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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dominion of the Air, by J. M. Bacon
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Dominion of the Air
+
+Author: J. M. Bacon
+
+Posting Date: July 23, 2008 [EBook #861]
+Release Date: March, 1997
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DOMINION OF THE AIR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Dianne Bean
+
+
+
+
+
+THE DOMINION OF THE AIR
+
+The Story of Aerial Navigation
+
+by Rev. J. M. Bacon
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. THE DAWN OF AERONAUTICS.
+
+
+"He that would learn to fly must be brought up to the constant practice
+of it from his youth, trying first only to use his wings as a tame goose
+will do, so by degrees learning to rise higher till he attain unto skill
+and confidence."
+
+So wrote Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, who was reckoned a man of genius
+and learning in the days of the Commonwealth. But so soon as we come to
+inquire into the matter we find that this good Bishop was borrowing from
+the ideas of others who had gone before him; and, look back as far as
+we will, mankind is discovered to have entertained persistent and often
+plausible ideas of human flight. And those ideas had in some sort of
+way, for good or ill, taken practical shape. Thus, as long ago as the
+days when Xenophon was leading back his warriors to the shores of
+the Black Sea, and ere the Gauls had first burned Rome, there was a
+philosopher, Archytas, who invented a pigeon which could fly, partly by
+means of mechanism, and partly also, it is said, by aid of an aura or
+spirit. And here arises a question. Was this aura a gas, or did men use
+it as spiritualists do today, as merely a word to conjure with?
+
+Four centuries later, in the days of Nero, there was a man in Rome who
+flew so well and high as to lose his life thereby. Here, at any rate,
+was an honest man, or the story would not have ended thus; but of the
+rest--and there are many who in early ages aspired to the attainment
+of flight--we have no more reason to credit their claims than those of
+charlatans who flourish in every age.
+
+In medieval times we are seriously told by a saintly writer (St.
+Remigius) of folks who created clouds which rose to heaven by means of
+"an earthen pot in which a little imp had been enclosed." We need no
+more. That was an age of flying saints, as also of flying dragons.
+Flying in those days of yore may have been real enough to the multitude,
+but it was at best delusion. In the good old times it did not need the
+genius of a Maskelyne to do a "levitation" trick. We can picture the
+scene at a "flying seance." On the one side the decidedly professional
+showman possessed of sufficient low cunning; on the other the ignorant
+and highly superstitious audience, eager to hear or see some new
+thing--the same audience that, deceived by a simple trick of schoolboy
+science, would listen to supernatural voices in their groves, or
+oracular utterances in their temples, or watch the urns of Bacchus fill
+themselves with wine. Surely for their eyes it would need no more than
+the simplest phantasmagoria, or maybe only a little black thread, to
+make a pigeon rise and fly.
+
+It is interesting to note, however, that in the case last cited there is
+unquestionably an allusion to some crude form of firework, and what more
+likely or better calculated to impress the ignorant! Our firework makers
+still manufacture a "little Devil." Pyrotechnic is as old as history
+itself; we have an excellent description of a rocket in a document at
+least as ancient as the ninth century. And that a species of pyrotechny
+was resorted to by those who sought to imitate flight we have proof in
+the following recipe for a flying body given by a Doctor, eke a Friar,
+in Paris in the days of our King John:--
+
+"Take one pound of sulphur, two pounds of willowcarbon, six pounds of
+rock salt ground very fine in a marble mortar. Place, when you please,
+in a covering made of flying papyrus to produce thunder. The covering
+in order to ascend and float away should be long, graceful, well filled
+with this fine powder; but to produce thunder the covering should be
+short, thick, and half full."
+
+Nor does this recipe stand alone. Take another sample, of which chapter
+and verse are to be found in the MSS. of a Jesuit, Gaspard Schott, of
+Palermo and Rome, born three hundred years ago:--
+
+"The shells of hen-eggs, if properly filled and well secured against the
+penetration of the air, and exposed to solar rays, will ascend to the
+skies and sometimes suffer a natural change. And if the eggs of the
+larger description of swans, or leather balls stitched with fine
+thongs, be filled with nitre, the purest sulphur quicksilver, or kindred
+materials which rarify by their caloric energy, and if they externally
+resemble pigeons, they will easily be mistaken for flying animals."
+
+Thus it would seem that, hunting back in history, there were three main
+ideas on which would-be aeronauts of old exercised their ingenuity.
+There was the last-mentioned method, which, by the way, Jules Verne
+partly relies on when he takes his heroes to the moon, and which in
+its highest practical development may be seen annually on the night
+of "Brock's Benefit" at the Crystal Palace. There is, again, the "tame
+goose" method, to which we must return presently; and, lastly, there is
+a third method, to which, as also to the brilliant genius who conceived
+it, we must without further delay be introduced. This may be called the
+method of "a hollow globe."
+
+Roger Bacon, Melchisedeck-fashion, came into existence at Ilchester
+in 1214 of parentage that is hard to trace. He was, however, a born
+philosopher, and possessed of intellect and penetration that placed him
+incalculably ahead of his generation. A man of marvellous insight and
+research, he grasped, and as far as possible carried out, ideas which
+dawned on other men only after centuries. Thus, many of his utterances
+have been prophetic. It is probable that among his chemical discoveries
+he re-invented gunpowder. It is certain that he divined the properties
+of a lens, and diving deep into experimental and mechanical sciences,
+actually foresaw the time when, in his own words, "men would construct
+engines to traverse land and water with great speed and carry with them
+persons and merchandise." Clearly in his dreams Bacon saw the Atlantic
+not merely explored, but on its bosom the White Star liners breaking
+records, contemptuous of its angriest seas. He saw, too, a future Dumont
+circling in the air, and not only in a dead calm, but holding his own
+with the feathered race. He tells his dream thus: "There may be made
+some flying instrument so that a man sitting in the middle of the
+instrument and turning some mechanism may put in motion some artificial
+wings which may beat the air like a bird flying."
+
+But he lived too long before his time. His ruin lay not only in his
+superior genius, but also in his fearless outspokenness. He presently
+fell under the ban of the Church, through which he lost alike his
+liberty and the means of pursuing investigation. Had it been otherwise
+we may fairly believe that the "admirable Doctor," as he was called,
+would have been the first to show mankind how to navigate the air. His
+ideas are perfectly easy to grasp. He conceived that the air was a true
+fluid, and as such must have an upper limit, and it would be on this
+upper surface, he supposed, as on the bosom of the ocean, that man would
+sail his air-ship. A fine, bold guess truly. He would watch the cirrus
+clouds sailing grandly ten miles above him on some stream that never
+approached nearer. Up there, in his imagination, would be tossing the
+waves of our ocean of air. Wait for some little better cylinders of
+oxygen and an improved foot-warmer, and a future Coxwell will go aloft
+and see; but as to an upper sea, it is truly there, and we may visit and
+view its sun-lit tossing billows stretching out to a limitless horizon
+at such times as the nether world is shrouded in densest gloom. Bacon's
+method of reaching such an upper sea as he postulated was, as we have
+said, by a hollow globe.
+
+"The machine must be a large hollow globe, of copper or other suitable
+metal, wrought extremely thin so as to have it as light as possible,"
+and "it must be filled with ethereal air or liquid fire." This was
+written in the thirteenth century, and it is scarcely edifying to find
+four hundred years after this the Jesuit Father Lana, who contrived to
+make his name live in history as a theoriser in aeronautics, arrogating
+to himself the bold conception of the English Friar, with certain
+unfortunate differences, however, which in fairness we must here clearly
+point out. Lana proclaimed his speculations standing on a giant's
+shoulders. Torricelli, with his closed bent tube, had just shown
+the world how heavily the air lies above us. It then required little
+mathematical skill to calculate what would be the lifting power of
+any vessel void of air on the earth's surface. Thus Lana proposed
+the construction of an air ship which possibly because of its
+picturesquesness has won him notoriety. But it was a fraud. We have
+but to conceive a dainty boat in which the aeronaut would sit at ease
+handling a little rudder and a simple sail. These, though a schoolboy
+would have known better, he thought would guide his vessel when in the
+air.
+
+So much has been claimed for Father Lana and his mathematical and other
+attainments that it seems only right to insist on the weakness of his
+reasoning. An air ship simply drifting with the wind is incapable of
+altering its course in the slightest degree by either sail or rudder. It
+is simply like a log borne along in a torrent; but to compare such a log
+properly with the air ship we must conceive it WHOLLY submerged in the
+water and having no sail or other appendage projecting into the air,
+which would, of course, introduce other conditions. If, however, a man
+were to sit astride of the log and begin to propel it so that it travels
+either faster or slower than the stream, then in that case, either by
+paddle or rudder, the log could be guided, and the same might be said of
+Lana's air boat if only he had thought of some adequate paddle, fan, or
+other propeller. But he did not. One further explanatory sentence may
+here be needed; for we hear of balloons which are capable of being
+guided to a small extent by sail and rudder. In these cases, however,
+the rudder is a guide rope trailing on earth or sea, so introducing a
+fresh element and fresh conditions which are easy to explain.
+
+Suppose a free balloon drifting down the wind to have a sail suddenly
+hoisted on one side, what happens? The balloon will simply swing till
+this sail is in front, and thus continue its straightforward course.
+Suppose, however, that as soon as the side sail is hoisted a trail rope
+is also dropped aft from a spar in the rigging. The tendency of the sail
+to fly round in front is now checked by the dragging rope, and it is
+constrained to remain slanting at an angle on one side; at the same
+time the rate of the balloon is reduced by the dragging rope, so that
+it travels slower than the wind, which, now acting on its slant sail,
+imparts a certain sidelong motion much as it does in the case of a
+sailing boat.
+
+Lana having in imagination built his ship, proceeds to make it float
+up into space, for which purpose he proposes four thin copper globes
+exhausted of air. Had this last been his own idea we might have pardoned
+him. We have, however, pointed out that it was not, and we must further
+point out that in copying his great predecessor he fails to see that he
+would lose enormous advantage by using four globes instead of one.
+But, beyond all, he failed to see what the master genius of Bacon saw
+clearly--that his thin globes when exhausted must infallibly collapse by
+virtue of that very pressure of the air which he sought to make use of.
+
+It cannot be too strongly insisted on that if the too much belauded
+speculations of Lana have any value at all it is that they throw into
+stronger contrast the wonderful insight of the philosopher who so long
+preceded him. By sheer genius Bacon had foreseen that the emptied
+globe must be filled with SOMETHING, and for this something he suggests
+"ethereal air" or "liquid fire," neither of which, we contend, were
+empty terms. With Bacon's knowledge of experimental chemistry it is a
+question, and a most interesting one, whether he had not in his mind
+those two actual principles respectively of gas and air rarefied by heat
+on which we launch our balloons into space to-day.
+
+Early progress in any art or science is commonly intermittent. It was so
+in the story of aeronautics. Advance was like that of the incoming tide,
+throwing an occasional wave far in front of its rising flood. It was
+a phenomenal wave that bore Roger Bacon and left his mark on the sand
+where none other approached for centuries. In those centuries men were
+either too priest-ridden to lend an ear to Science, or, like children,
+followed only the Will-o'-the-Wisp floating above the quagmire which
+held them fast. They ran after the stone that was to turn all to gold,
+or the elixir that should conquer death, or the signs in the heavens
+that should foretell their destinies; and the taint of this may be
+traced even when the dark period that followed was clearing away. Four
+hundred years after Roger's death, his illustrious namesake, Francis
+Bacon, was formulating his Inductive Philosophy, and with complete
+cock-sureness was teaching mankind all about everything. Let us look
+at some of his utterances which may help to throw light on the way he
+regarded the problem we are dealing with.
+
+"It is reported," Francis Bacon writes, "that the Leucacians in ancient
+time did use to precipitate a man from a high cliffe into the sea; tying
+about him, with strings, at some distance, many great fowles; and fixing
+unto his body divers feathers, spread, to breake the fall. Certainly
+many birds of good wing (as Kites and the like) would beare up a good
+weight as they flie. And spreading of feathers, thin and close, and in
+great breadth, will likewise beare up a great weight, being even laid
+without tilting upon the sides. The further extension of this experiment
+of flying may be thought upon."
+
+To say the least, this is hardly mechanical. But let us next follow
+the philosopher into the domain of Physics. Referring to a strange
+assertion, that "salt water will dissolve salt put into it in less
+time than fresh water will dissolve it," he is at once ready with an
+explanation to fit the case. "The salt," he says, "in the precedent
+water doth by similitude of substance draw the salt new put in unto it."
+Again, in his finding, well water is warmer in winter than summer, and
+"the cause is the subterranean heat which shut close in (as in winter)
+is the more, but if it perspire (as it doth in summer) it is the less."
+This was Bacon the Lord. What a falling off--from the experimentalist's
+point of view--from Bacon the Friar! We can fancy him watching a falcon
+poised motionless in the sky, and reflecting on that problem which to
+this day fairly puzzles our ablest scientists, settling the matter in a
+sentence: "The cause is that feathers doe possess upward attractions."
+During four hundred years preceding Lord Verulam philosophers would have
+flown by aid of a broomstick. Bacon himself would have merely parried
+the problem with a platitude!
+
+At any rate, physicists, even in the brilliant seventeenth century,
+made no material progress towards the navigation of the air, and thus
+presently let the simple mechanic step in before them. Ere that century
+had closed something in the nature of flight had been accomplished. It
+is exceedingly hard to arrive at actual fact, but it seems pretty clear
+that more than one individual, by starting from some eminence, could
+let himself fall into space and waft himself away for some distance with
+fair success and safety, It is stated that an English Monk, Elmerus,
+flew the space of a furlong from a tower in Spain, a feat of the same
+kind having been accomplished by another adventurer from the top of St.
+Mark's at Venice.
+
+In these attempts it would seem that the principle of the parachute
+was to some extent at least brought into play. If also circumstantial
+accounts can be credited, it would appear that a working model of a
+flying machine was publicly exhibited by one John Muller before the
+Emperor Charles V. at Nuremberg. Whatever exaggeration or embellishment
+history may be guilty of it is pretty clear that some genuine attempts
+of a practical and not unsuccessful nature had been made here and there,
+and these prompted the flowery and visionary Bishop Wilkins already
+quoted to predict confidently that the day was approaching when it
+"would be as common for a man to call for his wings as for boots and
+spurs."
+
+We have now to return to the "tame goose" method, which found its best
+and boldest exponent in a humble craftsman, by name Besnier, living
+at Sable, about the year 1678. This mechanical genius was by trade a
+locksmith, and must have been possessed of sufficient skill to construct
+an efficient apparatus out of such materials as came to his hand, of
+the simplest possible design. It may be compared to the earliest type of
+bicycle, the ancient "bone shaker," now almost forgotten save by those
+who, like the writer, had experience of it on its first appearance.
+Besnier's wings, as it would appear, were essentially a pair of
+double-bladed paddles and nothing more, roughly resembling the
+double-paddle of an old-fashioned canoe, only the blades were large,
+roughly rectangular, and curved or hollowed. The operator would commence
+by standing erect and balancing these paddles, one on each shoulder, so
+that the hollows of the blades should be towards the ground. The forward
+part of each paddle was then grasped by the hands, while the hinder part
+of each was connected to the corresponding leg. This, presumably,
+would be effected after the arms had been raised vertically, the leg
+attachment being contrived in some way which experience would dictate.
+
+The flyer was now fully equipped, and nothing remained for him save
+to mount some eminence and, throwing himself forward into space and
+assuming the position of a flying bird, to commence flapping and
+beating the air with a reciprocal motion. First, he would buffet the
+air downwards with the left arm and right leg simultaneously, and while
+these recovered their position would strike with the right hand and
+left leg, and so on alternately. With this crude method the enterprising
+inventor succeeded in raising himself by short stages from one height
+to another, reaching thus the top of a house, whence he could pass over
+others, or cross a river or the like.
+
+The perfecting of his system became then simply a question of practice
+and experience, and had young athletes only been trained from early
+years to the new art it seems reasonable to suppose that some crude
+approach to human flight would have been effected. Modifications and
+improvements in construction would soon have suggested themselves, as
+was the case with the bicycle, which in its latest developments can
+scarcely be recognised as springing from the primitive "bone-shaker"
+of thirty-three years ago. We would suggest the idea to the modern
+inventor. He will in these days, of course, find lighter materials
+to hand. Then he will adopt some link motion for the legs in place of
+leather thongs, and will hinge the paddle blades so that they open out
+with the forward stroke, but collapse with the return. Then look on
+another thirty-three years--a fresh generation--and our youth of both
+sexes may find a popular recreation in graceful aerial exercise. The
+pace is not likely to be excessive, and molestations from disguised
+policemen--not physically adapted, by the way, to rapid flight--need not
+be apprehended.
+
+One of the best tests of Besnier's measure of success is supplied by the
+fact that he had pupils as well as imitators. First on this list must be
+mentioned a Mr. Baldwin, a name which, curiously enough, twice over
+in modern times comes into the records of bold aerial exploits. This
+individual, it appears, purchased a flying outfit of Besnier himself,
+and surpassed his master in achievement. A little later one Dante
+contrived some modification of the same apparatus, with which he pursued
+the new mode of progress till he met with a fractured thigh.
+
+But whatever the imitators of Besnier may have accomplished, to the
+honest smith must be accorded the full credit of their success, and
+with his simple, but brilliant, record left at flood mark, the tide
+of progress ebbed back again, while mankind ruminated over the great
+problem in apparent inactivity. But not for long. The air-pump about
+this period was given to the world, and chemists were already busy
+investigating the nature of gases. Cavallo was experimenting on kindred
+lines, while in our own land the rival geniuses of Priestley and
+Cavendish were clearing the way to make with respect to the atmosphere
+the most important discovery yet dreamed of. In recording this dawn of
+a new era, however, we should certainly not forget how, across the
+Atlantic, had arisen a Rumford and a Franklin, whose labours were
+destined to throw an all-important sidelight on the pages of progress
+which we have now to chronicle.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. THE INVENTION OF THE BALLOON.
+
+
+It was a November night of the year 1782, in the little town of
+Annonay, near Lyons. Two young men, Stephen and Joseph Montgolfier, the
+representatives of a firm of paper makers, were sitting together over
+their parlour fire. While watching the smoke curling up the chimney one
+propounded an idea by way of a sudden inspiration: "Why shouldn't smoke
+be made to raise bodies into the air?"
+
+The world was waiting for this utterance, which, it would seem, was on
+the tip of the tongue with many others. Cavendish had already discovered
+what he designated "inflammable air," though no one had as yet given it
+its later title of hydrogen gas. Moreover, in treating of this gas--Dr.
+Black of Edinburgh, as much as fifteen years before the date we have now
+arrived at, had suggested that it should be made capable of raising a
+thin bladder in the air. With a shade more of good fortune, or maybe
+with a modicum more of leisure, the learned Doctor would have won
+the invention of the balloon for his own country. Cavallo came almost
+nearer, and actually putting the same idea into practice, had succeeded
+in the spring of 1782 in making soap bubbles blown with hydrogen gas
+float upwards. But he had accomplished no more when, as related, in the
+autumn of the same year the brothers Montgolfier conceived the notion of
+making bodies "levitate" by the simpler expedient of filling them with
+smoke.
+
+This was the crude idea, the application of which in their hands was
+soon marked with notable success. Their own trade supplied ready and
+suitable materials for a first experiment, and, making an oblong bag of
+thin paper a few feet in length, they proceeded to introduce a cloud
+of smoke into it by holding crumpled paper kindled in a chafing dish
+beneath the open mouth. What a subject is there here for an imaginative
+painter! As the smoky cloud formed within, the bag distended itself,
+became buoyant, and presently floated to the ceiling. The simple trial
+proved a complete success, due, as it appeared to them, to the ascensive
+power of a cloud of smoke.
+
+An interesting and more detailed version of the story is extant. While
+the experiment was in progress a neighbour, the widow of a tradesman who
+had been connected in business with the firm, seeing smoke escaping into
+the room, entered and stood watching the proceedings, which were not
+unattended with difficulties. The bag, half inflated, was not easy to
+hold in position over the chafing dish, and rapidly cooled and collapsed
+on being removed from it. The widow noting this, as also the perplexity
+of the young men, suggested that they should try the result of tying
+the dish on at the bottom of the bag. This was the one thing wanted to
+secure success, and that good lady, whose very name is unhappily
+lost, deserves an honoured place in history. It was unquestionably the
+adoption of her idea which launched the first balloon into space.
+
+The same experiment repeated in the open air proving a yet more
+pronounced success, more elaborate trials were quickly developed, and
+the infant balloon grew fast. One worthy of the name, spherical in shape
+and of some 600 cubic feet capacity, was now made and treated as before,
+with the result that ere it was fully inflated it broke the strings that
+held it and sailed away hundreds of feet into the air. The infant
+was fast becoming a prodigy. Encouraged by their fresh success, the
+inventors at once set about preparations for the construction of a much
+larger balloon some thirty-five feet diameter (that is, of about 23,000
+cubic feet capacity), to be made of linen lined with paper and this
+machine, launched on a favourable day in the following spring, rose with
+great swiftness to fully a thousand feet, and travelled nearly a mile
+from its starting ground.
+
+Enough; the time was already ripe for a public demonstration of the new
+invention, and accordingly the 5th of the following June witnessed the
+ascent of the same balloon with due ceremony and advertisement. Special
+pains were taken with the inflation, which was conducted over a pit
+above which the balloon envelope was slung; and in accordance with the
+view that smoke was the chief lifting power, the fuel was composed of
+straw largely mixed with wool. It is recorded that the management of
+the furnace needed the attention of two men only, while eight men could
+hardly hold the impatient balloon in restraint. The inflation, in spite
+of the fact that the fuel chosen was scarcely the best for the purpose,
+was conducted remarkable expedition, and on being released, the
+craft travelled one and a half miles into the air, attaining a height
+estimated at over 6,000 feet.
+
+From this time the tide of events in the aeronautical world rolls on in
+full flood, almost every half-year marking a fresh epoch, until a new
+departure in the infant art of ballooning was already on the point of
+being reached. It had been erroneously supposed that the ascent of the
+Montgolfier balloon had been due, not to the rarefaction of the air
+within it--which was its true cause--but to the evolution of some light
+gas disengaged by the nature of the fuel used. It followed, therefore,
+almost as a matter of course, that chemists, who, as stated in the last
+chapter, were already acquainted with so-called "inflammable air," or
+hydrogen gas, grasped the fact that this gas would serve better than any
+other for the purposes of a balloon. And no sooner had the news of the
+Montgolfiers' success reached Paris than a subscription was raised, and
+M. Charles, Professor of Experimental Philosophy, was appointed, with
+the assistance of M. Roberts, to superintend the construction of a
+suitable balloon and its inflation by the proposed new method.
+
+The task was one of considerable difficulty, owing partly to the
+necessity of procuring some material which would prevent the escape of
+the lightest and most subtle gas known, and no less by reason of the
+difficulty of preparing under pressure a sufficient quantity of gas
+itself. The experiment, sound enough in theory, was eventually carried
+through after several instructive failures. A suitable material was
+found in "lustring," a glossy silk cloth varnished with a solution of
+caoutchouc, and this being formed into a balloon only thirteen feet in
+diameter and fitted without other aperture than a stopcock, was after
+several attempts filled with hydrogen gas prepared in the usual way by
+the action of dilute sulphuric acid on scrap iron.
+
+The preparations completed, one last and all-important mistake was
+made by closing the stop-cock before the balloon was dismissed, the
+disastrous and unavoidable result of this being at the time overlooked.
+
+On August 25, 1783, the balloon was liberated on the Champ de Mars
+before an enormous concourse, and in less than two minutes had reached
+an elevation of half a mile, when it was temporarily lost in cloud,
+through which, however, it penetrated, climbing into yet higher cloud,
+when, disappearing from sight, it presently burst and descended to earth
+after remaining in the air some three-quarters of an hour.
+
+The bursting of this little craft taught the future balloonist his first
+great lesson, namely, that on leaving earth he must open the neck of
+his balloon; and the reason of this is obvious. While yet on earth the
+imprisoned gas of a properly filled balloon distends the silk by virtue
+of its expansive force, and in spite of the enormous outside pressure
+which the weight of air exerts upon it. Then, as the balloon rises
+high in the air and the outside pressure grows less, the struggling gas
+within, if allowed no vent, stretches the balloon more and more until
+the slender fabric bursts under the strain.
+
+At the risk of being tedious, we have dwelt at some length on the
+initial experiments which in less than a single year had led to the
+discovery and development of two distinct methods--still employed and in
+competition with each other--of dismissing balloons into the heavens. We
+are now prepared to enter fully into the romantic history of our subject
+which from this point rapidly unfolds itself.
+
+Some eleven months only after the two Montgolfiers were discovered
+toying with their inflated paper bag, the younger of the two brothers
+was engaged to make an exhibition of his new art before the King at
+Versailles, and this was destined to be the first occasion when
+a balloon was to carry a living freight into the sky. The stately
+structure, which was gorgeously decorated, towered some seventy
+feet into the air, and was furnished with a wicker car in which the
+passengers were duly installed. These were three in number, a sheep, a
+cock, and a duck, and amid the acclamations of the multitude, rose a few
+hundred feet and descended half a mile away. The cock was found to have
+sustained an unexplained mishap: its leg was broken; but the sheep
+was feeding complacently, and the duck was quacking with much apparent
+satisfaction.
+
+Now, who among mortals will come forward and win the honour of being the
+first to sail the skies? M. Pilitre de Rozier at once volunteered, and
+by the month of November a new air ship was built, 74 feet high, 48 feet
+in largest diameter, and 15 feet across the neck, outside which a wicker
+gallery was constructed, while an iron brazier was slung below all.
+But to trim the boat properly two passengers were needed, and de Rozier
+found a ready colleague in the Marquis d'Arlandes. By way of precaution,
+de Rozier made a few preliminary ascents with the balloon held captive,
+and then the two intrepid Frenchmen took their stand on opposite sides
+of the gallery, each furnished with bundles of fuel to feed the furnace,
+each also carrying a large wet sponge with which to extinguish the
+flames whenever the machine might catch fire. On casting off the balloon
+rose readily, and reaching 3,000 feet, drifted away on an upper current.
+
+The rest of the narrative, much condensed from a letter of the Marquis,
+written a week later, runs somewhat thus: "Our departure was at
+fifty-four minutes past one, and occasioned little stir among the
+spectators. Thinking they might be frightened and stand in need of
+encouragement, I waved my arm. M. de Rozier cried, 'You are doing
+nothing, and we are not rising!' I stirred the fire, and then began to
+scan the river, but Pilitre cried again, 'See the river; we are dropping
+into it!' We again urged the fire, but still clung to the river bed.
+Presently I heard a noise in the upper part of the balloon, which gave
+a shock as though it had burst. I called to my companion, 'Are you
+dancing?' The balloon by now had many holes burned in it, and using my
+sponge I cried that we must descend. My companion, however, explained
+that we were over Paris, and must now cross it. Therefore, raising the
+fire once more, we turned south till we passed the Luxemburg, when,
+extinguishing the flame, the balloon came down spent and empty."
+
+Daring as was this ascent, it was in achievement eclipsed two months
+later at Lyons, when a mammoth balloon, 130 feet in height and lifting
+18 tons, was inflated in seventeen minutes, and ascended with no less
+than seven passengers. When more than half a mile aloft this machine,
+which was made of too slender material for its huge size, suddenly
+developed a rent of half its length, causing it to descend with immense
+velocity; but without the smallest injury to any of the passengers.
+This was a memorable performance, and the account, sensational as it may
+read, is by no means unworthy of credit; for, as will be seen hereafter,
+a balloon even when burst or badly torn in midair may, on the principle
+of the parachute, effect its own salvation.
+
+In the meanwhile, the rival balloon of hydrogen gas--the Charliere, as
+it has been called--had had its first innings. Before the close of
+the year MM. Roberts and Charles constructed and inflated a hydrogen
+balloon, this time fitted with a practicable valve, and in partnership
+accomplished an ascent beating all previous records. The day, December
+17, was one of winter temperature; yet the aeronauts quickly reached
+6,000 feet, and when, after remaining aloft for one and a half hours,
+they descended, Roberts got out, leaving Charles in sole possession.
+Left to himself, this young recruit seems to have met with experiences
+which are certainly unusual, and which must be attributed largely to the
+novelty of his situation. He declared that at 9,000 feet, or less
+than two miles, all objects on the earth had disappeared from view, a
+statement which can only be taken to mean that he had entered cloud.
+Further, at this moderate elevation he not only became benumbed with
+cold, but felt severe pain in his right ear and jaw. He held on,
+however, ascending till 10,500 feet were reached, when he descended,
+having made a journey of thirty miles from the start.
+
+Ascents, all on the Continent, now followed one another in rapid
+succession, and shortly the MM. Roberts essayed a venture on new lines.
+They attempted the guidance of a balloon by means of oars, and though
+they failed in this they were fortunate in making a fresh record. They
+also encountered a thunderstorm, and by adopting a perfectly scientific
+method--of which more hereafter--succeeded in eluding it. The storm
+broke around them when they were 14,000 feet high, and at this altitude,
+noting that there were diverse currents aloft, they managed to manoeuvre
+their balloon higher or lower at will and to suit their purpose, and
+by this stratagem drew away from the storm centre. After six and a half
+hours their voyage ended, but not until 150 miles had been covered.
+
+It must be freely granted that prodigious progress had been made in
+an art that as yet was little more than a year old; but assuredly not
+enough to justify the absurdly inflated ideas that the Continental
+public now began to indulge in. Men lost their mental balance, allowing
+their imagination to run riot, and speculation became extravagant in
+the extreme. There was to be no limit henceforward to the attainment
+of fresh knowledge, nor any bounds placed to where man might roam. The
+universe was open to him: he might voyage if he willed to the moon or
+elsewhere: Paris was to be the starting point for other worlds: Heaven
+itself had been taken by storm.
+
+Moderation had to be learned ere long by the discipline of more than
+one stern lesson. Hitherto a marvellous--call it a Providential--good
+fortune had attended the first aerial travellers; and even when mishaps
+presently came to be reckoned with, it may fairly be questioned whether
+so many lives were sacrificed among those who sought to voyage through
+the sky as were lost among such as first attempted to navigate the sea.
+
+It is in such ventures as we are now regarding that fortune seems
+readiest to favour the daring, and if I may digress briefly to adduce
+experiences coming within my own knowledge, I would say that it is to
+his very impulsiveness that the enthusiast often owes the safety of his
+neck. It is the timid, not the bold rider, that comes to grief at the
+fence. It is the man who draws back who is knocked over by a tramcar.
+Sheer impetus, moral or physical, often carries you through, as in
+the case of a fall from horse-back. To tumble off when your horse is
+standing still and receive a dead blow from the ground might easily
+break a limb. But at full gallop immunity often lies in the fact that
+you strike the earth at an angle, and being carried forward, impact is
+less abrupt. I can only say that I have on more than one occasion found
+the greatest safety in a balloon venture involving the element of risk
+to lie in complete abandonment to circumstances, and in the increased
+life and activity which the delirium of excitement calls forth. In
+comparing, however, man's first ventures by sky with those by sea, we
+must remember what far greater demand the former must have made upon the
+spirit of enterprise and daring.
+
+We can picture the earliest sea voyager taking his first lesson astride
+of a log with one foot on the bottom, and thus proceeding by sure stages
+till he had built his coracle and learned to paddle it in shoal water.
+But the case was wholly different when the first frail air ship stood at
+her moorings with straining gear and fiercely burning furnace, and when
+the sky sailor knew that no course was left him but to dive boldly up
+into an element whence there was no stepping back, and separated from
+earth by a gulf which man instinctively dreads to look down upon.
+
+Taking events in their due sequence, we have now to record a voyage
+which the terrors of sky and sea together combined to make memorable.
+Winter had come--early January of 1785--when, in spite of short dark
+days and frosty air, M. Blanchard, accompanied by an American, Dr.
+Jeffries, determined on an attempt to cross the Channel. They chose the
+English side, and inflating their balloon with hydrogen at Dover, boldly
+cast off, and immediately drifted out to sea. Probably they had not paid
+due thought to the effect of low sun and chilly atmosphere, for their
+balloon rose sluggishly and began settling down ere little more than
+a quarter of their course was run. Thereupon they parted with a large
+portion of their ballast, with the result that they crept on as far as
+mid-Channel, when they began descending again, and cast out the residue
+of their sand, together with some books, and this, too, with the
+uncomfortable feeling that even these measures would not suffice to
+secure their safety.
+
+This was in reality the first time that a sea passage had been made by
+sky, and the gravity of their situation must not be under-estimated.
+We are so accustomed in a sea passage to the constant passing of other
+vessels that we allow ourselves to imagine that a frequented portion of
+the ocean, such as the Channel, is thickly dotted over with shipping of
+some sort. But in entertaining this idea we are forgetful of the fact
+that we are all the while on a steamer track. The truth, however, is
+that anywhere outside such a track, even from the commanding point of
+view of a high-flying balloon, the ocean is seen to be more vast than
+we suppose, and bears exceedingly little but the restless waves upon
+its surface. Once fairly in the water with a fallen balloon, there is
+clearly no rising again, and the life of the balloon in this its wrong
+element is not likely to be a long one. The globe of gas may under
+favourable circumstances continue to float for some while, but the open
+wicker car is the worst possible boat for the luckless voyagers, while
+to leave it and cling to the rigging is but a forlorn hope, owing to
+the mass of netting which surrounds the silk, and which would prove a
+death-trap in the water. There are many instances of lives having been
+lost in such a dilemma, even when help was near at hand.
+
+Our voyagers, whom we left in mid-air and stream, were soon descending
+again, and this time they threw out their tackle--anchor, ropes, and
+other gear, still without adequately mending matters. Then their case
+grew desperate. The French coast was, indeed, well in sight, but there
+seemed but slender chance of reaching it, when they began divesting
+themselves of clothing as a last resort. The upshot of this was
+remarkable, and deserves a moment's consideration. When a balloon has
+been lightened almost to the utmost the discharge of a small weight
+sometimes has a magical effect, as is not difficult to understand.
+Throwing out ten pounds at an early stage, when there may be five
+hundred pounds more of superfluous weight, will tell but little, but
+when those five hundred pounds are expended then an extra ten pounds
+scraped together from somewhere and cast overboard may cause a balloon
+to make a giant stride into space by way of final effort; and it was so
+with M. Blanchard. His expiring balloon shot up and over the approaching
+land, and came safely to earth near the Forest of Guiennes. A
+magnificent feast was held at Calais to celebrate the above event. M.
+Blanchard was presented with the freedom of the city in a gold box, and
+application was made to the Ministry to have the balloon purchased and
+deposited as a memorial in the church. On the testimony of the grandson
+of Dr. Jeffries the car of this balloon is now in the museum of the same
+city.
+
+A very noteworthy example of how a balloon may be made to take a fresh
+lease of life is supplied by a voyage of M. Testu about this date, which
+must find brief mention in these pages. In one aspect it is laughable,
+in another it is sublime. From every point of view it is romantic.
+
+It was four o'clock on a threatening day in June when the solitary
+aeronaut took flight from Paris in a small hydrogen balloon only
+partially filled, but rigged with some contrivance of wings which were
+designed to render it self-propelling. Discovering, however, that
+this device was inoperative, M. Testu, after about an hour and a half,
+allowed the balloon to descend to earth in a corn field, when, without
+quitting hold of the car, he commenced collecting stones for ballast.
+But as yet he knew not the ways of churlish proprietors of land, and
+in consequence was presently surprised by a troublesome crowd, who
+proceeded, as they supposed, to take him prisoner till he should pay
+heavy compensation, dragging him off to the nearest village by the trail
+rope of his balloon.
+
+M. Testu now had leisure to consider his situation, and presently hit on
+a stratagem the like of which has often since been adopted by aeronauts
+in like predicament. Representing to his captors that without his
+wings he would be powerless, he suffered them to remove these weighty
+appendages, when also dropping a heavy cloak, he suddenly cut the cord
+by which he was being dragged, and, regaining freedom, soared away into
+the sky. He was quickly high aloft, and heard thunder below him, soon
+after which, the chill of evening beginning to bring him earthward,
+he descried a hunt in full cry, and succeeded in coming down near the
+huntsmen, some of whom galloped up to him, and for their benefit he
+ascended again, passing this time into dense cloud with thunder and
+lightning. He saw the sun go down and the lightning gather round, yet
+with admirable courage he lived the night out aloft till the storms were
+spent and the midsummer sun rose once more. With daylight restored, his
+journey ended at a spot over sixty miles from Paris.
+
+We have, of course, recounted only a few of the more noteworthy early
+ballooning ventures. In reality there had up to the present time been
+scores of ascents made in different localities and in all conditions of
+wind and weather, yet not a life had been lost. We have now, however,
+to record a casualty which cost the first and boldest aeronaut his life,
+and which is all the more regrettable as being due to circumstances that
+should never have occurred.
+
+M. Pilatre de Rosier, accompanied by M. Romain, determined on crossing
+the Channel from the French side; and, thinking to add to their buoyancy
+and avoid the risk of falling in the sea, hit on the extraordinary idea
+of using a fire balloon beneath another filled with hydrogen gas! With
+this deadly compound machine they actually ascended from Boulogne, and
+had not left the land when the inevitable catastrophe took place.
+
+The balloons caught fire and blew up at a height of 3,000 feet, while
+the unfortunate voyagers were dashed to atoms.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. THE FIRST BALLOON ASCENT IN ENGLAND.
+
+
+As may be supposed, it was not long before the balloon was introduced
+into England. Indeed, the first successful ascent on record made in our
+own country took place in the summer of 1784, ten months previous to the
+fatal venture narrated at the close of the last chapter. Now, it is a
+remarkable and equally regrettable circumstance that though the
+first ascent on British soil was undoubtedly made by one of our own
+countrymen, the fact is almost universally forgotten, or ignored, and
+the credit is accorded to a foreigner.
+
+Let us in strict honesty examine into the case. Vincent Lunardi, an
+Italian, Secretary to the Neapolitan Ambassador, Prince Caramanico,
+being in England in the year 1784, determined on organising and
+personally executing an ascent from London; and his splendid enterprise,
+which was presently carried to a successful issue, will form the
+principal subject of the present chapter. It will be seen that
+remarkable success crowned his efforts, and that his first and ever
+memorable voyage was carried through on September 15th of that year.
+
+More than a month previously, however, attention had been called to the
+fact that a Mr. Tytler was preparing to make an ascent from Edinburgh in
+a hot air balloon, and in the London Chronicle of August 27th occurs the
+following circumstantial and remarkable letter from a correspondent to
+that journal:
+
+"Edinburgh, Aug. 27, 1784.
+
+"Mr. Tytler has made several improvements upon his fire balloon. The
+reason of its failure formerly was its being made of porous linen,
+through which the air made its escape. To remedy this defect, Mr. Tytler
+has got it covered with a varnish to retain the inflammable air after
+the balloon is filled.
+
+"Early this morning this bold adventurer took his first aerial flight.
+The balloon being filled at Comely Garden, he seated himself in the
+basket, and the ropes being cut he ascended very high and descended
+quite gradually on the road to Restalrig, about half a mile from the
+place where he rose, to the great satisfaction of those spectators who
+were present. Mr. Tytler went up without the furnace this morning; when
+that is added he will be able to feed the balloon with inflammable air,
+and continue his aerial excursions as long as he chooses.
+
+"Mr. Tytler is now in high spirits, and in his turn laughs at those
+infidels who ridiculed his scheme as visionary and impracticable. Mr.
+Tytler is the first person in Great Britain who has navigated the air."
+
+Referring to this exploit, Tytler, in a laudatory epistle addressed
+to Lunardi, tells of the difficulties he had had to contend with, and
+artlessly reveals the cool, confident courage he must have displayed.
+No shelter being available for the inflation, and a strong wind blowing,
+his first misfortune was the setting fire to his wicker gallery. The
+next was the capsizing and damaging of his balloon, which he had lined
+with paper. He now substituted a coat of varnish for the paper, and his
+gallery being destroyed, so that he could no longer attempt to take up
+a stove, he resolved to ascend without one. In the end the balloon was
+successfully inflated, when he had the hardihood to entrust himself to
+a small basket (used for carrying earthenware) slung below, and thus
+to launch himself into the sky. He did so under the conviction that the
+risk he ran was greater than it really was, for he argued that his craft
+was now only like a projectile, and "must undoubtedly come to the ground
+with the same velocity with which it ascended." On this occasion the
+crowd tried for some time to hold him near the ground by one of the
+restraining ropes, so that his flight was curtailed. In a second
+experiment, however, he succeeded in rising some hundreds of feet, and
+came to earth without mishap.
+
+But little further information respecting Mr. Tytler is apparently
+forthcoming, and therefore beyond recording the fact that he was the
+first British aeronaut, and also that he was the first to achieve a
+balloon ascent in Great Britain, we are unable to make further mention
+of him in this history.
+
+Of his illustrious contemporary already mentioned there is, on the
+contrary, much to record, and we would desire to give full credit to his
+admirable courage and perseverance. It was with a certain national
+and pardonable pride that the young Italian planned his bold exploit,
+feeling with a sense of self-satisfaction, which he is at no pains to
+hide, that he aimed at winning honour for his country as well as for
+himself. In a letter which he wrote to his guardian, Chevalier Gherardo
+Compagni, he alludes to the stolid indifference of the English people
+and philosophers to the brilliant achievements in aeronautics which
+had been made and so much belauded on the Continent. He proclaims the
+rivalry as regards science and art existing between France and England,
+attributing to the latter an attitude of sullen jealousy. At the same
+time he is fully alive to the necessity of gaining English patronage,
+and sets about securing this with tactful diplomacy. First he casts
+about for a suitable spot where his enterprise would not fail to enlist
+general attention and perhaps powerful patrons, and here he is struck by
+the attractions and facilities offered by Chelsea Hospital. He therefore
+applies to Sir George Howard, the Governor, asking for the use of
+the famous hospital, to which, on the occasion of his experiments, he
+desires that admittance should only be granted to subscribers, while
+any profits should be devoted to the pensioners of the hospital. His
+application having been granted, he assures his guardian that he "still
+maintains his mental balance, and his sleep is not banished by the
+magnitude of his enterprise, which is destined to lead him through the
+path of danger to glory."
+
+This letter was dated the 15th of July, and by the beginning of August
+his advertisement was already before the public, inviting subscribers
+and announcing a private view of his balloon at the Lyceum, where it was
+in course of construction, and was being fitted with contrivances of
+his own in the shape of oars and sails. He had by this time not only
+enlisted the interest of Sir George Howard, and of Sir Joseph Banks, but
+had secured the direct patronage of the King.
+
+But within a fortnight a most unforeseen mishap had occurred, which
+threatened to overwhelm Lunardi in disappointment and ruin. A Frenchman
+of the name of Moret, designing to turn to his own advertisement the
+attention attracted by Lunardi's approaching trials, attempted to
+forestall the event by an enterprise of his own, announcing that he
+would make an ascent with a hot air balloon in some gardens near Chelsea
+Hospital, and at a date previous to that fixed upon by Lunardi. In
+attempting, however, to carry out this unworthy project the adventurer
+met with the discomfiture he deserved. He failed to effect his
+inflation, and when after fruitless attempts continued for three
+hours, his balloon refused to rise, a large crowd, estimated at 60,000,
+assembled outside, broke into the enclosure, committing havoc on all
+sides, not unattended with acts of violence and robbery.
+
+The whole neighbourhood became alarmed, and it followed as a matter
+of course that Lunardi was peremptorily ordered to discontinue his
+preparations, and to announce in the public press that his ascent from
+Chelsea Hospital was forbidden. Failure and ruin now stared the young
+enthusiast in the face, and it was simply the generous feeling of the
+British public, and the desire to see fair play, that gave him another
+chance. As it was, he became the hero of the hour; thousands flocked
+to the show rooms at the Lyceum, and he shortly obtained fresh grounds,
+together with needful protection for his project, at the hands of
+the Hon. Artillery Company. By the 15th of September all incidental
+difficulties, the mere enumeration of which would unduly swell these
+pages, had been overcome by sheer persistence, and Lunardi stood in the
+enclosure allotted him, his preparations in due order, with 150,000
+souls, who had formed for hours a dense mass of spectators, watching
+intently and now confidently the issue of his bold endeavour.
