, the marquis began to think that he had seen enough of the upper regions, would fain have descended, and murmured against his companion, who still kept feeding the fire. apparently his alarm was justifiable, for rozier continued recklessly to heap on fuel, until he almost set the balloon on fire. on hearing some cracks from the top, and observing some holes burning in its sides, the marquis became so alarmed that he compelled his companion to desist, and with wet sponges stopped the conflagration, which had actually begun.
when the fire diminished, however, the balloon began to descend much quicker than was safe or agreeable, and the marquis himself began to throw fresh straw on the fire to enable them to clear the roofs of paris. this they did very dexterously, considering that they were so unaccustomed to such navigation, throwing on just as much fuel as was sufficient for the purpose, and keeping clear of steeples and chimneys until they alighted in safety beyond the boulevards. their voyage lasted about half-an-hour, and they described a track of six miles around paris, having ascended to a height of 3000 feet.
thus was the first balloon voyage successfully accomplished by the french; and the montgolfiers, besides enjoying the triumph which their persevering efforts deserved, were awarded the annual prize—six hundred livres—of the academy of sciences. the elder brother was invited to court, decorated with the badge of saint michael, and received a patent of nobility; while the younger received a pension and a sum of forty thousand livres wherewith to prosecute his experiments with balloons.
the great success of the montgolfier balloons naturally threw the efforts of monsieur charles and the brothers robert into the shade. nevertheless those gentlemen had got hold of a better principle than their rivals; and, knowing this, they resolved to convince the sceptical by constructing another balloon. they wisely began by obtaining subscriptions to enable them to carry out their designs, and finally succeeded in making a globe formed of tiffany, covered with elastic varnish, which was twenty-eight feet in diameter. this they filled with hydrogen gas. some idea of their difficulties and expenses may be gathered from the fact that the mere filling of the balloon required an apparatus which cost about 400 pounds sterling, one-half of which was expended on the production of the gas alone.
the ascent of this balloon deserves to be regarded with special interest, because, besides being the first hydrogen balloon which carried up human beings, it was the first in which scientific observations were made and recorded. monsieur charles was a lecturer on natural philosophy, and, like our own great aeronaut, mr glaisher, does not seem to have been content to produce merely a spectacle, but went up to the realms of ether with an intelligent and scientific eye; for we read of him recording the indications of the thermometer and barometer at different heights and under various conditions.
there were many accidents and delays in the construction of this balloon; but at last, on the 1st december 1783, it was taken to the tuileries and there filled with gas. the process was slow, as the gas had to be generated in large quantities by means of diluted sulphuric acid and iron filings put into wooden casks disposed round a large cistern, from which it was conveyed through water in long leaden pipes. to keep the impatient populace quiet, therefore, during the tedious operation, montgolfier sent up one of his fire-balloons.
at last, when it was sufficiently filled, messieurs charles and robert stepped into the car, which was ballasted with sandbags, and the ropes were let go. it went up with slow and solemn motion, at the rate of about five miles an hour. “the car,” writes a reporter of the day in language more inflated than the balloon itself, “ascending amidst profound silence and admiration, allowed, in its soft and measured ascent, the bystanders to follow with their eyes and hearts two interesting men, who, like demigods, soared to the abode of the immortals, to receive the reward of intellectual progress, and carry the imperishable name of montgolfier. after the globe had reached the height of 2000 feet, it was no longer possible to distinguish the aerial navigators; but the coloured pennants which they waved in the air testified their safety and their tranquil feelings. all fears were now dissipated; enthusiasm succeeded to astonishment; and every demonstration was given of joy and applause.”
the period of flight was an hour and three-quarters, which, for those early days of the art, was a pretty long voyage. by throwing over ballast the voyagers ascended, and by letting off gas they descended at pleasure; and they observed that during an hour, while they were exposed to the sun’s rays, the gas was heated up to the temperature of fifty-five degrees of fahrenheit’s scale, which had the effect of sensibly increasing the buoyancy of the balloon. they descended safely on the meadow of nesle, about twenty-five miles from paris.
but, not content with what he had accomplished, monsieur charles made a sudden resolve to have another flight alone. the shades of night were falling, and the sun had already set, when the enthusiastic aeronaut re-entered the car, and, casting off the grapnels, began his solitary night voyage. he was well rewarded. the balloon shot up with such celerity as to reach the height of about two miles in ten minutes, and the sun rose again to him in full orb! from his lofty station he watched it until it set again below the distant horizon. probably monsieur charles was the first man in the world on whom the sun thus rose and set twice in the same day!
in such regions, at that romantic period of night, the aeronaut, as might have been expected, saw strange unearthly sights. rising vapours concealed the lower world from view, and the moon shed her pale rays on accumulated masses of clouds, casting various hues over their fantastic and changing forms. no wonder that one thus surrounded by objects of awful grandeur and sublimity, left, as it were, more completely alone with god than any of his fellow-mortals, found it impossible to refrain from giving vent to his emotion in tears.
monsieur charles did not remain long at this elevation. as the cold was excessive, and night advancing, he deemed it prudent to descend; opened the safety-valve, out of which the gas rushed like a misty vapour with a whistling noise, and, after the lapse of a little more than half an hour, alighted in safety near the wood of tour du lay, having travelled about nine miles.
after this, balloon ascents became frequent. we cannot here give a particular account of each, even if it were desirable to do so, but, before passing to the consideration of the more recent voyages, we shall run over a few facts and incidents that occurred during the early period of aerial navigation.
the first lady who went up in a balloon was a madame thiblé. she ascended from lyons on 28th june 1784 with a monsieur fleurant in a fire-balloon. this lady of lyons mounted to the extraordinary elevation of 13,500 feet—at least so it was estimated. the flagstaff, a pole of fourteen pounds weight, was thrown out and took seven minutes to reach the ground. the thermometer dropped to minus 43 degrees fahrenheit, and the voyagers felt a ringing sensation in their ears.
the first long voyage accomplished was about the same period, by a balloon constructed by monsieur robert, which was filled with hydrogen. it was 56 feet in height, and 36 in diameter. the duke de chartres ascended in it along with robert and two others to a considerable height, and in five hours performed a voyage of 135 miles. this machine was furnished with a helm and four oars, for men still laboured under the erroneous belief that it was possible to direct the course of a balloon.
one of the most interesting balloon voyages of the last century was that of monsieur testu. he ascended from paris on the 18th june 1786 in a balloon of glazed tiffany, 29 feet in diameter, which was constructed by himself. it was filled with hydrogen, and had wings as well as oars! when the aeronaut deemed it advisable to descend, he attempted to do so by using the wings. these had little or no power, but the gradual waste of gas lowered him until he alighted safely in a corn field in the plain of montmorency. here he began to collect stones without quitting the car; but while thus engaged, was seized by the proprietor of the field with a troop of peasants, who demanded indemnification for the damage alleged to have been done by him. poor testu assured them that his wings being broken, he was at their mercy, whereupon the stupid and ill-natured boors seized the stay of the balloon, which floated some height above the ground, and dragged him in triumph towards their village. their triumph, however, was short-lived. finding that the loss of his wings and some other articles had lightened him considerably, he quietly cut the cord and bade the clowns an abrupt farewell!
testu then rose to the clouds, where he experienced the violence and witnessed the grandeur of a thunderstorm, the terrible nature of which was greatly increased when night closed in, while lightning flashed on all sides, thunder reverberated in the sky, and sleet fell copiously around him. on this voyage he saw some hunters in a field, and descended to observe them! he remained out all night, saw the sun set and rise, and finally alighted near the village of campremi, about sixty-three miles from paris.