+
+But his anxieties were as yet far from over, for a London crowd had
+never yet witnessed a balloon ascent, while but a month ago they had
+seen and wreaked their wrath upon the failure of an adventurer. They
+were not likely to be more tolerant now. And when the advertised
+hour for departure had arrived, and the balloon remained inadequately
+inflated, matters began to take a more serious turn. Half an hour later
+they approached a crisis, when it began to be known that the balloon
+still lacked buoyancy, and that the supply of gas was manifestly
+insufficient. The impatience of the mob indeed was kept in restraint by
+one man alone. This man was the Prince of Wales who, refusing to join
+the company within the building and careless of the attitude of the
+crowd, remained near the balloon to check disorder and unfair treatment.
+
+But an hour after time the balloon still rested inert and then,
+with fine resolution, Lunardi tried one last expedient. He bade his
+colleague, Mr. Biggen, who was to have ascended with him, remain behind,
+and quietly substituting a smaller and lighter wicker car, or rather
+gallery, took his place within and severed the cords just as the last
+gun fired. The Prince of Wales raised his hat, imitated at once by all
+the bystanders, and the first balloon that ever quitted English soil
+rose into the air amid the extravagant enthusiasm of the multitude. The
+intrepid aeronaut, pardonably excited, and fearful lest he should not
+be seen within the gallery, made frantic efforts to attract attention
+by waving his flag, and worked his oars so vigorously that one of
+them broke and fell. A pigeon also gained its freedom and escaped. The
+voyager, however, still retained companions in his venture--a dog and a
+cat.
+
+Following his own account, Lunardi's first act on finding himself fairly
+above the town was to fortify himself with some glasses of wine, and to
+devour the leg of a chicken. He describes the city as a vast beehive,
+St. Paul's and other churches standing out prominently; the streets
+shrunk to lines, and all humanity apparently transfixed and watching
+him. A little later he is equally struck with the view of the open
+country, and his ecstasy is pardonable in a novice. The verdant pastures
+eclipsed the visions of his own lands. The precision of boundaries
+impressed him with a sense of law and order, and of good administration
+in the country where he was a sojourner.
+
+By this time he found his balloon, which had been only two-thirds full
+at starting, to be so distended that he was obliged to untie the mouth
+to release the strain. He also found that the condensed moisture round
+the neck had frozen. These two statements point to his having reached
+a considerable altitude, which is intelligible enough. It is, however,
+difficult to believe his further assertion that by the use of his single
+oar he succeeded in working himself down to within a few hundred feet of
+the earth. The descent of the balloon must, in point of fact, have been
+due to a copious outrush of gas at his former altitude. Had his oar
+really been effective in working the balloon down it would not have
+needed the discharge of ballast presently spoken of to cause it to
+reascend. Anyhow, he found himself sufficiently near the earth to land
+a passenger who was anxious to get out. His cat had not been comfortable
+in the cold upper regions, and now at its urgent appeal was deposited
+in a corn field, which was the point of first contact with the earth.
+It was carefully received by a country-woman, who promptly sold it to
+a gentleman on the other side of the hedge, who had been pursuing the
+balloon.
+
+The first ascent of a balloon in England was deserving of some record,
+and an account alike circumstantial and picturesque is forthcoming. The
+novel and astonishing sight was witnessed by a Hertfordshire farmer,
+whose testimony, published by Lunardi in the same year, runs as
+follows:--
+
+This deponent on his oath sayeth that, being on Wednesday, the 15th
+day of September instant, between the hours of three and four in the
+afternoon, in a certain field called Etna, in the parish of North Mimms
+aforesaid, he perceived a large machine sailing in the air, near the
+place where he was on horseback; that the machine continuing to approach
+the earth, the part of it in which this deponent perceived a gentleman
+standing came to the ground and dragged a short way on the ground in
+a slanting direction; that the time when this machine thus touched the
+earth was, as near as this deponent could judge, about a quarter before
+four in the afternoon. That this deponent being on horseback, and his
+horse restive, he could not approach nearer to the machine than about
+four poles, but that he could plainly perceive therein gentleman dressed
+in light coloured cloaths, holding in his hand a trumpet, which had the
+appearance of silver or bright tin. That by this time several harvest
+men coming up from the other part of the field, to the number of twelve
+men and thirteen women, this deponent called to them to endeavour to
+stop the machine, which the men attempted, but the gentleman in
+the machine desiring them to desist, and the machine moving with
+considerable rapidity, and clearing the earth, went off in a north
+direction and continued in sight at a very great height for near an hour
+afterwards. And this deponent further saith that the part of the machine
+in the which the gentleman stood did not actually touch the ground for
+more than half a minute, during which time the gentleman threw out a
+parcel of what appeared to this deponent as dry sand. That after the
+machine had ascended again from the earth this deponent perceived a
+grapple with four hooks, which hung from the bottom of the machine,
+dragging along the ground, which carried up with it into the air a small
+parcel of loose oats, which the women were raking in the field. And
+this deponent further on his oath sayeth that when the machine had risen
+clear from the ground about twenty yards the gentleman spoke to this
+deponent and to the rest of the people with his trumpet, wishing
+them goodbye and saying that he should soon go out of sight. And this
+deponent further on his oath sayeth that the machine in which the
+gentleman came down to earth appeared to consist of two distinct parts
+connected together by ropes, namely that in which the gentleman appeared
+to be, a stage boarded at the bottom, and covered with netting and ropes
+on the sides about four feet and a half high, and the other part of the
+machine appeared in the shape of an urn, about thirty feet high and of
+about the same diameter, made of canvas like oil skin, with green, red,
+and yellow stripes.
+
+NATHANIEL WHITBREAD.
+
+Sworn before me this twentieth day of September, 1784, WILLIAM BAKER.
+
+It was a curious fact, pointed out to the brave Italian by a resident,
+that the field in which the temporary descent had been made was called
+indifferently Etna or Italy, "from the circumstance which attended the
+late enclosure of a large quantity of roots, rubbish, etc., having been
+collected there, and having continued burning for many days. The common
+people having heard of a burning mountain in Italy gave the field that
+name."
+
+But the voyage did not end at Etna. The, as yet, inexperienced aeronaut
+now cast out all available ballast in the shape of sand, as also his
+provisions, and rising with great speed, soon reached a greater altitude
+than before, which he sought to still farther increase by throwing down
+his plates, knives, and forks. In this somewhat reckless expenditure he
+thought himself justified by the reliance he placed on his oar, and it
+is not surprising that in the end he owns that he owed his safety in
+his final descent to his good fortune. The narrative condensed concludes
+thus:--
+
+"At twenty minutes past four I descended in a meadow near Ware. Some
+labourers were at work in it. I requested their assistance, but they
+exclaimed they would have nothing to do with one who came on the Devil's
+Horse, and no entreaties could prevail on them to approach me. I at last
+owed my deliverance to a young woman in the field who took hold of
+a cord I had thrown out, and, calling to the men, they yielded that
+assistance at her request which they had refused to mine."
+
+As may be supposed, Lunardi's return to London resembled a royal
+progress. Indeed, he was welcomed as a conqueror to whom the whole town
+sought to do honour, and perhaps his greatest gratification came by
+way of the accounts he gathered of incidents which occurred during his
+eventful voyage. At a dinner at which he was being entertained by the
+Lord Mayor and judges he learned that a lady seeing his falling oar, and
+fancying that he himself was dashed to pieces, received a shock thereby
+which caused her death. Commenting on this, one of the judges bade him
+be reassured, inasmuch as he had, as if by compensation, saved the
+life of a young man who might live to be reformed. The young man was a
+criminal whose condemnation was regarded as certain at the hands of the
+jury before whom he was being arraigned, when tidings reached the court
+that Lunardi's balloon was in the air. On this so much confusion arose
+that the jury were unable to give due deliberation to the case, and,
+fearing to miss the great sight, actually agreed to acquit the prisoner,
+that they themselves might be free to leave the court!
+
+But he was flattered by a compliment of a yet higher order. He was told
+that while he hovered over London the King was in conference with his
+principal Ministers, and his Majesty, learning that he was in the sky,
+is reported to have said to his councillors, "We may resume our own
+deliberations at pleasure, but we may never see poor Lunardi again!" On
+this, it is further stated that the conference broke up, and the King,
+attended by Mr. Pitt and other chief officers of State, continued to
+view Lunardi through telescopes as long as he remained in the horizon.
+
+The public Press, notably the Morning Post of September 16, paid
+a worthy tribute to the hero of the hour, and one last act of an
+exceptional character was carried out in his honour, and remains in
+evidence to this hour. In a meadow in the parish of Standon, near Ware,
+there stands a rough hewn stone, now protected by an iron rail. It marks
+the spot where Lunardi landed, and on it is cut a legend which runs
+thus:
+
+     Let Posterity know
+     And knowing be astonished
+     that
+     On the 15th day of September 1784
+     Vincent Lunardi of Lusca in Tuscany
+     The first aerial traveller in Britain
+     Mounting from the Artillery Ground
+     In London
+     And Traversing the Regions of the Air
+     For Two Hours and Fifteen Minutes
+     In this Spot Revisited the Earth.
+     On this rude monument
+     For ages be recorded
+     That Wondrous Enterprise
+     Successfully atchieved
+     By the Powers of Chemistry
+     And the Fortitude of Man
+     That Improvement in Science
+     Which
+     The Great Author of all Knowledge
+     Patronyzing by His Providence
+     The Invention of Mankind
+     Hath graciously permitted
+     To Their Benefit
+     And
+     His own Eternal Glory.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF BALLOON PHILOSOPHY.
+
+
+In less than two years not only had the science of ballooning reached
+almost its highest development, but the balloon itself, as an aerostatic
+machine, had been brought to a state of perfection which has been but
+little improved upon up to the present hour. Better or cheaper methods
+of inflation were yet to be discovered, lighter and more suitable
+material remained to be manufactured; but the navigation of the air,
+which hitherto through all time had been beyond man's grasp, had been
+attained, as it were, at a bound, and at the hands of many different
+and independent experimentalists was being pursued with almost the same
+degree of success and safety as to-day.
+
+Nor was this all. There was yet another triumph of the aeronautical
+art which, within the same brief period, had been to all intents and
+purposes achieved, even if it had not been brought to the same state of
+perfection as at the present hour. This was the Parachute. This fact
+is one which for a sufficient reason is not generally known. It is very
+commonly supposed that the parachute, in anything like its present form,
+is a very modern device, and that the art of successfully using it had
+not been introduced to the world even so lately as thirty years ago.
+Thus, we find it stated in works of that date dealing with the subject
+that disastrous consequences almost necessarily attended the use of the
+parachute, "the defects of which had been attempted to be remedied
+in various ways, but up to this time without success." A more correct
+statement, however, would have been that the art of constructing and
+using a practicable parachute had through many years been lost or
+forgotten. In actual fact, it had been adopted with every assurance of
+complete success by the year 1785, when Blanchard by its means lowered
+dogs and other animals with safety from a balloon. A few years later he
+descended himself in a like apparatus from Basle, meeting, however, with
+the misadventure of a broken leg.
+
+But we must go much further back for the actual conception of the
+parachute, which, we might suppose, may originally have been suggested
+by the easy floating motion with which certain seeds or leaves will
+descend from lofty trees, or by the mode adopted by birds of dropping
+softly to earth with out-stretched wings. M. de la Loubere, in his
+historical account of Siam, which he visited in 1687-88, speaks of an
+ingenious athlete who exceedingly diverted the King and his court
+by leaping from a height and supporting himself in the air by two
+umbrellas, the handles of which were affixed to his girdle. In 1783,
+that is, the same year as that in which the balloon was invented, M.
+le Normand experimented with a like umbrella-shaped contrivance, with a
+view to its adoption as a fire escape, and he demonstrated the soundness
+of the principle by descending himself from the windows of a lofty house
+at Lyons.
+
+It was, however, reserved for M. Jacques Garnerin in 1797 to make the
+first parachute descent that attracted general attention. Garnerin had
+previously been detained as a State prisoner in the fortress of Bade,
+in Hungary, after the battle of Marchiennes in 1793, and during his
+confinement had pondered on the possibility of effecting his escape by a
+parachute. His solitary cogitations and calculations resulted, after his
+release, in the invention and construction of an apparatus which he put
+to a practical test at Paris before the court of France on October 22nd,
+1797. Ascending in a hydrogen balloon to the height of about 2,000 feet,
+he unhesitatingly cut himself adrift, when for some distance he dropped
+like a stone. The folds of his apparatus, however, opening suddenly,
+his fall became instantly checked. The remainder of his descent, though
+leisurely, occupying, in fact, some twelve minutes, appeared to the
+spectators to be attended with uncertainty, owing to a swinging motion
+set up in the car to which he was clinging. But the fact remains that he
+reached the earth with only slight impact, and entirely without injury.
+
+It appears that Garnerin subsequently made many equally successful
+parachute descents in France, and during the short peace of 1802 visited
+London, where he gave an exhibition of his art. From the most reliable
+accounts of his exploit it would seem that his drop was from a very
+great height, and that a strong ground wind was blowing at the time, the
+result of which was that wild, wide oscillations were set up in the car,
+which narrowly escaped bringing him in contact with the house tops in
+St. Pancreas, and eventually swung him down into a field, not without
+some unpleasant scratches.
+
+Nor was Garnerin the only successful parachutist at this period. A
+Polish aeronaut, Jordaki Kuparento, ascended from Warsaw on the 24th
+of July, 1804 in a hot air balloon, taking up, as was the custom, an
+attached furnace, which caused the balloon to take fire when at a great
+height. Kuparento, however, who was alone, had as a precaution provided
+himself with a parachute, and with this he seems to have found no
+difficulty in effecting a safe descent to earth.
+
+It was many years after this that fresh experimentalists, introducing
+parachutes on new lines and faulty in construction, met with death or
+disaster. Enough, however, has already been said to show that in
+the early years we are now traversing in this history a perfectly
+practicable parachute had become an accomplished fact. The early form is
+well described by Mr. Monck Mason in a letter to the Morning Herald in
+1837, written on the eve of an unrehearsed and fatal experiment made by
+Mr. Cocking, which must receive notice in due course. "The principle,"
+writes Mr. Monck Mason, "upon which all these parachutes were
+constructed is the same, and consists simply of a flattened dome of silk
+or linen from 24 feet to 28 feet in diameter. From the outer margin all
+around at stated intervals proceed a large number of cords, in length
+about the diameter of the dome itself, which, being collected together
+in one point and made fast to another of superior dimensions attached to
+the apex of the machine, serve to maintain it in its form when expanded
+in the progress of the descent. To this centre cord likewise, at a
+distance below the point of junction, varying according to the fancy of
+the aeronaut, is fixed the car or basket in which he is seated, and the
+whole suspended from the network of the balloon in such a manner as to
+be capable of being detached in an instant at the will of the individual
+by cutting the rope by which it is made fast above."
+
+It followed almost as a matter of course that so soon as the balloon
+had been made subject to something like due control, and thus had become
+recognised as a new machine fairly reduced to the service of man, it
+began to be regarded as an instrument which should be made capable of
+being devoted to scientific research. Indeed, it may be claimed that,
+among the very earliest aeronauts, those who had sailed away into the
+skies and brought back intelligent observations or impressions of the
+realm of cloud-land, or who had only described their own sensations at
+lofty altitudes, had already contributed facts of value to science. It
+is time then, taking events in their due sequence, that mention should
+be made of the endeavours of various savants, who began about the
+commencement of the nineteenth century to gather fresh knowledge from
+the exploration of the air by balloon ascents organised with fitting
+equipment. The time had now come for promoting the balloon to higher
+purposes than those of mere exhibition or amusement. In point of fact,
+it had already in one way been turned to serious practical account.
+It had been used by the French during military operations in the
+revolutionary war as a mode of reconnoitring, and not without success,
+so that when after due trial the war balloon was judged of value a
+number of similar balloons were constructed for the use of the various
+divisions of the French army, and, as will be told in its proper place,
+one, at least, of these was put to a positive test before the battle of
+Fleurus.
+
+But, returning to more strictly scientific ascents, which began to be
+mooted at this period, we are at once impressed with the widespread
+influence which the balloon was exercising on thinking minds. We note
+this from the fact that what must be claimed to be the first genuine
+ascent for scientific observation was made in altogether fresh ground,
+and at so distant a spot as St. Petersburg.
+
+It was now the year 1804, and the Russian Academy had determined on
+attempting an examination of the physical condition of the higher
+atmosphere by means of the balloon. The idea had probably been suggested
+by scientific observations which had already been made on mountain
+heights by such explorers as De Luc, Saussure, Humboldt, and others. And
+now it was determined that their results should be tested alongside such
+observations as could be gathered in the free heaven far removed from
+any disturbing effects that might be caused by contiguity to earth. The
+lines of enquiry to which special attention was required were such as
+would be naturally suggested by the scientific knowledge of the hour,
+though they may read somewhat quaintly to-day. Would there be any change
+in the intensity of the magnetic force? Any change in the inclination
+of the magnetised needle? Would evaporation find a new law? Would solar
+rays increase in power? What amount of electric matter would be found?
+What change in the colours produced by the prism? What would be the
+constitution of the higher and more attenuated air? What physical effect
+would it have on human and bird life?
+
+The ascent was made at 7.15 on a summer evening by M. Robertson and
+the Academician, M. Sacharof, to whom we are indebted for the following
+resume of notes, which have a special value as being the first of their
+class. Rising slowly, a difference of atmosphere over the Neva gave the
+balloon a downward motion, necessitating the discharge of ballast. As
+late as 8.45 p.m. a fine view was obtained of the Newski Islands, and
+the whole course of the neighbouring river. At 9.20 p.m., when the
+barometer had fallen from 30 inches to 23 inches, a canary and a dove
+were dismissed, the former falling precipitately, while the latter
+sailed down to a village below. All available ballast was now thrown
+out, including a spare great coat and the remains of supper, with the
+result that at 9.30 the barometer had fallen to 22 inches, and at this
+height they caught sight of the upper rim of the sun. The action of
+heart and lungs remained normal. No stars were seen, though the sky was
+mainly clear, such clouds as were visible appearing white and at a great
+height. The echo of a speaking trumpet was heard after an interval of
+ten seconds. This was substantially the outcome of the experiments. The
+practical difficulties of carrying out prearranged observations amid the
+inconvenience of balloon travel were much felt. Their instruments were
+seriously damaged, and their results, despite most painstaking and
+praiseworthy efforts, must be regarded as somewhat disappointing.
+
+But ere the autumn of the same year two other scientific ascents,
+admirably schemed and financed at the public expense, had been
+successfully carried out at Paris in a war balloon which, as will be
+told, had at this time been returned from military operations in Egypt.
+In the first of these, Gay Lussac ascended in company with M. Biot, with
+very complete equipment. Choosing ten o'clock in the morning for their
+hour of departure, they quickly entered a region of thin, but wet
+fog, after which they shot up into denser cloud, which they completely
+surmounted at a height of 6,500 feet, when they described the upper
+surface as bearing the resemblance, familiar enough to aeronauts and
+mountaineers, as of a white sea broken up into gently swelling billows,
+or of an extended plain covered with snow.
+
+A series of simple experiments now embarked upon showed the behaviour
+of magnetised iron, as also of a galvanic pile or battery, to remain
+unaltered. As their altitude increased their pulses quickened, though
+beyond feeling keenly the contrast of a colder air and of scorching rays
+of the sun they experienced no physical discomfort. At 11,000 feet a
+linnet which they liberated fell to the earth almost helplessly, while a
+pigeon with difficulty maintained an irregular and precipitate flight.
+A carefully compiled record was made of variations of temperature and
+humidity, and they succeeded in determining that the upper air was
+charged with negative electricity. In all this these two accomplished
+physicists may be said to have carried out a brilliant achievement, even
+though their actual results may seem somewhat meagre. They not only
+were their own aeronauts, but succeeded in arranging and carrying out
+continuous and systematic observations throughout the period of their
+remaining in the sky.
+
+This voyage was regarded as such a pronounced success that three weeks
+later, in mid-September, Gay Lussac was induced to ascend again, this
+time alone, and under circumstances that should enable him to reach an
+exceptionally high altitude. Experience had taught the advisability of
+certain modifications in his equipment. A magnet was ingeniously slung
+with a view of testing its oscillation even in spite of accidental
+gyrations in the balloon. Thermometers and hygrometers were carefully
+sheltered from the direct action of the sun, and exhausted flasks were
+supplied with the object of bringing down samples of upper air for
+subsequent analysis.
+
+Again it was an early morning ascent, with a barometer on the ground
+standing at 30.6 inches, and a slightly misty air. Lussac appears
+to have accomplished the exceedingly difficult task of counting the
+oscillations of his magnet with satisfaction to himself. At 10,000 feet
+twenty vibrations occupied 83 seconds, as compared with 84.33 seconds at
+the earth's surface. The variation of the compass remained unaltered,
+as also the behaviour of magnetised iron at all altitudes. Keeping his
+balloon under perfect control, and maintaining a uniform and steady
+ascent, he at the same time succeeded in compiling an accurate table of
+readings recording atmospheric pressure, temperature and humidity,
+and it is interesting to find that he was confronted with an apparent
+anomaly which will commonly present itself to the aeronaut observer.
+Up to 12,000 feet the temperature had decreased consistently from 82
+degrees to 47 degrees, after which it increased 6 degrees in the next
+2,000 feet. This by no means uncommon experience shall be presently
+discussed. The balloon was now steadily manoeuvred up to 18,636 feet, at
+which height freezing point was practically reached. Then with a further
+climb 20,000 feet is recorded, at which altitude the ardent philosopher
+could still attend to his magnetic observations, nor is his arduous and
+unassisted task abandoned here, but with marvellous pertinacity he yet
+struggled upwards till a height of no less than 23,000 feet is recorded,
+and the thermometer had sunk to 14 degrees F. Four miles and a quarter
+above the level of the sea, reached by a solitary aerial explorer, whose
+legitimate training lay apart from aeronautics, and whose main care
+was the observation of the philosophical instruments he carried! The
+achievement of this French savant makes a brilliant record in the early
+pages of our history.
+
+It is not surprising that Lussac should own to having felt no
+inconsiderable personal discomfort before his venture was over. In spite
+of warm clothing he suffered greatly from cold and benumbed fingers,
+not less also from laboured breathing and a quickened pulse; headache
+supervened, and his throat became parched and unable to swallow food. In
+spite of all, he conducted the descent with the utmost skill, climbing
+down quietly and gradually till he alighted with gentle ease at St.
+Gourgen, near Rouen. It may be mentioned here that the analysis of the
+samples of air which he had brought down proved them to contain the
+normal proportion of oxygen, and to be essentially identical, as tested
+in the laboratory, with the free air secured at the surface of the
+earth.
+
+The sudden and apparently unaccountable variation in temperature
+recorded by Lussac is a striking revelation to an aerial observer, and
+becomes yet more marked when more sensitive instruments are used than
+those which were taken up on the occasion just related. It will be
+recorded in a future chapter how more suitable instruments came in
+course of time to be devised. It is only necessary to point out at this
+stage that instruments which lack due sensibility will unavoidably read
+too high in ascents, and too low in descents where, according to the
+general law, the air is found to grow constantly colder with elevation
+above the earth's surface. It is strong evidence of considerable
+efficiency in the instruments, and of careful attention on the part of
+the observer, that Lussac was able to record the temporary inversion
+of the law of change of temperature above-mentioned. Had he possessed
+modern instrumental equipment he would have brought down a yet more
+remarkable account of the upper regions which he visited, and learned
+that the variations of heat and cold were considerably more striking
+than he supposed.
+
+With a specially devised instrument used with special precautions, the
+writer, as will be shown hereafter, has been able to prove that the
+temperature of the air, as traversed in the wayward course of a balloon,
+is probably far more variable and complex than has been recorded by most
+observers.
+
+The exceptional height claimed to have been reached by Gay Lassac need
+not for a moment be questioned, and the fact that he did not experience
+the same personal inconvenience as has been complained of by mountain
+climbers at far less altitudes admits of ready explanation. The physical
+exertion demanded of the mountaineer is entirely absent in the case of
+an aeronaut who is sailing at perfect ease in a free balloon. Moreover,
+it must be remembered that--a most important consideration--the aerial
+voyager, necessarily travelling with the wind, is unconscious, save
+at exceptional moments, of any breeze whatever, and it is a
+well-established fact that a degree of cold which might be insupportable
+when a breeze is stirring may be but little felt in dead calm. It should
+also be remembered, in duly regarding Gay Lussac's remarkable record,
+that this was not his first experience of high altitudes, and it is an
+acknowledged truth that an aeronaut, especially if he be an enthusiast,
+quickly becomes acclimatised to his new element, and sufficiently inured
+to its occasional rigours.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. SOME FAMOUS EARLY VOYAGERS.
+
+
+During certain years which now follow it will possibly be thought that
+our history, so far as incidents of special interest are concerned,
+somewhat languishes. Yet it may be wrong to regard this period as one of
+stagnation or retrogression.
+
+Before passing on to later annals, however, we must duly chronicle
+certain exceptional achievements and endeavours as yet unmentioned,
+which stand out prominently in the period we have been regarding as also
+in the advancing years of the new century Among these must in justice
+be included those which come into the remarkable, if somewhat pathetic
+subsequent career of the brilliant, intrepid Lunardi.
+
+Compelling everywhere unbounded admiration he readily secured the means
+necessary for carrying out further exploits wherever he desired while
+at the same time he met with a measure of good fortune in freedom from
+misadventure such as has generally been denied to less bold adventurers.
+Within a few months of the time when we left him, the popular hero and
+happy recipient of civic and royal favours, we find him in Scotland
+attempting feats which a knowledge of practical difficulties bids us
+regard as extraordinary.
+
+To begin with, nothing appears more remarkable than the ease,
+expedition, and certainty with which in days when necessary facilities
+must have been far harder to come by than now, he could always fill his
+balloon by the usually tedious and troublesome mode attending hydrogen
+inflation. We see him at his first Scottish ascent, completing the
+operation in little more than two hours. It is the same later at
+Glasgow, where, commencing with only a portion of his apparatus, he
+finds the inflation actually to proceed too rapidly for his purpose,
+and has to hold the powers at his command strongly in check. Later, in
+December weather, having still further improved his apparatus, he makes
+his balloon support itself after the inflation of only ten minutes.
+Then, as if assured of impunity, he treats recognised risks with a
+species of contempt. At Kelso he hails almost with joy the fact that
+the wind must carry him rapidly towards the sea, which in the end he
+narrowly escapes. At Glasgow the chances of safe landing are still
+more against him, yet he has no hesitation in starting, and at last the
+catastrophe he seemed to court actually overtook him, and he plumped
+into the sea near Berwick, where no sail was even in sight, and a
+winter's night coming on. From this predicament he was rescued by a
+special providence which once before had not deserted him, when in a
+tumult of violent and contrary currents, and at a great height to boot,
+his gallery was almost completely carried away, and he had to cling on
+to the hoop desperately with both hands.
+
+Then we lose sight of the dauntless, light-hearted Italian for
+one-and-twenty years, when in the Gentleman's Magazine of July 31,
+1806, appears the brief line, "Died in the convent of Barbadinas, of a
+decline, Mr. Vincent Lunardi, the celebrated aeronaut."
+
+Garnerin, of whom mention has already been made, accomplished in the
+summer of 1802 two aerial voyages marked by extreme velocity in the
+rate of travel. The first of these is also remarkable as having been
+the first to fairly cross the heart of London. Captain Snowdon, R.N.,
+accompanied the aeronaut. The ascent took place from Chelsea Gardens,
+and proved so great an attraction that the crowd overflowed into the
+neighbouring parts of the town, choking up the thoroughfares with
+vehicles, and covering the river with boats. On being liberated, the
+balloon sped rapidly away, taking a course midway between the river
+and the main highway of the Strand, Fleet Street, and Cheapside, and so
+passed from view of the multitude. Such a departure could hardly fail
+to lead to subsequent adventures, and this is pithily told in a letter
+written by Garnerin himself: "I take the earliest opportunity of
+informing you that after a very pleasant journey, but after the most
+dangerous descent I ever made, on account of the boisterous weather and
+the vicinity of the sea, we alighted at the distance of four miles from
+this place and sixty from Ranelagh. We were only three-quarters of an
+hour on the way. To-night I intend to be in London with the balloon,
+which is torn to pieces. We ourselves are all over bruises."
+
+Only a week after the same aeronaut ascended again from Marylebone, when
+he attained almost the same velocity, reaching Chingford, a distance of
+seventeen miles, in fifteen minutes.
+
+The chief danger attending a balloon journey in a high wind, supposing
+no injury has been sustained in filling and launching, results not so
+much from impact with the ground on alighting as from the subsequent
+almost inevitable dragging along the ground. The grapnels, spurning the
+open, will often obtain no grip save in a hedge or tree, and even then
+large boughs will be broken through or dragged away, releasing the
+balloon on a fresh career which may, for a while, increase in mad
+impetuosity as the emptying silk offers a deeper hollow for the wind to
+catch.
+
+The element of risk is of another nature in the case of a night ascent,
+when the actual alighting ground cannot be duly chosen or foreseen.
+Among many record night ascents may here, somewhat by anticipation
+of events, be mentioned two embarked upon by the hero of our last
+adventure. M. Garnerin was engaged to make a spectacular ascent from
+Tivoli at Paris, leaving the grounds at night with attached lamps
+illuminating his balloon. His first essay was on a night of early
+August, when he ascended at 11 p.m., reaching a height of nearly three
+miles. Remaining aloft through the hours of darkness, he witnessed the
+sun rise at half-past two in the morning, and eventually came to earth
+after a journey of some seven hours, during which time he had covered
+considerably more than a hundred miles. A like bold adventure carried
+out from the same grounds the following month was attended with graver
+peril. A heavy thunderstorm appearing imminent, Garnerin elected to
+ascend with great rapidity, with the result that his balloon, under the
+diminished pressure, quickly became distended to an alarming degree, and
+he was reduced to the necessity of piercing a hole in the silk, while
+for safety's sake he endeavoured to extinguish all lamps within reach.
+He now lost all control over his balloon, which became unmanageable in
+the conflict of the storm. Having exhausted his ballast, he presently
+was rudely brought to earth and then borne against a mountain side,
+finally losing consciousness until the balloon had found anchorage three
+hundred miles away from Paris.
+
+A night ascent, which reads as yet more sensational and extraordinary,
+is reported to have been made a year or two previously, and when it is
+considered that the balloon used was of the Montgolfier type the account
+as it is handed down will be allowed to be without parallel. It runs
+thus: Count Zambeccari, Dr. Grassati of Rome, and M. Pascal Andreoli of
+Antona ascended on a November night from Bologna, allowing their balloon
+to rise with excessive velocity. In consequence of this rapid transition
+to an extreme altitude the Count and the Doctor became insensible,
+leaving Andreoli alone in possession of his faculties. At two o'clock in
+the morning they found themselves descending over the Adriatic, at
+which time a lantern which they carried expired and was with difficulty
+re-lighted. Continuing to descend, they presently pitched in to the sea
+and became drenched with salt water. It may seem surprising that the
+balloon, which could not be prevented falling in the water, is yet
+enabled to ascend from the grip of the waves by the mere discharge of
+ballast. (It would be interesting to inquire what meanwhile happened to
+the fire which they presumably carried with them.) They now rose into
+regions of cloud, where they became covered with hoar frost and also
+stone deaf. At 3 a.m. they were off the coast of Istria, once more
+battling with the waves till picked up by a shore boat. The balloon,
+relieved of their weight, then flew away into Turkey.
+
+However overdrawn this narrative may appear, it must be read in the
+light of another account, the bare, hard facts of which can admit of
+no question. It is five years later, and once again Count Zambeccari is
+ascending from Bologna, this time in company with Signor Bonagna. Again
+it is a Montgolfier or fire balloon, and on nearing earth it becomes
+entangled in a tree and catches fire. The aeronauts jump for their
+lives, and the Count is killed on the spot. Certainly, when every
+allowance is made for pardonable or unintentional exaggeration, it
+must be conceded that there were giants in those days. Giants in the
+conception and accomplishment of deeds of lofty daring. Men who came
+scathless through supreme danger by virtue of the calmness and courage
+with which they withstood it.
+
+Among other appalling disasters we have an example of a terrific descent
+from a vast height in which the adventurers yet escape with their lives.
+It was the summer of 1808, and the aeronauts, MM. Andreoli and Brioschi,
+ascending from Padua, reach a height at which a barometer sinks to eight
+inches, indicating upwards of 30,000 feet. At this point the balloon
+bursts, and falls precipitately near Petrarch's tomb. Commenting on
+this, Mr. Glaisher, the value of whose opinion is second to none, is not
+disposed to question the general truth of the narrative. In regard to
+Zambeccari's escape from the sea related above, it should be stated that
+in the case of a gas-inflated balloon which has no more than dipped its
+car or gallery in the waves, it is generally perfectly possible to raise
+it again from the water, provided there is on board a store of ballast,
+the discharge of which will sufficiently lighten the balloon. A case in
+point occurred in a most romantic and perilous voyage accomplished by
+Mr. Sadler on the 1st of October, 1812.
+
+His adventure is one of extraordinary interest, and of no little value
+to the practical aeronaut. The following account is condensed from Mr.
+Sadler's own narrative. He started from the grounds of Belvedere House,
+Dublin, with the expressed intention of endeavouring to cross over the
+Irish Channel to Liverpool. There appear to have been two principal
+air drifts, an upper and a lower, by means of which he entertained fair
+hopes of steering his desired course. But from the outset he was menaced
+with dangers and difficulties. Ere he had left the land he discovered
+a rent in his silk which, occasioned by some accident before leaving,
+showed signs of extending. To reach this, it was necessary to
+extemporise by means of a rope a species of ratlins by which he
+could climb the rigging. He then contrived to close the rent with his
+neckcloth. He was, by this time, over the sea, and, manoeuvring his
+craft by aid of the two currents at his disposal, he was carried to the
+south shore of the Isle of Man, whence he was confident of being able,
+had he desired it, of landing in Cumberland. This, however, being
+contrary to his intention, he entrusted himself to the higher current,
+and by it was carried to the north-west of Holyhead. Here he dropped
+once again to the lower current, drifting south of the Skerry Lighthouse
+across the Isle of Anglesea, and at 4.30 p.m. found himself abreast of
+the Great Orme's Head. Evening now approaching, he had determined to
+seek a landing, but at this critical juncture the wind shifted to the
+southward, and he became blown out to sea. Then, for an hour, he appears
+to have tried high and low for a more favourable current, but without
+success; and, feeling the danger of his situation, and, moreover,
+sighting no less than five vessels beating down the Channel, he boldly
+descended in the sea about a mile astern of them. He must for certain
+have been observed by these vessels; but each and all held on their
+course, and, thus deserted, the aeronaut had no choice but to discharge
+ballast, and, quitting the waves, to regain his legitimate element. His
+experiences at this period of his extraordinary voyage are best told in
+his own words. "At the time I descended the sun was near setting Already
+the shadows of evening had cast a dusky hue over the face of the ocean,
+and a crimson glow purpled the tops of the waves as, heaving in the
+evening breeze, they died away in distance, or broke in foam against the
+sides of the vessels, and before I rose from the sea the orb had sunk
+below the horizon, leaving only the twilight glimmer to light the vast
+expanse around me. How great, therefore, was my astonishment, and how
+incapable is expression to convey an adequate idea of my feelings when,
+rising to the upper region of the air, the sun, whose parting beams I
+had already witnessed, again burst on my view, and encompassed me with
+the full blaze of day. Beneath me hung the shadows of even, whilst the
+clear beams of the sun glittered on the floating vehicle which bore me
+along rapidly before the wind."
+
+After a while he sights three more vessels, which signify their
+willingness to stand by, whereupon he promptly descends, dropping
+beneath the two rear-most of them. From this point the narrative of the
+sinking man, and the gallant attempt at rescue, will rival any like tale
+of the sea. For the wind, now fast rising, caught the half empty balloon
+so soon as the car touched the sea, and the vessel astern, though in
+full pursuit, was wholly unable to come up. Observing this, Mr. Sadler,
+trusting more to the vessel ahead, dropped his grappling iron by way of
+drag, and shortly afterwards tried the further expedient of taking off
+his clothes and attaching them to the iron. The vessels, despite these
+endeavours, failing to overhaul him, he at last, though with reasonable
+reluctance, determined to further cripple the craft that bore him so
+rapidly by liberating a large quantity of gas, a desperate, though
+necessary, expedient which nearly cost him his life.
+
+For the car now instantly sank, and the unfortunate man, clutching at
+the hoop, found he could not even so keep himself above the water, and
+was reduced to clinging, as a last hope, to the netting. The result of
+this could be foreseen, for he was frequently plunged under water by the
+mere rolling of the balloon. Cold and exertion soon told on him, as he
+clung frantically to the valve rope, and when his strength failed him he
+actually risked the expedient of passing his head through the meshes
+of the net. It was obvious that for avail help must soon come; yet the
+pursuing vessel, now close, appeared to hold off, fearing to become
+entangled in the net, and in this desperate extremity, fainting from
+exhaustion and scarcely able to cry aloud, Mr. Sadler himself seems to
+have divined the chance yet left; for, summoning his failing strength,
+he shouted to the sailors to run their bowsprit through his balloon.
+This was done, and the drowning man was hauled on board with the life
+scarcely in him.
+
+A fitting sequel to the above adventure followed five years afterwards.
+The Irish Sea remained unconquered. No balloonist had as yet ever
+crossed its waters. Who would attempt the feat once more? Who more
+worthy than the hero's own son, Mr. Windham Sadler?
+
+This aspiring aeronaut, emulating his father's enterprising spirit,
+chose the same starting ground at Dublin, and on the longest day of
+1817, when winds seemed favourable, left the Porto Bello barracks at
+1.20 p.m. His endeavour was to "tack" his course by such currents as he
+should find, in the manner attempted by his father, and at starting the
+ground current blew favourably from the W.S.W. He, however, allowed his
+balloon to rise to too high an altitude, where he must have been taken
+aback by a contrary drift; for, on descending again through a shower of
+snow, he found himself no further than Ben Howth, as yet only ten miles
+on his long journey. Profiting by his mistake, he thenceforward, by
+skilful regulation, kept his balloon within due limits, and successfully
+maintained a direct course across the sea, reaching a spot in Wales not
+far from Holyhead an hour and a half before sundown. The course taken
+was absolutely the shortest possible, being little more than seventy
+miles, which he traversed in five hours.
+
+From this period of our story, noteworthy events in aeronautical history
+grow few and far between. As a mere exhibition the novelty of a balloon
+ascent had much worn off. No experimentalist was ready with any new
+departure in the art. No fresh adventure presented itself to the minds
+of the more enterprising spirits; and, whereas a few years previously
+ballooning exploits crowded into every summer season and were not
+neglected even in winter months, there is now for a while little to
+chronicle, either abroad or in our own country. A certain revival of the
+sensational element in ballooning was occasionally witnessed, and not
+without mishap, as in the case of Madame Blanchard, who, in the summer
+of 1819, ascending at night with fireworks from the Tivoli Gardens,
+Paris, managed to set fire to her balloon and lost her life in her
+terrific fall. Half a dozen years later a Mr., as also Mrs., Graham
+figure before the public in some bold spectacular ascents.
+
+But the fame of any aeronaut of that date must inevitably pale before
+the dawning light shed by two stars of the first magnitude that were
+arising in two opposite parts of the world--Mr. John Wise in America,
+and Mr. Charles Green in our own country. The latter of these, who has
+been well styled the "Father of English Aeronautics," now entered on a
+long and honoured career of so great importance and success that we must
+reserve for him a separate and special chapter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. CHARLES GREEN AND THE NASSAU BALLOON.
+
+
+The balloon, which had gradually been dropping out of favour, had now
+been virtually laid aside, and, to all appearance, might have continued
+so, when, as if by chance concurrence of events, there arrived both the
+hour and the man to restore it to the world, and to invest it with a new
+practicability and importance. The coronation of George the Fourth
+was at hand, and this became a befitting occasion for the rare genius
+mentioned at the end of the last chapter, and now in his thirty-sixth
+year, to put in practice a new method of balloon management and
+inflation, the entire credit of which must be accorded to him alone.
+
+From its very introduction and inception the gas balloon, an expensive
+and fragile structure in itself, had proved at all times exceedingly
+costly in actual use. Indeed, we find that at the date at which we have
+now arrived the estimate for filling a balloon of 70,000 cubic feet--no
+extraordinary capacity--with hydrogen gas was about L250. When, then,
+to this great outlay was added the difficulty and delay of producing
+a sufficient supply by what was at best a clumsy process, as also the
+positive failure and consequent disappointment which not infrequently
+ensued, it is easy to understand how through many years balloon ascents,
+no longer a novelty, had begun to be regarded with distrust, and the
+profession of a balloonist was doomed to become unremunerative. A
+simpler and cheaper mode of inflation was not only a desideratum, but an
+absolute necessity. The full truth of this may be gathered from the fact
+that we find there were not seldom instances where two or three days of
+continuous and anxious labour were expended in generating and passing
+hydrogen into a balloon, through the fabric of which the subtle gas
+would escape almost as fast as it was produced.
+
+It was at this juncture, then, that Charles Green conceived the happy
+idea of substituting for hydrogen gas the ordinary household gas, which
+at this time was to be found ready to hand and in sufficient quantity in
+all towns of any consequence; and by the day of the coronation all was
+in readiness for a public exhibition of this method of inflation, which
+was carried out with complete success, though not altogether without
+unrehearsed and amusing incident, as must be told.
+
+The day, July 18, was one of summer heat, and Green at the conclusion
+of his preparations, fatigued with anxious labour and oppressed by the
+crowding of the populace, took refuge within the car of his balloon,
+which was by that time already inflated, and only awaiting the gun
+signal that was to announce the moment for its departure. To allow of
+his gaining the refreshment of somewhat purer air he begged his
+friends who were holding the car of his balloon in restraint to keep it
+suspended at a few feet from the earth, while he rested himself within,
+and, this being done, it would appear that he fell into a doze, from
+which he did not awake till he found that the balloon, which had slipped
+from his friends' hold, was already high above the crowd and requiring
+his prompt attention. This was, however, by no means an untoward
+accident, and Green's triumph was complete. By this one venture alone
+the success of the new method was entirely assured. The cost of the
+inflation had been reduced ten-fold, the labour and uncertainty a
+hundred-fold, and, over and above all, the confidence of the public was
+restored. It is little wonder, then, that in the years that now follow
+we find the balloon returning to all the favour it had enjoyed in its
+palmiest days. But Green proved himself something more than a practical
+balloonist of the first rank. He brought to the aid of his profession
+ideas which were matured by due thought and scientifically sound. It is
+true he still clung for a while to the antiquated notion that mechanical
+means could, with advantage, be used to cause a balloon to ascend or
+descend, or to alter its direction in a tranquil atmosphere. But he
+saw clearly that the true method of navigating a balloon should be by a
+study of upper currents, and this he was able to put to practical proof
+on a memorable occasion, and in a striking manner, as we shall presently
+relate.
+
+He learned the lesson early in his career while acquiring facts and
+experience, unassisted, in a number of solitary voyages made from
+different parts of the country. Among these he is careful to record an
+occasion when, making a day-light ascent from Boston, Lincolnshire,
+he maintained a lofty course, which promised to take him direct to
+Grantham; but, presently descending to a lower level, and his balloon
+diverging at an angle of some 45 degrees, he now headed for Newark. This
+experience he stored away.
+
+A month later we find him making a night voyage from Vauxhall Gardens,
+destined to be the scene of many memorable ascents in the near future;
+and on this occasion he gave proof of his capability as a close and
+intelligent observer. It was a July night, near 11 p.m., moonless and
+cloudy, yet the earth was visible, and under these circumstances
+his simple narrative becomes of scientific value. He accurately
+distinguished the reflective properties of the face of the diversified
+country he traversed. Over Battersea and Wandsworth--this was in
+1826--there were white sheets spread over the land, which proved to be
+corn crops ready for the sickle. Where crops were not the ground was
+darker, with, here and there, objects absolutely black--in other words,
+trees and houses. Then he mentions the river in a memorandum, which
+reads strangely to the aeronaut who has made the same night voyage in
+these latter days. The stream was crossed in places with rows of lamps
+apparently resting on the water. These were the lighted bridges;
+but, here and there, were dark planks, and these too were bridges--at
+Battersea and Putney--but without a light upon them!
+
+In these and many other simple, but graphic, narratives Green draws
+his own pictures of Nature in her quieter moods. But he was not without
+early experience of her horse play, a highly instructive record of which
+should not be omitted here, and which, as coming from so careful and
+conscientious an observer, is best gathered from his own words. The
+ascent was from Newbury, and it can have been no mean feat to fill,
+under ordinary circumstances, a balloon carrying two passengers and a
+considerable weight of ballast at the small gas-holder which served the
+town eighty-five years ago. But the circumstances were not ordinary, for
+the wind was extremely squally; a tremendous hail and thunderstorm blew
+up, and a hurricane swept the balloon with such force that two tons
+weight of iron and a hundred men scarce sufficed to hold it in check.
+
+Green on this occasion had indeed a companion, whose usefulness however
+at a pinch may be doubted when we learn that he was both deaf and dumb.
+The rest of the narrative runs thus: "Between 4 and 5 p.m. the clouds
+dispersed, but the wind continued to rage with unabated fury the whole
+of the evening. At 6 p.m. I stepped into the car with Mr. Simmons and
+gave the word 'Away!' The moment the machine was disencumbered of its
+weights it was torn by the violence of the wind from the assistants,
+bounded off with the velocity of lightning in a southeasterly direction,
+and in a very short space of time attained an elevation of two miles. At
+this altitude we perceived two immense bodies of clouds operated on by
+contrary currents of air until at length they became united, and at that
+moment my ears were assailed by the most awful and longest continued
+peal of thunder I have ever heard. These clouds were a full mile beneath
+us, but perceiving other strata floating at the same elevation at which
+we were sailing, which from their appearance I judged to be highly
+charged with electricity, I considered it prudent to discharge twenty
+pounds of ballast, and we rose half a mile above our former elevation,
+where I considered we were perfectly safe and beyond their influence.
+I observed, amongst other phenomena, that at every discharge of thunder
+all the detached pillars of clouds within the distance of a mile around
+became attracted and appeared to concentrate their force towards the
+first body of clouds alluded to, leaving the atmosphere clear and calm
+beneath and around us.
+
+"With very trifling variations we continued the same course until 7.15
+p.m., when we descended to within 500 feet of the earth; but, perceiving
+from the disturbed surface of the rivers and lakes that a strong wind
+existed near the earth, we again ascended and continued our course till
+7.30 p.m., when a final descent was safely effected in a meadow field in
+the parish of Crawley in Surrey, situated between Guildford and Horsham,
+and fifty-eight miles from Newbury. This stormy voyage was performed in
+one hour and a half."
+
+It was after Green had followed his profession for fifteen years that he
+was called upon to undertake the management of an aerial venture, which,
+all things considered, has never been surpassed in genuine enterprise
+and daring. The conception of the project was due to Mr. Robert Hollond,
+and it took shape in this way. This gentleman, fresh from Cambridge,
+possessed of all the ardour of early manhood, as also of adequate means,
+had begun to devote himself with the true zeal of the enthusiast to
+the pursuit of ballooning, finding due opportunity for this in his
+friendship with Mr. Green, who enjoyed the management of the fine
+balloon made for ascents at the then popular Vauxhall Gardens. In the
+autumn of 1836 the proprietors of this balloon, contemplating making an
+exhibition of an ascent from Paris, and requiring their somewhat fragile
+property to be conveyed to that city, Mr. Hollond boldly came forward
+and offered to transfer it thither, and, as nearly as this might be
+possible, by passage through the sky. The proposal was accepted, and Mr.
+Holland, in conjunction with Green, set about the needful preparations.
+These, as will appear, were on an extraordinary scale, and no blame is
+to be imputed on that account, as a little consideration will show. For
+the venture proposed was not to be that of merely crossing the Channel,
+which, as we have seen, had been successfully effected no less than
+fifty years before. The voyage in contemplation was to be from London;
+it was, moreover, to be pursued through a long, moonless winter's
+night, and under conditions of which no living aeronaut had had actual
+experience.
+
+Calculation, based on a sufficient knowledge of fast upper currents,
+told that their course, ere finished, might be one of almost indefinite
+length, and it is not too much to say that no one, with the knowledge
+of that day, could predict within a thousand miles where the dawn of
+the next day might find them. The equipment, therefore, was commensurate
+with the possible task before them. To begin with, they limited their
+number to three in all--Mr. Hollond, as chief and keeper of the log; Mr.
+Green, as aeronaut; and an enthusiastic colleague, Mr. Monck Mason,
+as the chronicler of the party. Next, they provided themselves with
+passports to all parts of the Continent; and then came the fitting out
+and victualling of the aerial craft itself, calculated to carry some
+90,000 cubic feet of gas, and a counterpoise of a ton of ballast, which
+took the form partly of actual provisions in large quantity, partly of
+gear and apparatus, and for the rest of sand and also lime, of which
+more anon. Across the middle of the car was fixed a bench to serve as
+table, and also as a stage for the winding in and out of an enormous
+trail rope a thousand feet long, designed by Mr. Green to meet the
+special emergencies of the voyage. At the bottom of the car was spread
+a large cushion to serve the purposes of rest. When all was in readiness
+unfitness of weather baulked the travellers for some days, but Monday,
+the 7th of November, was judged a favourable day, so that the inflation
+was rapidly proceeded with, and at 1.30 p.m. the "Monstre Balloon,"
+as it was entitled in the "Ingoldsby Legends," left the earth on her
+eventful and ever memorable voyage. The weather was fine and promising,
+and, rising with a moderate breeze from the N.W., they began to traverse
+the northern parts of Kent, while light, drifting upper clouds gave
+indication of other possible currents. Mr. Hollond was precise in the
+determination of times and of all readings and we learn that at exactly
+2.48 p.m. they were crossing the Medway, six miles west of Rochester,
+while at 4.5 p.m. the lofty towers of Canterbury were well in view,
+two miles to the east, and here a little function was well carried
+out. Green had twice ascended from this city under patronage of the
+authorities, and the idea occurred to the party that it would be a
+graceful compliment to drop a message to the Mayor as they passed. A
+suitable note, therefore, quickly written, was dismissed in a parachute,
+and it may be mentioned that this, as also a similar missive addressed
+later to the Mayor of Dover, were duly received and acknowledged.
+
+At a quarter past four they sighted the sea, and here, the air beginning
+to grow chill, the balloon dropped earthward, and for some miles they
+skimmed the ground, disturbing the partridges, scattering the rooks, and
+keeping up a running conversation the while with labourers and passers
+below. In this there was exercise of perfectly proper aerial seamanship,
+such as moreover presently led to an exhibition of true science. To save
+ballast is, with a balloon, to prolong life, and this may often best be
+done by flying low, which doubtless was Green's present intention. But
+soon his trained eye saw that the ground current which now carried them
+was leading them astray. They were trending to the northward, and so far
+out of their course that they would soon make the North Foreland, and
+so be carried out over the North Sea far from their desired direction.
+Thereupon Green attempted to put in practice his theory, already spoken
+of, of steering by upper currents, and the event proved his judgment
+peculiarly correct. "Nothing," wrote Mr. Monck Mason, "could exceed
+the beauty of the manoeuvre, to which the balloon at once responded,
+regaining her due course, and, in a matter of a few minutes only,
+bearing the voyagers almost vertically over the castle of Dover in the
+exact line for crossing the straits between that town and Calais."
+
+So far all was well, and success had been extraordinary; but from this
+moment they became faced with new conditions, and with the grave trouble
+of uncertainty. Light was failing, the sea was before them, and--what
+else thenceforth? 4.48 p.m. was recorded as the moment when the first
+line of breaking waves was seen directly below them, and then the
+English coast line began rapidly to fade out from their view. But,
+ahead, the obscurity was yet more intense, for clouds, banked up like
+a solid wall, crowned along its frowning heights, with "parapets and
+turrets and batteries and bastions," and, plunging into this opposing
+barrier, they were quickly buried in blackness, losing at the same time
+over the sea all sound from earth soever. So for a short hour's space,
+when the sound of waves once again broke in upon them, and immediately
+afterwards emerging from the dense cloud (a sea-fog merely) they found
+themselves immediately over the brilliantly lighted town of Calais.
+Seeing this, the travellers attempted to signal by igniting and lowering
+a Bengal Light, which was directly followed by the beating of drums from
+below.
+
+It adds a touch of reality, as well as cheerfulness, to the narrative
+to read that at this period of their long journey the travellers apply
+themselves to a fair, square meal, the first for twelve hours, despite
+the day's excitement and toil. We have an entry among the stores of the
+balloon of wine bottles and spirit flasks, but there is no mention of
+these being requisitioned at this period. The demand seems rather to
+have been for coffee--coffee hot; and this by a novel device was soon
+prepared. It goes without saying that a fire or flame of any kind,
+except with special precautions, is inadmissable in a balloon; but a
+cooking heat, sufficient for the present purpose, was supplied from the
+store of lime, a portion of which, being placed in a suitably contrived
+vessel and slaked quickly, procured the desired beverage.
+
+This meal now indulged in seems to have been heartily and happily
+enjoyed; and from this point, for a while, the narrative becomes that of
+enthusiastic and delighted travellers. In the gloom below, for leagues
+around, they regarded the scattered fires of a watchful population, with
+here and there the lights of larger towns, and the contemplation begot
+romantic reveries. "Were they not amid the vast solitudes of the skies,
+in the dead of night, unknown and unnoticed, secretly and silently
+reviewing kingdoms, exploring territories, and surveying cities all
+clothed in the dark mantle of mystery?" Presently they identified the
+blazing city of Liege, with the lurid lights of extensive outlying iron
+works, and this was the last visible sign they caught of earth that
+night; save, at least, when occasional glimpses of lightning momentarily
+and dimly outlined the world in the abyss below.
+
+Ere long, they met with their first discomfort, which they seem to
+have regarded as a most serious one, namely, the accidental dropping
+overboard of their cherished coffee-boiling apparatus. With its loss
+their store of lime became useless, save as ballast, and for this it
+was forthwith utilised until nothing remained but the empty lime barrel
+itself, which, being regarded as an objectionable encumbrance, it was
+desirable to get rid of, were it not for the risk involved in rudely
+dropping it to earth. But the difficulty was met. They possessed a
+suitable small parachute, and, attached to this, the barrel was allowed
+to float earthward.
+
+As hours advanced, the blackness of night increased, and their
+impressions appear somewhat strange to anyone familiar with ordinary
+night travel in the sky. Mr. Monck Mason compares their progress through
+the darkness to "cleaving their way through an interminable mass of
+black marble." Then, presently, an unaccountable object puzzles and
+absorbs the attention of all the party for a long period. They were
+gazing open-mouthed at a long narrow avenue of feeble light, which,
+though apparently belonging to earth, was too long and regular for a
+river, and too broad for a canal or road, and it was only after many
+futile imaginings that they discovered they were simply looking at a
+stay rope of the balloon hanging far out over the side.
+
+Somewhat later still, there was a more serious claim upon the
+imagination. It was half-past three in the morning, and the balloon,
+which, to escape from too low an altitude, had been liberally lightened,
+had now at high speed mounted to a vast height. And then, amid the black
+darkness and dead silence of that appalling region, suddenly overhead
+came the sound of an explosion, followed by the violent rustling of the
+silk, while the car jerked violently, as though suddenly detached from
+its hold. This was the idea, leading to the belief that the balloon had
+suddenly exploded, and that they were falling headlong to earth.
+Their suspense, however, cannot have been long, and the incident was
+intelligible enough, being due to the sudden yielding of stiffened net
+and silk under rapid expansion caused by their speedy and lofty ascent.
+
+The chief incidents of the night were now over, until the dawn arrived
+and began to reveal a strange land, with large tracts of snow, giving
+place, as the light strengthened, to vast forests. To their minds these
+suggested the plains of Poland, if not the steppes of Russia, and,
+fearing that the country further forward might prove more inhospitable,
+they decided to come to earth as speedily as possible. This, in spite
+of difficult landing, they effected about the hour that the waking
+population were moving abroad, and then, and not till then, they learned
+the land of their haven--the heart of the German forests. Five hundred
+miles had been covered in eighteen hours from start to finish!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. CHARLES GREEN--FURTHER ADVENTURES.
+
+
+All history is liable to repeat itself, and that of aeronautics forms
+no exception to the rule. The second year after the invention of the
+balloon the famous M. Blanchard, ascending from Frankfort, landed near
+Weilburg, and, in commemoration of the event, the flag he bore was
+deposited among the archives in the ducal palace of that town. Fifty-one
+years passed by when, outside the same city, a yet more famous balloon
+effected its landing, and with due ceremony its flag is presently laid
+beside that of Blanchard in the same ducal palace. The balloon of the
+"Immortal Three," whose splendid voyage has just been recounted,
+will ever be known by the title of the Great Nassau Balloon, but the
+neighbourhood of its landing was that of the town of Weilburg, in the
+Duchy of Nassau, whither the party betook themselves, and where, during
+many days, they were entertained with extravagant hospitality and honour
+until business recalled Mr. Hollond home.
+
+Green had now made upwards of two hundred ascents, and, though he lived
+to make a thousand, it was impossible that he could ever eclipse
+this last record. It is true that the same Nassau balloon, under his
+guidance, made many other most memorable voyages, some of which it will
+be necessary to dwell on. But, to preserve a better chronology, we must
+first, without further digression, approach an event which fills a dark
+page in our annals; and, in so doing, we have to transfer our attention
+from the balloon itself to its accessory, the parachute.
+
+Twenty-three years before our present date, that is to say in 1814,
+Mr. Cocking delivered his views as to the proper form of the parachute
+before the Society of Arts, who, as a mark of approval, awarded him a
+medal. This parachute, however, having never taken practical shape, and
+only existing, figuratively speaking, in the clouds, seemed unlikely to
+find its way there in reality until the success of the Nassau adventure
+stirred its inventor to strenuous efforts to give it an actual trial.
+Thus it came about that he obtained Mr. Green's co-operation in the
+attempt he now undertook, and, though this ended disastrously, for Mr.
+Cocking, the great professional aeronaut can in no way soever be blamed
+for the tragic event.
+
+The date of the trial was in July, 1837. Mr. Cocking's parachute was
+totally different in principle from that form which, as we have
+seen, had met with a fair measure of success at the hands of early
+experimenters; and on the eve of its trial it was strongly denounced
+and condemned in the London Press by the critic whom we have recently so
+freely quoted, Mr. Monck Mason.
+
+This able reasoner and aeronaut pointed out that the contrivance about
+to be tested aimed at obviating two principal drawbacks which the
+parachute had up to that time presented, namely (1) the length of time
+which elapses before it becomes sufficiently expanded, and (2) the
+oscillatory movement which accompanies the descent. In this new
+endeavour the inventor caused his machine to be fixed rigidly open, and
+to assume the shape of an inverted cone. In other words, instead of its
+being like an umbrella opened, it rather resembled an umbrella blown
+inside out. Taking, then, the shape and dimensions of Mr. Cocking's
+structure as a basis for mathematical calculation, as also its weight,
+which for required strength he put at 500 lbs. Mr. Monck Mason estimated
+that the adventurer and his machine must attain in falling a velocity of
+some twelve miles an hour. In fact, his positive prediction was that one
+of two events must inevitably take place. "Either the parachute would
+come to the ground with a force incompatible with the safety of the
+individual, or should it be attempted to make it sufficiently light to
+resist this conclusion, it must give way beneath the forces which will
+develop in the descent."
+
+This emphatic word of warning was neglected, and the result of the
+terrible experiment can best be gathered from two principal sources.
+First, that of a special reporter writing from terra-firma, and,
+secondly, that of Mr. Green himself, who gives his own observations
+as made from the balloon in which he took the unfortunate man and his
+invention into the sky.
+
+The journalist, who first speaks of the enormous concourse that gathered
+to see the ascent, not only within Vauxhall Gardens, but on every
+vantage ground without, proceeds to tell of his interview with Mr.
+Cocking himself, who, when questioned as to the danger involved,
+remarked that none existed for him, and that the greatest peril, if
+any, would attend the balloon when suddenly relieved of his weight. The
+proprietors of the Gardens, as the hour approached, did their best to
+dissuade the over-confident inventor, offering, themselves, to take the
+consequences of any public disappointment. This was again without
+avail, and so, towards 6 p.m., Mr. Green, accompanied by Mr. Spencer,
+a solicitor of whom this history will have more to tell, entered the
+balloon, which was then let up about 40 feet that the parachute might be
+affixed below. A little later, Mr. Cocking, casting aside his heavy coat
+and tossing off a glass of wine, entered his car and, amid deafening
+acclamations, with the band playing the National Anthem, the balloon and
+aeronauts above, and he himself in his parachute swinging below, mounted
+into the heavens, passing presently, in the gathering dusk, out of view
+of the Gardens.
+
+The sequel should be gathered from Mr. Green's own narrative. Previous
+to starting, 650 lbs. of ballast had to be discarded to gain buoyancy
+sufficient to raise the massive machine. This, together with another 100
+lbs., which was also required to be ejected owing to the cooling of the
+air, was passed out through a canvas tube leading downwards through a
+hole in the parachute, an ingenious contrivance which would prevent
+the sand thrown out from the balloon falling on the slender structure
+itself. On quitting the earth, however, this latter set up such violent
+oscillations that the canvas tube was torn away, and then it became the
+troublesome task of the aeronauts to make up their ballast into little
+parcels, and, as occasion required, to throw these into space clear of
+the swinging parachute below.
+
+Despite all efforts, however, it was soon evident that the cumbersome
+nature of the huge parachute would prevent its being carried up quite
+so high as the inventor desired. Mr. Cocking had stipulated for an
+elevation of 7,000 feet, and, as things were, only 5,000 feet could be
+reached, at any rate, before darkness set in. This fact was communicated
+to Mr. Cocking, who promptly intimated his intention of leaving, only
+requesting to know whereabouts he was, to which query Mr. Spencer
+replied that they were on a level with Greenwich. The brief colloquy
+that ensued is thus given by Mr. Green:--
+
+"I asked him if he felt quite comfortable, and if the practical trial
+bore out his calculation. Mr. Cocking replied, 'Yes, I never felt more
+comfortable or more delighted in my life,' presently adding, 'Well, now
+I think I shall leave you.' I answered, 'I wish you a very "Good Night!"
+and a safe descent if you are determined to make it and not use the
+tackle' (a contrivance for enabling him to retreat up into the balloon
+if he desired). Mr. Cocking's only reply was, 'Good-night, Spencer;
+Good-night, Green!' Mr. Cocking then pulled the rope that was to
+liberate himself, but too feebly, and a moment afterwards more
+violently, and in an instant the balloon shot upwards with the velocity
+of a sky rocket. The effect upon us at this moment was almost beyond
+description. The immense machine which suspended us between heaven and
+earth, whilst it appeared to be forced upwards with terrific violence
+and rapidity through unknown and untravelled regions amidst the howlings
+of a fearful hurricane, rolled about as though revelling in a freedom
+for which it had long struggled, but of which until that moment it had
+been kept in utter ignorance. It, at length, as if somewhat fatigued by
+its exertions, gradually assumed the motions of a snake working its way
+with extraordinary speed towards a given object. During this frightful
+operation the gas was rushing in torrents from the upper and lower
+valve, but more particularly from the latter, as the density of the
+atmosphere through which we were forcing our progress pressed so
+heavily on the valve at the top of the balloon as to admit of but a
+comparatively small escape by this aperture. At this juncture, had it
+not been for the application to our mouths of two pipes leading into an
+air bag, with which we had furnished ourselves previous to starting,
+we must within a minute have been suffocated, and so, but by different
+means, have shared the melancholy fate of our friend. This bag was
+formed of silk, sufficiently capacious to contain 100 gallons of
+atmospheric air. Prior to our ascent, the bag was inflated with the
+assistance of a pair of bellows with fifty gallons of air, so allowing
+for any expansion which might be produced in the upper regions. Into the
+end of this bag were introduced two flexible tubes, and the moment we
+felt ourselves to be going up in the manner just described, Mr. Spencer,
+as well as myself, placed either of them in our mouths. By this simple
+contrivance we preserved ourselves from instantaneous suffocation, a
+result which must have ensued from the apparently endless volume of
+gas with which the car was enveloped. The gas, notwithstanding all our
+precautions, from the violence of its operation on the human frame,
+almost immediately deprived us of sight, and we were both, as far as our
+visionary powers were concerned, in a state of total darkness for four
+or five minutes."
+
+Messrs. Green and Spencer eventually reached earth in safety near
+Maidstone, knowing nothing of the fate of their late companion. But of
+this we are sufficiently informed through a Mr. R. Underwood, who was on
+horseback near Blackheath and watching the aeronauts at the moment when
+the parachute was separated from the balloon. He noticed that the former
+descended with the utmost rapidity, at the same time swaying fearfully
+from side to side, until the basket and its occupant, actually parting
+from the parachute, fell together to earth through several hundred feet
+and were dashed to pieces.
+
+It would appear that the liberation of the parachute from below the
+balloon had been carried out without hitch; indeed, all so far had
+worked well, and the wind at the time was but a gentle breeze. The
+misadventure, therefore, must be entirely attributed to the faulty
+manner in which the parachute was constructed. There could, of course,
+be only one issue to the sheer drop from such a height, which became the
+unfortunate Mr. Cocking's fate, but the very interesting question will
+have to be discussed as to the chances in favour of the aeronaut who,
+within his wicker car, while still duly attached to the balloon, may
+meet with a precipitate descent.
+
+We may here fitly mention an early perilous experience of Mr. Green, due
+simply to the malice of someone never discovered. It appears that while
+Green's balloon, previous to an ascent, was on the ground, the cords
+attaching the car had been partly severed in such a way as to escape
+detection. So that as soon as the balloon rose the car commenced
+breaking away, and its occupants, Mr. Green and Mr. Griffiths, had to
+clutch at the ring, to which with difficulty they continued to cling.
+Meanwhile, the car remaining suspended by one cord only, the balloon was
+caused to hang awry, with the result that its upper netting began
+giving way, allowing the balloon proper gradually to escape through the
+bursting meshes, thus threatening the distracted voyagers with terrible
+disaster. The disaster, in fact, actually came to pass ere the party
+completed their descent, "the balloon, rushing through the opening
+in the net-work with a tremendous explosion, and the two passengers
+clinging to the rest of the gear, falling through a height said to be
+near a hundred feet. Both, though only with much time and difficulty,
+recovered from the shock."
+
+In 1840, three years after the tragic adventure connected with Mr.
+Cocking's parachute trial, we find Charles Green giving his views as to
+the practicability of carrying out a ballooning enterprise which should
+far excel all others that had hitherto been attempted. This was nothing
+less than the crossing of the Atlantic from America to England. There is
+no shadow of doubt that the adventurous aeronaut was wholly in earnest
+in the readiness he expressed to embark on the undertaking should
+adequate funds be forthcoming; and he discusses the possibilities
+with singular clearness and candour. He maintains that the actual
+difficulties resolve themselves into two only: first, the maintenance of
+the balloon in the sky for the requisite period of time; and, secondly,
+the adequate control of its direction in space. With respect to the
+first difficulty, he points out the fact to which we have already
+referred, namely, that it is impossible to avoid the fluctuations of
+level in a balloon's course, "by which it constantly becomes alternately
+subjected to escape of gas by expansion, and consequent loss of ballast,
+to furnish an equivalent diminution of weight." Taking his own balloon
+of 80,000 cubic feet by way of example, he shows that this, fully
+inflated on the earth, would lose 8,000 cubic feet of gas by expansion
+in ascending only 3,000 feet. Moreover, the approach of night or passage
+through cloud or falling rain would occasion chilling of the gas or
+accumulation of moisture on the silk, in either case necessitating the
+loss of ballast, the store of which is always the true measure of the
+balloon's life.
+
+To combat the above difficulty Green sanguinely relies on his favourite
+device of a trail or guide rope, whose function, being that of relieving
+the balloon of a material weight as it approaches the earth, could, he
+supposed, be made to act yet more efficiently when over the sea in the
+following manner. Its length, suspended from the ring, being not less
+than 2,000 feet, it should have attached at its lower end at certain
+intervals a number of small, stout waterproof canvas bags, the apertures
+of which should be contrived to admit water, but to oppose its return.
+Between these bags were to be conical floats, to support any length of
+the rope that might descend on the sea. Now, should the balloon commence
+descending, it would simply deposit a certain portion of rope on the
+water until it regained equilibrium at no great decrease of altitude,
+and would thus continue its course until alteration of conditions should
+cause it to recommence rising, when the weight of water now collected in
+the bags would play its part in preventing the balloon from soaring up
+into space. With such a contrivance Green allowed himself to imagine
+that he could keep a properly made balloon at practically the same
+altitude for a period of three months if required.
+
+The difficulty of maintaining a due course was next discussed, and
+somewhat speedily disposed of. Here Green relied on the results of his
+own observation, gathered during 275 ascents, and stated his conviction
+that there prevails a uniformity of upper wind currents that would
+enable him to carry out his bold projects successfully. His contention
+is best given in his own words:
+
+"Under whatever circumstances," he says, "I made my ascent, however
+contrary the direction of the winds below, I uniformly found that at a
+certain elevation, varying occasionally, but always within 10,000 feet
+of the earth, a current from the west or rather from the north of west,
+invariably travailed, nor do I recollect a single instance in which a
+different result ensued." Green's complete scheme is now sufficiently
+evident. He was to cross the Atlantic practically by the sole assistance
+of upper currents and his guide rope, but on this latter expedient,
+should adverse conditions prevail, he yet further relied, for he
+conceived that the rope could have attached to its floating end a
+water drag, which would hold the balloon in check until favouring gales
+returned.
+
+Funds, apparently, were not forthcoming to allow of Mr. Green's putting
+his bold method to the test; but we find him still adhering with so
+much zeal to his project that, five years later, he made, though again
+unsuccessfully, a second proposal to cross the Atlantic by balloon. He
+still continued to make many and most enterprising ascents, and one of a
+specially sensational nature must be briefly mentioned before we pass on
+to regard the exploits of other aeronauts.
+
+It was in 1841 on the occasion of a fete at Cremorne House, when Mr.
+Green, using his famous Nassau balloon, ascended with a Mr. Macdonnell.
+The wind was blowing with such extreme violence that Rainham, in Essex,
+about twenty miles distant, was reached in little more than a quarter of
+an hour, and here, on nearing the earth, the grapnel, finding good hold,
+gave a wrench to the balloon that broke the ring and jerked the car
+completely upside down, the aeronauts only escaping precipitation by
+holding hard to the ropes. A terrific steeplechase ensued, in which the
+travellers were dragged through stout fencing and other obstacles till
+the balloon, fairly emptied of gas, finally came to rest, but not until
+some severe injuries had been received.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. JOHN WISE--THE AMERICAN AERONAUT.
+
+
+By this period the domination of the air was being pursued in a fresh
+part of the world. England and her Continental neighbours had vied with
+each in adding to the roll of conquests, and it could hardly other be
+supposed that America would stand by without taking part in the campaign
+which was now being revived with so much fresh energy in the skies.
+
+The American champion who stepped forward was Mr. John Wise, of
+Lancaster, Pa., whose career, commencing in the year 1835, we must now
+for a while follow. Few attempts at ballooning of any kind had up to
+that time been made in all America. There is a record that in December,
+1783, Messrs. Rittenhouse and Hopkins, Members of the Philosophical
+Academy of Philadelphia, instituted experiments with an aerial machine
+consisting of a cage to which forty-seven small balloons were harnessed.
+In this strange craft a carpenter, by name Wilcox, was induced to
+ascend, which, it is said, he did successfully, remaining in the air for
+ten minutes, when, finding himself near a river, he sought to come to
+earth again by opening several of his balloons. This brought about an
+awkward descent, attended, however, by no more serious accident than a
+dislocated wrist. Mr. Wise, on the other hand, states that Blanchard had
+won the distinction of making the first ascent in the New World in 1793
+in Philadelphia on which occasion Washington was a spectator; and a few
+years afterwards other Frenchmen gave exhibitions, which, however, led
+to no real development of the new art on this, the further side of the
+Atlantic. Thus the endeavours we are about to describe were those of an
+independent and, at the same time, highly, practical experimentalist,
+and on this account have a special value of their own.
+
+The records that Wise has left of his investigations begin at the
+earliest stage, and possess the charm of an obvious and somewhat quaint
+reality. They commence with certain crude calculations which would seem
+to place no limit to the capabilities of a balloon. Thus, he points out
+that one of "the very moderate size of 400 feet diameter" would convey
+13,000 men. "No wonder, then," he continues, "the citizens of London
+became alarmed during the French War, when they mistook the appearance
+of a vast flock of birds coming towards the Metropolis for Napoleon's
+army apparently coming down upon them with this new contrivance."
+
+Proceeding to practical measures, Wise's first care was to procure some
+proper material of which to build an experimental balloon of sufficient
+size to lift and convey himself alone. For this he chose ordinary
+long-cloth, rendered gas-tight by coats of suitable varnish, the
+preparation of which became with him, as, indeed, it remains to this
+day, a problem of chief importance and difficulty. Perhaps it hardly
+needs pointing out that the varnish of a balloon must not only
+be sufficiently elastic not to crack or scale off with folding or
+unavoidable rough usage, but it must also be of a nature to resist the
+common tendency of such substances to become adherent or "tacky." Wise
+determined on bird lime thinned with linseed oil and ordinary driers.
+With this preparation he coated his material several times both before
+and after the making up, and having procured a net, of which he speaks
+with pride, and a primitive sort of car, of which he bitterly complains,
+he thought himself sufficiently equipped to embark on an actual ascent,
+which he found a task of much greater practical difficulty than the mere
+manufacture of his air ship. For the inflation by hydrogen of so small
+a balloon as his was he made more than ample provision in procuring
+no less than fifteen casks of 130 gallons capacity each. He also duly
+secured a suitable filling ground at the corner of Ninth and Green
+Streets, Philadelphia, but he made a miscalculation as to the time the
+inflation would demand, and this led to unforeseen complications, for
+as yet he knew not the way of a crowd which comes to witness a balloon
+ascent.
+
+Having all things in readiness, and prudently waiting for fair weather,
+he embarked on his grand experiment on the 2nd of May, 1835, announcing
+4 p.m. as the hour of departure. But by that time the inflation, having
+only proceeded for three hours, the balloon was but half full, and then
+the populace began to behave as in such circumstances they always will.
+They were incredulous, and presently grew troublesome. In vain the
+harnessing of the car was proceeded with as though all were well. For
+all was not well, and when the aeronaut stepped into his car with only
+fifteen pounds of sand and a few instruments he must have done so with
+much misgiving. Still, he had friends around who might have been useful
+had they been less eager to help. But these simply crowded round him,
+giving him no elbow room, nor opportunity for trying the "lift" of his
+all-too-empty globe. Moreover, some would endeavour to throw the machine
+upward, while others as strenuously strove to keep it down, and at last
+the former party prevailed, and the balloon, being fairly cast into the
+air, grazed a neighbouring chimney and then plunged into an adjacent
+plot, not, however, before the distracted traveller had flung away
+all his little stock of sand. There now was brief opportunity for free
+action, and to the first bystander who came running up Wise gave
+the task of holding the car in check. To the next he handed out his
+instruments, his coat, and also his boots, hoping thus to get away; but
+his chance had not yet come, for once again the crowd swarmed round him,
+keeping him prisoner with good-natured but mistaken interference, and
+drowning his voice with excited shouting. Somehow, by word and gesture,
+he gave his persecutors to understand that he wished to speak, and then
+he begged them only to give him a chance, whereupon the crowd fell
+back, forming a ring, and leaving only one man holding the car. It was
+a moment of suspense, for Wise calculated that he had only parted with
+some eighteen pounds since his first ineffectual start from the filling
+ground; but it was enough, and in another moment he was sailing up
+clear above the crowd. So great, as has been already shewn, is often
+the effect of parting with the last few pounds of dead weight in a
+well-balanced balloon.
+
+Such was the first "send off" of the future great balloonist, destined
+to become the pioneer in aeronautics on the far side of the Atlantic.
+The balloon ascended to upwards of a mile, floating gradually away, but
+at its highest point it reached a conflict of currents, causing eddies
+from which Wise escaped by a slight decrease of weight, effected by
+merely cutting away the wreaths of flowers that were tied about his car.
+A further small substitute for ballast he extemporised in the metal tube
+inserted in the neck of his fabric, and this he cast out when over the
+breadth of the Delaware, and he describes it as falling with a rustling
+sound, and striking the water with a splash plainly heard at more than
+a mile in the sky. After an hour and a quarter the balloon spontaneously
+and steadily settled to earth.
+
+An ascent carried out later in the same summer led to a mishap, which
+taught the young aeronaut an all-important lesson. Using the same
+balloon and the same mode of inflation, he got safely and satisfactorily
+away from his station in the town of Lebanon, Pa., and soon found
+himself over a toll gate in the open country, where the gate keeper in
+banter called up to him for his due. To this summons Wise, with heedless
+alacrity, responded in a manner which might well have cost him dear. He
+threw out a bag of sand to represent his toll, and, though he estimated
+this at only six pounds, it so greatly accelerated his ascent that he
+shortly found himself at a greater altitude than he ever after attained.
+He passed through mist into upper sunshine, where he experienced extreme
+cold and ear-ache, at which time, seeking the natural escape from such
+trouble, he found to his dismay that the valve rope was out of reach.
+Thus he was compelled to allow the balloon to ascend yet higher, at its
+own will; and then a terrible event happened.
+
+By mischance the neck of his balloon, which should have been open, was
+out of reach and folded inwards in such a way as to prevent the free
+escape of the gas, which, at this great altitude, struggled for egress
+with a loud humming noise, giving him apprehensions of an accident which
+very shortly occurred, namely, the bursting of the lower part of his
+balloon with a loud report. It happened, however, that no extreme loss
+of gas ensued, and he commenced descending with a speed which, though
+considerable, was not very excessive. Still, he was eager to alight in
+safety, until a chance occurrence made him a second time that afternoon
+guilty of an act of boyish impetuosity. A party of volunteers firing
+a salute in his honour as he neared the ground, he instantly flung out
+papers, ballast, anything he could lay his hands on, and once again
+soared to a great height with his damaged balloon. He could then do no
+more, and presently subsiding to earth again, he acquired the welcome
+knowledge that even in such precarious circumstances a balloon may make
+a long fall with safety to its freight.
+
+Mr. Wise's zeal and indomitable spirit of enterprise led to speedy
+developments of the art which he had espoused; the road to success being
+frequently pointed out by failure or mishap. He quickly discarded the
+linen balloon for one of silk on which he tried a new varnish composed
+of linseed oil and india-rubber, and, dressing several gores with this,
+he rolled them up and left them through a night in a drying loft, with
+the result that the next day they were disintegrated and on the point
+of bursting into flame by spontaneous combustion. Fresh silk and
+other varnish were then tried, but with indifferent success. Next he
+endeavoured to dispense with sewing, and united the gores of yet another
+balloon by the mere adhesiveness of the varnish and application of a hot
+iron. This led to a gaping seam developing at the moment of an ascent,
+and then there followed a hasty and hazardous descent on a house-top and
+an exciting rescue by a gentleman who appeared opportunely at a third
+storey window. Further, another balloon had been destroyed, and Wise
+badly burned, at a descent, owing to a naked light having been brought
+near the escaping gas. It is then without wonder that we find him
+after this temporarily bankrupt, and resorting to his skill in
+instrument-making to recover his fortunes. Only, however, for a few
+months, after which he is before the public once more as a professional
+aeronaut. He now adopts coal gas for inflation, and incidents of an
+impressive nature crowd into his career, forcing important facts upon
+him. The special characteristics of his own country present peculiar
+difficulties; broad rivers and vast forests become serious obstacles.
+He is caught in the embrace of a whirlwind; he narrowly escapes falling
+into a forest fire; he is precipitated, but harmlessly, into a pine
+wood. Among other experiments, he makes a small copy of Mr. Cocking's
+parachute, and drops it to earth with a cat as passenger, proving
+thereby that that unfortunate gentleman's principle was really less in
+fault than the actual slenderness of the material used in his machine.
+
+We now approach one of Wise's boldest, and at the same time most
+valuable, experiments. It was the summer of 1839, and once again the old
+trouble of spontaneous combustion had destroyed a silk balloon which
+was to have ascended at Easton, Pa. Undeterred, however, Wise resolutely
+advertised a fresh attempt, and, with only a clear month before the
+engagement, determined on hastily rigging up a cambric muslin balloon,
+soaking it in linseed oil and essaying the best exhibition that
+this improvised experiment could afford. It was intended to become
+a memorable one, inasmuch as, should he meet with no hindrance, his
+determination was nothing less than that of bursting this balloon at a
+great height, having firmly convinced himself that the machine in these
+circumstances would form itself into a natural parachute, and bring
+him to earth with every chance in favour of safety. In his own words,
+"Scientific calculations were on his side with a certainty as great and
+principles as comprehensive as that a pocket-handkerchief will not fall
+as rapidly to the ground when thrown out of a third storey window as
+will a brick."
+
+His balloon was specially contrived for the experiment in hand, having
+cords sewn to the upper parts of its seams, and then led down through
+the neck, where they were secured within reach, their office being that
+of rending the whole head of the balloon should this be desired. On this
+occasion a cat and a dog were taken up, one of these being let fall from
+a height of 2,000 feet in a Cocking's parachute, and landing in safety,
+the other being similarly dismissed at an altitude of 4,000 feet in an
+oiled silk balloon made in the form of a collapsed balloon, which,
+after falling a little distance, expanded sufficiently to allow of its
+descending with a safe though somewhat vibratory motion. Its behaviour,
+at any rate, fully determined Wise on carrying out his own experiment.
+
+Being constructed entirely for the main object in view, the balloon had
+no true opening in the neck beyond an orifice of about an inch, and by
+the time a height of 13,000 feet had been reached the gas was streaming
+violently through this small hole, the entire globe being expanded
+nearly to bursting point, and the cords designed for rending the balloon
+very tense. At this critical period Wise owns to having experienced
+considerable nervous excitement, and observing far down a thunderstorm
+in progress he began to waver in his mind, and inclined towards
+relieving the balloon of its strain, and so abandoning his experiment,
+at least for the present. He remembers pulling out his watch to make a
+note of the hour, and, while thus occupied, the straining cords, growing
+tenser every moment, suddenly took charge of the experiment and burst
+the balloon of their own accord. The gas now rushed from the huge rent
+above tumultuously and in some ten seconds had entirely escaped, causing
+the balloon to descend rapidly, until the lower part of the muslin,
+doubling in upwards, formed a species of parachute after the manner
+intended. The balloon now came down with zig-zag descent, and finally
+the car, striking the earth obliquely, tossed its occupant out into
+a field unharmed. Shortly after this Wise experimented with further
+success with an exploded balloon.
+
+It is not a little remarkable that this pioneer of aeronautics in
+American--a contemporary of Charles Green in England, but working and
+investigating single-handed on perfectly independent lines--should
+have arrived at the same conclusions as did Green himself as to the
+possibility, which, in his opinion, amounted to a certainty, of being
+able to cross the Atlantic by balloon if only adequate funds were
+forth-coming. So intent was he on his bold scheme that, in the summer of
+1843, he handed to the Lancaster Intelligencer a proclamation, which he
+desired might be conveyed to all publishers of newspapers on the globe.
+It contained, among other clauses, the following:--
+
+"Having from a long experience in aeronautics been convinced that a
+constant and regular current of air is blowing at all times from west to
+east, with a velocity of from twenty to forty and even sixty miles per
+hour, according to its height from the earth, and having discovered a
+composition which renders silk or muslin impervious to hydrogen gas, so
+that a balloon may be kept afloat for many weeks, I feel confident with
+these advantages that a trip across the Atlantic will not be attended
+with as much real danger as by the common mode of transition. The
+balloon is to be 100 feet in diameter, giving it a net ascending power
+of 25,000 lbs." It was further stated that the crew would consist of
+three persons, including a sea navigator, and a scientific landsman.
+The specifications for the transatlantic vessel were also to include a
+seaworthy boat in place of the ordinary car. The sum requisite for this
+enterprise was, at the time, not realised; but it should be mentioned
+that several years later a sufficient sum of money was actually
+subscribed. In the summer of 1873 the proprietors of the New York Daily
+Graphic provided for the construction of a balloon of no less than
+400,000 cubic feet capacity, and calculated to lift 14,000 lbs. It was,
+however, made of bad material; and, becoming torn in inflation, Wise
+condemned and declined to use it. A few months later, when it had been
+repaired, one Donaldson and two other adventurers, attempting a voyage
+with this ill-formed monster, ascended from New York, and were
+fortunate in coming down safely, though not without peril, somewhere in
+Connecticut.
+
+Failing in his grand endeavour, Wise continued to follow the career of a
+professional aeronaut for some years longer, of which he has left a full
+record, terminating with the spring of 1848. His ascents were always
+marked by carefulness of detail, and a coolness and courage in trying
+circumstances that secured him uniform success and universal regard. He
+was, moreover, always a close and intelligent observer, and many of his
+memoranda are of scientific value.
+
+His description of an encounter with a storm-cloud in the June of 1843
+has an interest of its own, and may not be considered overdrawn. It was
+an ascent from Carlisle, Pa., to celebrate the anniversary of Bunker's
+Hill, and Wise was anxious to gratify the large concourse of people
+assembled, and thus was tempted, soon after leaving the ground, to dive
+up into a huge black cloud of peculiarly forbidding aspect. This cloud
+appeared to remain stationary while he swept beneath it, and, having
+reached its central position, he observed that its under surface was
+concave towards the earth, and at that moment he became swept upwards in
+a vortex that set his balloon spinning and swinging violently, while he
+himself was afflicted with violent nausea and a feeling of suffocation.
+The cold experienced now became intense, and the cordage became glazed
+with ice, yet this had no effect in checking the upward whirling of the
+balloon. Sunshine was beyond the upper limits of the cloud; but this was
+no sooner reached than the balloon, escaping from the uprush, plunged
+down several hundred feet, only to be whirled up again, and this
+reciprocal motion was repeated eight or ten times during an interval of
+twenty minutes, in all of which time no expenditure of gas or discharge
+of ballast enabled the aeronaut to regain any control over his vessel.
+
+Statements concerning a thunderstorm witnessed at short range by Wise
+will compare with other accounts. The thunder "rattled" without any
+reverberations, and when the storm was passing, and some dense clouds
+moving in the upper currents, the "surface of the lower stratum swelled
+up suddenly like a boiling cauldron, which was immediately followed by
+the most brilliant ebullition of sparkling coruscations." Green, in his
+stormy ascent from Newbury, England, witnessed a thunderstorm below
+him, as will be remembered, while an upper cloud stratum lay at his
+own level. It was then that Green observed that "at every discharge of
+thunder all the detached pillars of clouds within the distance of a mile
+around became attracted."
+
+The author will have occasion, in due place, to give personal
+experiences of an encounter with a thunderstorm which will compare with
+the foregoing description.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. EARLY METHODS AND IDEAS.
+
+
+Before proceeding to introduce the chief actors and their achievements
+in the period next before us, it will be instructive to glance at some
+of the principal ideas and methods in favour with aeronauts up to the
+date now reached. It will be seen that Wise in America, contrary to the
+practice of Green in our own country, had a strong attachment to the
+antique mode of inflation with hydrogen prepared by the vitriolic
+process; and his balloons were specially made and varnished for the use
+of this gas. The advantage which he thus bought at the expense of much
+trouble and the providing of cumbersome equipment was obvious enough,
+and may be well expressed by a formula which holds good to-day, namely,
+that whereas 1,000 cubic feet of hydrogen is capable of lifting 7 lbs.,
+the same quantity of coal gas of ordinary quality will raise but 35 lbs.
+The lighter gas came into all Wise's calculations for bolder schemes.
+Thus, when he discusses the possibility of using a metal balloon, his
+figures work out as follows: If a balloon of 200 feet diameter were
+constructed out of copper, weighing one pound to the square foot;
+if, moreover, some six tons were allowed for the weight of car and
+fastenings, an available lifting power would remain capable of raising
+45 tons to an altitude of two miles. This calculation may appear
+somewhat startling, yet it is not only substantially correct, but Wise
+entertained no doubt as to the practicability of such a machine. For its
+inflation he suggests inserting a muslin balloon filled with air within
+the copper globe, and then passing hydrogen gas between the muslin and
+copper surfaces, which would exclude the inner balloon as the copper one
+filled up.
+
+His method of preparing hydrogen was practically that still adopted
+in the field, and seems in his hands to have been seldom attended with
+difficulty. With eight common 130-gallon rum puncheons he could reckon
+on evolving 5,000 cubic feet of gas in an hour, using his elements
+in the following proportions: water, 560 lbs.; sulphuric acid (sp. g.
+1.85), 144 lbs.; iron turnings, 125 lbs. The gas, as given off, was
+cooled and purified by being passed through a head of water kept cool
+and containing lime in solution. Contrasted with this, we find it
+estimated, according to the practice of this time, that a ton of good
+bituminous coal should yield 10,000 cubic feet of carburetted hydrogen
+fit for lighting purposes, and a further quantity which, though useless
+as an illuminant, is still of excellent quality for the aeronaut.
+
+It would even seem from a statement of Mr. Monck Mason that the value of
+coke in his day largely compensated for the cost of producing coal gas,
+so that in a large number of Green's ascents no charge whatever was made
+for gas by the companies that supplied him.
+
+Some, at least, of the methods formerly recommended for the management
+of free balloons must in these days be modified. Green, as we have seen,
+was in favour of a trail rope of inordinate length, which he recommended
+both as an aid to steering and for a saving of ballast. In special
+circumstances, and more particularly over the sea, this may be reckoned
+a serviceable adjunct, but over land its use, in this country at
+least, would be open to serious objection. The writer has seen the
+consternation, not to say havoc, that a trail rope may occasion when
+crossing a town, or even private grounds, and the actual damage done
+to a garden of hops, or to telegraph or telephone wires, may be very
+serious indeed. Moreover, the statement made by some early practitioners
+that a trail rope will not catch so as to hold fast in a wood or the
+like, is not to be relied on, for an instance could be mentioned coming
+under the writer's knowledge where such a rope was the source of so much
+trouble in a high wind that it had to be cut away.
+
+The trouble arose in this way. The rope dragged harmlessly enough along
+the open ground. It would, likewise, negotiate exceedingly well a single
+tree or a whole plantation, catching and releasing itself with only such
+moderate tugs at the car as were not disturbing; but, presently, its
+end, which had been caught and again released by one tree, swung free
+in air through a considerable gap to another tree, where, striking a
+horizontal bough, it coiled itself several times around, and thus held
+the balloon fast, which now, with the strength of the wind, was borne
+to the earth again and again, rebounding high in air after each impact,
+until freedom was gained only by the sacrifice of a portion of the rope.
+
+Wise recommends a pendant line of 600 or 800 feet, capable of bearing a
+strain of 100 lbs., and with characteristic ingenuity suggests a special
+use which can be made of it, namely, that of having light ribbons tied
+on at every hundred feet, by means of which the drifts of lower currents
+may be detected. In this suggestion there is, indeed, a great deal of
+sound sense; for there is, as will be shown hereafter, very much value
+to be attached to a knowledge of those air rivers that are flowing,
+often wholly unsuspected, at various heights. Small parachutes, crumpled
+paper, and other such-like bodies as are commonly thrown out and relied
+on to declare the lower drifts, are not wholly trustworthy, for this
+reason--that air-streams are often very slender, mere filaments, as
+they are sometimes called, and these, though setting in some definite
+direction, and capable of entrapping and wafting away some small body
+which may come within their influence, may not affect the travel of so
+big an object as a balloon, which can only partake of some more general
+air movement.
+
+Wise, by his expedient of tying ribbons at different points to his trail
+rope, would obtain much more correct and constant information respecting
+those general streams through which the pendant rope was moving. A
+similar expedient adopted by the same ingenious aeronaut is worthy
+of imitation, namely, that of tying ribbons on to a rod projecting
+laterally from the car. These form a handy and constant telltale as to
+the flight of the balloon, for should they be fluttering upwards the sky
+sailor at once knows that his craft is descending, and that he must act
+accordingly.
+
+The material, pure silk, which was universally adopted up to and after
+the period we are now regarding, is not on every account to be reckoned
+the most desirable. In the first place, its cost alone is prohibitive,
+and next, although lighter than any kind of linen, strength for
+strength, it requires a greater weight of varnish, which, moreover,
+it does not take so kindly as does fabric made of vegetable tissue.
+Further, paradoxical as it may appear, its great strength is not entirely
+an advantage. There are occasions which must come into the experience of
+every zealous aeronaut when his balloon has descended in a rough wind,
+and in awkward country. This may, indeed, happen even when the ascent
+has been made in calm. Squalls of wind may spring up at short notice, or
+after traversing only two or three counties a strong gale may be found
+on the earth, though such was absent in the starting ground. This is
+more particularly the case when the landing chances to be on high ground
+in the neighbourhood of the sea. In these circumstances, the careful
+balloonist, who will generally be forewarned by the ruffle on any water
+he may pass, or by the drift of smoke, the tossing of trees, or by their
+very rustling or "singing" wafted upwards to him, will, if possible,
+seek for his landing place the lee of a wood or some other sheltered
+spot. But, even with all his care, he will sometimes find himself, on
+reaching earth, being dragged violently across country on a mad course
+which the anchor cannot check. Now, the country through which he is
+making an unwilling steeplechase may be difficult, or even dangerous.
+Rivers, railway cuttings, or other undesirable obstacles may lie ahead,
+or, worse yet, such a death trap as in such circumstances almost any
+part of Derbyshire affords, with its stone walls, its precipitous
+cliffs, and deep rocky dells. To be dragged at the speed of an express
+train through territory of this description will presently mean damage
+to something, perhaps to telegraph poles, to roofs, or crops, and if
+not, then to the balloon itself. Something appertaining to it must be
+victimised, and it is in all ways best that this should be the fabric of
+the balloon itself. If made of some form, or at least some proportion
+of linen, this will probably rend ere long, and, allowing the gas
+to escape, will soon bring itself to rest. On the other hand, if the
+balloon proper is a silk one, with sound net and in good condition, it
+is probable that something else will give way first, and that something
+may prove to be the hapless passenger or passengers.
+
+And here be it laid down as one first and all-important principle, that
+in any such awkward predicament as that just described, if there be more
+than one passenger aboard, let none attempt to get out. In the first
+place, he may very probably break a limb in so doing, inasmuch as the
+tangle of the ropes will not allow of his getting cut readily; or,
+when actually on the ground, he may be caught and impaled by the anchor
+charging and leaping behind. But, worse than all, he may, in any case,
+jeopardise the lives of his companions, who stand in need of all the
+available weight and help that the car contains up to the moment Of
+coming to final rest.
+
+We have already touched on the early notions as to the means of steering
+a balloon. Oars had been tested without satisfactory result, and the
+conception of a rotary screw found favour among theorists at this time,
+the principle being actually tried with success in working models,
+which, by mechanical means, could be made to flit about in the still
+air of the lecture room; but the only feasible method advocated was that
+already alluded to, which depended on the undesirable action of a trail
+rope dragging over the ground or through water. The idea was, of course,
+perfectly practical, and was simply analogous to the method adopted
+by sailors, who, when floating with the stream but without wind, are
+desirous of gaining "steerage way." While simply drifting with the
+flood, they are unable to guide their vessel in any way, and this, in
+practice, is commonly effected by simply propelling the vessel faster
+than the stream, in which case the rudder at once becomes available. But
+the same result is equally well obtained by slowing the vessel, and this
+is easily accomplished by a cable, with a small anchor or other weight
+attached, dragging below the vessel. This cable is essentially the same
+as the guide-rope of the older aeronauts.
+
+It is when we come to consider the impressions and sensations described
+by sky voyagers of bygone times that we find them curiously at variance
+with our own. As an instance, we may state that the earth, as seen from
+a highflying balloon, used to be almost always described as appearing
+concave, or like a huge basin, and ingenious attempts were made to prove
+mathematically that this must be so. The laws of refraction are brought
+in to prove the fact; or, again, the case is stated thus: Supposing the
+extreme horizon to be seen when the balloon is little more than a mile
+high, the range of view on all sides will then be, roughly, some eighty
+miles. If, then, a line were drawn from the aerial observer to this
+remote distance, that line would be almost horizontal; so nearly so that
+he cannot persuade himself that his horizon is otherwise than still on
+a level with his eye; yet the earth below him lies, as it seems, at the
+bottom of a huge gulf. Thus the whole visible earth appears as a vast
+bowl or basin. This is extremely ingenious reasoning, and not to be
+disregarded; but the fact remains that in the experience of the writer
+and of many others whom he has consulted, there is no such optical
+illusion as I have just discussed, and to their vision it is impossible
+to regard the earth as anything but uniformly flat.
+
+Another impression invariably insisted on by early balloonists is that
+the earth, on quitting it, appears to drop away into an abyss, leaving
+the voyagers motionless, and this illusion must, indeed, be probably
+universal. It is the same illusion as the apparent gliding backwards of
+objects to a traveller in a railway carriage; only in this latter case
+the rattling and shaking of the carriage helps the mind to grasp the
+real fact that the motion belongs to the train itself; whereas it is
+otherwise with a balloon, whose motion is so perfectly smooth as to be
+quite imperceptible.
+
+Old ideas, formed upon insufficient observations, even if erroneous,
+were slow to die. Thus it used to be stated that an upper cloud floor
+adapted itself to the contour of the land over which it rested, giving
+what Mr. Monck Mason has called a "phrenological estimate" of the
+character of the earth below; the clouds, "even when under the influence
+of rapid motion, seeming to accommodate themselves to all variations of
+form in the surface of the subjacent soil, rising with its prominences
+and sinking with its depressions." Probably few aeronauts of the present
+time will accept the statement.
+
+It used commonly to be asserted, and is so often to this day, that a
+feeling as of sea-sickness is experienced in balloon travel, and the
+notion has undoubtedly arisen from the circumstances attending an ascent
+in a captive balloon. It were well, now that ballooning bids fair to
+become popular, to disabuse the public mind of such a wholly false idea.
+The truth is that a balloon let up with a lengthy rope and held captive
+will, with a fitful breeze, pitch and sway in a manner which may induce
+all the unpleasant feelings attending a rough passage at sea. It may
+do worse, and even be borne to earth with a puff of wind which may
+come unexpectedly, and considerably unsettle the nerves of any holiday
+passenger. I could tell of a "captive" that had been behaving itself
+creditably on a not very settled day suddenly swooping over a roadway
+and down into public gardens, where it lay incontinently along the
+ground, and then, before the astonished passengers could attempt to
+alight, it was seized with another mood, and, mounting once again
+majestically skyward, submitted to be hauled down with all becoming
+grace and ease. It is owing to their vagaries and want of manageability
+that, as will be shown, "captives" are of uncertain use in war. On the
+other hand, a free balloon is exempt from such disadvantages, and at
+moderate heights not the smallest feeling of nausea is ever experienced.
+The only unpleasant sensation, and that not of any gravity, ever
+complained of, is a peculiar tension in the ears experienced in a
+rapid ascent, or more often, perhaps, in a descent. The cause, which is
+trivial and easily removed, should be properly understood, and cannot be
+given in clearer language than that used by Professor Tyndall:--"Behind
+the tympanic membrane exists a cavity--the drum of the ear--in part
+crossed by a series of bones, and in part occupied by air. This cavity
+communicates with the mouth by means of a duct called the Eustachian
+tube. This tube is generally closed, the air space behind the tympanic
+membrane being thus cut off from the external air. If, under these
+circumstances, the external air becomes denser, it will press the
+tympanic membrane inwards; if, on the other hand, the air on the other
+side becomes rarer, while the Eustachian tube becomes closed, the
+membrane will be pressed outwards. Pain is felt in both cases, and
+partial deafness is experienced.... By the act of swallowing the
+Eustachian tube is opened, and thus equilibrium is established between
+the external and internal pressure."
+
+Founded on physical facts more or less correct in themselves, come a
+number of tales of olden days, which are at least more marvellous than
+credible, the following serving as an example. The scientific truth
+underlying the story is the well-known expedient of placing a shrivelled
+apple under the receiver of an air pump. As the air becomes rarefied the
+apple swells, smooths itself out, and presently becomes round and rosy
+as it was in the summer time. It is recorded that on one occasion a
+man of mature years made an ascent, accompanied by his son, and, after
+reaching some height, the youth remarked on how young his father
+was looking. They still continued to ascend, and the same remark was
+repeated more than once. And at last, having now reached attenuated
+regions, the son cried in astonishment, "Why, dad, you ought to be at
+school!" The cause of this remark was that in the rarefied air all the
+wrinkles had come out of the old man's face, and his cheeks were as
+chubby as his son's.
+
+This discussion of old ideas should not be closed without mention of a
+plausible plea for the balloon made by Wise and others on the score of
+its value to health. Lofty ascents have proved a strain on even robust
+constitutions--the heart may begin to suffer, or ills akin to mountain
+sickness may intervene before a height equal to that of our loftiest
+mountain is reached. But many have spoken of an exhilaration of spirits
+not inferior to that of the mountaineer, which is experienced,
+and without fatigue, in sky voyages reasonably indulged in--of a
+light-heartedness, a glow of health, a sharpened appetite, and the keen
+enjoyment of mere existence. Nay, it has been seriously affirmed that
+"more good may be got by the invalid in an hour or two while two miles
+up on a fine summer's day than is to be gained in an entire voyage from
+New York to Madeira by sea."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. THE COMMENCEMENT OF A NEW ERA.
+
+
+Resuming the roll of progressive aeronauts in England whose labours
+were devoted to the practical conquest of the air, and whose methods and
+mechanical achievements mark the road of advance by which the
+successes of to-day have been obtained, there stand out prominently two
+individuals, of whom one has already received mention in these pages.
+
+The period of a single life is seldom sufficient to allow within its
+span the full development of any new departure in art or science, and it
+cannot, therefore, be wondered at if Charles Green, though reviving and
+re-modelling the art of ballooning in our own country, even after an
+exceptionally long and successful career, left that pursuit to which he
+had given new birth virtually still in its infancy.
+
+The year following that in which Green conducted the famous Nassau
+voyage we find him experimenting in the same balloon with his chosen
+friend and colleague, Edward Spencer, solicitor, of Barnsbury, who, only
+nine years later, compiles memoranda of thirty-four ascents, made under
+every variety of circumstance, many being of a highly enterprising
+nature. We find him writing enthusiastically of the raptures he
+experienced when sailing over London in night hours, of lofty ascents
+and extremely low temperatures, of speeding twenty-eight miles in twenty
+minutes, of grapnel ropes breaking, and of a cross-country race of four
+miles through woods and hedges. Such was Mr. Spencer the elder, and if
+further evidence were needed of his practical acquaintance with, as well
+as personal devotion to, his adopted profession of aeronautics, we have
+it in the store of working calculations and other minutiae of the craft,
+most carefully compiled in manuscript by his own hand; these memoranda
+being to this day constantly consulted by his grandsons, the present
+eminent aeronauts, Messrs. Spencer Brothers, as supplying a manual of
+reliable data for the execution of much of the most important parts of
+their work.
+
+In the terrific ordeal and risk entailed by the daring and fatal
+parachute descent of Cocking, Green required an assistant of exceptional
+nerve and reliability, and, as has been recorded, his choice at once
+fell on Edward Spencer. In this choice it has already been shown that
+he was well justified, and in the trying circumstances that ensued Green
+frankly owns that it was his competent companion who was the first to
+recover himself. A few years later, when a distinguished company, among
+whom were Albert Smith and Shirley Brooks, made a memorable ascent from
+Cremorne, Edward Spencer is one of the select party.
+
+Some account of this voyage should be given, and it need not be said
+that no more graphic account is to be found than that given by the
+facile pen of Albert Smith himself. His personal narrative also forms
+an instructive contrast to another which he had occasion to give to
+the world shortly afterwards, and which shall be duly noticed. The
+enthusiastic writer first describes, with apparent pride, the company
+that ascended with him. Besides Mr. Shirley Brooks, there were Messrs.
+Davidson, of the Garrick Club; Mr. John Lee, well known in theatrical
+circles; Mr. P. Thompson, of Guy's Hospital, and others--ten in all,
+including Charles Green as skipper, and Edward Spencer, who, sitting
+in the rigging, was entrusted with the all-important management of the
+valve rope.
+
+"The first sensation experienced," Albert Smith continues, "was not
+that we were rising, but that the balloon remained fixed, whilst all the
+world below was rapidly falling away; while the cheers with which they
+greeted our departure grew fainter, and the cheerers themselves began
+to look like the inmates of many sixpenny Noah's Arks grouped upon
+a billiard table.... Our hats would have held millions.... And most
+strange is the roar of the city as it comes surging into the welkin
+as though the whole metropolis cheered you with one voice.... Yet
+none beyond the ordinary passengers are to be seen. The noise is as
+inexplicable as the murmur in the air at hot summer noontide."
+
+The significance of this last remark will be insisted on when the writer
+has to tell his own experiences aloft over London, as also a note to
+the effect that there were seen "large enclosed fields and gardens
+and pleasure grounds where none were supposed to exist by ordinary
+passengers." Another interesting note, having reference to a once
+familiar feature on the river, now disappearing, related to the paddle
+boats of those days, the steamers making a very beautiful effect,
+"leaving two long wings of foam behind them similar to the train of a
+table rocket." Highly suggestive, too, of the experiences of railway
+travellers in the year 1847 is the account of the alighting, which, by
+the way, was obviously of no very rude nature. "Every time," says the
+writer, "the grapnel catches in the ground the balloon is pulled up
+suddenly with a shock that would soon send anybody from his seat, a jerk
+like that which occurs when fresh carriages are brought up to a railway
+train." But the concluding paragraph in this rosy narrative affords
+another and a very notable contrast to the story which that same writer
+had occasion to put on record before that same year had passed.
+
+"We counsel everybody to go up in a balloon... In spite of the apparent
+frightful fragility of cane and network nothing can in reality be more
+secure... The stories of pressure on the ears, intense cold, and the
+danger of coming down are all fictions.... Indeed, we almost wanted
+a few perils to give a little excitement to the trip, and have some
+notion, if possible, of going up the next time at midnight with
+fireworks in a thunderstorm, throwing away all the ballast, fastening
+down the valve, and seeing where the wind will send us."
+
+The fireworks, the thunderstorm, and the throwing away of ballast, all
+came off on the 15th of the following October, when Albert Smith made
+his second ascent, this time from Vauxhall Gardens, under the guidance
+of Mr. Gypson, and accompanied by two fellow-passengers. Fireworks,
+which were to be displayed when aloft, were suspended on a framework
+forty feet below the car. Lightning was also playing around as they cast
+off. The description which Albert Smith gives of London by night as seen
+from an estimated elevation of 4,000 feet, should be compared with other
+descriptions that will be given in these pages:--
+
+"In the obscurity all traces of houses and enclosures are lost sight
+of. I can compare it to nothing else than floating over dark blue and
+boundless sea spangled with hundreds of thousands of stars. These stars
+were the lamps. We could see them stretching over the river at the
+bridges, edging its banks, forming squares and long parallel lines of
+light in the streets and solitary parks. Further and further apart until
+they were altogether lost in the suburbs. The effect was bewildering."
+
+At 7,000 feet, one of the passengers, sitting in the ring, remarked that
+the balloon was getting very tense, and the order was given to "ease
+her" by opening the top valve. The valve line was accordingly pulled,
+"and immediately afterwards we heard a noise similar to the escape
+of steam in a locomotive, and the lower part of the balloon collapsed
+rapidly, and appeared to fly up into the upper portion. At the same
+instant the balloon began to fall with appalling velocity, the immense
+mass of loose silk surging and rustling frightfully over our heads....
+retreating up away from us more and more into the head of the balloon.
+The suggestion was made to throw everything over that might lighten the
+balloon. I had two sandbags in my lap, which were cast away directly....
+There were several large bags of ballast, and some bottles of wine, and
+these were instantly thrown away, but no effect was perceptible. The
+wind still appeared to be rushing up past us at a fearful rate, and,
+to add to the horror, we came among the still expiring discharge of
+the fireworks which floated in the air, so that little bits of exploded
+cases and touch-paper, still incandescent, attached themselves to the
+cordage of the balloon and were blown into sparks.... I presume we
+must have been upwards of a mile from the earth.... How long we were
+descending I have not the slightest idea, but two minutes must have
+been the outside.... We now saw the houses, the roofs of which appeared
+advancing to meet us, and the next instant, as we dashed by their
+summits, the words, 'Hold hard!' burst simultaneously from all the
+party.... We were all directly thrown out of the car along the ground,
+and, incomprehensible as it now appears to me, nobody was seriously
+hurt."
+
+But "not so incomprehensible, after all," will be the verdict of all
+who compare the above narrative with the ascents given in a foregoing
+account of how Wise had fared more than once when his balloon had burst.
+For, as will be readily guessed, the balloon had in this case also
+burst, owing to the release of the upper valve being delayed too long,
+and the balloon had in the natural way transformed itself into a true
+parachute. Moreover, the fall, which, by Albert Smith's own showing,
+was that of about a mile in two minutes, was not more excessive than one
+which will presently be recorded of Mr. Glaisher, who escaped with no
+material injury beyond a few bruises.
+
+One fact has till now been omitted with regard to the above sensational
+voyage, namely, the name of the passenger who, sitting in the ring,
+was the first to point out the imminent danger of the balloon. This
+individual was none other than Mr. Henry Coxwell, the second, indeed, of
+the two who were mentioned in the opening paragraph of this chapter as
+marking the road of progress which it is the scope of these pages to
+trace, and to whom we must now formally introduce our readers.
+
+This justly famous sky pilot, whose practical acquaintance with
+ballooning extends over more than forty years, was the son of a naval
+officer residing near Chatham, and in his autobiography he describes
+enthusiastically how, a lad of nine years old, he watched through a sea
+telescope a balloon, piloted by Charles Green, ascend from Rochester
+and, crossing the Thames, disappear in distance over the Essex flats. He
+goes on to describe how the incident started him in those early days on
+boyish endeavours to construct fire balloons and paper parachutes. Some
+years later his home, on the death of his father, being transferred to
+Eltham, he came within frequent view of such balloons as, starting from
+the neighbourhood of London, will through the summer drift with the
+prevailing winds over that part of Kent. And it was here that, ere long,
+he came in at the death of another balloon of which Green was in charge.
+
+And from this time onwards the schoolboy with the strange hobby was
+constantly able to witness the flights and even the inflations of those
+ships of the air, which, his family associations notwithstanding took
+precedence of all boyish diversions.
+
+His elder brother, now a naval officer, entirely failed to divert his
+aspirations into other channels, and it was when the boy had completed
+sixteen summers that an aeronautic enterprise attracted not only his
+own, but public attention also. It was the building of a mammoth balloon
+at Vauxhall under the superintendence of Mr. Green. The launching of
+this huge craft when completed was regarded as so great an occasion that
+the young Coxwell, who had by this time obtained a commercial opening
+abroad, was allowed, at his earnest entreaty, to stay till the event
+had come off, and fifty years after the hardened sky sailor is found
+describing with a boyish enthusiasm how thirty-six policemen were needed
+round that balloon; how enormous weights were attached to the cordage,
+only to be lifted feet above the ground; while the police were compelled
+to pass their staves through the meshes to prevent the cords cutting
+their hands. At this ascent Mr. Hollond was a passenger, and by the
+middle of the following November all Europe was ringing with the great
+Nassau venture.
+
+Commercial business did not suit the young Coxwell, and at the age
+of one-and-twenty we find him trying his hand at the profession of
+surgeon-dentist, not, however, with any prospect of its keeping him from
+the longing of his soul, which grew stronger and stronger upon him. It
+was not till the summer of 1844 that Mr. Hampton, giving an exhibition
+from the White Conduit Gardens, Pentonville, offered the young man, then
+twenty-five years old, his first ascent.
+
+In after years Coxwell referred to his first sensations in
+characteristic language, contrasting them with the experiences of the
+mountaineer. "In Alpine travels," he says, "the process is so slow, and
+contact with the crust of the earth so palpable, that the traveller
+is gradually prepared for each successive phase of view as it presents
+itself. But in the balloon survey, cities, villages, and vast tracts for
+observation spring almost magically before the eye, and change in
+aspect and size so pleasingly that bewilderment first and then unbounded
+admiration is sure to follow."
+
+The ice was now fairly broken, and, not suffering professional duties
+to be any hindrance, Coxwell began to make a series of ascents under the
+leadership of two rival balloonists, Gale and Gypson. One voyage made
+with the latter he describes as leading to the most perilous descent in
+the annals of aerostation. This was the occasion, given above, on which
+Albert Smith was a passenger, and which that talented writer describes
+in his own fashion. He does not, however, add the fact, worthy of being
+chronicled, that exactly a week after the appalling adventure Gypson
+and Coxwell, accompanied by a Captain whose name does not transpire,
+and loaded with twice the previous weight of fireworks, made a perfectly
+successful night ascent and descent in the same balloon.
+
+It is very shortly after this that we find Coxwell seduced into
+undertaking for its owners the actual management of a balloon, the
+property of Gale, and now to be known as the "Sylph." With this craft he
+practically began his career as a professional balloonist, and after
+a few preliminary ascents made in England, was told off to carry on
+engagements in Belgium.
+
+A long series of ascents was now made on the Continent, and in the
+troubled state of affairs some stirring scenes were visited, not without
+some real adventure. One occasion attended with imminent risk occurred
+at Berlin in 1851. Coxwell relates that a Prussian labourer whom he
+had dismissed for bad conduct, and who almost too manifestly harboured
+revenge, nevertheless begged hard for a re-engagement, which, as the
+man was a handy fellow, Coxwell at length assented to. He took up three
+passengers beside himself, and at an elevation of some 3,000 feet found
+it necessary to open the valve, when, on pulling the cord, one of the
+top shutters broke and remained open, leaving a free aperture of 26
+inches by 12 inches, and occasioning such a copious discharge of gas
+that nothing short of a providential landing could save disaster. But
+the providential landing came, the party falling into the embrace of a
+fruit tree in an orchard. It transpired afterwards that the labourer had
+been seen to tamper with the valve, the connecting lines of which he had
+partially severed.
+
+Returning to England in 1852 Coxwell, through the accidents inseparable
+from his profession, found himself virtually in possession of the field.
+Green, now advanced in years, was retiring from the public life in which
+he had won so much fame and honour. Gale was dead, killed in an
+ascent at Bordeaux. Only one aspirant contested the place of public
+aeronaut--one Goulston, who had been Gale's patron. Before many months,
+however, he too met with a balloonist's death, being dashed against some
+stone walls when ascending near Manchester.
+
+It will not be difficult to form an estimate of how entirely the
+popularity of the balloon was now reestablished in England, from the
+mere fact that before the expiration of the year Coxwell had been called
+upon to make thirty-six voyages. Some of these were from Glasgow,
+and here a certain coincidence took place which is too curious to be
+omitted. A descent effected near Milngavie took place in the same field
+in which Sadler, twenty-nine years before, had also descended, and the
+same man who caught the rope of Mr. Sadler's balloon performed the same
+service once again for a fresh visitor from the skies.
+
+The following autumn Coxwell, in fulfilling one out of many engagements,
+found himself in a dilemma which bore resemblance in a slight degree to
+a far more serious predicament in which the writer became involved, and
+which must be told in due place. The preparations for the ascent, which
+was from the Mile End Road, had been hurried, and after finally getting
+away at a late hour in the evening, it was found that the valve line
+had got caught in a fold of the silk, and could not be operated. In
+consequence, the balloon was, of necessity, left to take its own chance
+through the night, and, after rising to a considerable height, it slowly
+lost buoyancy during the chilly hours, and, gradually settling, came
+to earth near Basingstoke, where the voyager, failing to get help or
+shelter, made his bed within his own car, lying in an open field, as
+other aeronauts have had to do in like circumstances.
+
+Coxwell tells of a striking phenomenon seen during that voyage. "A
+splendid meteor was below the car, and apparently about 600 feet
+distant. It was blue and yellow, moving rapidly in a N.E. direction, and
+became extinguished without noise or sparks."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. THE BALLOON IN THE SERVICE OF SCIENCE.
+
+
+At this point we must, for a brief while, drop the history of the famous
+aeronaut whose early career we have been briefly sketching in the last
+chapter, and turn our attention to a new feature of English ballooning.
+We have, at last, to record some genuinely scientific ascents, which our
+country now, all too tardily, instituted. It was the British Association
+that took the initiative, and the two men they chose for their purpose
+were both exceptionally qualified for the task they had in hand. The
+practical balloonist was none other than the veteran Charles Green, now
+in his sixty-seventh year, but destined yet to enjoy nearly twenty years
+more of life. The scientific expert was Mr. John Welsh, well fitted
+for the projected work by long training at Kew Observatory. The balloon
+which they used is itself worthy of mention, being the great Nassau
+Balloon of olden fame.
+
+Welsh was quick to realise more clearly than any former experimentalist
+that on account of the absence of breeze in a free balloon, as also on
+account of great solar radiation, the indications of thermometers would,
+without special precautions, be falsified. He therefore invented a
+form of aspirating thermometer, the earliest to be met with, and far
+in advance of any that were subsequently used by other scientists. It
+consisted of a polished tube, in which thermometers were enclosed, and
+through which a stream of air was forced by bellows.
+
+The difficulty of obtaining really accurate readings where thermometers
+are being quickly transported through varying temperatures is generally
+not duly appreciated. In the case of instruments carried m a balloon it
+should be remembered that the balloon itself conveys, clinging about it,
+no inconsiderable quantity of air, brought from other levels, while the
+temperature of its own mass will be liable to affect any thermometer
+in close neighbourhood. Moreover, any ordinary form of thermometer
+is necessarily sluggish in action, as may be readily noticed. If, for
+example, one be carried from a warm room to a cold passage, or vice
+versa it will be seen that the column moves very deliberately, and quite
+a long interval will elapse before it reaches its final position, the
+cause being that the entire instrument, with any stand or mounting that
+it may have, will have to adapt itself to the change of temperature
+before a true record will be obtained. This difficulty applies
+unavoidably to all thermometers in some degree, and the skill of
+instrument makers has been taxed to reduce the errors to a minimum. It
+is necessary, in any case, that a constant stream of surrounding
+air should play upon the instrument, and though this is most readily
+effected when instruments are carried aloft by kites, yet even thus it
+is thought that an interval of some minutes has to elapse before any
+form of thermometer will faithfully record any definite change of
+temperature. It is on this account that some allowance must be made
+for observations which will, in due place, be recorded of scientific
+explorers; the point to be borne in mind being that, as was mentioned in
+a former chapter, such observations will have to be regarded as giving
+readings which are somewhat too high in ascents and too low in descents.
+Two forms of thermometers at extremely simple construction, yet
+possessed of great sensibility, will be discussed in later chapters.
+
+The thermometers that Welsh used were undoubtedly far superior to any
+that were devised before his time and it is much to be regretted that
+they were allowed to fall into disuse. Perhaps the most important
+stricture on the observations that will have to be recorded is that the
+observers were not provided with a base station, on which account the
+value of results was impaired. It was not realised that it was necessary
+to make observations on the ground to compare with those that were being
+made at high altitudes.
+
+Welsh made, in all, four ascents in the summer and autumn of 1852 and
+in his report he is careful to give the highest praise to his colleague,
+Green, whose control over his balloon he describes as "so complete
+that none who accompanied him can be otherwise than relieved from all
+apprehension, and free to devote attention calmly to the work before
+him."
+
+The first ascent was made at 3.49 p.m. on August the 17th, under a south
+wind and with clouds covering some three-quarters of the sky. Welsh's
+first remark significant, and will be appreciated by anyone who has
+attempted observational work in a balloon. He states naively that "a
+short time was lost at first in an attempt to put the instruments into
+more convenient order, and also from the novelty of the situation." Then
+he mentions an observation which, in the experience of the writer, is a
+common one. The lowest clouds, which were about 2,500 feet high and not
+near the balloon, were passed without being noticed; other clouds were
+passed at different heights; and, finally, a few star-shaped crystals of
+snow; but the sun shone almost constantly. Little variation occurred in
+the direction of travel, which averaged thirty-eight miles an hour, and
+the descent took place at 5.20 p.m. at Swavesey, near Cambridge.
+
+The second ascent took place at 4.43 p.m. on August 26th, under a gentle
+east wind and a partially obscured sky. The clouds were again passed
+without being perceived. This was at the height of 3,000 feet, beyond
+which was very clear sky of deep blue. The air currents up to the limits
+of 12,000 feet set from varying directions. The descent occurred near
+Chesham at 7.45 p.m.
+
+The third ascent, at 2.35 p.m. on October the 21st was made into a sky
+covered with dense cloud masses lying within 3,000 and 3,700 feet.
+The sun was then seen shining through cirrus far up. The shadow of the
+balloon was also seen on the cloud, fringed with a glory, and about
+this time there was seen "stretching for a considerable length in a
+serpentine course, over the surface of the cloud, a well-defined belt,
+having the appearance of a broad road."
+
+Being now at 12,000 feet, Green thought it prudent to reconnoitre his
+position, and, finding they were near the sea, descended at 4.20 p.m.
+at Rayleigh, in Essex. Some important notes on the polarisation of the
+clouds were made.
+
+The fourth and final voyage was made in a fast wind averaging fifty
+knots from the north-east. Thin scud was met at 1,900 feet, and an upper
+stratum at 4,500 feet, beyond which was bright sun. The main shift
+of wind took place just as the upper surface of the first stratum was
+reached. In this ascent Welsh reached his greatest elevation, 22,930
+feet, when both Green and himself experienced considerable difficulty
+in respiration and much fatigue. The sea being now perceived rapidly
+approaching, a hasty descent was made, and many of the instruments were
+broken.
+
+In summarising his results Welsh states that "the temperature of the
+air decreases uniformly with height above the earth's surface until at a
+certain elevation, varying on different days, decrease is arrested,
+and for the space of 2,000 or 3,000 feet the temperature remains nearly
+constant, or even increases, the regular diminution being again resumed
+and generally maintained at a rate slightly less rapid than in the lower
+part of the atmosphere, and commencing from a higher temperature than
+would have existed but for the interruption noticed." The analysis
+of the upper air showed the proportion of oxygen and nitrogen to vary
+scarcely more than at different spots on the earth.
+
+As it is necessary at this point to take leave of the veteran Green as a
+practical aeronaut, we may here refer to one or two noteworthy facts and
+incidents relating to his eventful career. In 1850 M. Poitevin is said
+to have attracted 140,000 people to Paris to look at an exhibition of
+himself ascending in a balloon seated on horseback, after which
+Madame Poitevin ascended from Cremorne Gardens in the same manner, the
+exhibition being intended as a representation of "Europa on a Bull."
+This, however, was discountenanced by the authorities and withdrawn.
+The feats were, in reality, merely the repetitions of one that had been
+conceived and extremely well carried out by Green many years before--as
+long ago, in fact, as 1828, when he arranged to make an ascent from the
+Eagle Tavern, City Road, seated on a pony. To carry out his intention,
+he discarded the ordinary car, replacing it with a small platform,
+which was provided with places to receive the pony's feet; while straps
+attached to the hoop were passed under the animal's body, preventing it
+from lying down or from making any violent movement. This the creature
+seemed in no way disposed to attempt, and when all had been successfully
+carried out and an easy descent effected at Beckenham, the pony was
+discovered eating a meal of beans with which it had been supplied.
+
+Several interesting observations have been recorded by Green on
+different occasions, some of which are highly instructive from a
+practical or scientific point of view. On an ascent from Vauxhall, in
+which he was accompanied by his friend Spencer and Mr. Rush, he recorded
+how, as he constantly and somewhat rapidly rose, the wind changed its
+direction from N.W. through N. to N.E., while he remained over the
+metropolis, the balloon all the while rotating on its axis. This
+continual swinging or revolving of the balloon Green considers an
+accompaniment of either a rapid ascent or descent, but it may be
+questioned whether it is not merely a consequence of changing currents,
+or, sometimes, of an initial spin given inadvertently to the balloon at
+the moment of its being liberated. The phenomenon of marked change which
+he describes in the upper currents is highly interesting, and tallies
+with what the writer has frequently experienced over London proper. Such
+higher currents may be due to natural environment, and to conditions
+necessarily prevailing over so vast and varied a city, and they may be
+able to play an all-important part in the dispersal of London smoke
+or fog. This point will be touched on later. In this particular voyage
+Green records that as he was rising at the moment when his barometer
+reached 19 inches, the thermometer he carried registered 46 degrees,
+while on coming down, when the barometer again marked 19 inches, the
+same thermometer recorded only 22 degrees. It will not fail to be
+recognised that there is doubtless here an example of the errors alluded
+to above, inseparable from readings taken in ascent and descent.
+
+A calculation made by Green in his earlier years has a certain value. By
+the time he had accomplished 200 ascents he was at pains to compute
+that he had travelled across country some 6,000 miles, which had been
+traversed in 240 hours. From this it would follow that the mean rate
+of travel in aerial voyages will be about twenty-five miles per hour.
+Towards the end of his career we find it stated by Lieutenant G. Grover,
+R.E., that "the Messrs. Green, Father and Son, have made between them
+some 930 ascents, in none of which have they met with any material
+accident or failure." This is wonderful testimony, indeed, and we may
+here add the fact that the father took up his own father, then at the
+age of eighty-three, in a balloon ascent of 1845, without any serious
+consequences. But it is time that some account should be given of a
+particular occasion which at least provided the famous aeronaut with
+an adventure spiced with no small amount of risk. It was on the 5th
+of July, 1850, that Green ascended, with Rush as his companion, from
+Vauxhall, at the somewhat late hour of 7.50 p.m., using, as always, the
+great Nassau balloon. The rate of rise must have been very considerable,
+and they presently record an altitude of no less than 20,000 feet, and
+a temperature of 12 degrees below freezing. They were now above the
+clouds, where all view of earth was lost, and, not venturing to remain
+long in this situation, they commenced a rapid descent, and on emerging
+below found themselves sailing down Sea Reach in the direction of Nore
+Sands, when they observed a vessel. Their chance of making land was, to
+say the least, uncertain, and Green, considering that his safety lay in
+bespeaking the vessel's assistance, opened the valve and brought the
+car down in the water some two miles north of Sheerness, the hour being
+8.45, and only fifty-five minutes since the start. The wind was blowing
+stiffly, and, catching the hollow of the half-inflated balloon, carried
+the voyagers rapidly down the river, too fast, indeed, to allow of the
+vessel's overtaking them. This being soon apparent, Green cast out his
+anchor, and not without result, for it shortly became entangled in
+a sunken wreck, and the balloon was promptly "brought up," though
+struggling and tossing in the broken water. A neighbouring barge at once
+put off a boat to the rescue, and other boats were despatched by H.M.
+cutter Fly, under Commander Gurling. Green and Rush were speedily
+rescued, but the balloon itself was too restive and dangerous an object
+to approach with safety. At Green's suggestion, therefore, a volley of
+musketry was fired into the silk' after which it became possible to pass
+a rope around it and expel the gas. Green subsequently relates how it
+took a fortnight to restore the damage, consisting of sixty-two bullet
+rents and nineteen torn gores.
+
+Green's name will always be famous, if only for the fact that it was he
+who first adopted the use of coal gas in his calling. This, it will be
+remembered, was in 1821, and it should be borne in mind that at that
+time household gas had only recently been introduced. In point of fact,
+it first lighted Pall Mall in 1805, and it was not used for the general
+lighting of London till 1814.
+
+We are not surprised to find that the great aeronaut at one time
+turned his attention to the construction of models, and this with no
+inconsiderable success. A model of his was exhibited in 1840 at the
+Polytechnic Institution, and is described in the Times as consisting of
+a miniature balloon of three feet diameter, inflated with coal gas. It
+was acted on by fans, which were operated by mechanism placed in the
+car. A series of three experiments was exhibited. First, the balloon
+being weighted so as to remain poised in the still air of the building,
+the mechanism was started, and the machine rose steadily to the ceiling.
+The fans were then reversed, when the model, equally gracefully,
+descended to the floor. Lastly, the balloon, with a weighted trail rope,
+being once more balanced in mid-air, the fans were applied laterally,
+when the machine would take a horizontal flight, pulling the trail rope
+after it, with an attached weight dragging along the floor until
+the mechanism had run down, when it again remained stationary. The
+correspondent of the Times continues, "Mr. Green states that by these
+simple means a voyage across the Atlantic may be performed in three or
+four days, as easily as from Vauxhall Gardens to Nassau."
+
+We can hardly attribute this statement seriously to one who knew as well
+as did Green how fickle are the winds, and how utterly different are the
+conditions between the still air of a room and those of the open sky.
+His insight into the difficulties of the problem cannot have been less
+than that of his successor, Coxwell, who, as the result of his own
+equally wide experience, states positively, "I could never imagine a
+motive power of sufficient force to direct and guide a balloon, much
+less to enable a man or a machine to fly." Even when modern invention
+had produced a motive power undreamed of in the days we are now
+considering, Coxwell declares his conviction that inherent difficulties
+would not be overcome "unless the air should invariably remain in a calm
+state."
+
+It would be tedious and scarcely instructive to inquire into the various
+forms of flying machines that were elaborated at this period; but
+one that was designed in America by Mr. Henson, and with which it was
+seriously contemplated to attempt to cross the Atlantic, may be briefly
+described. In theory it was supposed to be capable of being sustained in
+the air by virtue of the speed mechanically imparted to it, and of
+the angle at which its advancing under surface would meet the air. The
+inventor claimed to have produced a steam engine of extreme lightness
+as well as efficiency, and for the rest his machine consisted of a huge
+aero-plane propelled by fans with oblique vanes, while a tail somewhat
+resembling that of a bird was added, as also a rudder, the functions of
+which were to direct the craft vertically and horizontally respectively.
+Be it here recorded that the machine did not cross the Atlantic.
+
+One word as to the instruments used up to this time for determining
+altitudes. These were, in general, ordinary mercurial barometers,
+protected in various ways. Green encased his instrument in a simple
+metal tube, which admitted of the column of mercury being easily read.
+This instrument, which is generally to be seen held in his hand in
+Green's old portraits, might be mistaken for a mariner's telescope. It
+is now in the possession of the family of Spencers, the grandchildren
+of his old aeronautical friend and colleague, and it is stated that with
+all his care the glass was not infrequently broken in a descent.
+
+Wise, with characteristic ingenuity, devised a rough-and-ready height
+instrument, which he claims to have answered well. It consisted simply
+of a common porter bottle, to the neck of which was joined a bladder of
+the same capacity. The bottle being filled with air of the density of
+that on the ground, and the bladder tied on in a collapsed state, the
+expansion of the air in the bottle would gradually fill the bladder as
+it rose into the rarer regions of the atmosphere. Experience would then
+be trusted to enable the aeronaut to judge his height from the amount of
+inflation noticeable in the bladder.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. HENRY COXWELL AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES.
+
+
+Mention should be made in these pages of a night sail of a hundred
+miles, boldly carried out in 1849 by M. Arban, which took the voyager
+from Marseilles to Turin fairly over the Alps. The main summit was
+reached at 11 p.m., when the "snow, cascades, and rivers were all
+sparkling under the moon, and the ravines and rocks produced masses of
+darkness which served as shadows to the gigantic picture." Arban was
+at one time on a level with the highest point of Mont Blanc, the top of
+which, standing out well above the clouds, resembled "an immense block
+of crystal sparkling with a thousand fires."
+
+In London, in the year of the Great Exhibition, and while the building
+was still standing in Hyde Park, there occurred a balloon incident small
+in itself, but sufficient to cause much sensation at the crowded spot
+where it took place. The ascent was made from the Hippodrome by Mr. and
+Mrs. Graham in very boisterous weather, and, on being liberated, the
+balloon seems to have fouled a mast, suffering a considerable rent.
+After this the aeronauts succeeded in clearing the trees in Kensington
+Gardens, and in descending fairly in the Park, but, still at the mercy
+of the winds, they were carried on to the roof of a house in Arlington
+Street, and thence on to another in Park Place, where, becoming lodged
+against a stack of chimneys, they were eventually rescued by the police
+without any material damage having been done.
+
+But this same summer saw the return to England of Henry Coxwell, and
+for some years the story of the conquest of the air is best told by
+following his stirring career, and his own comments on aeronautical
+events of this date. We find him shortly setting about carrying out some
+reconnoitring and signalling experiments, designed to be of use in time
+of war. This was an old idea of his, and one which had, of course, been
+long entertained by others, having, indeed, been put to some practical
+test in time of warfare. It will be well to make note of what attention
+the matter had already received, and of what progress had been made both
+in theory and practice.
+
+We have already made some mention in Chapter IV. of the use which the
+French had made of balloons in their military operations at the end of
+the eighteenth and beginning of nineteenth the century. It was, indeed,
+within the first ten years after the first invention of the balloon
+that, under the superintendence of the savants of the French Academy, a
+practical school of aeronautics was established at Meudon. The names
+of Guyton, De Morveau (a distinguished French chemist), and Colonel
+Coutelle are chiefly associated with the movement, and under them some
+fifty students received necessary training. The practising balloon had a
+capacity of 17,000 cubic feet, and was inflated with pure hydrogen, made
+by what was then a new process as applied to ballooning, and which will
+be described in a future chapter. It appears that the balloon was kept
+always full, so that any opportunity of calm weather would be taken
+advantage of for practice. And it is further stated that a balloon was
+constructed so sound and impervious that after the lapse of two months
+it was still capable, without being replenished, of raising into the air
+two men, with necessary ballast and equipment. The practical trial for
+the balloon in real service came off in June, 1794, when Coutelle in
+person, accompanied by two staff officers, in one of the four balloons
+which the French Army had provided, made an ascent to reconnoitre the
+Austrian forces at Fleurus. They ascended twice in one day, remaining
+aloft for some four hours, and, on their second ascent being sighted,
+drew a brisk fire from the enemy. They were unharmed, however, and the
+successful termination of the battle of Fleurus has been claimed as due
+in large measure to the service rendered by that balloon.
+
+The extraordinary fact that the use of the balloon was for many
+years discontinued in the French Army is attributed to a strangely
+superstitious prejudice entertained by Napoleon. Las Cases (in his
+"Private Life of Napoleon at St. Helena ") relates an almost miraculous
+story of Napoleon's coronation. It appears that a sum of 23,500 francs
+was given to M. Garnerin to provide a balloon ascent to aid in the
+celebrations, and, in consequence, a colossal machine was made to ascend
+at 11 p.m. on December 16th from the front of Notre Dame, carrying
+3,000 lights. This balloon was unmanned, and at its departure apparently
+behaved extremely well, causing universal delight. During the hours of
+darkness, however, it seems to have acquitted itself in a strange and
+well-nigh preternatural manner, for at daybreak it is sighted on the
+horizon by the inhabitants of Rome, and seen to be coming towards their
+city. So true was its course that, as though with predetermined purpose,
+it sails on till it is positively over St. Peter's and the Vatican,
+when, its mission being apparently fulfilled, it settles to earth, and
+finally ends its career in the Lake Bracciano. Regarded from whatever
+point of view, the flight was certainly extraordinary, and it is not
+surprising that in that age it was regarded as nothing less than a
+portent. Moreover, little details of the wonderful story were quickly
+endowed with grave significance. The balloon on reaching the ground rent
+itself. Next, ere it plunged into the water, it carefully deposited
+a portion of its crown on the tomb of Nero. Napoleon, on learning
+the facts, forbade that they should ever be referred to. Further,
+he thenceforward discountenanced the balloon in his army, and the
+establishment at Meudon was abandoned.
+
+There is record of an attempt of some sort that was made to revive the
+French military ballooning school in the African campaign of 1830, but
+it was barren of results. Again, it has been stated that the Austrians
+used balloons for reconnaissance, before Venice in 1849, and yet again
+the same thing is related of the Russians at the time of the siege of
+Sebastopol, though Kinglake does not mention the circumstance. In 1846
+Wise drew up and laid before the American War Office an elaborate scheme
+for the reduction of Vera Cruz. This will be discussed in its due place,
+though it will be doubtless considered as chimerical.
+
+On the other hand, eminently practical were the experiments co-ordinated
+and begun to be put to an actual test by Mr. Coxwell, who, before he
+could duly impress his project upon the military authorities, had to
+make preliminary trials in private ventures. The earliest of these was
+at the Surrey Zoological Gardens in the autumn of 1854, and it will be
+granted that much ingenuity and originality were displayed when it
+is considered that at that date neither wireless telegraphy, electric
+flashlight, nor even Morse Code signalling was in vogue. According to
+his announcement, the spectators were to regard his balloon, captive or
+free, as floating at a certain altitude over a beleaguered fortress, the
+authorities in communication with it having the key of the signals and
+seeking to obtain through these means information as to the approach
+of an enemy. It was to be supposed that, by the aid of glasses, a vast
+distance around could be subjected to careful scrutiny, and a constant
+communication kept up with the authorities in the fortress. Further,
+the flags or other signals were supposed preconcerted and unknown to the
+enemy, being formed by variations of shape and colour. Pigeons were also
+despatched from a considerable height to test their efficiency
+under novel conditions. The public press commented favourably on the
+performance and result of this initial experiment.
+
+Mr. Coxwell's account of an occasion when he had to try conclusions with
+a very boisterous wind, and of the way in which he negotiated a very
+trying and dangerous landing, will be found alike interesting and
+instructive. It was an ascent from the Crystal Palace, and the morning
+was fair and of bright promise outwardly; but Coxwell confesses to
+have disregarded a falling glass. The inflation having been progressing
+satisfactorily, he retired to partake of luncheon, entirely free from
+apprehensions; but while thus occupied, he was presently sought out and
+summoned by a gardener, who told him that his balloon had torn away, and
+was now completely out of control, dragging his men about the bushes. On
+reaching the scene, the men, in great strength, were about to attempt a
+more strenuous effort to drag the balloon back against the wind, which
+Coxwell promptly forbade, warning them that so they would tear all to
+pieces. He then commenced, as it were, to "take in a reef," by gathering
+in the slack of the silk, which chiefly was catching the wind, and by
+drawing in the net, mesh by mesh, until the more inflated portion of the
+balloon was left snug and offering but little resistance to the gale,
+when he got her dragged in a direction slanting to the wind and under
+the lee of trees.
+
+Eventually a hazardous and difficult departure was effected, Mr.
+Chandler, a passenger already booked, insisting on accompanying the
+aeronaut, in spite of the latter's strongest protestations. And their
+first peril came quickly, in a near shave of fouling the balcony of the
+North Tower, which they avoided only by a prompt discharge of sand, the
+crowd cheering loudly as they saw how the crisis was avoided. The car,
+adds Mr. Coxwell in his memoirs, "was apparently trailing behind the
+balloon with a pendulous swing, which is not often the case... In less
+than two minutes we entered the lower clouds, passing through them
+quickly, and noticing that their tops, which are usually of white,
+rounded conformation, were torn into shreds and crests of vapour. Above,
+there was a second wild-looking stratum of another order. We could
+hear, as we hastened on, the hum of the West End of London; but we were
+bowling along, having little time to look about us, though some extra
+sandbags were turned to good account by making a bed of them at the
+bottom ends of the car, which we occupied in anticipation of a rough
+landing."
+
+As it came on to rain hard the voyagers agreed to descend, and Coxwell,
+choosing open ground, succeeded in the oft-attempted endeavour to drop
+his grapnel in front of a bank or hedge-row. The balloon pulled up with
+such a shock as inevitably follows when flying at sixty miles an hour,
+and Mr. Coxwell continues:--"We were at this time suspended like a
+kite, and it was not so much the quantity of gas which kept us up as the
+hollow surface of loose silk, which acted like a falling kite, and the
+obvious game of skill consisted in not letting out too much gas to
+make the balloon pitch heavily with a thud that would have been awfully
+unpleasant; but to jockey our final touch in a gradual manner, and yet
+to do it as quickly as possible for fear of the machine getting adrift,
+since, under the peculiar circumstances in which we were placed, it
+would have inevitably fallen with a crushing blow, which might have
+proved fatal. I never remember to have been in a situation when more
+coolness and nicety were required to overcome the peril which here beset
+us; while on that day the strong wind was, strange as it may sound,
+helping us to alight easily, that is to say as long as the grapnel held
+fast and the balloon did not turn over like an unsteady kite." Such
+peril as there was soon terminated without injury to either voyager.
+
+The same remark will apply to an occasion when Coxwell was caught in
+a thunderstorm, which he thus describes in brief:--"On a second ascent
+from Chesterfield we were carried into the midst of gathering clouds,
+which began to flash vividly, and in the end culminated in a storm.
+There were indications, before we left the earth, as to what might be
+expected. The lower breeze took us in another direction as we rose, but
+a gentle, whirling current higher up got us into the vortex of a highly
+charged cloud.... We had to prove by absolute experience whether the
+balloon was insulated and a non-conductor. Beyond a drenching, no
+untoward incident occurred during a voyage lasting in all three-quarters
+of an hour."
+
+A voyage which Coxwell (referring, doubtless, to aerial travel over
+English soil only) describes as "being so very much in excess of
+accustomary trips in balloons" will be seen to fall short of one
+memorable voyage of which the writer will have to give his own
+experiences. Some account, however, of what the famous aeronaut has to
+tell will find a fitting place here.
+
+It was an ascent on a summer night from North Woolwich, and on this
+occasion Coxwell was accompanied by two friends, one being Henry Youens,
+who subsequently became a professional balloonist of considerable
+repute, and who at this time was an ardent amateur. It was half an hour
+before midnight when the party took their places, and, getting smartly
+away from the crowd in the gala grounds, shot over the river, and
+shortly were over the town of Greenwich with the lights of London
+well ahead. Then their course took them over Kennington Oval, Vauxhall
+Bridge, and Battersea, when they presently heard the strains of a Scotch
+polka. This came up from the then famous Gardens of Cremorne, and, the
+breeze freshening, it was but a few minutes later when they stood over
+Kingston, by which time it became a question whether, being now clear
+of London, they should descend or else live out the night and take what
+thus might come their way. This course, as the most prudent, as well
+as the most fascinating, was that which commended itself, and at that
+moment the hour of midnight was heard striking, showing that a fairly
+long distance had been covered in a short interval of time.
+
+From this period they would seem to have lost their way, and though
+scattered lights were sighted ahead, they were soon in doubt as to
+whether they might not already be nearing the sea, a doubt that was
+strengthened by their hearing the cry of sea-fowl. After a pause, lights
+were seen looming under the haze to sea-ward, which at times resembled
+water; and a tail like that of a comet was discerned, beyond which was a
+black patch of considerable size.
+
+The patch was the Isle of Wight, and the tail the Water from
+Southampton. They were thus wearing more south and towards danger. They
+had no Davy lamp with which to read their aneroid, and could only tell
+from the upward flight of fragments of paper that they were descending.
+Another deficiency in their equipment was the lack of a trail rope
+to break their fall, and for some time they were under unpleasant
+apprehension of an unexpected and rude impact with the ground, or
+collision with some undesirable object. This induced them to discharge
+sand and to risk the consequences of another rise into space, and as
+they mounted they were not reassured by sighting to the south a ridge of
+lighter colour, which strongly suggested the coast line.
+
+But it was midsummer, and it was not long before bird life awakening was
+heard below, and then a streak of dawn revealed their locality, which
+was over the Exe, with Sidmouth and Tor Bay hard by on their left.
+Then from here, the land jutting seawards, they confidently traversed
+Dartmoor, and effected a safe, if somewhat unseasonable, descent near
+Tavistock. The distance travelled was considerable, but the duration, on
+the aeronaut's own showing, was less than five hours.
+
+In the year 1859 the Times commented on the usefulness of military
+balloons in language that fully justified all that Coxwell had
+previously claimed for them. A war correspondent, who had accompanied
+the Austrian Army during that year, asks pertinently how it had happened
+that the French had been ready at six o'clock to make a combined
+attack against the Austrians, who, on their part, had but just taken up
+positions on the previous evening. The correspondent goes on to supply
+the answer thus:--"No sooner was the first Austrian battalion out
+of Vallegio than a balloon was observed to rise in the air from
+the vicinity of Monsambano--a signal, no doubt, for the French in
+Castiglione. I have a full conviction that the Emperor of the French
+knew overnight the exact position of every Austrian corps, while the
+Emperor of Austria was unable to ascertain the number or distribution of
+the forces of the allies."
+
+It appears that M. Godard was the aeronaut employed to observe the
+enemy, and that fresh balloons for the French Army were proceeded with.
+
+The date was now near at hand when Coxwell, in partnership with Mr.
+Glaisher, was to take part in the classical work which has rendered
+their names famous throughout the world. Before proceeding to tell of
+that period, however, Mr. Coxwell has done well to record one
+aerial adventure, which, while but narrowly missing the most serious
+consequences, gives a very practical illustration of the chances in
+favour of the aeronaut under extreme circumstances.
+
+It was an ascent at Congleton in a gale of wind, a and the company of
+two passengers--Messrs. Pearson, of Lawton Hall--was pressed upon him.
+Everything foretold a rough landing, and some time after the start was
+made the outlook was not improved by the fact that the dreaded county of
+Derbyshire was seen approaching; and it was presently apparent that
+the spot on which they had decided to descend was faced by rocks and
+a formidable gorge. On this, Coxwell attempted to drop his grapnel in
+front of a stone wall, and so far with success; but the wall went down,
+as also another and another, the wicker car passing, with its great
+impetus, clean through the solid obstacles, till at last the balloon
+slit from top to bottom. Very serious injuries to heads and limbs were
+sustained, but no lives were lost, and Coxwell himself, after being laid
+up at Buxton, got home on crutches.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. SOME NOTEWORTHY ASCENTS.
+
+
+It was the year 1862, and the scientific world in England determined
+once again on attempting observational work in connection with balloons.
+There had been a meeting of the British Association at Wolverhampton,
+and, under their auspices, and with the professional services of Thomas
+Lythgoe, Mr. Creswick, of Greenwich Observatory, was commissioned to
+make a lofty scientific ascent with a Cremorne balloon. The attempt,
+however, was unsatisfactory; and the balloon being condemned, an
+application was made to Mr. Coxwell to provide a suitable craft, and to
+undertake its management. The principals of the working committee were
+Colonel Sykes, M.P., Dr. Lee, and Mr. James Glaisher, F.R.S., and a
+short conference between these gentlemen and the experienced aeronaut
+soon made it clear that a mammoth balloon far larger than any in
+existence was needed for the work in hand. But here a fatal obstacle
+presented itself in lack of funds, for it transpired that the grant
+voted was only to be devoted to trial ascents.
+
+It was then that Mr. Coxwell, with characteristic enterprise, undertook,
+at his own cost, to build a suitable balloon, and, moreover, to have it
+ready by Midsummer Day. It was a bold, as well as a generous, offer;
+for it was now March, and, according to Mr. Coxwell's statement, if silk
+were employed, the preparation and manufacture would occupy six months
+and cost not less than L2,000. The fabric chosen was a sort of American
+cloth, and by unremitting efforts the task was performed to time, and
+the balloon forwarded to Wolverhampton, its dimensions being 55 feet in
+diameter, 80 feet in height from the ground, with a capacity of 93,000
+cubic feet. But the best feature in connection with it was the fact that
+Mr. Glaisher himself was to make the ascents as scientific observer.
+
+No time was lost in getting to work, but twice over the chosen days were
+unsuitable, and it was not till July 17th that the two colleagues, of
+whom so much is to be told, got away at 9.30 a.m. with their balloon
+only two-thirds full, to allow of expansion to take place in such a
+lofty ascent as was contemplated. And, when it is considered that
+an altitude of five miles was reached, it will be granted that the
+scientific gentleman who was making his maiden ascent that day showed
+remarkable endurance and tenacity of purpose--the all-important
+essential for the onerous and trying work before him. At 9.56 the
+balloon had disappeared from sight, climbing far into the sky in the
+E.N.E. The story of the voyage we must leave in Mr. Glaisher's hands.
+Certain events, however, associated with other aeronauts, which had
+already happened, and which should be considered in connection with
+the new drama now to be introduced, may fittingly here meet with brief
+mention.
+
+The trouble arising from the coasting across country of a fallen and
+still half-inflated balloon has already been sufficiently illustrated,
+and needs little further discussion. It is common enough to see a
+balloon, when full and round, struggling restively under a moderate
+breeze with a score of men, and dragging them, and near a ton of
+sand-bags as well, about the starting ground. But, as has already been
+pointed out, the power of the wind on the globe is vastly increased
+when the silk becomes slack and forms a hollow to hold the wind, like
+a bellying sail. Various means to deal with this difficulty have been
+devised, one of these being an emergency, or ripping valve, in addition
+to the ordinary valve, consisting of an arrangement for tearing a large
+opening in the upper part of one of the gores, so that on reaching
+earth the balloon may be immediately crippled and emptied of so large a
+quantity of gas as to render dragging impossible. Such a method is not
+altogether without drawbacks, one of these being the confusion liable
+to arise from there being more than one valve line to reckon with. To
+obviate this, it has been suggested that the emergency line should be of
+a distinctive colour.
+
+But an experiment with a safeguard to somewhat of this nature was
+attended with fatal consequence in the year 1824. A Mr. Harris, a
+lieutenant in the British Navy, ascended from the Eagle Tavern, City
+Road, with a balloon fitted with a contrivance of his own invention,
+consisting of a large hinged upper valve, having within it a smaller
+valve of the same description, the idea being that, should the operation
+of the smaller outlet not suffice for any occasion, then the shutter
+of the larger opening might be resorted to, to effect a more liberal
+discharge of gas.
+
+Mr. Harris took with him a young lady, Miss Stocks by name, and
+apparently the afternoon--it being late May--was favourable for an
+aerial voyage; for, with full reliance on his apparatus, he left his
+grapnel behind, and was content with such assistance as the girl might
+be able to render him. It was not long before the balloon was found
+descending, and with a rapidity that seemed somewhat to disturb the
+aeronaut; and when, after a re-ascent, effected by a discharge of
+ballast, another decided downward tendency ensued, Mr. Harris clearly
+realised that something was wrong, without, however, divining the cause.
+The story subsequently told by the girl was to the effect that when
+the balloon was descending the second time she was spoken to by her
+unfortunate companion in an anxious manner. "I then heard the balloon
+go 'Clap! clap!' and Mr. Harris said he was afraid it was bursting,
+at which I fainted, and knew no more until I found myself in bed." A
+gamekeeper tells the sequel, relating that he observed the balloon,
+which was descending with great velocity, strike and break the head
+of an oak tree, after which it also struck the ground. Hurrying up, he
+found the girl insensible, and Mr. Harris already dead, with his breast
+bone and several ribs broken. The explanation of the accident given by
+Mr. Edward Spencer is alike convincing and instructive. This eminently
+practical authority points out that the valve lines must have been made
+taut to the hoop at the time that the balloon was full and globular.
+Thus, subsequently, when from diminution of gas the balloon's shape
+elongated, the valve line would become strained and begin to open the
+valve, but in such a gradual manner as to escape the notice of
+the aeronaut. Miss Stocks, far from being unnerved by the terrible
+experience, actually made three subsequent ascents in company with Mr.
+Green.
+
+It deserves mention that another disaster, equally instructive, but
+happily not attended with loss of life, occurred in Dublin in 1844 to
+Mr. Hampton, who about this time made several public and enterprising
+voyages. He evidently was possessed of admirable nerve and decision, and
+did not hesitate to make an ascent from the Porto-Bello Gardens in face
+of strong wind blowing sea-wards, and in spite of many protestations
+from the onlookers that he was placing himself in danger. This danger he
+fully realised, more particularly when he recognised that the headland
+on which he hoped to alight was not in the direction of the wind's
+course. Resolved, however, on gratifying the crowd, Mr. Hampton ascended
+rapidly, and then with equal expedition commenced a precipitate descent,
+which he accomplished with skill and without mishap. But the wind was
+still boisterous, and the balloon sped onward along the ground towards
+fresh danger unforeseen, and perhaps not duly reckoned with. Ahead was
+a cottage, the chimney of which was on fire. A balloonist in these
+circumstances is apt to think little of a single small object in his
+way, knowing how many are the chances of missing or of successfully
+negotiating any such obstacle. The writer on one occasion was, in the
+judgment of onlookers below, drifting in dangerous proximity to the
+awful Cwmavon stack in Glamorganshire, then in full blast; yet it was
+a fact that that vast vent of flame and smoke passed almost unheeded by
+the party in the descending car. It may have been thus, also, with Mr.
+Hampton, who only fully realised his danger when his balloon blew up
+"with an awfully grand explosion," and he was reduced to the extremity
+of jumping for his life, happily escaping the mass of burning silk and
+ropes.
+
+The awful predicament of falling into the sea, which has been
+illustrated already, and which will recur again in these pages, was ably
+and successfully met by Mr. Cunningham, who made an afternoon ascent
+from the Artillery Barracks at Clevedon, reaching Snake Island at
+nightfall, where, owing to the gathering darkness, he felt constrained
+to open his valve. He quickly commenced descending into the sea, and
+when within ten feet of the water, turned the "detaching screw" which
+connected the car with the balloon. The effect of this was at once to
+launch him on the waves, but, being still able to keep control over the
+valve, he allowed just enough gas to remain within the silk to hold the
+balloon above water. He then betook himself to the paddles with which
+his craft was provided, and reached Snake Island with the balloon in
+tow. Here he seems to have found good use for a further portion of his
+very complete equipment; for, lighting a signal rocket, he presently
+brought a four-oared gig to his succour from Portsmouth Harbour.
+
+The teaching of the above incident is manifest enough. If it should
+be contemplated to use the balloon for serious or lengthened travel
+anywhere within possible reach of the sea-board--and this must apply to
+all parts of the British Isles--it must become a wise precaution, if not
+an absolute necessity, to adopt some form of car that would be of avail
+in the event of a fall taking place in the sea. Sufficient confirmation
+of this statement will be shortly afforded by a memorable voyage
+accomplished during the partnership of Messrs. Glaisher and Coxwell, one
+which would certainly have found the travellers in far less jeopardy
+had their car been convertible into a boat. We have already seen how
+essential Wise considered this expedient in his own bolder schemes,
+and it may further be mentioned here that modern air ships have been
+designed with the intention of making the water a perfectly safe
+landing.
+
+The ballooning exploits which, however, we have now to recount had quite
+another and more special object consistently in view--that of scientific
+investigation; and we would here premise that the proper appreciation of
+these investigations will depend on a due understanding of the attendant
+circumstances, as also of the constant characteristic behaviour of
+balloons, whether despatched for mere travel or research.
+
+First let us regard the actual path of a balloon in space when being
+manoeuvred in the way we read of in Mr. Glaisher's own accounts. This
+part is in most cases approximately indicated in that most attractive
+volume of his entitled, "Travels in the Air," by diagrams giving a
+sectional presentment of his more important voyages; but a little
+commonplace consideration may take the place of diagrams.
+
+It has been common to assert that a balloon poised in space is the most
+delicate balance conceivable. Its intrinsic weight must be exactly equal
+to the weight of the air it displaces, and since the density of the
+air decreases according to a fixed law, amounting, approximately, to
+a difference in barometric reading of 0.1 inch for every 90 feet, it
+follows, theoretically, that if a balloon is poised at 1,000 feet above
+sea level, then it would not be in equilibrium at any other height, so
+long as its weight and volume remain the same. If it were 50 feet higher
+it must commence descending, and, if lower, then it must ascend till it
+reaches its true level; and, more than that, in the event of either such
+excursion mere impetus would carry it beyond this level, about which it
+would oscillate for a short time, after the manner of the pendulum. This
+is substantially true, but it must be taken in connection with other
+facts which have a far greater influence on a balloon's position or
+motion.
+
+For instance, in the volume just referred to it is stated by M. Gaston
+Tissandier that on one occasion when aloft he threw overboard a chicken
+bone, and, immediately consulting a barometer, had to admit on "clearest
+evidence that the bone had caused a rise of from twenty to thirty yards,
+so delicately is a balloon equipoised in the air." Here, without pausing
+to calculate whether the discharge of an ounce or so would suffice to
+cause a large balloon to ascend through ninety feet, it may be pointed
+out that the record cannot be trustworthy, from the mere fact that a
+free balloon is from moment to moment being subjected to other potent
+influences, which necessarily affect its position in space. In daytime
+the sun's influence is an all-important factor, and whether shining
+brightly or partially hidden by clouds, a slight difference in
+obscuration will have a ready and marked effect on the balloon's
+altitude. Again, a balloon in transit may pass almost momentarily from a
+warmer layer of air to a colder, or vice versa, the plane of demarcation
+between the two being very definite and abrupt, and in this case
+altitude is at once affected; or, yet again, there are the descending
+and ascending currents, met with constantly and unexpectedly, which have
+to be reckoned with.
+
+Thus it becomes a fact that a balloon's vertical course is subjected
+to constant checks and vicissitudes from a variety of causes, and these
+will have to be duly borne in mind when we are confronted with the
+often surprising results and readings which are supplied by scientific
+observers. With regard to the close proximity, without appreciable
+intermingling, of widely differing currents, it should be mentioned that
+explorers have found in regions where winds of different directions
+pass each other that one air stream appears actually to drag against
+the surface of the other, as though admitting no interspace where the
+streams might mingle. Indeed, trustworthy observers have stated that
+even a hurricane can rage over a tranquil atmosphere with a sharply
+defined surface of demarcation between calm and storm. Thus, to quote
+the actual words of Charles Darwin, than whom it is impossible to adduce
+a more careful witness, we find him recording how on mountain heights
+he met with winds turbulent and unconfined, yet holding courses "like
+rivers within their beds."
+
+It is in tracing the trend of upper air streams, to whose wayward
+courses and ever varying conditions we are now to be introduced,
+that much of our most valuable information has come, affecting the
+possibility of forecasting British wind and weather. It should need
+no insisting on that the data required by meteorologists are not
+sufficiently supplied by the readings of instruments placed on or near
+the ground, or by the set of the wind as determined by a vane planted
+on the top of a pole or roof of a building. The chief factors in our
+meteorology are rather those broader and deeper conditions which obtain
+in higher regions necessarily beyond our ken, until those regions are
+duly and diligently explored.
+
+Mr. Glaisher's estimate of the utility of the balloon as an instrument
+of research, formed at the conclusion of his aeronautical labours, has
+a special value and significance. Speaking with all the weight attaching
+to so trained and eminent an observer, he declares, "The balloon,
+considered as an instrument for vertical exploration, presents itself to
+us under a variety of aspects, each of which is fertile in suggestions.
+Regarding the atmosphere as the great laboratory of changes which
+contain the germ of future dis discoveries, to belong respectively, as
+they unfold, to the chemist and meteorologist, the physical relation
+to animal life of different heights, the form of death which at certain
+elevations waits to accomplish its destruction, the effect of diminished
+pressure upon individuals similarly placed, the comparison of mountain
+ascents with the experiences of aeronauts, are some of the questions
+which suggest themselves and faintly indicate enquiries which naturally
+ally themselves to the course of balloon experiments. Sufficiently
+varied and important, they will be seen to rank the balloon as a
+valuable aid to the uses of philosophy, and rescue it from the
+impending degradation of continuing a toy fit only to be exhibited or to
+administer to the pleasures of the curious and lovers of adventure."
+
+The words of the same authority as to the possible practical development
+of the balloon as an aerial machine should likewise be quoted, and will
+appear almost prophetic. "In England the subject of aero-station has
+made but little progress, and no valuable invention has arisen to
+facilitate travelling in the air. In all my ascents I used the balloon
+as I found it. The desire which influenced me was to ascend to the
+higher regions and travel by its means in furtherance of a better
+knowledge of atmospheric phenomena. Neither its management nor its
+improvement formed a part of my plan. I soon found that balloon
+travelling was at the mercy of the wind, and I saw no probability of any
+method of steering balloons being obtained. It even appeared to me that
+the balloon itself, admirable for vertical ascents, was not necessarily
+a first step in aerial navigation, and might possibly have no share
+in the solution of the problem. It was this conviction that led to
+the formation of the Aeronautical Society a few years since under the
+presidency of the Duke of Argyll. In the number of communications made
+to this society it is evident that many minds are taxing their ingenuity
+to discover a mode of navigating the air; all kinds of imaginary
+projects have been suggested, some showing great mechanical ingenuity,
+but all indicating the want of more knowledge of the atmosphere itself.
+The first great aim of this society is the connecting the velocity of
+the air with its pressure on plane surfaces at various inclinations.
+
+"There seems no prospect of obtaining this relation otherwise than by a
+careful series of experiments."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV. THE HIGHEST ASCENT ON RECORD.
+
+
+Mr. Glaisher's instrumental outfit was on an elaborate and costly scale,
+and the programme of experimental work drawn up for him by the Committee
+of the British Association did not err on the side of too much modesty.
+In the first place the temperature and moisture of the atmosphere were
+to be examined. Observations on mountain sides had determined that
+thermometers showed a decrease of 1 degree F. for every 300 feet,
+and the accuracy of this law was particularly to be tested. Also,
+investigations were to be made as to the distribution of vapour
+below the clouds, in them, and above them. Then careful observations
+respecting the dew point were to be undertaken at all accessible
+heights, and, more particularly, up to those heights where man may be
+resident or troops may be located. The comparatively new instrument, the
+aneroid barometer, extremely valuable, if only trustworthy, by reason of
+its sensibility, portability and safety, was to be tested and compared
+with the behaviour of a reliable mercurial barometer. Electrical
+conditions were to be examined; the presence of ozone tested; the
+vibration of a magnet was again to be resorted to to determine how
+far the magnetism of the earth might be affected by height. The solar
+spectrum was to be observed; air was to be collected at different
+heights for analysis; clouds, also upper currents, were to be reported
+on. Further observations were to be made on sound, on solar radiation,
+on the actinic action of the sun, and on atmospheric phenomena in
+general.
+
+All this must be regarded as a large order where only a very limited
+number of ascents were contemplated, and it may be mentioned that some
+of the methods of investigation, as, for instance, the use of ozone
+papers, would now be generally considered obsolete; while the mechanical
+aspiration of thermometers by a stream of air, which, as we have pointed
+out, was introduced by Welsh, and which is strongly insisted on at the
+present day, was considered unnecessary by Mr. Glaisher in the case
+of wet and dry bulb hygrometers. The entire list of instruments,
+as minutely described by the talented observer, numbered twenty-two
+articles, among which were such irreproachable items as a bottle of
+water and a pair of scissors.
+
+The following is a condensed account, gathered from Mr. Glaisher's own
+narrative, of his first ascent, which has been already briefly sketched
+in these pages by the hand of Mr. Coxwell. Very great difficulties were
+experienced in the inflation, which operation appeared as if it would
+never be completed, for a terrible W.S.W. wind was constantly blowing,
+and the movements of the balloon were so great and so rapid that it was
+impossible to fix a single instrument in its position before quitting
+the earth, a position of affairs which, says Mr. Glaisher, "was by no
+means cheering to a novice who had never before put his foot in the car
+of a balloon," and when, at last, at 9.42 a.m., Mr. Coxwell cast off,
+there was no upward motion, the car simply dragging on its side till
+the expiration of a whole minute, when the balloon lifted, and in six
+minutes reached the first cloud at an altitude of 4,467 feet. This cloud
+was passed at 5,802 feet, and further cloud encountered at 2,000 feet
+further aloft. Four minutes later, the ascent proceeding, the sun shone
+out brightly, expanding the balloon into a perfect globe and displaying
+a magnificent view, which, however, the incipient voyager did not allow
+himself to enjoy until the instruments were arranged in due order, by
+which time a height of 10,000 feet was recorded.
+
+Mr. Glaisher apparently now had opportunity for observing the clouds,
+which he describes as very beautiful, and he records the hearing of a
+band of music at a height of 12,709 feet, which was attained in exactly
+twenty minutes from the start. A minute later the earth was sighted
+through a break in the clouds, and at 16,914 feet the clouds were
+far below, the sky above being perfectly cloudless, and of an intense
+Prussian blue.
+
+By this time Mr. Glaisher had received his first surprise, as imparted
+by the record of his instruments. At starting, the temperature of the
+air had stood at 59 degrees. Then at 4,000 feet this was reduced to 45
+degrees; and, further, to 26 degrees at 10,000 feet, when it remained
+stationary through an ascent of 3,000 feet more, during which period
+both travellers added to their clothing, anticipating much accession of
+cold. However, at 15,500 feet the temperature had actually risen to 31
+degrees, increasing to no less than 42 degrees at 19,500 feet.
+
+Astonishing as this discovery was, it was not the end of the wonder,
+for two minutes later, on somewhat descending, the temperature commenced
+decreasing so rapidly as to show a fall of 27 degrees in 26 minutes.
+As to personal experiences, Mr. Glaisher should be left to tell his
+own story. "At the height of 18,844 feet 18 vibrations of a horizontal
+magnet occupied 26.8 seconds, and at the same height my pulse beat at
+the rate of 100 pulsations per minute. At 19,415 feet palpitation of
+the heart became perceptible, the beating of the chronometer seemed
+very loud, and my breathing became affected. At 19,435 feet my pulse had
+accelerated, and it was with increasing difficulty that I could read
+the instruments; the palpitation of the heart was very perceptible; the
+hands and lips assumed a dark bluish colour, but not the face. At 20,238
+feet 28 vibrations of a horizontal magnet occupied 43 seconds. At 21,792
+feet I experienced a feeling analogous to sea-sickness, though there was
+neither pitching nor rolling in the balloon, and through this illness I
+was unable to watch the instrument long enough to lower the temperature
+to get a deposit of dew. The sky at this elevation was of a very
+deep blue colour, and the clouds were far below us. At 22,357 feet I
+endeavoured to make the magnet vibrate, but could not; it moved through
+arcs of about 20 degrees, and then settled suddenly.
+
+"Our descent began a little after 11 a.m., Mr. Coxwell experiencing
+considerable uneasiness at our too close vicinity to the Wash. We came
+down quickly from a height of 16,300 feet to one of 12,400 feet in one
+minute; at this elevation we entered into a dense cloud which proved to
+be no less than 8,000 feet in thickness and whilst passing through this
+the balloon was invisible from the car. From the rapidity of the descent
+the balloon assumed the shape of a parachute, and though Mr. Coxwell had
+reserved a large amount of ballast, which he discharged as quickly as
+possible, we collected so much weight by the condensation of the immense
+amount of vapour through which we passed that, notwithstanding all his
+exertions, we came to the earth with a very considerable shock, which
+broke nearly all the instruments.... The descent took place at Langham,
+near Oakham."
+
+Just a month later Mr. Glaisher, bent on a yet loftier climb, made
+his second ascent, again under Mr. Coxwell's guidance, and again from
+Wolverhampton. Besides attending to his instruments he found leisure to
+make other chance notes by the way. He was particularly struck by the
+beauty of masses of cloud, which, by the time 12,000 feet were reached,
+were far below, "presenting at times mountain scenes of endless variety
+and grandeur, while fine dome-like clouds dazzled and charmed the eye
+with alternations and brilliant effects of light and shade."
+
+When a height of about 20,000 feet had been reached thunder was heard
+twice over, coming from below, though no clouds could be seen. A height
+of 4,000 feet more was attained, and shortly after this Mr. Glaisher
+speaks of feeling unwell. It was difficult to obtain a deposit of dew
+on the hygrometer, and the working of the aspirator became troublesome.
+While in this region a sound like that of loud thunder came from the
+sky. Observations were practically completed at this point, and a speedy
+and safe return to earth was effected, the landing being at Solihull,
+seven miles from Birmingham.
+
+It was on the 5th of September following that the same two colleagues
+carried out an exploit which will always stand alone in the history of
+aeronautics, namely, that of ascending to an altitude which, based on
+the best estimate they were able to make, they calculated to be no less
+than seven miles. Whatever error may have unavoidably come into the
+actual estimate, which is to some extent conjectural, is in reality a
+small matter, not the least affecting the fact that the feat in itself
+will probably remain without a parallel of its kind. In these days,
+when aeronauts attempt to reach an exceptionally lofty altitude, they
+invariably provide themselves with a cylinder of oxygen gas to meet
+the special emergencies of the situation, so that when regions of such
+attenuated air are reached that the action of heart and lungs becomes
+seriously affected, it is still within their power to inhale the
+life-giving gas which affords the greatest available restorative to
+their energies. Forty years ago, however, cylinders of compressed oxygen
+gas were not available, and on this account alone we may state without
+hesitation that the enterprise which follows stands unparalleled at the
+present hour.
+
+The filling station at Wolverhampton was quitted at 1.3 p.m., the
+temperature of the air being 59 degrees on the ground, and falling to 41
+degrees at an altitude of 5,000 feet, directly after which a dense cloud
+was entered, which brought the temperature down to 36 degrees. At this
+elevation the report of a gun was heard. Here Mr. Glaisher attempted
+(probably for the first time in history) to take a cloud-scape
+photograph, the illumination being brilliant, and the plates with which
+he was furnished being considered extremely sensitive. The attempt,
+however, was unsuccessful. The height of two miles was reached in 19
+minutes, and here the temperature was at freezing point. In six minutes
+later three miles was reached, and the thermometer was down to 18
+degrees. In another twelve minutes four miles was attained, with the
+thermometer recording 8 degrees, and by further discharge of sand the
+fifth aerial milestone was passed at 1.50 p.m., i.e. in 47 minutes from
+the start, with the thermometer 2 degrees below zero.
+
+Mr. Glaisher relates that up to this point he had taken observations
+with comfort, and experienced no trouble in respiration, whilst Mr.
+Coxwell, in consequence of the exertions he had to make, was breathing
+with difficulty. More sand was now thrown out, and as the balloon rose
+higher Mr. Glaisher states that he found some difficulty in seeing
+clearly. But from this point his experiences should be gathered from his
+own words:--
+
+"About 1.52 p.m., or later, I read the dry bulb thermometer as minus
+five; after this I could not see the column of mercury in the wet bulb
+thermometer, nor the hands of the watch, nor the fine divisions on any
+instrument. I asked Mr. Coxwell to help me to read the instruments. In
+consequence, however, of the rotatory motion of the balloon, which had
+continued without ceasing since leaving the earth, the valve line had
+become entangled, and he had to leave the car and mount into the ring to
+readjust it. I then looked at the barometer, and found its reading to be
+9 3/4 inches, still decreasing fast, implying a height exceeding 29,000
+feet. Shortly after, I laid my arm upon the table, possessed of its full
+vigour; but on being desirous of using it I found it powerless--it must
+have lost its power momentarily. Trying to move the other arm, I found
+it powerless also. Then I tried to shake myself, and succeeded, but I
+seemed to have no limbs. In looking at the barometer my head fell over
+my left shoulder. I struggled and shook my body again, but could not
+move my arms. Getting my head upright for an instant only, it fell on my
+right shoulder; then I fell backwards, my back resting against the
+side of the car and my head on its edge. In this position my eyes were
+directed to Mr. Coxwell in the ring. When I shook my body I seemed to
+have full power over the muscles of the back, and considerably so over
+those of the neck, but none over either my arms or my legs. As in the
+case of the arms, so all muscular power was lost in an instant from my
+back and neck. I dimly saw Mr. Coxwell, and endeavoured to speak, but
+could not. In an instant intense darkness overcame me, so that the optic
+nerve lost power suddenly; but I was still conscious, with as active a
+brain as at the present moment whilst writing this. I thought I had been
+seized with asphyxia, and believed I should experience nothing more,
+as death would come unless we speedily descended. Other thoughts were
+entering my mind when I suddenly became unconscious, as on going to
+sleep. I cannot tell anything of the sense of hearing, as no sound
+reaches the ear to break the perfect stillness and silence of the
+regions between six and seven miles above the earth. My last observation
+was made at 1.54 p.m., above 29,000 feet. I suppose two or three minutes
+to have elapsed between my eyes becoming insensible to seeing fine
+divisions and 1.54 p.m., and then two or three minutes more to have
+passed till I was insensible, which I think, therefore, took place about
+1.56 p.m. or 1.57 p.m.
+
+"Whilst powerless, I heard the words 'Temperature' and 'Observation,'
+and I knew Mr. Coxwell was in the car speaking to and endeavouring to
+rouse me--therefore consciousness and hearing had returned. I then heard
+him speak more emphatically, but could not see, speak, or move. I heard
+him again say, 'Do try, now do!' Then the instruments became dimly
+visible, then Mr. Coxwell, and very shortly I saw clearly. Next, I arose
+in my seat and looked around, as though waking from sleep, though not
+refreshed, and said to Mr. Coxwell, 'I have been insensible.' He said,
+'You have, and I too, very nearly.' I then drew up my legs, which had
+been extended, and took a pencil in my hand to begin observations. Mr.
+Coxwell told me that he had lost the use of his hands, which were black,
+and I poured brandy over them."
+
+Mr. Glaisher considers that he must have been totally insensible for
+a period of about seven minutes, at the end of which time the water
+reserved for the wet bulb thermometer, which he had carefully kept
+from freezing, had become a solid block of ice. Mr. Coxwell's hands had
+become frostbitten, so that, being in the ring and desirous of coming to
+his friend's assistance, he was forced to rest his arms on the ring
+and drop down. Even then, the table being in the way, he was unable to
+approach, and, feeling insensibility stealing over himself, he became
+anxious to open the valve. "But in consequence of having lost the use of
+his hands he could not do this. Ultimately he succeeded by seizing the
+cord in his teeth and dipping his head two or three times until the
+balloon took a decided turn downwards." Mr. Glaisher adds that no
+inconvenience followed his insensibility, and presently dropping in a
+country where no conveyance of any kind could be obtained, he was able
+to walk between seven and eight miles.
+
+The interesting question of the actual height attained is thus discussed
+by Mr. Glaisher:--"I have already said that my last observation was made
+at a height of 29,000 feet. At this time, 1.54 p.m., we were ascending
+at the rate of 1,000 feet per minute, and when I resumed observations
+we were descending at the rate of 2,000 feet per minute. These two
+positions must be connected, taking into account the interval of time
+between, namely, thirteen minutes; and on these considerations the
+balloon must have attained the altitude of 36,000 or 37,000 feet. Again,
+a very delicate minimum thermometer read minus 11.9, and this would give
+a height of 37,000 feet. Mr. Coxwell, on coming from the ring, noticed
+that the centre of the aneroid barometer, its blue hand, and a rope
+attached to the car, were all in the same straight line, and this gave a
+reading of seven inches, and leads to the same result. Therefore, these
+independent means all lead to about the same elevation, namely, fully
+seven miles."
+
+So far we have followed Mr. Glaisher's account only, but Mr. Coxwell has
+added testimony of his own to this remarkable adventure, which renders
+the narrative more complete. He speaks of the continued rotation of the
+balloon and the necessity for mounting into the ring to get possession
+of the valve line. "I had previously," he adds, "taken off a thick pair
+of gloves so as to be the better able to manipulate the sand-bags, and
+the moment my unprotected hands rested on the ring, which retained the
+temperature of the air, I found that they were frost-bitten; but I did
+manage to bring down with me the valve line, after noticing the hand of
+the aneroid barometer, and it was not long before I succeeded in opening
+the shutters in the way described by Mr. Glaisher.... Again, on letting
+off more gas, I perceived that the lower part of the balloon was rapidly
+shrinking, and I heard a sighing, as if it were in the network and the
+ruffled surface of the cloth. I then looked round, although it seemed
+advisable to let off more gas, to see if I could in any way assist Mr.
+Glaisher, but the table of instruments blocked the way, and I could not,
+with disabled hands, pass beneath. My last hope, then, was in seeking
+the restorative effects of a warmer stratum of atmosphere.... Again
+I tugged at the valve line, taking stock, meanwhile, of the reserve
+ballast in store, and this, happily, was ample.
+
+"Never shall I forget those painful moments of doubt and suspense as to
+Mr. Glaisher's fate, when no response came to my questions. I began
+to fear that he would never take any more readings. I could feel the
+reviving effects of a warmer temperature, and wondered that no signs of
+animation were noticeable. The hand of the aneroid that I had looked
+at was fast moving, while the under part of the balloon had risen high
+above the car. I had looked towards the earth, and felt the rush of air
+as it passed upwards, but was still in despair when Mr. Glaisher gasped
+with a sigh, and the next moment he drew himself up and looked at me
+rather in confusion, and said he had been insensible, but did not seem
+to have any clear idea of how long until he caught up his pencil and
+noted the time and the reading of the instruments."
+
+The descent, which was at first very rapid, was effected without
+difficulty at Cold Weston.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV. FURTHER SCIENTIFIC VOYAGES OF GLAISHER AND COXWELL.
+
+
+Early in the following spring we find the same two aeronauts going
+aloft again on a scientific excursion which had a termination nearly as
+sensational as the last. The ascent was from the Crystal Palace, and the
+intention being to make a very early start the balloon for this purpose
+had been partially filled overnight; but by the morning the wind blew
+strongly, and, though the ground current would have carried the voyagers
+in comparative safety to the southwest, several pilots which were
+dismissed became, at no great height, carried away due south. On this
+account the start was delayed till 1 p.m., by which time the sky had
+nearly filled in, with only occasional gleams of sun between the clouds.
+It seemed as if the travellers would have to face the chance of
+crossing the Channel, and while, already in the car, they were actually
+discussing this point, their restraining rope broke, and they were
+launched unceremoniously into the skies. This occasioned an unexpected
+lurch to the car, which threw Mr. Glaisher among his instruments, to the
+immediate destruction of some of them.
+
+Another result of this abrupt departure was a very rapid rise, which
+took the balloon a height of 3,000 feet in three minutes' space, and
+another 4,000 feet higher in six minutes more. Seven thousand feet
+vertically in nine minutes is fast pace; but the voyagers were to know
+higher speed yet that day when the vertical motion was to be in the
+reverse and wrong direction. At the height now reached they were in
+cloud, and while thus enveloped the temperature, as often happens,
+remained practically stationary at about 32 degrees, while that of the
+dew point increased several degrees. But, on passing out of the cloud,
+the two temperatures were very suddenly separated, the latter decreasing
+rapidly under a deep blue upper sky that was now without a cloud.
+Shortly after this the temperature dropped suddenly some 8 degrees, and
+then, during the next 12,000 feet, crept slowly down by small stages.
+Presently the balloon, reaching more than twenty thousand feet, or,
+roughly, four miles, and still ascending, the thermometer was taken with
+small fits of rising and falling alternately till an altitude of
+24,000 feet was recorded, at which point other and more serious matters
+intruded themselves.
+
+The earth had been for a considerable time lost to view, and the rate
+and direction of recent progress had become merely conjectural. What
+might be taking place in these obscured and lofty regions? It would be
+as well to discover. So the valve was opened rather freely, with the
+result that the balloon dropped a mile in three minutes. Then another
+mile slower, by a shade. Then at 12,000 feet a cloud layer was reached,
+and shortly after the voyagers broke through into the clear below.
+
+At that moment Mr. Glaisher, who was busy with his instruments, heard
+Mr. Coxwell make an exclamation which caused him to look over the
+car, and he writes, "The sea seemed to be under us. Mr. Coxwell again
+exclaimed, 'There's not a moment to spare: we must save the land at
+all risks. Leave the instruments.' Mr. Coxwell almost hung to the valve
+line, and told me to do the same, and not to mind its cutting my hand.
+It was a bold decision opening the valve in this way, and it was boldly
+carried out." As may be supposed, the bold decision ended with a crash.
+The whole time of descending the four and a quarter miles was a quarter
+of an hour, the last two miles taking four minutes only. For all that,
+there was no penalty beyond a few bruises and the wrecking of the
+instruments, and when land was reached there was no rebound; the balloon
+simply lay inert hard by the margin of the sea. This terrific experience
+in its salient details is strangely similar to that already recorded by
+Albert Smith.
+
+In further experimental labours conducted during the summer of this
+year, many interesting facts stand out prominently among a voluminous
+mass of observations. In an ascent in an east wind from the Crystal
+Palace in early July it was found that the upper limit of that wind was
+reached at 2,400 feet, at which level an air-stream from the north
+was encountered; but at 3,000 feet higher the wind again changed to a
+current from the N.N.W. At the height, then, of little more than half a
+mile, these upper currents were travelling leisurely; but what was more
+noteworthy was their humidity, which greatly increased with altitude,
+and a fact which may often be noted here obtruded itself, namely, when
+the aeronauts were at the upperlimits of the east wind, flat-bottomed
+cumulus clouds were floating at their level. These clouds were entirely
+within the influence of the upper or north wind, so that their under
+sides were in contact with the east wind, i.e. with a much drier
+air, which at once dissipated all vapour in contact with it, and
+thus presented the appearance of flat-bottomed clouds. It is a common
+experience to find the lower surface of a cloud mowed off flat by an
+east wind blowing beneath it.
+
+At the end of June a voyage from Wolverton was accomplished, which
+yielded remarkable results of much real value and interest. The previous
+night had been perfectly calm, and through nearly the whole morning
+the sun shone in a clear blue sky, without a symptom of wind or coming
+change. Shortly before noon, however, clouds appeared aloft, and the
+sky assumed an altered aspect. Then the state of things quickly changed.
+Wind currents reached the earth blowing strongly, and the half-filled
+balloon began to lurch to such an extent that the inflation could only
+with difficulty be proceeded with. Fifty men were unable to hold it in
+sufficient restraint to prevent rude bumping of the car on the ground,
+and when, at length, arrangements were complete and release effected,
+rapid discharge of ballast alone saved collision with neighbouring
+buildings.
+
+It was now that the disturbance overhead came under investigation;
+and, considering the short period it had been in progress, proved most
+remarkable, the more so the further it was explored. At 4,000 feet they
+plunged into the cloud canopy, through which as it was painfully cold,
+they, sought to penetrate into the clear above, feeling confident of
+finding themselves, according to their usual experience, in bright blue
+sky, with the sun brilliantly shining. On the contrary, however, the
+region they now entered was further obscured with another canopy of
+cloud far up. It was while they were traversing this clear interval that
+a sound unwonted in balloon travel assailed their ears. This was the
+"sighing, or rather moaning, of the wind as preceding a storm." Rustling
+of the silk within the cordage is often heard aloft, being due to
+expansion of gas or similar cause; but the aeronauts soon convinced
+themselves that what they heard was attributable to nothing else than
+the actual conflict of air currents beneath. Then they reached fog--a
+dry fog--and, passing through it, entered a further fog, but wetting
+this time, and within the next 1,000 feet they were once again in fog
+that was dry; and then, reaching three miles high and seeing struggling
+sunbeams, they looked around and saw cloud everywhere, below, above,
+and far clouds on their own level. The whole sky had filled in most
+completely since the hours but recently passed, when they had been
+expatiating on the perfect serenity of the empty heavens.
+
+Still they climbed upwards, and in the next 2,000 feet had entered
+further fog, dry at first, but turning wetter as they rose. At four
+miles high they found themselves on a level with clouds, whose dark
+masses and fringed edges proved them to be veritable rain clouds; and,
+while still observing them, the fog surged up again and shut out the
+view, and by the time they had surmounted it they were no less than
+23,000 feet up, or higher than the loftiest of the Andes. Even here,
+with cloud masses still piling high overhead, the eager observer,
+bent on further quests, was for pursuing the voyage; but Mr. Coxwell
+interposed with an emphatic, "Too short of sand!" and the downward
+journey had to be commenced. Then phenomena similar to those already
+described were experienced again--fog banks (sometimes wet, sometimes
+dry), rain showers, and cloud strata of piercing cold. Presently, too,
+a new wonder for a midsummer afternoon--a snow scene all around, and
+spicules of ice settling and remaining frozen on the coatsleeve. Finally
+dropping to earth helplessly through the last 5,000 feet, with all
+ballast spent, Ely Cathedral was passed at close quarters; yet even that
+vast pile was hidden in the gloom that now lay over all the land.
+
+It was just a month later, and day broke with thoroughly dirty weather,
+a heavy sky, and falling showers. This was the day of all others that
+Mr. Glaisher was waiting for, having determined on making special
+investigations concerning the formation of rain in the clouds
+themselves. It had long been noticed that, in an ordinary way, if there
+be two rain gauges placed, one near the surface of the ground, and
+another at a somewhat higher elevation, then the lower gauge will
+collect most water. Does, then, rain condense in some appreciable
+quantity out of the lowest level? Again, during rain, is the air
+saturated completely, and what regulates the quality of rainfall, for
+rain sometimes falls in large drops and sometimes in minute particles?
+These were questions which Mr. Glaisher sought to solve, and there was
+another.
+
+Charles Green had stated as his conviction that whenever rain was
+falling from an overcast sky there would always be found a higher canopy
+of cloud over-hanging the lower stratum. On the day, then, which we are
+now describing, Mr. Glaisher wished to put this his theory to the test;
+and, if correct, then he desired to measure the space between the cloud
+layers, to gauge their thickness, and to see if above the second stratum
+the sun was shining. The main details of the ascent read thus:--
+
+In ten seconds they were in mist, and in ten seconds more were level
+with the cloud. At 1,200 feet they were out of the rain, though not yet
+out of the cloud. Emerging from the lower cloud at 2,300 feet, they saw,
+what Green would have foretold, an upper stratum of dark cloud above.
+Then they made excursions up and down, trying high and low to verify
+these conditions, and passing through fogs both wet and dry, at last
+drifting earthward, through squalls of wind and rain with drops as
+large as fourpenny pieces, to find that on the ground heavy wet had been
+ceaselessly falling.
+
+A day trip over the eastern suburbs of London in the same year seems
+greatly to have impressed Mr. Glaisher. The noise of London streets
+as heard from above has much diminished during the last fifteen years'
+probably owing to the introduction of wood paving. But, forty years ago,
+Mr. Glaisher describes the deep sound of London as resembling the roar
+of the sea, when at a mile high; while at greater elevations it was
+heard at a murmuring noise. But the view must have been yet more
+striking than the hearing, for in one direction the white cliffs from
+Margate to Dover were visible, while Brighton and the sea beyond were
+sighted, and again all the coast line up to Yarmouth yet the atmosphere
+that day, one might have thought, should have been in turmoil, by reason
+of a conflict of aircurrents; for, within two miles of the earth, the
+wind was from the east; between two and three miles high it was exactly
+opposite, being from the west; but at three miles it was N.E.; while,
+higher, it was again directly opposite, or S.W.
+
+During his researches so far Mr. Glaisher had found much that was
+anomalous in the way of the winds, and in other elements of weather. He
+was destined to find much more. It had been commonly accepted that the
+temperature of the air decreases at the average rate of 10 degrees for
+every 300 feet of elevation, and various computations, as, for example,
+those which relate to the co-efficient of refraction, have been
+founded on this basis; but Mr. Glaisher soon established that the above
+generalisation had to be much modified. The following, gathered from his
+notes is a typical example of such surprises as the aeronaut with due
+instrumental equipment may not unfrequently meet with.
+
+It was the 12th of January, 1864, with an air-current on the ground from
+the S.E., of temperature 41 degrees,, which very slowly decreased up to
+1,600 feet when a warm S.W. current was met with, and at 3,000 feet the
+temperature was 3 1/2 degrees higher than on the earth. Above the S.W.
+stream the air became dry, and here the temperature decreased reasonably
+and consistently with altitude; while fine snow was found falling out
+of this upper space into the warmer stream below. Mr. Glaisher discusses
+the peculiarity and formation of this stream in terms which will repay
+consideration.
+
+"The meeting with this S.W. current is of the highest importance, for it
+goes far to explain why England possesses a winter temperature so much
+higher than is due to her northern latitude. Our high winter temperature
+has hitherto been mostly referred to the influence of the Gulf Stream.
+Without doubting the influence of this natural agent, it is necessary to
+add the effect of a parallel atmospheric current to the oceanic current
+coming from the same region--a true aerial Gulf Stream. This great
+energetic current meets with no obstruction in coming to us, or to
+Norway, but passes over the level Atlantic without interruption from
+mountains. It cannot, however, reach France without crossing Spain and
+the lofty range of the Pyrenees, and the effect of these cold mountains
+in reducing its temperature is so great that the former country derives
+but little warmth from it."
+
+An ascent from Woolwich, arranged as near the equinox of that year
+as could be managed, supplied some further remarkable results. The
+temperature, which was 45 degrees to begin with, at 4.7 p.m., crept
+down fairly steadily till 4,000 feet altitude was registered, when, in a
+region of warm fog, it commenced rising abruptly, and at 7,500 feet, in
+blue sky, stood at the same reading as when the balloon had risen only
+1,500 feet. Then, amid many anomalous vicissitudes, the most curious,
+perhaps, was that recorded late in the afternoon, when, at 10,000 feet,
+the air was actually warmer than when the ascent began.
+
+That the temperature of the upper air commonly commences to rise
+after nightfall as the warmth radiated through day hours off the earth
+collects aloft, is a fact well known to the balloonist, and Mr. Glaisher
+carried out with considerable success a well-arranged programme for
+investigating the facts of the case. Starting from Windsor on an
+afternoon of late May, he so arranged matters that his departure from
+earth took place about an hour and three quarters before sunset, his
+intention being to rise to a definite height, and with as uniform a
+speed as possible to time his descent so as to reach earth at the
+moment of sundown; and then to re-ascend and descend again m a precisely
+similar manner during an hour and three-quarters after sunset, taking
+observations all the way. Ascending for the first flight, he left a
+temperature of 58 degrees on the earth, and found it 55 degrees at
+1,200 feet, then 43 degrees at 3,600 feet, and 29 1/2 degrees at
+the culminating point of 6,200 feet. Then, during the descent, the
+temperature increased, though not uniformly, till he was nearly brushing
+the tops of the trees, where it was some 3 degrees colder than at
+starting.
+
+It was now that the balloon, showing a little waywardness, slightly
+upset a portion of the experiment, for, instead of getting to the
+neighbourhood of earth just at the moment of sunset, the travellers
+found themselves at that epoch 600 feet above the ground, and over the
+ridge of a hill, on passing which the balloon became sucked down with
+a down draught, necessitating a liberal discharge of sand to prevent
+contact with the ground. This circumstance, slight in itself, caused the
+lowest point of the descent to be reached some minutes late, and, still
+more unfortunate, occasioned the ascent which immediately followed to be
+a rapid one, too rapid, doubtless, to give the registering instruments
+a fair chance; but one principal record aimed at was obtained at least
+with sufficient truth, namely, that at the culminating point, which
+again was 6,200 feet, the temperature read 35 degrees, or about 6
+degrees warmer than when the balloon was at the same altitude a little
+more than an hour before. This comparatively warm temperature was
+practically maintained for a considerable portion of the descent.
+
+We may summarise the principal of Mr. Glaisher's generalisations thus,
+using as nearly as possible his own words:--
+
+"The decrease of temperature, with increase of elevation, has a diurnal
+range, and depends upon the hour of the day, the changes being the
+greatest at mid-day and the early part of the afternoon, and decreasing
+to about sunset, when, with a clear sky, there is little or no change
+of temperature for several hundred feet from the earth; whilst, with a
+cloudy sky, the change decreases from the mid-day hours at a less rapid
+rate to about sunset, when the decrease is nearly uniform and at the
+rate of 1 degree in 2,000 feet.
+
+"Air currents differing in direction are almost always to be met with.
+The thicknesses of these were found to vary greatly. The direction of
+the wind on the earth was sometimes that of the whole mass of air up to
+20,000 feet nearly, whilst at other times the direction changed within
+500 feet of the earth Sometimes directly opposite currents were met
+with."
+
+With regard to the velocity of upper currents, as shown by the travel
+of balloons, when the distances between the places of ascent and descent
+are measured, it was always found that these distances were very
+much greater than the horizontal movement of the air, as measured by
+anemometers near the ground.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI. SOME FAMOUS FRENCH AERONAUTS.
+
+
+By this period a revival of aeronautics in the land of its birth had
+fairly set in. Since the last ascents of Gay Lussac, in 1804, already
+recorded, there had been a lull in ballooning enterprise in France, and
+no serious scientific expeditions are recorded until the year 1850, when
+MM. Baral and Bixio undertook some investigations respecting the upper
+air, which were to deal with its laws of temperature and humidity,
+with the proportion of carbonic acid present in it, with solar heat at
+different altitudes, with radiation and the polarisation of light, and
+certain other interesting enquiries.
+
+The first ascent, made in June from the Paris Observatory, though a
+lofty one, was attended with so much danger and confusion as to be
+barren of results. The departure, owing to stormy weather, was hurried
+and illordered, so that the velocity in rising was excessive, the net
+constricted the rapidly-swelling globe, and the volumes of out-rushing
+gas half-suffocated the voyagers. Then a large rent occurred, which
+caused an alarmingly rapid fall, and the two philosophers were reduced
+to the necessity of flinging away all they possessed, their instruments
+only excepted. The landing, in a vineyard, was happily not attended with
+disaster, and within a month the same two colleagues attempted a second
+aerial excursion, again in wet weather.
+
+It would seem as if on this occasion, as on the former one, there was
+some lack of due management, for the car, suspended at a long distance
+from the balloon proper, acquired violent oscillations on leaving the
+ground, and dashing first against a tree, and then against a mast, broke
+some of the instruments. A little later there occurred a repetition on
+a minor scale of the aeronauts' previous mishap, for a rent appeared in
+the silk, though, luckily, so low down in the balloon as to be of
+small consequence, and eventually an altitude of some 19,000 feet
+was attained. At one time needles of ice were encountered settling
+abundantly with a crackling sound upon their notebooks. But the
+most remarkable observation made during this voyage related to an
+extraordinary fall of temperature which, as recorded, is without
+parallel. It took place in a cloud mass, 15,000 feet thick, and amounted
+to a drop of from 15 degrees to -39 degrees.
+
+In 1867 M. C. Flammarion made a few balloon ascents, ostensibly for
+scientific research. His account of these, translated by Dr. T. L.
+Phipson, is edited by Mr. Glaisher, and many of the experiences he
+relates will be found to contrast with those of others. His physical
+symptoms alone were remarkable, for on one occasion, at an altitude of
+apparently little over 10,000 feet, he became unwell being affected with
+a sensation of drowsiness, palpitation, shortness of breath, and singing
+in the ears, which, after landing gave place to a "fit of incessant
+gaping" while he states that in later voyages, at but slightly greater
+altitudes, his throat and lungs became affected, and he was troubled
+with presence of blood upon the lips. This draws forth a footnote from
+Mr. Glaisher, which should be commended to all would-be sky voyagers.
+It runs thus:--"I have never experienced any of these effects till I had
+long passed the heights reached by M. Flammarion, and at no elevation
+was there the presence of blood." However, M. Flammarion adduces, at
+least, one reassuring fact, which will be read with interest. Once,
+having, against the entreaties of his friends, ascended with an attack
+of influenza upon him, he came down to earth again an hour or two
+afterwards with this troublesome complaint completely cured.
+
+It would seem as if the soil of France supplied the aeronaut with
+certain phenomena not known in England, one of these apparently being
+the occasional presence of butterflies hovering round the car when at
+considerable heights. M. Flammarion mentions more than one occasion when
+he thus saw them, and found them to be without sense of alarm at the
+balloon or its passengers. Again, the French observer seems seldom to
+have detected those opposite airstreams which English balloonists may
+frequently observe, and have such cause to be wary of. His words, as
+translated, are:--"It appears to me that two or more currents, flowing
+in different directions, are very rarely met with as we rise in the air,
+and when two layers of cloud appear to travel in opposite directions the
+effect is generally caused by the motion of one layer being more rapid
+than the other, when the latter appears to be moving in a contrary
+direction." In continuation of these experiences, he speaks of an
+occasion when, speeding through the air at the rate of an ordinary
+express train, he was drawn towards a tempest by a species of
+attraction.
+
+The French aeronaut's estimate of what constitutes a terrific rate of
+fall differs somewhat from that of others whose testimony we have been
+recording. In one descent, falling (without reaching earth, however) a
+distance of 2,130 feet in two minutes, he describes the earth rising up
+with frightful rapidity, though, as will be observed, this is not nearly
+half the speed at which either Mr. Glaisher or Albert Smith and his
+companions were precipitated on to bare ground. Very many cases which
+we have cited go to show that the knowledge of the great elasticity of
+a well-made wicker car may rob a fall otherwise alarming of its terrors,
+while the practical certainty that a balloon descending headlong will
+form itself into a natural parachute, if properly managed, reduces
+enormously the risk attending any mere impact with earth. It will be
+allowed by all experienced aeronauts that far worse chances lie in some
+awkward alighting ground, or in the dragging against dangerous obstacles
+after the balloon has fallen.
+
+Many of M. Flammarion's experiments are remarkable for their simplicity.
+Indeed, in some cases he would seem to have applied himself to making
+trials the result of which could not have been seriously questioned.
+The following, quoting from Dr. Phipson's translation, will serve as an
+example:--
+
+"Another mechanical experiment was made in the evening, and renewed
+next day. I wished to verify Galileo's principle of the independence
+of simultaneous motions. According to this principle, a body which is
+allowed to fall from another body in motion participates in the motion
+of the latter; thus, if we drop a marble from the masthead of a ship, it
+preserves during its fall the rate of motion of the vessel, and falls
+at the foot of the mast as if the ship were still. Now, if a body falls
+from a balloon, does it also follow the motion of the latter, or does it
+fall directly to the earth in a line which is perpendicular to the point
+at which we let it fall? In the first case its fall would be described
+by an oblique line. The latter was found to be the fact, as we proved by
+letting a bottle fall. During its descent it partakes of the balloon's
+motion, and until it reaches the earth is always seen perpendicularly
+below the car."
+
+An interesting phenomenon, relating to the formation of fog was
+witnessed by M. Flammarion in one of his voyages. He was flying low with
+a fast wind, and while traversing a forest he noticed here and there
+patches of light clouds, which, remaining motionless in defiance of
+the strong wind, continued to hang above the summits of the trees.
+The explanation of this can hardly be doubtful, being analogous to
+the formation of a night-cap on a mountain peak where warm moist
+air-currents become chilled against the cold rock surface, forming,
+momentarily, a patch of cloud which, though constantly being blown away,
+is as constantly re-formed, and thus is made to appear as if stationary.
+
+The above instructive phenomenon could hardly have been noticed save
+by an aeronaut, and the same may be said of the following. Passing in
+a clear sky over the spot where the Marne flows into the Seine, M.
+Flammarion notes that the water of the Marne, which, as he says, is as
+yellow now as it was in the time of Julius Caesar, does not mix with the
+green water of the Seine, which flows to the left of the current, nor
+with the blue water of the canal, which flows to the right. Thus, a
+yellow river was seen flowing between two distinct brooks, green and
+blue respectively.
+
+Here was optical evidence of the way in which streams of water which
+actually unite may continue to maintain independent courses. We have
+seen that the same is true of streams of air, and, where these traverse
+one another in a copious and complex manner, we find, as will be shown,
+conditions produced that cause a great deadening of sound; thus, great
+differences in the travel of sound in the silent upper air can be
+noticed on different days, and, indeed, in different periods of the same
+aerial voyage. M. Flammarion bears undeniable testimony to the manner in
+which the equable condition of the atmosphere attending fog enhances,
+to the aeronaut, the hearing of sounds from below. But when he gives
+definite heights as the range limits of definite sounds it must be
+understood that these ranges will be found to vary greatly according
+to circumstances. Thus, where it is stated that a man's voice may make
+itself heard at 3,255 feet, it might be added that sometimes it cannot
+be heard at a considerably less altitude; and, again, the statement that
+the whistle of a locomotive rises to near 10,000 feet, and the noise of
+a railway train to 8,200 feet, should be qualified an additional note
+to the effect that both may be occasionally heard at distances vastly
+greater. But perhaps the most curious observation of M. Flammarion
+respecting sounds aloft relates to that of echo. To his fancy, this had
+a vague depth, appearing also to rise from the horizon with a curious
+tone, as if it came from another world. To the writer, on the contrary,
+and to many fellow observers who have specially experimented with this
+test of sound, the echo has always appeared to come very much from the
+right place--the spot nearly immediately below--and if this suggested
+its coming from another world then the same would have to be said of all
+echoes generally.
+
+About the same period when M. Flammarion was conducting his early
+ascents, MM. de Fonvielle and Tissandier embarked on experimental
+voyages, which deserve some particular notice. Interest in the new
+revival of the art of aeronautics was manifestly be coming reestablished
+in France, and though we find enthusiasts more than once bitterly
+complaining of the lack of financial assistance, still ballooning
+exhibitions, wherever accomplished, never failed to arouse popular
+appreciation. But enthusiasm was by no means the universal attitude with
+which the world regarded aerial enterprise. A remarkable and instructive
+instance is given to the contrary by M. W. de Fonvielle himself.
+
+He records an original ballooning exploit, organised at Algiers, which
+one might have supposed would have caused a great sensation, and to
+which he himself had called public attention in the local journals. The
+brothers Braguet were to make an ascent from the Mustapha Plain in a
+small fire balloon heated with burning straw, and this risky performance
+was successfully carried out by the enterprising aeronauts. But, to the
+onlooker, the most striking feature of the proceeding was the fact that
+while the Europeans present regarded the spectacle with curiosity and
+pleasure, the native Mussulmans did not appear to take the slightest
+interest in it; "And this," remarked de Fonvielle, "was not the first
+time that ignorant and fanatic people have been noted as manifesting
+complete indifference to balloon ascents. After the taking of
+Cairo, when General Buonaparte wished to produce an effect upon the
+inhabitants, he not only made them a speech, but supplemented it with
+the ascent of a fire balloon. The attempt was a complete failure, for
+the French alone looked up to the clouds to see what became of the
+balloon."
+
+In the summer of 1867 an attempt was made to revive the long extinct
+Aeronautic Company of France, established by De Guyton. The undertaking
+was worked with considerable energy. Some forty or fifty active recruits
+were pressed into the service, a suitable captive balloon was obtained,
+thousands of spectators came to watch the evolutions; and many were
+found to pay the handsome fee of 100 francs for a short excursion in the
+air. For all this, the effort was entirely abortive, and the ballooning
+corps, as such, dropped out of existence.
+
+A little while after this de Fonvielle, on a visit to England, had a
+most pathetic interview with the veteran Charles Green, who was living
+in comfortable retirement at Upper Holloway. The grand old man pointed
+to a well-filled portfolio in the corner of his room, in which, he
+said, were accounts of all his travels, that would require a lifetime to
+peruse and put in order. Green then took his visitor to the end of the
+narrow court, and, opening the door of an outhouse, showed him the old
+Nassau balloon. "Here is my car," he said, touching it with a kind of
+solemn respect, "which, like its old pilot, now reposes quietly after
+a long and active career. Here is the guide rope which I imagined in
+former years, and which has been found very useful to aeronauts.... Now
+my life has past and my time has gone by.... Though my hair is white and
+my body too weak to help you, I can still give you my advice, and you
+have my hearty wishes for your future."
+
+It was but shortly after this, on March 26, 1870, that Charles Green
+passed away in the 85th year of his age.
+
+De Fonvielle's colleague, M. Gaston Tissandier, was on one occasion
+accidentally brought to visit the resting place of the earliest among
+aeronauts, whose tragic death occurred while Charles Green himself
+was yet a boy. In a stormy and hazardous descent Tissandier, under
+the guidance of M. Duruof, landed with difficulty on the sea coast of
+France, when one of the first to render help was a lightkeeper of the
+Griz-nez lighthouse, who gave the information that on the other side of
+the hills, a few hundred yards from the spot where they had landed, was
+the tomb of Pilatre de Rozier, whose tragical death has been recorded in
+an early chapter. A visit to the actual locality the next day revealed
+the fact that a humble stone still marked the spot.
+
+Certain scientific facts and memoranda collected by the talented French
+aeronaut whom we are following are too interesting to be omitted. In the
+same journey to which we have just referred the voyagers, when nearly
+over Calais, were witnesses from their commanding standpoint of a very
+striking phenomenon of mirage. Looking in the direction of England, the
+far coast line was hidden by an immense veil of leaden-coloured cloud,
+and, following this cloud wall upward to detect where it terminated, the
+travellers saw above it a greenish layer like that of the surface of
+the sea, on which was detected a little black point suggesting a walnut
+shell. Fixing their eyes on this black spot, they presently discerned
+it to be a ship sailing upside down upon an aerial ocean. Soon after, a
+steamer blowing smoke, and then other vessels, added themselves to the
+illusory spectacle.
+
+Another wonder detected, equally striking though less uncommon, was
+of an acoustical nature, the locality this time being over Paris. The
+height of the balloon at this moment was not great, and, moreover,
+was diminishing as it settled down. Suddenly there broke in upon the
+voyagers a sound as of a confused kind of murmur. It was not unlike
+the distant breaking of waves against a sandy coast, and scarcely less
+monotonous. It was the noise of Paris that reached them, as soon as they
+sank to within 2,600 feet of the ground, but it disappeared at once when
+they threw out just sufficient ballast to rise above that altitude.
+
+It might appear to many that so strange and sudden a shutting out of a
+vast sound occurring abruptly in the free upper air must have been more
+imaginary than real, yet the phenomenon is almost precisely similar to
+one coming within the experience the writer, and vouched for by his son
+and daughter, as also by Mr. Percival Spencer, all of whom were joint
+observers at the time, the main point of difference in the two cases
+being the fact that the "region of silence" was recorded by the French
+observers as occurring at a somewhat lower level. In both cases there
+is little doubt that the phenomenon can be referred to a stratum of
+disturbed or non-homogeneous air, which may have been very far spread,
+and which is capable of acting as a most opaque sound barrier.
+
+Attention has often been called in these pages to the fact that the
+action of the sun on an inflated balloon, even when the solar rays may
+be partially obscured and only operative for a few passing moments,
+is to give sudden and great buoyancy to the balloon. An admirable
+opportunity for fairly estimating the dynamic effect of the sun's rays
+on a silk globe, whose fabric was half translucent, was offered to
+the French aeronauts when their balloon was spread on the grass under
+repair, and for this purpose inflated with the circumambient air by
+means of a simple rotatory fan. The sun coming out, the interior of
+the globe quickly became suffocating, and it was found that, while the
+external temperature recorded 77 degrees, that of the interior was in
+excess of 91 degrees.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII. ADVENTURE AND ENTERPRISE.
+
+
+A balloon which has become famous in history was frequently used in the
+researches of the French aeronauts mentioned in our last chapter. This
+was known as "The Giant," the creation of M. Nadar, a progressive and
+practical aeronaut, who had always entertained ambitious ideas about
+aerial travel.
+
+M. Nadar had been editor of L'Aeronaut, a French journal devoted to the
+advancement of aerostation generally. He had also strongly expressed
+his own views respecting the possibility of constructing air ships that
+should be subject to control and guidance when winds were blowing. His
+great contention was that the dirigible air ship would, like a bird,
+have to be made heavier than the medium in which it was to fly. As he
+put it, a balloon could never properly become a vessel. It would only
+be a buoy. In spite of any number of accessories, paddles, wings, fans,
+sails, it could not possibly prevent the wind from bodily carrying away
+the whole concern.
+
+After this strong expression of opinion, it may appear somewhat strange
+that such a bold theoriser should at once have set himself to construct
+the largest gas balloon on record. Such, however, was the case and the
+reason urged was not otherwise than plausible. For, seeing that a vast
+sum of money would be needed to put his theories into practice, M.
+Nadar conceived the idea of first constructing a balloon so unique and
+unrivalled that it should compel public attention in a way that no other
+balloon had done before, and so by popular exhibitions bring to his
+hand such sums as he required. A proper idea of the scale of this
+huge machine can be easily gathered. The largest balloons at present
+exhibited in this country are seldom much in excess of 50,000 cubic
+feet capacity. Compared with these the "Great Nassau Balloon," built by
+Charles Green, which has been already sufficiently described, was a
+true leviathan; while Coxwell's "Mammoth" was larger yet, possessing
+a content, when fully inflated, of no less than 93,000 cubic feet, and
+measuring over 55 feet in diameter. This, however, as will be seen, was
+but a mere pigmy when compared with "The Giant," which, measuring some
+74 feet in diameter, possessed the prodigious capacity of 215,000 cubic
+feet.
+
+But the huge craft possessed another novelty besides that of
+exceptional size. It was provided with a subsidiary balloon, called the
+"Compensator," and properly the idea of M. L. Godard, the function of
+which was to receive any expulsion of gas in ascending, and thus
+to prevent loss during any voyage. The specification of this really
+remarkable structure may be taken from M. Nadar's own description. The
+globe in itself was for greater strength virtually double, consisting of
+two identical balloons, one within the other, each made of white silk
+of the finest quality, and costing about 5s. 4d. per yard. No less than
+22,000 yards of this silk were required, and the sewing up of the
+gores was entirely done by hand. The small compensating balloon was
+constructed to have a capacity of about 3,500 cubic feet, and the whole
+machine, when fully inflated, was calculated to lift 4 1/2 tons. With
+this enormous margin of buoyancy, M. Nadar determined on making the
+car of proportionate and unparalleled dimensions, and of most elaborate
+design. It contained two floors, of which the upper one was open, the
+height of all being nearly 7 feet, with a width of about 13 feet. Then
+what was thought to be due provision was made for possible emergencies.
+It might descend far from help or habitations, therefore means were
+provided for attaching wheels and axles. Again, the chance of rough
+impact had to be considered, and so canes, to act as springs, were
+fitted around and below. Once again, there was the contingency of
+immersion to be reckoned with; therefore there were provided buoys
+and water-tight compartments. Further than this, unusual luxuries
+were added, for there were cabins, one for the captain at one end, and
+another with three berths for passengers at the other. Nor was this all,
+for there was, in addition, a larder, a lavatory, a photographic room,
+and a printing office. It remains now only to tell the tale of how this
+leviathan of the air acquitted itself.
+
+The first ascent was made on the 4th of October, 1853, from the Champ de
+Mars, and no fewer than fifteen living souls were launched together
+into the sky. Of these Nadar was captain, with the brothers Godard
+lieutenants. There was the Prince de Sayn-Wittgenstein; there was the
+Count de St. Martin; above all, there was a lady, the Princess de la
+Tour d'Auvergne. The balloon came to earth at 9 o'clock at night near
+Meaux, and, considering all the provision which had been made to guard
+against rough landing, it can hardly be said that the descent was a
+happy one. It appears that the car dragged on its side for nearly a
+mile, and the passengers, far from finding security in the seclusion of
+the inner chambers, were glad to clamber out above and cling, as best
+they might, to the ropes.
+
+Many of the party were bruised more or less severely, though no one was
+seriously injured, and it was reported that such fragile articles as
+crockery, cakes, confectionery, and wine bottles to the number of no
+less than thirty-seven, were afterwards discovered to be intact, and
+received due attention. It is further stated that the descent was
+decided on contrary to the wishes of the captain, but in deference to
+the judgment of the experienced MM. Godard, it being apparently their
+conviction that the balloon was heading out to sea, whereas, in reality,
+they were going due east, "with no sea at all before them nearer than
+the Caspian."
+
+This was certainly an unpropitious trial trip for the vessel that had so
+ambitiously sought dominion over the air, and the next trial, which was
+embarked upon a fortnight later, Sunday, October 18th, was hardly
+less unfortunate. Again the ascent was from the Champ de Mars, and the
+send-off lacked nothing in the way of splendour and circumstance.
+The Emperor was present, for two hours an interested observer of the
+proceedings; the King of Greece also attended, and even entered the car,
+while another famous spectator was the popular Meyerbeer. "The Giant"
+first gave a preliminary demonstration of his power by taking up, for a
+cable's length, a living freight of some thirty individuals, and then,
+at 5.10 p.m., started on its second free voyage, with nine souls on
+board, among them again being a lady, in the person of Madame Nadar. For
+nearly twenty-four hours no tidings of the voyage were forthcoming,
+when a telegram was received stating that the balloon had passed over
+Compiegne, more than seventy miles from Paris, at 8.30 on the previous
+evening, and that Nadar had dropped the simple message, "All goes
+well!" A later telegram the same evening stated that the balloon had at
+midnight on Sunday passed the Belgian frontier over Erquelines, where
+the Custom House officials had challenged the travellers without
+receiving an answer.
+
+But eight-and-forty hours since the start went by without further news,
+and excitement in Paris grew intense. When the news came at last it
+was from Bremen, to say that Nadar's balloon had descended at Eystrup,
+Hanover, with five of the passengers injured, three seriously.
+These three were M. Nadar, his wife, and M. St. Felix. M. Nadar, in
+communicating this intelligence, added, "We owe our lives to the courage
+of Jules Godard." The following signed testimony of M. Louis Godard is
+forthcoming, and as it refers to an occasion which is among the most
+thrilling in aerial adventure, it may well be given without abridgment.
+It is here transcribed almost literatim from Mr. H. Turner's valuable
+work, "Astra Castra."
+
+"The Giant," after passing Lisle, proceeded in the direction of Belgium,
+where a fresh current, coming from the Channel, drove it over the
+marshes of Holland. It was there that M. Louis Godard proposed to
+descend to await the break of day, in order to recognise the situation
+and again to depart. It was one in the morning, the night was dark,
+but the weather calm. Unfortunately, this advice, supported by long
+experience, was not listened to. "The Giant" went on its way, and
+then Louis Godard no longer considered himself responsible for the
+consequences of the voyage.
+
+The balloon coasted the Zuyder Zee, and then entered Hanover. The sun
+began to appear, drying the netting and sides of the balloon, wet from
+its passage through the clouds, and produced a dilatation which elevated
+the aeronauts to 15,000 feet. At eight o'clock the wind, blowing
+suddenly from the west, drove the balloon in a right line towards the
+North Sea. It was necessary, at all hazards, to effect a descent. This
+was a perilous affair, as the wind was blowing with extreme violence.
+The brothers Godard assisted, by M. Gabriel, opened the valve and got
+out the anchors; but, unfortunately, the horizontal progress of the
+balloon augmented from second to second. The first obstacle which the
+anchors encountered was a tree; it was instantly uprooted, and dragged
+along to a second obstacle, a house, whose roof was carried off. At this
+moment the two cables of the anchors were broken without the voyagers
+being aware of it. Foreseeing the successive shocks that were about
+to ensue--the moment was critical--the least forgetfulness might cause
+death. To add to the difficulty, the balloon's inclined position did not
+permit of operating the valve, except on the hoop.
+
+At the request of his brother, Jules Godard attempted the difficult work
+of climbing to this hoop, and, in spite of his known agility, he was
+obliged several times to renew the effort. Alone, and not being able to
+detach the cord, M. Louis Godard begged M. Yon to join his brother on
+the hoop. The two made themselves masters of the rope, which they passed
+to Louis Godard. The latter secured it firmly, in spite of the shocks
+he received. A violent impact shook the car and M. de St. Felix
+became entangled under the car as it was ploughing the ground. It was
+impossible to render him any assistance; notwithstanding, Jules Godard,
+stimulated by his brother, leapt out to attempt mooring the balloon to
+the trees by means of the ropes. M. Montgolfier, entangled in the same
+manner, was re-seated in time and saved by Louis Godard.
+
+At this moment others leapt out and escaped with a few contusions. The
+car, dragged along by the balloon, broke trees more than half a yard in
+diameter and overthrew everything that opposed it.
+
+Louis Godard made M. Yon leap out of the car to assist Madame Nadar; but
+a terrible shock threw out MM. Nadar, Louis Godard, and Montgolfier, the
+two first against the ground, the third into the water. Madame Nadar,
+in spite of the efforts of the voyagers, remained the last, and found
+herself squeezed between the ground and the car, which had fallen
+upon her. More than twenty minutes elapsed before it was possible to
+disentangle her, in spite of the most vigorous efforts on the part of
+everyone. It was at this moment the balloon burst and, like a furious
+monster, destroyed everything around it. Immediately afterwards they
+ran to the assistance of M. de St. Felix, who had been left behind, and
+whose face was one ghastly wound, and covered with blood and mire. He
+had an arm broken, his chest grazed and bruised.
+
+After this accident, though a creditable future lay in store for "The
+Giant," its monstrous and unwieldy car was condemned, and presently
+removed to the Crystal Palace, where it was daily visited by large
+crowds.
+
+It is impossible to dismiss this brief sketch of French balloonists
+of this period without paying some due tribute to M. Depuis Delcourt,
+equally well known in the literary and scientific world, and regarded
+in his own country as a father among aeronauts. Born in 1802, his
+recollection went back to the time of Montgolfier and Charles, to the
+feats of Garnerin, and the death of Madame Blanchard. He established the
+Aerostatic and Meteorological Society of France, and was the author of
+many works, as well as of a journal dealing with aerial navigation. He
+closed a life devoted to the pursuit and advancement of aerostation in
+April, 1864.
+
+Before very long, events began shaping themselves in the political world
+which were destined to bring the balloon in France into yet greater
+prominence. But we should mention that already its capabilities in
+time of war to meet the requirements of military operations had been
+scientifically and systematically tested, and of these trials it will be
+necessary to speak without further delay.
+
+Reference has already been made in these pages to a valuable article
+contributed in 1862 by Lieutenant G. Grover, R.E., to the Royal
+Engineers' papers. From this report it would appear that the balloon, as
+a means of reconnoitring, was employed with somewhat uncertain success
+at the battle of Solferino, the brothers Godard being engaged as
+aeronauts. The balloon used was a Montgolfier, or fire balloon, and,
+in spite of its ready inflation, MM. Godard considered it, from the
+difficulty of maintaining within it the necessary degree of buoyancy,
+far inferior to the gas inflated balloon. On the other hand, the
+Austrian Engineer Committee were of a contrary opinion. It would seem
+that no very definite conclusions had been arrived at with respect
+to the use and value of the military balloon up to the time of the
+commencement of the American War in 1862.
+
+It was now that the practice of ballooning became a recognised
+department of military manoeuvres, and a valuable report appears in
+the above-mentioned papers from the pen of Captain F. Beaumont, R.E.
+According to this officer, the Americans made trial of two different
+balloons, both hydrogen inflated, one having a capacity of about 13,000
+cubic feet, and the other about twice as large. It was this latter that
+the Americans used almost exclusively, it being found to afford more
+steadiness and safety, and to be the means, sometimes desirable, of
+taking up more than two persons. The difficulty of sufficient gas
+supply seems to have been well met. Two generators sufficed, these
+being "nothing more than large tanks of wood, acid-proof inside, and of
+sufficient strength to resist the expansive action of the gas; they were
+provided with suitable stopcocks for regulating the admission of the
+gas, and with manhole covers for introducing the necessary materials."
+The gas, as evolved, being made to pass successively through two vessels
+containing lime water, was delivered cool and purified into the balloon,
+and as the sulphuric acid needed for the process was found sufficiently
+cheap, and scrap iron also required was readily come by, it would seem
+that practical difficulties in the field were reduced to a minimum.
+
+According to Captain Beaumont, the difficulties which might have been
+expected from windy weather were not considerable, and twenty-five or
+thirty men sufficed to convey the balloon easily, when inflated, over
+all obstacles. The transport of the bulk of the rest of the apparatus
+does not read, on paper, a very serious matter. The two generators
+required four horses each, and the acid and balloon carts as many more.
+Arrived on the scene of action, the drill itself was a simple matter.
+A squad of thirty men under an officer sufficed to get the balloon into
+position, and to arrange the ballast so that, with all in, there was a
+lifting power of some thirty pounds. Then, at the word of command, the
+men together drop the car, and seize the three guy ropes, of which one
+is made to pass through a snatch block firmly secured. The guy ropes are
+then payed out according to the directions of the aeronaut, as conveyed
+through the officer.
+
+The balloon accompanied the army's advance where its services could be
+turned to the greatest advantage. It was employed in making continual
+ascents, and furnishing daily reports to General M'Clellan, and it was
+supposed that by constant observation the aeronaut could, at a glance,
+assure himself that no change had taken place in the occupation of the
+country. Captain Beaumont, speaking, be it remembered, of the military
+operations and manoeuvres then in vogue, declared that earthworks could
+be seen even at the distance of eight miles, though their character
+could not be distinctly stated. Wooded country was unfitted for balloon
+reconnaissance, and only in a plain could any considerable body of
+troops be made known. Then follows such a description as one would be
+expecting to find:--
+
+"During the battle of Hanover Court House, which was the first
+engagement of importance before Richmond, I happened to be close to the
+balloon when the heavy firing began. The wind was rather high; but I was
+anxious to see, if possible, what was going on, and I went up with the
+father of the aeronaut. The balloon was, however, short of gas, and
+as the wind was high we were obliged to come down. I then went up by
+myself, the diminished weight giving increased steadiness; but it
+was not considered safe to go more than 500 feet, on account of the
+unsettled state of the weather. The balloon was very unsteady, so much
+so that it was difficult to fix my sight on any particular object. At
+that distance I could see nothing of the fight."
+
+Following this is another significant sentence:--
+
+"In the case of a siege, I am inclined to think that a balloon
+reconnaissance would be of less value than in almost any other case
+where a reconnaissance can be required; but, even here, if useless,
+it is, at any rate, also harmless. I once saw the fire of artillery
+directed from the balloon; this became necessary, as it was only in
+this way that the picket which it was desired to dislodge could be seen.
+However, I cannot say that I thought the fire of artillery was of much
+effect against the unseen object; not that this was the fault of the
+balloon, for had it not told the artillerists which way the shots were
+falling their fire would have been more useless still."
+
+It will be observed that at this time photography had not been adopted
+as an adjunct to military ballooning.
+
+Full details have been given in this chapter of the monster balloon
+constructed by M. Nadar; but in 1864 Eugene Godard built one larger yet
+of the Montgolfier type. Its capacity was nearly half a million cubic
+feet, while the stove which inflated it stood 18 feet high, and weighed
+nearly 1,000 pounds. Two free ascents were made without mishap from
+Cremorne Gardens. Five years later Ashburnham Park was the scene of
+captive ascents made with another mammoth balloon, containing no less
+than 350,000 cubic feet of pure hydrogen, and capable of lifting
+11 tons. It was built at a cost of 28,000 francs by M. Giffard, the
+well-known engineer and inventor of the injector for feeding steam
+engines.
+
+These aerial leviathans do not appear to have been, in any true sense
+successful.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. THE BALLOON IN THE SIEGE OF PARIS.
+
+
+Within a few months of the completion of the period covered by the
+records of the last chapter, France was destined to receive a more
+urgent stimulus than ever before to develop the resources of ballooning,
+and, in hot haste, to turn to the most serious and practical account all
+the best resources of aerial locomotion. The stern necessity of war was
+upon her, and during four months the sole mode of exit from Paris--nay,
+the only possible means of conveying a simple message beyond the
+boundary of her fortifications--was by balloon.
+
+Hitherto, from the very inception of the art from the earliest
+Montgolfier with its blazing furnace, the balloon had gone up from
+the gay capital under every variety of circumstance--for pleasure, for
+exhibition, for scientific research. It was now put in requisition to
+mitigate the emergency occasioned by the long and close investment of
+the city by the Prussian forces.
+
+Recognising, at an early stage, the possibilities of the balloon, an
+enquiry was at once made by the military authorities as to the existing
+resources of the city, when it was quickly discovered that, with certain
+exceptions to be presently mentioned, such balloons as were in existence
+within the walls were either unserviceable or inadequate for the work
+that was demanded of them. Thereupon, with admirable promptness and
+enterprise, it was forthwith determined to organise the building
+and equipment of a regular fleet of balloons of sufficient size and
+strength.
+
+It chanced that there were in Paris at the time two professional
+aeronauts of proved experience and skill, both of whom had become well
+known in London only the season before in connection with M. Giffard's
+huge captive balloon at Ashburnham Park. These were MM. Godard and Yon,
+and to them was entrusted the establishment of two separate factories in
+spacious buildings, which were at once available and admirably adapted
+for the purpose. These were at the Orleans and the Northern Railway
+stations respectively, where spacious roofs and abundant elbow room,
+the chief requisites, were to be found. The first-mentioned station was
+presided over Godard, the latter by M. Yon, assisted by M. Dartois.
+
+It was not doubted that the resources of the city would be able to
+supply the large demand that would be made for suitable material; but
+silk as a fabric was at once barred on the score of expense alone. A
+single journey was all that needed to be calculated on for each craft,
+and thus calico would serve the purpose, and would admit of speedy
+making up. Slight differences in manufacture were adopted at the two
+factories. At the Northern station plain white calico was used, sewn
+with a sewing machine, whereas at the Orleans station the material was
+coloured and entrusted only to hand stitching. The allimportant detail
+of varnish was supplied by a mixture of linseed oil and the active
+principle of ordinary driers, and this, laid on with a rubber, rendered
+the material gas-tight and quickly dry enough for use. Hundreds of
+hands, men and women, were employed at the two factories, at which some
+sixty balloons were produced before the end of the siege. Much of
+the more important work was entrusted to sailors, who showed special
+aptness, not only in fitting out and rigging the balloons, but also in
+their management when entrusted to the winds.
+
+It must have been an impressive sight for friend or foe to witness the
+departure of each aerial vessel on its venturesome mission. The bold
+plunge into space above the roofs of the imprisoned city; the rapid
+climb into the sky and, later, the pearl drop high in air floating
+away to its uncertain and hazardous haven, running the gauntlet of
+the enemy's fire by day or braving what at first appeared to be equal
+danger, attending the darkness of night. It will be seen, however, that,
+of the two evils, that of the darkness was considered the less, even
+though, with strange and unreasonable excess of caution, the aeronauts
+would not suffer the use of the perfectly safe and almost indispensable
+Davy lamp.
+
+Before any free ascents were ventured on, two old balloons were put
+to some practical trial as stationary observatories. One of these was
+moored at Montmartre, the other at Mont-souris. From these centres
+daily, when the weather permitted, captive ascents were made--four by
+day and two by night--to watch and locate the movements of the enemy.
+The system, as far as it went, was well planned. It was safe, and, to
+favour expedition, messages were written in the car of the balloon and
+slid down the cable to the attendants below. The net result, however,
+from a strategic point of view, does not appear to have been of great
+value.
+
+Ere yet the balloons were ready, certain bold and eventful escapes were
+ventured on. M. Duruof, already introduced in these pages, trusting
+himself to the old craft, "Le Neptune," in unskyworthy condition, made
+a fast plunge into space, and, catching the upper winds, was borne away
+for as long a period as could be maintained at the cost of a prodigal
+expenditure of ballast. The balloon is said to have described a visible
+parabola, like the trajectory of a projectile, and fell at Evreux in
+safety and beyond the range of the enemy's fire, though not far from
+their lines. This was on the 23rd of September. Two days afterwards the
+first practical trial was made with homing pigeons, with the idea of
+using them in connection with balloons for the establishment of an
+officially sanctioned post. MM. Maugin and Grandchamp conducted this
+voyage in the "Ville de Florence," and descended near Vernouillet, not
+far beyond Le Foret de St. Germain, and less than twenty miles
+from Paris. The serviceability of the pigeon, however, was clearly
+established, and a note contributed by Mr. Glaisher, relating to the
+breeding and choice of these birds, may be considered of interest. Mr.
+R. W. Aldridge, of Charlton, as quoted by Mr. Glaisher, stated that his
+experience went to show that these birds can be produced with different
+powers of orientation to meet the requirements of particular cases. "The
+bird required to make journeys under fifty miles would materially differ
+in its pedigree from one capable of flying 100 or 600 miles. Attention,
+in particular, must be given to the colour of the eye; if wanted for
+broad daylight the bird known as the 'Pearl Eye,' from its colour,
+should be selected; but if for foggy weather or for twilight flying the
+black- or blue-eyed bird should receive the preference."
+
+Only a small minority, amounting to about sixty out of 360 birds taken
+up, returned to Paris, but these are calculated to have conveyed among
+them some 100,000 messages. To reduce these pigeon messages to the
+smallest possible compass a method of reduction by photography was
+employed with much success. A long letter might, in this way, be
+faithfully recorded on a surface of thinnest photographic paper, not
+exceeding the dimensions of a postage stamp, and, when received, no
+more was necessary than to subject it to magnification, and then to
+transcribe it and send a fair copy to the addressee.
+
+The third voyage from Paris, on September 29th was undertaken by Louis
+Godard in two small balloons, united together, carrying both despatches
+and pigeons, and a safe landing was effected at Mantes This successful
+feat was rival led the next day by M. Tissandier, who ascended alone in
+a balloon of only some 26,000 cubic feet capacity and reached earth at
+Dreux, in Normandy.
+
+These voyages exhausted the store of ready-made balloons, but by a week
+later the first of those being specially manufactured was ready, and
+conveyed in safety from the city no less a personage than M. Gambetta.
+
+The courageous resolve of the great man caused much sensation in Paris,
+the more so because, owing to contrary winds, the departure had to be
+postponed from day to day. And when, at length, on October 7th, Gambetta
+and his secretary, with the aeronaut Trichet, actually got away, in
+company with another balloon, they were vigorously fired at with shot
+and shell before they had cleared St. Denis. Farther out over the German
+posts they were again under fire, and escaped by discharging ballast,
+not, however, before Gambetta had been grazed by a bullet. Yet once more
+they were assailed by German volleys before, about 3 p.m., they found a
+haven near Montdidier.
+
+The usual dimensions of the new balloons gave a capacity of 70,000 cubic
+feet, and each of these, when inflated with coal gas, was calculated
+to convey a freight of passengers, ballast, and despatches amounting to
+some 2,000 pounds. Their despatch became frequent, sometimes two in the
+same twenty-four hours. In less than a single week in October as many as
+four balloons had fallen in Belgium, and as many more elsewhere. Up
+till now some sixteen ventures had ended well, but presently there
+came trouble. On October 22nd MM. Iglesia and Jouvencel fell at Meaux,
+occupied by the Prussians; their despatches, however, were saved in
+a dung cart. The twenty-third voyage ended more unhappily. On this
+occasion a sailor acted as aeronaut, accompanied by an engineer, Etienne
+Antonin, and carrying nearly 1,000 pounds of letters. It chanced
+that they descended near Orleans on the very day when that town was
+re-occupied by the enemy, and both voyagers were made prisoners. The
+engineer, however, subsequently escaped. Three days later another
+sailor, also accompanied by an engineer, fell at the town of Ferrieres,
+then occupied by the Prussians, when both were made prisoners. In this
+case, also, the engineer succeeded in making his escape; while the
+despatches were rescued by a forester and forwarded in safety.
+
+At about this date W. de Fonvielle, acting as aeronaut, and taking
+passengers, made a successful escape, of which he has given a graphic
+account. He had been baulked by more than one serious contretemps. It
+had been determined that the departure should be by night, and November
+19th being fixed upon, the balloon was in process of inflation under a
+gentle wind that threatened a travel towards Prussian soil, when, as the
+moment of departure approached, a large hole was accidentally made in
+the fabric by the end of the metal pipe, and it was then too late to
+effect repairs. The next and following days the weather was foul, and
+the departure was not effected till the 25th, when he sailed away over
+the familiar but desolated country. He and his companions were fired at,
+but only when they were well beyond range, and in less than two hours
+the party reached Louvain, beyond Brussels, some 180 English miles in a
+direct line from their starting point. This was the day after the "Ville
+d'Orleans" balloon had made the record voyage and distance of all the
+siege, falling in Norway, 600 miles north of Christiania, after a flight
+of fifteen hours.
+
+At the end of November, when over thirty escape voyages had been made,
+two fatal disasters occurred. A sailor of the name of Prince ascended
+alone on a moonless night, and at dawn, away on the north coast of
+Scotland, some fishermen sighted a balloon in the sky dropping to the
+westward in the ocean. The only subsequent trace of this balloon was a
+bag of despatches picked up in the Channel. Curiously enough, two days
+later almost the same story was repeated. Two aeronauts, this time in
+charge of despatches and pigeons, were carried out to sea and never
+traced.
+
+Undeterred by these disasters, a notable escape was now attempted. An
+important total eclipse of the sun was to occur in a track crossing
+southern Spain and Algeria on December 22nd. An enthusiastic astronomer,
+Janssen, was commissioned by the Academy of Sciences to attend and make
+observations of this eclipse. But M. Janssen was in Paris, as were also
+his instruments, and the eclipse track lay nearly a thousand miles away.
+The one and only possible mode of fulfilling his commission was to try
+the off-chance afforded by balloon, and this chance he resorted to only
+twenty days before the eclipse was due.
+
+Taking with him the essential parts of a reflecting telescope, and an
+active young sailor as assistant, he left Paris at 6 a.m. and rose at
+once to 3,600 feet, dipping again somewhat at sunrise (owing, as he
+supposed, to loss of heat through radiation), but subsequently ascending
+again rapidly under the increased altitude of the sun till his balloon
+attained its highest level of 7,200 feet. From this elevation, shortly
+after 11 a.m., he sighted the sea, when he commenced a descent which
+brought him to earth at the mouth of the Loire. It had been fast
+travelling--some 300 miles in little more than three hours--and the
+ground wind was strong. Nevertheless, neither passengers nor instruments
+were injured, and M. Janssen was fully established by the day of
+eclipse on his observing ground at Oran, on the Algerian coast. It is
+distressing to add that the phenomenon was hidden by cloud. In the
+month that followed this splendid venture no fewer than fifteen balloons
+escaped from Paris, of which four fell into the hands of the enemy,
+although for greater security all ascents were now being made by night.
+
+On January 13th, 1871, a new device for the return post was tried, and,
+in addition to pigeons, sheep dogs were taken up, with the idea of their
+being returned to the city with messages concealed within their collars.
+There is apparently no record of any message having been returned to the
+town by this ingenious method. On January 24th a balloon, piloted by
+a sailor, and containing a large freight of letters, fell within the
+Prussian lines, but the patriotism of the country was strong enough to
+secure the despatches being saved and entrusted to the safe conveyance
+of the Post Office. Then followed the total loss of a balloon at sea;
+but this was destined to be the last, save one, that was to attempt the
+dangerous mission. The next day, January 28th, the last official balloon
+left the town, manned by a single sailor, carrying but a small weight
+of despatches, but ordering the ships to proceed to Dieppe for the
+revictualling of Paris.
+
+Five additional balloons at that time in readiness were never required
+for the risky service for which they were designed.
+
+There can be little doubt that had the siege continued a more elaborate
+use of balloons would have been developed. Schemes were being mooted to
+attempt the vastly more difficult task of conveying balloons into
+Paris from outside. When hostilities terminated there were actually six
+balloons in readiness for this venture at Lisle, and waiting only for
+a northerly wind. M. de Fonvielle, possessed of both courage and
+experience, was prepared to put in practice a method of guiding by a
+small propelling force a balloon that was being carried by sufficiently
+favouring winds within a few degrees of its desired goal--and in the
+case of Paris the goal was an area of some twenty miles in diameter.
+Within the invested area several attempts were actually made to control
+balloons by methods of steering. The names of Vert and Dupuy de Lome
+must here be specially mentioned. The former had elaborated an invention
+which received much assistance, and was subsequently exhibited at the
+Crystal Palace. The latter received a grant of L1,600 to perfect
+a complex machine, having within its gas envelope an air chamber,
+suggested by the swimming bladder of a fish, having also a sail helm and
+a propelling screw, to be operated by manual labour.
+
+The relation of this invention to others of similar purpose will be
+further discussed later on. But an actual trial of a dirigible craft,
+the design of Admiral Labrousse, was made from the Orleans railway
+station on January 9th. This machine consisted of a balloon of about the
+standard capacity of the siege balloons, namely some 70,000 cubic feet,
+fitted with two screws of about 12 feet diameter, but capable of being
+readily worked at moderate speed. It was not a success. M. Richard, with
+three sailors, made a tentative ascent, and used their best endeavours
+to control their vessel, but practically without avail, and the machine
+presently coming to earth clumsily, a portion of the gear caught in the
+ground and the travellers were thrown over and roughly dragged for a
+long distance.
+
+Fairly looked at, the aerial post of the siege of Paris must be regarded
+as an ambitious and, on the whole, successful enterprise. Some two
+million and a half of letters, amounting in weight to some ten tons,
+were conveyed through the four months, in addition to which at least
+an equal weight of other freight was taken up, exclusive of actual
+passengers, of whom no fewer than two hundred were transported from
+the beleaguered city. Of these only one returned, seven or eight were
+drowned, twice this number were taken prisoners, and as many again more
+or less injured in descents. From a purely financial point of view the
+undertaking was no failure, as the cost, great as it necessarily became,
+was, it is said, fairly covered by the postage, which it was possible
+and by no means unreasonable to levy. The recognised tariff seems to
+have been 20 centimes for 4 grammes, or at the rate of not greatly more
+than a shilling per English ounce. Surely hardly on a par with fame in
+prices in a time of siege.
+
+It has already been stated that the defenders of Paris did not derive
+substantial assistance from the services of such a reconnoitring balloon
+as is generally used in warfare at every available opportunity. It is
+possible that the peculiar circumstances of the investment of the town
+rendered such reconnaissance of comparatively small value. But, at
+any rate, it seems clear that due opportunity was not given to this
+strategic method. M. Giffard, who at the commencement of the siege was
+in Paris, and whose experience with a captive balloon was second to
+none, made early overtures to the Government, offering to build for
+L40,000 a suitable balloon, capable of raising forty persons to a
+height of 3,000 feet. Forty aerial scouts, it may be said, are hardly
+needed for purposes of outlook at one time; but it appears that this was
+not the consideration which stood in the way of M. Giffard's offer
+being accepted. According to M. de Fonvielle, the Government refused the
+experienced aeronaut's proposal on the ground that he required a place
+in the Champs Elysees, "which it would be necessary to clear of a few
+shrubs"!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX. THE TRAGEDY OF THE ZENITH--THE NAVIGABLE BALLOON
+
+
+The mechanical air ship had, by this time, as may be inferred, begun
+seriously to occupy the attention of both theoretical and practical
+aeronauts. One of the earliest machines deserving of special mention was
+designed by M. Giffard, and consisted of an elongated balloon, 104 feet
+in length and 39 feet in greatest diameter, furnished with a triangular
+rudder, and a steam engine operating a screw. The fire of the engine,
+which burned coke, was skilfully protected, and the fuel and water
+required were taken into calculation as so much ballast to be gradually
+expended. In this vessel, inflated only with coal gas, and somewhat
+unmanageable and difficult to balance, the enthusiastic inventor
+ascended alone from the Hippodrome and executed sundry desired
+movements, not unsuccessfully. But the trial was not of long duration,
+and the descent proved both rapid and perilous. Had the trial been made
+in such a perfect calm as that which prevailed when certain subsequent
+inventions were tested, it was considered that M. Giffard's vessel
+would have been as navigable as a boat in the water. This unrivalled
+mechanician, after having made great advances in the direction of high
+speed engines of sufficient lightness, proceeded to design a vastly
+improved dirigible balloon, when his endeavours were frustrated by
+blindness.
+
+As has been already stated, M. Dupuy de Lome, at the end of the siege of
+Paris, was engaged in building a navigable balloon, which, owing to the
+unsettled state of affairs in France, did not receive its trial till two
+years later. This balloon, which was inflated with pure hydrogen, was
+of greater capacity than that of M. Giffard, being cigar shaped and
+measuring 118 feet by 48 feet. It was also provided with an ingenious
+arrangement consisting of an internal air bag, capable of being either
+inflated or discharged, for the purpose of keeping the principal
+envelope always distended, and thus offering the least possible
+resistance to the wind. The propelling power was the manual labour of
+eight men working the screw, and the steerage was provided for by a
+triangular rudder. The trial, which was carried out without mishap, took
+place in February, 1872, in the Fort of Vincennes, under the personal
+direction of the inventor, when it was found that the vessel readily
+obeyed the helm, and was capable of a speed exceeding six miles an hour.
+
+It was not till nine years after this that the next important trial with
+air ships was made. The brothers Tissandier will then be found taking
+the lead, and an appalling incident in the aeronautical career of one of
+these has now to be recorded.
+
+In the spring of 1875, and with the co-operation of French scientific
+societies, it was determined to make two experimental voyages in a
+balloon called the "Zenith," one of these to be of long duration,
+the other of great height. The first of these had been successfully
+accomplished in a flight of twenty-four hours' duration from Paris to
+Bordeaux. It was now April the 15th, and the lofty flight was embarked
+upon by M. Gaston Tissandier, accompanied by MM. Croce-Spinelli and
+Sivel. Under competent advice, provision for respiration on emergency
+was provided in three small balloons, filled with a mixture of air and
+oxygen, and fitted with indiarubber hose pipes, which would allow the
+mixture, when inhaled, to pass first through a wash bottle containing
+aromatic fluid. The experiments determined on included an analysis of
+the proportion of carbonic acid gas at different heights by means
+of special apparatus; spectroscopic observations, and the readings
+registered by certain barometers and thermometers. A novel and valuable
+experiment, also arranged, was that of testing the internal temperature
+of the balloon as compared with that of the external air.
+
+Ascending at 11.30 a.m. under a warm sun, the balloon had by 1 p.m.
+reached an altitude of 16,000 feet, when the external air was at
+freezing point, the gas high in the balloon being 72 degrees, and at the
+centre 66 degrees. Ere this height had been fully reached, however,
+the voyagers had begun to breathe oxygen. At 11.57, an hour previously,
+Spinelli had written in his notebook, "Slight pain in the ears--somewhat
+oppressed--it is the gas." At 23,000 feet Sivel wrote in his notebook,
+"I am inhaling oxygen--the effect is excellent," after which he
+proceeded to urge the balloon higher by a discharge of ballast. The
+rest of the terrible narrative has now to be taken from the notes of M.
+Tissandier, and as these constitute one of the most thrilling narratives
+in aeronautical records we transcribe them nearly in full, as given by
+Mr. Glaisher:--
+
+"At 23,000 feet we were standing up in the car. Sivel, who had given up
+for a moment, is re-invigorated. Croce-Spinelli is motionless in front
+of me.... I felt stupefied and frozen. I wished to put on my fur gloves,
+but, without being conscious of it, the action of taking them from my
+pocket necessitated an effort that I could no longer make.... I copy,
+verbatim, the following lines which were written by me, although I have
+no very distinct remembrance of doing so. They are traced in a hardly
+legible manner by a hand trembling with cold: 'My hands are frozen. I am
+all right. We are all all right. Fog in the horizon, with little rounded
+cirrus. We are ascending. Croce pants; he inhales oxygen. Sivel
+closes his eyes. Croce also closes his eyes.... Sivel throws out
+ballast'--these last words are hardly readable. Sivel seized his knife
+and cut successively three cords, and the three bags emptied themselves
+and we ascended rapidly. The last remembrance of this ascent which
+remains clear to me relates to a moment earlier. Croce-Spinelli was
+seated, holding in one hand a wash bottle of oxygen gas. His head was
+slightly inclined and he seemed oppressed. I had still strength to tap
+the aneroid barometer to facilitate the movement of the needle. Sivel
+had just raised his hand towards the sky. As for myself, I remained
+perfectly still, without suspecting that I had, perhaps, already lost
+the power of moving. About the height of 25,000 feet the condition of
+stupefaction which ensues is extraordinary. The mind and body weaken by
+degrees, and imperceptibly, without consciousness of it. No suffering
+is then experienced; on the contrary, an inner joy is felt like
+an irradiation from the surrounding flood of light. One becomes
+indifferent. One thinks no more of the perilous position or of danger.
+One ascends, and is happy to ascend. The vertigo of the upper regions
+is not an idle word; but, so far as I can judge from my personal
+impression, vertigo appears at the last moment; it immediately precedes
+annihilation, sudden, unexpected, and irresistible.
+
+"When Sivel cut away the bags of ballast at the height of about 24,000
+feet, I seemed to remember that he was sitting at the bottom of the car,
+and nearly in the same position as Croce-Spinelli. For my part, I was in
+the angle of the car, thanks to which support I was able to hold up; but
+I soon felt too weak even to turn my head to look at my companions. Soon
+I wished to take hold of the tube of oxygen, but it was impossible
+to raise my arm. My mind, nevertheless, was quite clear. I wished to
+explain, 'We are 8,000 metres high'; but my tongue was, as it were,
+paralysed. All at once I closed my eyes, and, sinking down inert, became
+insensible. This was about 1.30 p.m. At 2.8 p.m. I awoke for a moment,
+and found the balloon rapidly descending. I was able to cut away a bag
+of ballast to check the speed and write in my notebook the following
+lines, which I copy:
+
+"'We are descending. Temperature, 3 degrees. I throw out ballast.
+Barometer, 12.4 inches. We are descending. Sivel and Croce still in a
+fainting state at the bottom of the car. Descending very rapidly.'
+
+"Hardly had I written these lines when a kind of trembling seized me,
+and I fell back weakened again. There was a violent wind from below,
+upwards, denoting a very rapid descent. After some minutes I felt myself
+shaken by the arm, and I recognised Croce, who had revived. 'Throw out
+ballast,' he said to me, 'we are descending '; but I could hardly open
+my eyes, and did not see whether Sivel was awake. I called to mind that
+Croce unfastened the aspirator, which he then threw overboard, and then
+he threw out ballast, rugs, etc.
+
+"All this is an extremely confused remembrance, quickly extinguished,
+for again I fell back inert more completely than before, and it seemed
+to me that I was dying. What happened? It is certain that the balloon,
+relieved of a great weight of ballast, at once ascended to the higher
+regions.
+
+"At 3.30 p.m. I opened my eyes again. I felt dreadfully giddy and
+oppressed, but gradually came to myself. The balloon was descending
+with frightful speed and making great oscillations. I crept along on
+my knees, and I pulled Sivel and Croce by the arm. 'Sivel! Croce!' I
+exclaimed, 'Wake up!' My two companions were huddled up motionless
+in the car, covered by their cloaks. I collected all my strength, and
+endeavoured to raise them up. Sivel's face was black, his eyes dull, and
+his mouth was open and full of blood. Croce's eyes were half closed and
+his mouth was bloody.
+
+"To relate what happened afterwards is quite impossible. I felt a
+frightful wind; we were still 9,700 feet high. There remained in the car
+two bags of ballast, which I threw out. I was drawing near the earth.
+I looked for my knife to cut the small rope which held the anchor, but
+could not find it. I was like a madman, and continued to call 'Sivel!
+Sivel!' By good fortune I was able to put my hand upon my knife and
+detach the anchor at the right moment. The shock on coming to the
+ground was dreadful. The balloon seemed as if it were being flattened.
+I thought it was going to remain where it had fallen, but the wind was
+high, and it was dragged across fields, the anchor not catching. The
+bodies of my unfortunate friends were shaken about in the car, and I
+thought every moment they would be jerked out. At length, however, I
+seized the valve line, and the gas soon escaped from the balloon, which
+lodged against a tree. It was then four o'clock. On stepping out, I was
+seized with a feverish attack, and sank down and thought for a moment
+that I was going to join my friends in the next world; but I came to.
+I found the bodies of my friends cold and stiff. I had them put under
+shelter in an adjacent barn. The descent of the 'Zenith' took place in
+the plains 155 miles from Paris as the crow flies. The greatest height
+attained in this ascent is estimated at 28,000 feet."
+
+It was in 1884 that the brothers Tissandier commenced experiments with
+a screw-propelled air ship resembling in shape those constructed by
+Giffard and Dupuy de Lome, but smaller, measuring only 91 feet by
+30 feet, and operated by an electric motor placed in circuit with a
+powerful battery of bichromate cells. Two trials were made with this
+vessel in October, 1883, and again in the following September, when it
+proved itself capable of holding its course in calm air and of being
+readily controlled by the rudder.
+
+But, ere this, a number of somewhat similar experiments, on behalf of
+the French Government, had been entered upon by Captains Renard and
+Krebs at Chalais-Meudon. Their balloon may be described as fish-shaped,
+165 feet long, and 27.5 feet in principal diameter. It was operated
+by an electric motor, which was capable of driving a screw of large
+dimensions at forty-eight revolutions per minute. At its first trial, in
+August, 1884, in dead calm, it attained a velocity of over twelve miles
+per hour, travelling some two and a half miles in a forward direction,
+when, by application of the rudder and judicious management, it was
+manoeuvred homewards, and practically brought to earth at the point of
+departure.
+
+A more important trial was made on the 12th of the following month, and
+was witnessed by M. Tissandier, according to whom the aerostat conveying
+the inventors ascended gently and steadily, drifting with an appreciable
+breeze until the screw was set in motion and the helm put down, when the
+vessel was brought round to the wind and held its own until the motor,
+by an accident, ceased working. A little later the same air ship met
+with more signal success. On one occasion, starting from Chalais-Meudon,
+it took a direct course to the N.E., crossing the railway and the Seine,
+where the aeronauts, stopping the screw, ascertained the velocity of the
+wind to be approximately five miles an hour. The screw being again put
+in motion, the balloon was steered to the right, and, following a path
+parallel to its first, returned to its point of departure. Starting
+again the same afternoon, it was caused to perform a variety of aerial
+evolutions, and after thirty-five minutes returned once more to its
+starting place.
+
+A tabular comparison of the four navigable balloons which we have now
+described has been given as follows:--
+
+     Date.    Name.             Motor.           Vel. p. Sec.
+     1852  M. Henri Giffard    Steam engine     13.12 ft.
+     1872  M. Dupuy de Lome    Muscular force    9.18 ft.
+     1883  MM. Tissandier      Electric motor    9.84 ft.
+     1884  MM. Renard & Krebs  Electric motor   18.04 ft.
+
+About this period, that is in 1883, and really prior to the Meudon
+experiments, there were other attempts at aerial locomotion not to be
+altogether passed over, which were made also in France, but financed by
+English money. The experiments were performed by Mr. F. A. Gower, who,
+writing to Professor Tyndall, claims to have succeeded in "driving a
+large balloon fairly against the wind by steam power." A melancholy
+interest will always belong to these trials from the fact that Mr. Gower
+was subsequently blown out to sea with his balloon, leaving no trace
+behind.
+
+At this stage it will be well to glance at some of the more important
+theories which were being mooted as to the possibility of aerial
+locomotion properly so called. Broadly, there were two rival schools
+at this time. We will call them the "lighter-than-air-ites" and the
+"heavier-than-air-ites," respectively. The former were the advocates
+of the air vessel of which the balloon is a type. The latter school
+maintained that, as birds are heavier than air, so the air locomotive
+of the future would be a machine itself heavier than air, but capable
+of being navigated by a motor yet to be discovered, which would develop
+proportionate power. Sir H. Maxim's words may be aptly quoted here. "In
+all Nature," he says, "we do not find a single balloon. All Nature's
+flying machines are heavier than the air, and depend altogether upon the
+development of dynamic energy."
+
+The faculty of soaring, possessed by many birds, of which the albatross
+may be considered a type, led to numerous speculations as to what would
+constitute the ideal principle of the air motor. Sir G. Cayley, as
+far back as 1809, wrote a classical article on this subject, without,
+however, adding much to its elucidation. Others after his time conceived
+that the bird, by sheer habit and practice, could perform, as it were,
+a trick in balancing by making use of the complex air streams varying in
+speed and direction that were supposed to intermingle above.
+
+Mr. R. A. Proctor discusses the matter with his usual clear-sightedness.
+He premises that the bird may, in actual fact, only poise itself
+for some ten minutes--an interval which many will consider far too
+small--without flap of the wings, and, while contending that the problem
+must be simply a mechanical one, is ready to admit that "the sustaining
+power of the air on bodies of a particular form travelling swiftly
+through it may be much greater or very different in character from what
+is supposed." In his opinion, it is a fact that a flat body travelling
+swiftly and horizontally will sink towards the ground much more slowly
+than a similar body moving similarly but with less speed. In proof of
+this he gives the homely illustration of a flat stone caused to make
+"ducks and drakes." Thus he contends that the bird accomplishes its
+floating feat simply by occasional powerful propulsive efforts, combined
+with perfect balance. From which he deduces the corollary that "if ever
+the art of flying, or rather of making flying machines, is attained
+by man, it will be by combining rapid motion with the power of perfect
+balancing."
+
+It will now appear as a natural and certain consequence that a feature
+to be introduced by experimentalists into flying machines should be
+the "Aeroplane," or, in other words, a plane which, at a desired angle,
+should be driven at speed through the air. Most notable attempts with
+this expedient were now shortly made by Hiram Maxim, Langley, and
+others.
+
+But, contemporaneously with these attempts, certain feats with the rival
+aerostat--the balloon--were accomplished, which will be most fittingly
+told in this place.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX. A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS.
+
+
+It will have been gathered from what has been already stated that the
+balloonist is commonly in much uncertainty as to his precise course when
+he is above the clouds, or when unable from darkness to see the earth
+beneath him. With a view of overcoming this disadvantage some original
+experiments were suggested by a distinguished officer, who during the
+seventies had begun to interest himself in aeronautics.
+
+This was Captain Burnaby. His method was to employ two small silk
+parachutes, which, if required, might carry burning magnesium wires, and
+which were to be attached to each other by a length of silk thread.
+On dropping one parachute, it would first partake of the motion of the
+balloon, but would presently drop below, when the second parachute would
+be dismissed, and then an imaginary line drawn between the two bodies
+was supposed to betray the balloon's course. It should be mentioned,
+however, that if a careful study is made of the course of many
+descending parachutes it will be found that their behaviour is too
+uncertain to be relied upon for such a purpose as the above. They will
+often float behind the balloon's wake, but sometimes again will be found
+in front, and sometimes striking off in some side direction, so wayward
+and complex are the currents which control such small bodies. Mr.
+Glaisher has stated that a balloon's course above the clouds may be
+detected by observing the grapnel, supposed to be hanging below the car,
+as this would be seen to be out of the vertical as the balloon drifted,
+and thus serve to indicate the course. However this may be, the most
+experienced sky sailors will be found to be in perplexity as to their
+direction, as also their speed, when view of the earth is obscured.
+
+But Captain Burnaby is associated notably with the adventurous side of
+ballooning, the most famous of his aerial exploits being, perhaps, that
+of crossing the English Channel alone from Dover on March 23rd, 1882.
+Outwardly, he made presence of sailing to Paris by sky to dine there
+that evening; inwardly, he had determined to start simply with a wind
+which bid fair for a cross-Channel trip, and to take whatever chances it
+might bring him.
+
+Thus, at 10.30 a.m., just as the mail packet left the pier, he cast
+off with a lifting power which rapidly carried him to a height of 2,000
+feet, when he found his course to be towards Folkestone. But by shortly
+after 11 o'clock he had decided that he was changing his direction,
+and when, as he judged, some seven miles from Boulogne, the wind was
+carrying him not across, but down the Channel. Then, for nearly four
+hours, the balloon shifted about with no improvement in the outlook,
+after which the wind fell calm, and the balloon remained motionless at
+2,000 feet above the sea. This state of things continuing for an hour,
+the Captain resolved on the heroic expedient of casting out all his
+ballast and philosophically abiding the issue. The manoeuvre turned
+out a happy one, for the balloon, shooting up to 11,000 feet, caught a
+current, on which it was rapidly carried towards and over the main land;
+and, when twelve miles beyond Dieppe, it became easy to descend to
+a lower level by manipulation of the valve, and finally to make a
+successful landing in open country beyond.
+
+A few years before, an attempt to cross the Channel from the other side
+ended far more disastrously. Jules Duruof, already mentioned as having
+piloted the first runaway balloon from beleaguered Paris, had
+determined on an attempt to cross over to England from Calais; and, duly
+advertising the event, a large concourse assembled on the day announced,
+clamouring loudly for the ascent. But the wind proved unsuitable,
+setting out over the North Sea, and the mayor thought fit to interfere,
+and had the car removed so as to prevent proceedings. On this the
+crowd grew impatient, and Duruof, determining to keep faith with them,
+succeeded by an artifice in regaining his car, which he hastily carried
+back to the balloon, and immediately taking his seat, and accompanied
+by his wife, the intrepid pair commenced their bold flight just as the
+shades of evening were settling down. Shortly the balloon disappeared
+into the gathering darkness, and then for three days Calais knew no more
+of balloon or balloonists.
+
+Neither could the voyagers see aught for certain of their own course,
+and thus through the long night hours their attention was wholly needed,
+without chance of sleep, in closely watching their situation, lest
+unawares they should be borne down on the waves. When morning broke
+they discovered that they were still being carried out over the sea on
+a furious gale, being apparently off the Danish coast, with the distant
+mountains of Norway dimly visible on the starboard bow. It was at this
+point, and possibly owing to the chill commonly experienced aloft soon
+after dawn, that the balloon suddenly took a downward course and plunged
+into the sea, happily, however, fairly in the track of vessels. Presently
+a ship came in sight, but cruelly kept on its course, leaving the
+castaways in despair, with their car fast succumbing to the waves.
+
+Help, nevertheless, was really at hand. The captain of an English
+fishing smack, the Grand Charge, had sighted the sinking balloon, and
+was already bearing down to the rescue. It is said that when, at length,
+a boat came alongside as near as it was possible, Madame Duruof was
+unable to make the necessary effort to jump on board, and her husband
+had to throw her into the arms of the sailors. A fitting sequel to the
+story comes from Paris, where the heroic couple, after a sojourn in
+England, were given a splendid reception and a purse of money, with
+which M. Duruof forthwith constructed a new balloon, named the "Ville de
+Calais."
+
+On the 4th of March, 1882, the ardent amateur balloonist, Mr. Simmons,
+had a narrow escape in circumstances somewhat similar to the above. He
+was attempting, in company with Colonel Brine, to cross the Channel from
+Canterbury, when a change of wind carried them out towards the North
+Sea. Falling in the water, they abandoned their balloon, but were
+rescued by the mail packet Foam.
+
+The same amateur aeronaut met with an exciting experience not long
+after, when in company with Sir Claude C. de Crespigny. The two
+adventurers left Maldon, in Essex, at 11 p.m., on an August night, and,
+sailing at a great height out to sea, lost all sight of land till 6
+a.m. the next morning, when, at 17,000 feet altitude, they sighted the
+opposite coast and descended in safety near Flushing.
+
+Yet another adventure at sea, and one which proved fatal and unspeakably
+regrettable, occurred about this time, namely, on the 10th of December,
+1881, when Captain Templer, Mr. W. Powell, M.P., and Mr. Agg-Gardner
+ascended from Bath. We prefer to give the account as it appears in a
+leading article in the Times for December 13th of that year.
+
+After sailing over Glastonbury, "Crewkerne was presently sighted, then
+Beaminster. The roar of the sea gave the next indication of the locality
+to which the balloon had drifted and the first hint of the possible
+perils of the voyage. A descent was now effected to within a few hundred
+feet of earth, and an endeavour was made to ascertain the exact position
+they had reached. The course taken by the balloon between Beaminster and
+the sea is not stated in Captain Templer's letter. The wind, as far as
+we can gather, must have shifted, or different currents of air must have
+been found at the different altitudes. What Captain Templer says is that
+they coasted along to Symonsbury, passing, it would seem, in an easterly
+direction and keeping still very near to the earth. Soon after they had
+left Symonsbury, Captain Templer shouted to a man below to tell them how
+far they were from Bridport, and he received for answer that Bridport
+was about a mile off. The pace at which the balloon was moving had now
+increased to thirty-five miles an hour. The sea was dangerously close,
+and a few minutes in a southerly current of air would have been enough
+to carry them over it. They seem, however, to have been confident in
+their own powers of management. They threw out ballast, and rose to
+a height of 1,500 feet, and thence came down again only just in time,
+touching the ground at a distance of about 150 yards from the cliff. The
+balloon here dragged for a few feet, and Captain Templer, who had been
+letting off the gas, rolled out of the car, still holding the valve line
+in his hand. This was the last chance of a safe escape for anybody.
+The balloon, with its weight lightened, went up about eight feet. Mr.
+Agg-Gardner dropped out and broke his leg. Mr. Powell now remained as
+the sole occupant of the car. Captain Templer, who had still hold of the
+rope, shouted to Mr. Powell to come down the line. This he attempted
+to do, but in a few seconds, and before he could commence his perilous
+descent, the line was torn out of Captain Templer's hands. All
+communication with the earth was cut off, and the balloon rose rapidly,
+taking Mr. Powell with it in a south-easterly direction out to sea."
+
+It was a few seasons previous to this, namely, on the 8th of July, 1874,
+when Mr. Simmons was concerned in a balloon fatality of a peculiarly
+distressing nature. A Belgian, Vincent de Groof, styling himself the
+"Flying Man," announced his intention of descending in a parachute
+from a balloon piloted by Mr. Simmons, who was to start from Cremorne
+Gardens. The balloon duly ascended, with De Groof in his machine
+suspended below, and when over St. Luke's Church, and at a height
+estimated at 80 feet, it is thought that the unfortunate man
+overbalanced himself after detaching his apparatus, and fell forward,
+clinging to the ropes. The machine failed to open, and De Groof was
+precipitated into Robert Street, Chelsea, expiring almost immediately.
+The porter of Chelsea Infirmary, who was watching the balloon, asserted
+that he fancied the falling man called out twice, "Drop into the
+churchyard; look out!" Mr. Simmons, shooting upwards in his balloon,
+thus suddenly lightened, to a great height, became insensible, and when
+he recovered consciousness found himself over Victoria Park. He made a
+descent, without mishap, on a line of railway in Essex.
+
+On the 19th of August, 1887, occurred an important total eclipse of the
+sun, the track of which lay across Germany, Russia, Western Siberia, and
+Japan. At all suitable stations along the shadow track astronomers from
+all parts of the world established themselves; but at many eclipses
+observers had had bad fortune owing to the phenomenon at the critical
+moment being obscured. And on this account one astronomer determined
+on measures which should render his chances of a clear view a practical
+certainty. Professor Mendeleef, in Russia, resolved to engage a balloon,
+and by rising above the cloud barrier, should there be one, to have the
+eclipse all to himself. It was an example of fine enthusiasm, which,
+moreover, was presently put to a severe and unexpected test, for the
+balloon, when inflated, proved unable to take up both the aeronaut and
+the astronomer, whereupon the latter, though wholly inexperienced, had
+no alternative but to ascend alone, which, either by accident or choice,
+he actually did. Shooting up into space, he soon reached an altitude
+of 11,500 feet, where he obtained, even if he did not enjoy, an
+unobstructed view of the Corona. It may be supposed, however, that,
+owing to the novelty of his situation, his scientific observations may
+not have been so complete as they would have been on terra firma.
+
+In the same month an attempt to reach a record height was made by MM.
+Jovis and Mallet at Paris, with the net result that an elevation of
+23,000 feet was reached. It will have been noted that the difficulty
+through physical exhaustion of inhaling oxygen from either a bag or
+cylinder is a serious matter not easily overcome, and it has been
+suggested that the helmet invented by M. Fleuss might prove of value.
+This contrivance, which has scarcely attracted the attention it has
+merited, provides a receptacle for respiration, containing oxygen and
+certain purifying media, by means of which the inventor was able to
+remain for hours under water without any communication with the outward
+air.
+
+About the period at which we have now arrived two fatal accidents befel
+English aeronauts. We have related how Maldon, in Essex, was associated
+with one of the more adventurous exploits in Mr. Simmons's career. It
+was fated also to be associated with the voyage with which his career
+closed. On August 27th, 1888, he ascended from Olympia in company with
+Mr. Field, of West Brighton, and Mr. Myers, of the Natural History
+Museum, with the intention, if practicable, of crossing to Flanders;
+and the voyage proceeded happily until the neighbourhood of Maldon was
+reached, when, as the sea coast was in sight, and it was already past
+five o'clock, it appeared prudent to Mr. Simmons to descend and moor
+the balloon for the night. Some labourers some three miles from Maldon
+sighted the balloon coming up at speed, and at the same time descending
+until its grapnel commenced tearing through a field of barley, when
+ballast was thrown out, causing the balloon to rise again towards
+and over some tall elms, which became the cause of the disaster which
+followed. The grapnel, catching in the upper boughs of one of these
+trees, held fast, while the balloon, borne by the force of a strong
+wind, was repeatedly blown down to earth with violence, rebounding each
+time to a considerable height, only to be flung down again on the same
+spot. After three or four impacts the balloon is reported to have burst
+with a loud noise, when high in the air, the silk being blown about over
+the field, and the car and its occupants dashed to the ground. Help
+was unavailing till this final catastrophe, and when, at length, the
+labourers were able to extricate the party, Mr. Simmons was found with a
+fractured skull and both companions badly injured.
+
+Four summers later, June 30th, 1892, Captain Dale, the aeronaut to the
+Crystal Palace, was announced to make an ascent from the usual balloon
+grounds, weather permitting. Through the night and morning a violent
+storm prevailed, and it was contemplated that the exhibition would be
+withdrawn; but the wind abating in the afternoon, the inflation was
+proceeded with, and the ascent took place shortly before 6 p.m., not,
+however, before a large rent had been discovered and repaired as far as
+possible by Mrs. Dale. As passengers, there ascended the Captain's son
+William, aged nineteen, Mr. J. Macintosh, and Mr. Cecil Shadbolt. When
+the balloon had reached an altitude estimated at 600 feet the onlookers
+were horrified to see it suddenly collapse, a large rent having
+developed near the top part of the silk, from which the gas "rushed out
+in a dense mass, allowing the balloon to fall like a rag." The occupants
+of the car were seen to be throwing out everything madly, even wrenching
+the buttons from their clothing. All, however, with little avail, for
+the balloon fell "with a sickening thud," midway between the Maze and
+lower lake. All were found alive; but Captain Dale, who had alighted on
+his back, died in a few minutes; Mr. Shadbolt succumbed later, and both
+remaining passengers sustained terrible injuries.
+
+Few balloon mishaps, unattended with fatal results, have proved more
+exciting than the following. A large party had ascended from Belfast, in
+a monster balloon, under the guidance of Mr. Coxwell, on a day which was
+very unfit for the purpose by reason of stormy weather. A more serious
+trouble than the wind, however, lay in several of the passengers
+themselves, who seem to have been highly excitable Irishmen, incapable
+at the critical moment of quietly obeying orders.
+
+The principal hero of the story, a German. Mr. Runge, in writing
+afterwards to the Ulster Observer, entirely exonerates Mr. Coxwell
+from any blame, attributing his mischances solely to the reprehensible
+conduct of his companions. On approaching the ground, Mr. Coxwell gave
+clear instructions. The passengers were to sit down in an unconstrained
+position facing each other, and be prepared for some heavy shocks. Above
+all things they were to be careful to get out one by one, and on no
+account to leave hold of the car. Many of the passengers, however,
+refused to sit down, and, according to Mr. Runge, "behaved in the
+wildest manner, losing completely their self-control. Seizing the valve
+rope themselves, they tore it away from its attachment, the stronger
+pushing back the weaker, and refusing to lend help when they had got
+out. In consequence of this the car, relieved of their weight, tore away
+from the grasp of Mr. Coxwell and those who still clung to it, and rose
+above the trees, with Mr. Runge and one other passenger, Mr. Halferty,
+alone within. As the balloon came earthwards again, they shouted to the
+countrymen for succour, but without the slightest avail, and presently,
+the anchor catching, the car struck the earth with a shock which threw
+Mr. Halferty out on the ground, leaving Mr. Runge to rise again into the
+air, this time alone." He thus continues the story:--
+
+"The balloon moved on, very soon, in a horizontal direction straight
+towards the sea, which we were then rapidly nearing. Coming to a farm,
+I shouted out to the people standing there. Some women, with their quick
+humane instincts, were the first to perceive my danger, and exhorted the
+men to hurry to my assistance, they themselves running as fast as they
+could to tender what little help they might be able to give me. The
+anchor stuck in a willow tree. I shouted out to the people below to
+secure the cable and anchor by ropes, which they did. The evening was
+now beautifully still, the breeze had died away, and the balloon was
+swinging calmly at her moorings above the farmhouse. One of the men
+asked me whether I had a rope with me, and how I intended to get out.
+I told them only to take care of the cable, because the balloon would
+settle down by herself before long. I was congratulating myself on a
+speedy escape from my dangerous position. I had not counted on the wind.
+A breeze in about six or eight minutes sprang up, tossed the balloon
+about like a large sail, then a crash, and--the anchor was loose again.
+It tore through the trees, flinging limbs and branches about like
+matches. It struck the roof of the farmhouse, splintering the chimneys
+and tiles like glass.
+
+"On I went; I came near another farm; shouted out for help, and told
+the men to secure the anchor to the foot of a large tree close by. The
+anchor was soon made fast, but this was only a momentary relief. The
+breeze again filled the half-empty balloon like a sail, there was a
+severe strain on the cable, then a dull sound, and a severe concussion
+of the basket--the cable, strange fatality, had broken, and the anchor,
+my last and only hope, was gone. I was now carried on in a straight
+direction towards the sea, which was but a short distance ahead. The
+anchor being lost I gave up all hope. I sat down resigned in the car,
+and prepared for the end. All at once I discovered that a side current
+was drifting me towards the mountain; the car struck the ground, and was
+dashing along at a fearful rate, knocking down stone fences and breaking
+everything it came in contact with in its wild career. By-and-by the
+knocks became less frequent. We were passing over a cultivated country,
+and the car was, as it were skimming the surface and grazing the top of
+the hedges. I saw a thick hawthorn hedge at some distance before me,
+and the balloon rapidly sweeping towards it. That was my only chance. I
+rushed to the edge of the car and flung myself down upon the hedge."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI. THE COMING OF THE FLYING MACHINE.
+
+
+In the early nineties the air ship was engaging the attention of many
+inventors, and was making important strides in the hands of Mr. Maxim.
+This unrivalled mechanician, in stating the case, premises that a motive
+power has to be discovered which can develop at least as much power in
+proportion to its weight as a bird is able to develop. He asserts that a
+heavy bird, with relatively small wings--such as a goose--carries
+about 150 lb. to the horse power, while the albatross or the vulture,
+possessed of proportionately greater winged surface, can carry about 250
+lbs. per horse power.
+
+Professor Langley, of Washington, working contemporaneously, but
+independently of Mr. Maxim, had tried exhaustive experiments on
+a rotating arm (characteristically designated by Mr. Maxim a
+"merry-go-round"), thirty feet long, applying screw propellers. He used,
+for the most part, small planes, carrying loads of only two or three
+pounds, and, under these circumstances, the weight carried was at the
+rate of 250 lbs. per horse power. His important statements with regard
+to these trials are that one-horse power will transport a larger weight
+at twenty miles an hour than at ten, and a still larger at forty miles
+than at twenty, and so on; that "the sustaining pressure of the air on
+a plane moving at a small angle of inclination to a horizontal path is
+many times greater than would result from the formula implicitly given
+by Newton, while, whereas in land or marine transport increased speed
+is maintained only by a disproportionate expenditure of power within the
+limits of experiment, in aerial horizontal transport the higher speeds
+are more economical of power than the lower ones."
+
+This Mr. Maxim is evidently ready to endorse, stating, in his own words,
+that birds obtain the greater part of their support by moving forward
+with sufficient velocity so as to be constantly resting on new air, the
+inertia of which has not been disturbed. Mr. Maxim's trials were on a
+scale comparable with all his mechanical achievements. He employed for
+his experiments a rotating arm, sweeping out a circle, the circumference
+of which was 200 feet. To the end of this arm he attached a cigar-shaped
+apparatus, driven by a screw, and arranged in such a manner that
+aero-planes could be attached to it at any angle. These planes were on
+a large scale, carrying weights of from 20 lbs. to 100 lbs. With this
+contrivance he found that, whatever push the screw communicated to the
+aero-plane, "the plane would lift in a vertical direction from ten to
+fifteen times as much as the horizontal push that it received from the
+screw, and which depended upon the angle at which the plane was set, and
+the speed at which the apparatus was travelling through the air." Next,
+having determined by experiment the power required to perform artificial
+flight, Mr. Maxim applied himself to designing the requisite motor.
+"I constructed," he states, "two sets of compound engines of tempered
+steel, all the parts being made very light and strong, and a steam
+generator of peculiar construction, the greater part of the heating
+surface consisting of small and thin copper tubes. For fuel I employed
+naphtha."
+
+This Mr. Maxim wrote in 1892, adding that he was then experimenting with
+a large machine, having a spread of over 100 feet. Labour, skill, and
+money were lavishly devoted henceforward to the great task undertaken,
+and it was not long before the giant flying machine, the outcome of so
+much patient experimenting, was completed and put to a practical trial.
+Its weight was 7,500 lbs. The screw propellers were nearly 18 feet in
+diameter, each with two blades, while the engines were capable of being
+run up to 360 horse power. The entire machine was mounted on an inner
+railway track of 9 feet and an outer of 35 feet gauge, while above there
+was a reversed rail along which the machine would begin to run so soon
+as with increase of speed it commenced to lift itself off the inner
+track.
+
+In one of the latest experiments it was found that when a speed of 42
+miles an hour was attained all the wheels were running on the upper
+track, and revolving in the opposite direction from those on the lower
+track. However, after running about 1,000 feet, an axle tree doubled up,
+and immediately afterwards the upper track broke away, and the machine,
+becoming liberated, floated in the air, "giving those on board a
+sensation of being in a boat."
+
+The experiment proved conclusively to the inventor that a machine
+could be made on a large scale, in which the lifting effect should be
+considerably greater than the weight of the machine, and this, too,
+when a steam engine was the motor. When, therefore, in the years shortly
+following, the steam engine was for the purposes of aerial locomotion
+superseded by the lighter and more suitable petrol engine, the
+construction of a navigable air ship became vastly more practicable.
+Still, in Sir H. Maxim's opinion, lately expressed, "those who seek
+to navigate the air by machines lighter than the air have come,
+practically, to the end of their tether," while, on the other hand,
+"those who seek to navigate the air with machines heavier than the air
+have not even made a start as yet, and the possibilities before them are
+very great indeed."
+
+As to the assertion that the aerial navigators last mentioned "have not
+even made a start as yet," we can only say that Sir H. Maxim speaks with
+far too much modesty. His own colossal labours in the direction of that
+mode of aerial flight, which he considers to be alone feasible, are
+of the first importance and value, and, as far as they have gone,
+exhaustive. Had his experiments been simply confined to his classical
+investigations of the proper form of the screw propeller his name would
+still have been handed down as a true pioneer in aeronautics. His work,
+however, covers far wider ground, and he has, in a variety of ways,
+furnished practical and reliable data, which must always be an
+indispensable guide to every future worker in the same field.
+
+Professor Langley, in attacking the same problem, first studied the
+principle and behaviour of a well-known toy--the model invented by
+Penaud, which, driven by the tension of india-rubber, sustains itself in
+the air for a few seconds. He constructed over thirty modifications of
+this model, and spent many months in trying from these to as certain
+what he terms the "laws of balancing leading to horizontal flight." His
+best endeavours at first, however, showed that he needed three or four
+feet of sustaining surface to a pound of weight, whereas he calculated
+that a bird could soar with a surface of less than half a foot to the
+pound. He next proceeded to steam-driven models in which for a time he
+found an insuperable difficulty in keeping down the weight, which, in
+practice, always exceeded his calculation; and it was not till the end
+of 1893 that he felt himself prepared for a fair trial. At this time he
+had prepared a model weighing between nine and ten pounds, and he needed
+only a suitable launching apparatus to be used over water. The model
+would, like a bird, require an initial velocity imparted to it, and the
+discovery of a suitable apparatus gave him great trouble. For the rest
+the facilities for launching were supplied by a houseboat moored on the
+Potomac. Foiled again and again by many difficulties, it was not till
+after repeated failures and the lapse of many months, when, as the
+Professor himself puts it, hope was low, that success finally came. It
+was in the early part of 1896 that a successful flight was accomplished
+in the presence of Dr. Bell, of telephone fame, and the following is
+a brief epitome of the account that this accomplished scientist
+contributed to the columns of Nature:--
+
+"The flying machine, built, apparently, almost entirely of metal, was
+driven by an engine said to weigh, with fuel and water, about 25 lbs.,
+the supporting surface from tip to tip being 12 or 14 feet. Starting
+from a platform about 20 feet high, the machine rose at first directly
+in the face of the wind, moving with great steadiness, and subsequently
+wheeling in large curves until steam was exhausted, when, from a height
+of 80 or 100 feet, it shortly settled down. The experiment was then
+repeated with similar results. Its motion was so steady that a glass of
+water might have remained unspilled. The actual length of flight each
+time, which lasted for a minute and a half, exceeded half a mile, while
+the velocity was between twenty and twenty-five miles an hour in a
+course that was constantly taking it 'up hill.' A yet more successful
+flight was subsequently made."
+
+But flight of another nature was being courageously attempted at this
+time. Otto Lilienthal, of Berlin, in imitation of the motion of birds,
+constructed a flying apparatus which he operated himself, and with which
+he could float down from considerable elevations. "The feat," he
+warns tyros, "requires practice. In the beginning the height should be
+moderate, and the wings not too large, or the wind will soon show that
+it is not to be trifled with." The inventor commenced with all due
+caution, making his first attempt over a grass plot from a spring board
+one metre high, and subsequently increasing this height to two and a
+half metres, from which elevation he could safely cross the entire grass
+plot. Later he launched himself from the lower ridges of a hill 250 feet
+high, when he sailed to a distance of over 250 yards, and this time he
+writes enthusiastically of his self-taught accomplishment:--
+
+"To those who, from a modest beginning and with gradually increased
+extent and elevation of flight have gained full control over the
+apparatus, it is not in the least dangerous to cross deep and broad
+ravines. It is a difficult task to convey to one who has never enjoyed
+aerial flight a clear perception of the exhilarating pleasure of this
+elastic motion. The elevation above the ground loses its terrors,
+because we have learned by experience what sure dependence may be placed
+upon the buoyancy of the air."
+
+As a commentary to the above we extract the following:--"We have to
+record the death of Otto Lilienthal, whose soaring machine, during a
+gliding flight, suddenly tilted over at a height of about 60 feet,
+by which mishap he met an untimely death on August 9th, 1896." Mr. O.
+Chanute, C.E. of Chicago, took up the study of gliding flight at the
+point where Lilienthal left it, and, later, Professor Fitzgerald
+and others. Besides that invented by Penaud, other aero-plane models
+demanding mention had been produced by Tatin, Moy, Stringfellow,
+and Lawrence Hargrave, of Australia, the subsequent inventor of the
+well-known cellular kite. These models, for the most part, aim at the
+mechanical solution of the problem connected with the soaring flight of
+a bird.
+
+The theoretical solution of the same problem had been attacked by
+Professor Langley in a masterly monograph, entitled "The Internal Work
+of the Wind." By painstaking experiment with delicate instruments,
+specially constructed, the Professor shows that wind in general, so
+far from being, as was commonly assumed, mere air put in motion with
+an approximately uniform velocity in the same strata, is, in reality,
+variable and irregular in its movements beyond anything which had been
+anticipated, being made up, in fact, of a succession of brief pulsations
+in different directions, and of great complexity. These pulsations, he
+argues, if of sufficient amplitude and frequency, would be capable, by
+reason of their own "internal work," of sustaining or even raising a
+suitably curved surface which was being carried along by the main mean
+air stream. This would account for the phenomenon of "soaring." Lord
+Rayleigh, discussing the same problem, premises that when a bird is
+soaring the air cannot be moving uniformly and horizontally. Then comes
+the natural question, Is it moving in ascending currents? Lord Rayleigh
+has frequently noticed such currents, particularly above a cliff facing
+the wind. Again, to quote another eminent authority, Major Baden-Powell,
+on an occasion when flying one of his own kites, found it getting to
+so high an angle that it presently rose absolutely overhead, with the
+string perpendicular. He then took up a heavy piece of wood, which, when
+tied to the string, began to rise in the air. He satisfied himself that
+this curious result was solely due to a strong uptake of the air.
+
+But, again, Lord Rayleigh, lending support to Professor Langley's
+argument, points out that the apparent cause of soaring may be the
+non-uniformity of the wind. The upper currents are generally stronger
+than the lower, and it is mechanically possible for a bird, taking
+advantage of two adjacent air streams, different in velocity, to
+maintain itself in air without effort on its own part.
+
+Lord Rayleigh, proceeding to give his views on artificial flight,
+declares the main problem of the flying machine to be the problem of the
+aerial plane. He states the case thus:--"Supposing a plane surface to
+be falling vertically at the rate of four miles an hour, and also moving
+horizontally at the rate of twenty miles an hour, it might have been
+supposed that the horizontal motion would make no difference to the
+pressure on its under surface which the falling plane must experience.
+We are told, however, that in actual trial the horizontal motion much
+increases the pressure under the falling plane, and it is this fact on
+which the possibility of natural and artificial flight depends."
+
+Ere this opinion had been stated by Lord Rayleigh in his discourse on
+"Flight," at the Royal Institution, there were already at work upon the
+aero-plane a small army of inventors, of whom it will be only possible
+in a future chapter to mention some. Due reference, however, should here
+be made to Mr. W. F. Wenham, of Boston, U.S.A., who had been at work on
+artificial flight for many years, and to whose labours in determining
+whether man's power is sufficient to raise his own weight Lord Rayleigh
+paid a high tribute. As far back as 1866 Mr. Wenham had published a
+paper on aerial locomotion, in which he shows that any imitation by
+man of the far-extended wings of a bird might be impracticable, the
+alternative being to arrange the necessary length of wing as a series of
+aero-planes, a conception far in advance of many theorists of his time.
+
+But there had been developments in aerostation in other lines, and it
+is time to turn from the somewhat tedious technicalities of mechanical
+flight and the theory or practice of soaring, to another important means
+for traversing the air--the parachute. This aerial machine, long
+laid aside, was to lend its aid to the navigation of the air with a
+reliability never before realised. Professor Baldwin, as he was termed,
+an American aeronaut, arrived in England in the summer of 1888, and
+commenced giving a series of exhibitions from the Alexandra Palace with
+a parachute of his own invention, which, in actual performance, seems
+to have been the most perfect instrument of the kind up to that time
+devised. It was said to be about 18 feet in diameter, whereas that of
+Garnerin, already mentioned, had a diameter of some 30 feet, and was
+distinctly top-heavy, owing to its being thus inadequately ballasted;
+for it was calculated that its enormous size would have served for the
+safe descent, not of one man, but of four or five. Baldwin's parachute,
+on the contrary, was reckoned to give safe descent to 250 lbs., which
+would include weight of man and apparatus, and reduce the ultimate fall
+to one not exceeding 8 feet. The parachute was attached to the ring of a
+small balloon of 12,000 cubic feet, and the Professor ascended, sitting
+on a mere sling of rope, which did duty for a car.
+
+Mr. Thomas Moy, who investigated the mechanics of the contrivance,
+estimated that after a drop of 16 feet, the upward pressure, amounting
+to over 2 lb. per square foot, would act on a surface of not less than
+254 square feet. There was, at the time, much foolish comment on the
+great distance which the parachute fell before it opened, a complete
+delusion due to the fact that observers failed to see that at the moment
+of separation the balloon itself sprang upward.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII. THE STORY OF THE SPENCERS.
+
+
+It has been in the hands of the Spencers that the parachute, as also
+many other practical details of aeronautics, has been perfected, and
+some due sketch of the career of this family of eminent aeronauts must
+be no longer delayed.
+
+Charles Green had stood godfather to the youngest son of his friend
+and colleague, Mr. Edward Spencer, and in later years, as though to
+vindicate the fact, this same son took up the science of aeronautics at
+the point where his father had left it. We find his name in the records
+of the Patent Office of 1868 as the inventor of a manumetric flying
+machine, and there are accounts of the flying leaps of several
+hundred feet which he was enabled to take by means of the machine he
+constructed. Again, in 1882 we find him an inventor, this time of the
+patent asbestos fire balloon, by means of which the principal danger to
+such balloons was overcome.
+
+At this point it is needful to make mention of the third generation--the
+several sons who early showed their zeal and aptitude for perpetuating
+the family tradition. It was from his school playground that the eldest
+son, Percival, witnessed with intense interest what appeared like a drop
+floating in the sky at an immense altitude. This proved to be Simmons's
+balloon, which had just risen to a vast elevation over Cremorne Gardens,
+after having liberated the unfortunate De Groof, as mentioned in a
+former chapter. And one may be sure that the terrible reality of the
+disaster that had happened was not lost on the young schoolboy. But his
+wish was to become an aeronauts, and from this desire nothing deterred
+him, so that school days were scarcely over before he began to accompany
+his father aloft, and in a very few years, i.e. in 1888, he had assumed
+the full responsibilities of a professional balloonist.
+
+It was in this year that Professor Baldwin appeared in England, and it
+is easy to understand that the parachute became an object of interest to
+the young Spencer, who commenced on his own account a series of trials
+at the Alexandra Palace, and it was now, also, that chance good fortune
+came his way. An Indian gentleman, who was witness of his experiments,
+and convinced that a favourable field for their further development
+existed in his own country, proposed to the young aspirant that he
+should accompany him to India, with equipment suited for the making of a
+successful campaign.
+
+Thus it came about that in the early days of 1889, in the height of the
+season, Mr. Percival Spencer arrived at Bombay, and at once commenced
+professional business in earnest. Coal gas being here available, a
+maiden ascent was quickly arranged, and duly announced to take place at
+the Government House, Paral, the chief attraction being the parachute
+descent, the first ever attempted in India.
+
+This preliminary exhibition proving in all ways a complete success,
+Mr. Spencer, after a few repetitions of his performance, repaired to
+Calcutta; but here great difficulties were experienced in the matter of
+gas. The coal gas available was inadequate, and when recourse was had to
+pure hydrogen the supply proved too sluggish. At the advertised hour
+of departure the balloon was not sufficiently inflated, while the
+spectators were growing impatient. It was at this critical moment that
+Mr. Spencer resolved on a surprise. Suddenly casting off the parachute,
+and seated on a mere sling below the half-inflated balloon, without
+ballast, without grapnel, and unprovided with a valve, he sailed away
+over the heads of the multitude.
+
+The afternoon was already far advanced, and the short tropical twilight
+soon gave way to darkness, when the intrepid voyager disappeared
+completely from sight. Excitement was intense that night in Calcutta,
+and greater still the next day when, as hour after hour went by, no
+news save a series of wild and false reports reached the city. Trains
+arriving from the country brought no intelligence, and telegraphic
+enquiries sent in all directions proved fruitless. The Great Eastern
+Hotel, where the young man had been staying, was literally besieged
+for hours by a large crowd eager for any tidings. Then the Press gave
+expression to the gloomiest forebodings, and the town was in a fever of
+unrest. From the direction the balloon had taken it was thought that,
+even if the aeronaut had descended in safety, he could only have been
+landed in the jungle of the Sunderbunds, beset with perils, and
+without a chance of succour. A large reward was offered for reliable
+information, and orders were issued to every likely station to organise
+a search. But ere this was fully carried into effect messages were
+telegraphed to England definitely asserting that Mr. Spencer had lost
+his life. For all this, after three days he returned to Calcutta, none
+the worse for the exploit.
+
+Then the true tale was unravelled. The balloon had changed its course
+from S.E. to E. after passing out of sight of Calcutta, and eventually
+came to earth the same evening in the neighbourhood of Hossainabad,
+thirty-six miles distant. During his aerial flight the voyager's main
+trouble had been caused by his cramped position, the galling of his
+sling seat, and the numbing effect of cold as he reached high altitudes;
+but, as twilight darkened into gloom, his real anxiety was with respect
+to his place of landing, for he could with difficulty see the earth
+underneath. He heard the distant roll of the waters, caused by the
+numerous creeks which intersect the delta of the Ganges, and when
+darkness completely shut out the view it was impossible to tell whether
+he was over land or sea. Fortune favoured him, however, and reaching dry
+ground, he sprang from his seat, relinquishing at the same moment his
+hold of the balloon, which instantly disappeared into the darkness.
+
+Then his wanderings began. He was in an unknown country, without
+knowledge of the language, and with only a few rupees in his pocket.
+Presently, however, seeing a light, he proceeded towards it, but only to
+find himself stopped by a creek. Foiled more than once in this way, he
+at length arrived at the dwelling of a family of natives, who promptly
+fled in terror. To inspire confidence and prove that he was mortal,
+Mr. Spencer threw his coat over the mud wall of the compound, with the
+result that, after examination of the garment, he was received and cared
+for in true native fashion, fed with rice and goat's milk, and allowed
+the use of the verandah to sleep in. He succeeded in communing with
+the natives by dint of lead pencil sketches and dumb show, and
+learned, among other things, that he had descended in a little clearing
+surrounded by woods, and bounded by tidal creeks, which were infested
+with alligators. Yet, in the end, the waterways befriended him; for, as
+he was being ferried across, he chanced on his balloon sailing down
+on the tide, recovered it, and used the tidal waters for the return
+journey.
+
+The greeting upon his arrival in Calcutta was enthusiastic beyond
+description from both Europeans and natives. The hero of the adventure
+was visited by rajahs and notables, who vied with each other in
+expressions of welcome, in making presents, even inviting him to visit
+the sacred precincts of their zenanas. The promised parachute descent
+was subsequently successfully made at Cossipore, and then followed a
+busy, brilliant season, after which the wanderer returned to England.
+By September he is in Dublin, and makes the first parachute descent ever
+witnessed in Ireland; but by November he is in Bombay again, whence,
+proceeding to Calcutta, he repeats his success of the year before. Next
+he visits Allahabad, where the same fortune attends him, though his
+balloon flies away in a temporary escape into the Jumna. By May he is
+ascending at Singapore, armed here, however, with a cork jacket.
+
+Hence, flushed with success, he repairs to the Dutch Indies, and
+demonstrates to the Dutch officers the use of the balloon in war. As a
+natural consequence, he is moved up to the seat of the Achinese War
+in Sumatra, where, his balloon being moored to the rear of an armoured
+train, an immediate move is made to the front, and orders are forthwith
+telephoned from various centres to open fire on the enemy. Mr. Spencer,
+the while accompanied by an officer, makes a captive ascent, in which
+for some time he is actually under the enemy's fire. The result of
+this plucky experiment is a most flattering official report. In all the
+above-mentioned ascents he made his own gas without a hitch.
+
+Thence he travels on with the same trusty little 12,000 cubic feet
+balloon, the same programme, and the same success. This is slightly
+varied, however, at Kobe, Japan, where his impatient craft fairly breaks
+away with him, and, soaring high, flies overhead of a man-of-war, and
+plumps into the water a mile out at sea. But "Smartly" was the word. The
+ship's crew was beat to quarters, and within one minute a boat was to
+the rescue. An ascent at Cairo, where he made a parachute descent in
+sight of the Pyramids and landed in the desert, completed this oriental
+tour, and home duties necessitated his return to England. Among exploits
+far too many to enumerate may be mentioned four several occasions when
+Mr. Percival Spencer has crossed the English Channel.
+
+It fell to the lot of the second son, Arthur, to carry fame into fresh
+fields. In the year 1897 he visited Australia, taking with him two
+balloons, one of these being a noble craft of 80,000 cubic feet,
+considerably larger than any balloon used in England, and the singular
+fate of this aerial monster is deserving of mention.
+
+Its trial trip in the new country was arranged to take place on Boxing
+Day in the Melbourne Exhibition ground, and for the lengthy and critical
+work of inflation the able assistance of British bluejackets was
+secured. To all appearance, the main difficulties to be provided against
+were likely to arise simply from a somewhat inadequate supply of gas,
+and on this account filling commenced as early as 10 a.m. on the morning
+of the day previous to the exhibition, and was continued till 6 o'clock
+in the afternoon, by which time the balloon, being about half full,
+was staved down with sandbags through the night till 4 o'clock the next
+morning, when the inflation was again proceeded with without hindrance
+and apparently under favourable conditions. The morning was beautifully
+fine, warm, brilliant, and still, and so remained until half-past six,
+when, with startling rapidity, there blew up a sudden squall known in
+the country as a "Hot Buster," and in two or three minutes' space a
+terrific wind storm was sweeping the ground. A dozen men, aiding a dead
+weight of 220 sandbags, endeavoured to control the plunging balloon, but
+wholly without avail. Men and bags together were lifted clean up in
+the air on the windward side, and the silk envelope, not yet completely
+filled, at once escaped from the net and, flying upwards to a height
+estimated at 10,000 feet, came to earth again ninety miles away in
+a score of fragments. Nothing daunted, however, Mr. Spencer at once
+endeavoured to retrieve his fortunes, and started straightway for the
+gold-mining districts of Ballarat and Bendigo with a hot-air balloon,
+with which he successfully gave a series of popular exhibitions of
+parachute descents. Few aeronauts are more consistently reliable than
+Mr. Arthur Spencer. A few summers ago in this country he was suddenly
+called upon to give proof of his prowess and presence of mind in a very
+remarkable manner. It was at an engagement at Reading, where he had been
+conducting captive ascents throughout the afternoon, and was requested
+to conclude the evening with a "right away," in which two passengers had
+agreed to accompany him. The balloon had been hauled down for the last
+time, when, by some mistake, the engine used for the purpose proceeded
+to work its pump without previously disconnecting the hauling gear.
+The consequence of this was that the cable instantly snapped, and in
+a moment the large balloon, devoid of ballast, grapnel, or other
+appliances, and with neck still tied, was free, and started skyward.
+
+The inevitable result of this accident must have been that the balloon
+in a few seconds would rise to a height where the expansion of the
+imprisoned gas would burst and destroy it. Mr. Spencer, however, was
+standing near, and, grasping the situation in a moment, caught at the
+car as it swung upwards, and, getting hold, succeeded in drawing himself
+up and so climbing into the ring. Quickly as this was done, the balloon
+was already distended to the point of bursting, and only the promptest
+release of gas averted catastrophe.
+
+Mr. Stanley Spencer made himself early known to the world by a series
+of parachute descents, performed from the roof of Olympia. It was a bold
+and sensational exhibition, and on the expiration of his engagement
+the young athlete, profiting by home training, felt fully qualified to
+attempt any aerial feat connected with the profession of an aeronaut.
+And at this juncture an eminent American cyclist, visiting the father's
+factory, suggested to Stanley a business tour in South America.
+
+As an extra attraction it was proposed that a young lady parachutist
+should be one of the company; so, after a few satisfactory trial
+exhibitions in England, the party made their way to Rio, Brazil. Here an
+ascent was arranged, and by the day and hour appointed the balloon was
+successfully inflated with hydrogen, an enormous concourse collected,
+and the lady performer already seated in the sling. Then a strange
+mischance happened. By some means, never satisfactorily explained, the
+young woman, at the moment of release, slipped from her seat, and the
+balloon, escaping into the air, turned over and fell among the people,
+who vindictively destroyed it. Then the crowd grew ungovernable,
+and threatened the lives of the aeronauts, who eventually were, with
+difficulty, rescued by the soldiery.
+
+This was a bad start; but with a spare balloon a fresh attempt at an
+ascent was arranged, though, from another cause, with no better success.
+This time a furious storm arose, before the inflation was completed, and
+the balloon, carrying away, was torn to ribbons. Yet a third time, with
+a hot air balloon now, a performance was advertised and successfully
+carried out; but, immediately after, Mr. Spencer's American friend
+succumbed to yellow fever, and the young man, being thrown on his
+own resources, had to fight his own way until his fortunes had been
+sufficiently restored to return to England.
+
+A few months later he set sail for Canada, where for several months he
+had a most profitable career, on one occasion only meeting with some
+difficulty. He was giving an exhibition on Prince Edward's Island,
+not far from the sea, but on a day so calm that he did not hesitate to
+ascend. On reaching 3,000 feet, however, he was suddenly caught by a
+strong land breeze, which, ere he could reach the water, had carried him
+a mile out to sea, and here he was only rescued after a long interval,
+during which he had become much exhausted in his attempts to save his
+parachute from sinking.
+
+Early in 1892 our traveller visited South Africa with a hot air balloon,
+and, fortune continuing to favour him, he subsequently returned to
+Canada, and proceeded thence to the United States and Cuba. It was at
+Havannah that popular enthusiasm in his favour ran so high that he was
+presented with a medal by the townsfolk. It was from here also that, a
+little while after, tidings of his own death reached him, together
+with most gratifying obituary notices. It would seem that, after his
+departure, an adventurer, attempting to personate him, met with his
+death.
+
+In November, 1897, he followed his elder brother's footsteps to the
+East, and exhibited in Calcutta, Singapore, Canton, and also Hong-Kong,
+where, for the first and only time in his experience, he met with
+serious accident. He was about to ascend for the ordinary parachute
+performance with a hot air balloon, which was being held down by
+about thirty men, one among them being a Chinaman possessed of much
+excitability and very long finger nails. By means of these latter the
+man contrived to gouge a considerable hole in the fabric of the balloon.
+Mr. Spencer, to avoid a disappointment, risked an ascent, and it was
+not till the balloon had reached 600 feet that the rent developed into a
+long slit, and so brought about a sudden fall to earth. Alighting on the
+side of a mountain, Mr. Spencer lay helpless with a broken leg till the
+arrival of some British bluejackets, who conveyed him to the nearest
+surgeon, when, after due attention, he was sent home. Other remarkable
+exploits, which Mr. Stanley Spencer shared with Dr. Berson and with the
+writer and his daughter, will be recorded later.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII. NEW DEPARTURES IN AEROSTATION.
+
+
+After Mr. Coxwell's experiments at Aldershot in 1862 the military
+balloon, as far as England was concerned, remained in abeyance for nine
+long years, when the Government appointed a Commission to enquire into
+its utility, and to conduct further experiments. The members of this
+committee were Colonel Noble, R.E., Sir F. Abel, Captain Lee, R.E.,
+assisted by Captain Elsdale, R.E., and Captain (now Colonel) Templer.
+Yet another nine years, however, elapsed before much more was heard of
+this modernised military engine.
+
+But about the beginning of the eighties the Government had become fully
+alive to the importance of the subject, and Royal Engineers at Woolwich
+grew busy with balloon manufacture and experiment. Soon "the sky around
+London became speckled with balloons." The method of making so-called
+pure hydrogen by passing steam over red-hot iron was fully tested, and
+for a time gained favour. The apparatus, weighing some three tons,
+was calculated to be not beyond the carrying powers of three service
+waggons, while it was capable of generating enough gas to inflate two
+balloons in twenty-four hours, a single inflation holding good, under
+favourable circumstances, for a long period. At the Brighton Volunteer
+Review of 1880, Captain Templer, with nine men, conducted the operations
+of a captive reconnoitring balloon. This was inflated at the Lewes gas
+works, and then towed two and a half miles across a river, a railway,
+and a line of telegraph wires, after which it was let up to a height of
+1,500 feet, whence, it was stated, that so good a view was obtained
+that "every man was clearly seen." Be it remembered, however, that
+the country was not the South African veldt, and every man was in the
+striking English uniform of that date.
+
+Just at this juncture came the Egyptian War, and it will be recalled
+that in the beginning of that war balloons were conspicuous by their
+absence. The difficulties of reconnaissance were keenly felt and
+commented on, and among other statements we find the following in the
+war intelligence of the Times:--
+
+"As the want of a balloon equipment has been mentioned in letters from
+Egypt, it may be stated that all the War Department balloons remain in
+store at the Royal Dockyard at Woolwich, but have been recently examined
+and found perfectly serviceable." An assertion had been made to the
+effect that the nature of the sand in Egypt would impede the transport
+of the heavy material necessary for inflation. At last, however, the
+order came for the despatch of the balloon equipment to the front, and
+though this arrived long after Tel-el-Kebir, yet it is recorded that the
+first ascent in real active service in the British Army took place on
+the 25th of March, 1885, at Suakin, and balloons becoming regarded as
+an all-important part of the equipment of war, they were sent out in
+the Bechuanaland Expedition under Sir Charles Warren, the supply of gas
+being shipped to Cape Town in cylinders.
+
+It was at this period that, according to Mr. Coxwell, Lord Wolseley made
+ascents at home in a war balloon to form his own personal opinion of
+their capabilities, and, expressing this opinion to one of his staff,
+said that had he been able to employ balloons in the earlier stages of
+the Soudan campaign the affair would not have lasted as many months as
+it did years. This statement, however, should be read in conjunction
+with another of the same officer in the "Soldier's Pocket Book,"
+that "in a windy country balloons are useless." In the Boer War the
+usefulness of the balloon was frequently tested, more particularly
+during the siege of Ladysmith, when it was deemed of great value in
+directing the fire of the British artillery, and again in Buller's
+advance, where the balloon is credited with having located a
+"death-trap" of the enemy at Spion Kop. Other all-important service was
+rendered at Magersfontein. The Service balloon principally used was made
+of goldbeaters' skin, containing about 10,000 cubic feet of hydrogen,
+which had been produced by the action of sulphuric acid on zinc, and
+compressed in steel cylinders. A special gas factory was, for the
+purpose of the campaign, established at Cape Town.
+
+It is here that reference must be made to some of the special work
+undertaken by Mr. Eric S. Bruce, which dealt with the management of
+captive balloons under different conditions, and with a system
+of signalling thus rendered feasible. Mr. Bruce, who, since Major
+Baden-Powell's retirement from the office, has devoted his best energies
+as secretary to the advancement of the British Aeronautical Society,
+was the inventor of the system of electric balloon signalling which
+he supplied to the British Government, as well as to the Belgian and
+Italian Governments. This system requires but a very small balloon, made
+of three or four thicknesses of goldbeaters' skin, measuring from 7 to
+10 feet in diameter, and needing only two or three gas cylinders for
+inflation. Within the balloon, which is sufficiently translucent, are
+placed several incandescent lamps in metallic circuit, with a source
+of electricity on the ground. This source of electricity may consist of
+batteries of moderate size or a portable hand dynamo. In the circuit
+is placed an apparatus for making and breaking contact rapidly, and by
+varying the duration of the flashes in the balloon telegraphic messages
+may be easily transmitted. To overcome the difficulty of unsteadiness,
+under circumstances of rough weather, in the captive balloon which
+carried the glow lamps, Mr. Bruce experimented with guy ropes, and gave
+a most successful exhibition of their efficiency before military experts
+at Stamford Bridge grounds, though a stiff wind was blowing at the time.
+
+It must be perfectly obvious, however, that a captive balloon in a wind
+is greatly at a disadvantage, and to counteract this, attempts have been
+made in the direction of a combination between the balloon and a kite.
+This endeavour has been attended with some measure of success in the
+German army. Mr. Douglas Archibald, in England, was one of the first
+to advocate the kite balloon. In 1888 he called attention to the
+unsatisfactory behaviour of captive balloons in variable winds, dropping
+with every gust and rising again with a lull. In proof he described an
+expedient of Major Templer's, where an attempt was being made to operate
+a photographic camera hoisted by two tandem kites. "The balloon," he
+writes, "went up majestically, and all seemed very satisfactory until a
+mile of cable had been run out, and the winder locked." It was then that
+troubles began which threatened the wreckage of the apparatus, and Mr.
+Archibald, in consequence, strongly recommended a kite balloon at that
+time. Twelve years later the same able experimentalist, impressed with
+the splendid work done by kites alone for meteorological purposes at
+least, allowed that he was quite content to "let the kite balloon go
+by."
+
+But the German school of aeronauts were doing bigger things than making
+trials with kite balloons. The German Society for the Promotion of
+Aerial Navigation, assisted by the Army Balloon Corps, were busy in
+1888, when a series of important ascents were commenced. Under the
+direction of Dr. Assmann, the energetic president of the aeronautical
+society above named, captive ascents were arranged in connection with
+free ascents for meteorological purposes, and it was thus practicable to
+make simultaneous observations at different levels. These experiments,
+which were largely taken up on the Continent, led to others of yet
+higher importance, in which the unmanned balloon took a part. But the
+Continental annals of this date contain one unhappy record of another
+nature, the recounting of which will, at least, break the monotony
+attending mere experimental details.
+
+In October, 1893, Captain Charbonnet, an enthusiastic French aeronaut,
+resolved on spending his honeymoon, with the full consent of his bride,
+in a prolonged balloon excursion. The start was to be made from Turin,
+and, the direction of travel lying across the Alps, it was the hope of
+the voyagers eventually to reach French territory. The ascent was made
+in perfect safety, as was also the first descent, at the little village
+of Piobesi, ten miles away. Here a halt was made for the night, and the
+next morning, when a fresh start was determined on, two young Italians,
+Signori Botto and Durando, were taken on board as assistants, for the
+exploit began to assume an appearance of some gravity, and this the
+more so when storm clouds began brewing. At an altitude of 10,000 feet
+cross-currents were encountered, and the course becoming obscured the
+captain descended to near the earth, where he discovered himself to be
+in dangerous proximity to gaunt mountain peaks. On observing this, he
+promptly cast out sand so liberally that the balloon rose to a height
+approaching 20,000 feet, when a rapid descent presently began, and
+refused to be checked, even with the expenditure of all available
+ballast.
+
+All the while the earth remained obscured, but, anticipating a fall
+among the mountains, Captain Charbonnet bade his companions lie down in
+the car while he endeavoured to catch sight of some landmark; but, quite
+suddenly, the balloon struck some mountain slope with such force as
+to throw the captain back into the car with a heavy blow over the eye;
+then, bounding across a gulley, it struck again and yet again, falling
+and rebounding between rocky walls, till it settled on a steep and
+snowy ridge. Darkness was now closing in, and the party, without food
+or proper shelter, had to pass the night as best they might on the bare
+spot where they fell, hoping for encouragement with the return of day.
+But dawn showed them to be on a dangerous peak, 10,000 feet high,
+whence they must descend by their own unassisted efforts. After a little
+clambering the captain, who was in a very exhausted state, fell through
+a hidden crevasse, fracturing his skull sixty feet below. The remaining
+three struggled on throughout the day, and had to pass a second night on
+the mountain, this time without covering. On the third day they met with
+a shepherd, who conducted them with difficulty to the little village of
+Balme.
+
+This story, by virtue of its romance, finds a place in these pages;
+but, save for its tragic ending, it hardly stands alone. Ballooning
+enterprise and adventure were growing every year more and more common on
+the Continent. In Scandinavia we find the names of Andree, Fraenkal, and
+Strindberg; in Denmark that of Captain Rambusch. Berlin and Paris had
+virtually become the chief centres of the development of ballooning as a
+science. In the former city a chief among aeronauts had arisen in Dr. A.
+Berson, who, in December, 1894, not only reached 30,000 feet, ascending
+alone, but at that height sustained himself sufficiently, by inhaling
+oxygen, to take systematic observations throughout the entire voyage of
+five hours. The year before, in company with Lieutenant Gross, he barely
+escaped with his life, owing to tangled ropes getting foul of the valve.
+Toulet and those who accompanied him lost their lives near Brussels.
+Later Wolfert and his engineer were killed near Berlin, while Johannsen
+and Loyal fell into the Sound. Thus ever fresh and more extended
+enterprise was embarked upon with good fortune and ill. In fact, it had
+become evident to all that the Continent afforded facilities for the
+advancement of aerial exploration which could be met with in no other
+parts of the world, America only excepted. And it was at this period
+that the expedient of the ballon sonde, or unmanned balloon, was happily
+thought of. One of these balloons, the "Cirrus," among several trials,
+rose to a height, self-registered, of 61,000 feet, while a possible
+greater height has been accorded to it. On one occasion, ascending from
+Berlin, it fell in Western Russia, on another in Bosnia. Then, in 1896,
+at the Meteorological Conference at Paris, with Mascart as President,
+Gustave Hermite, with characteristic ardour, introduced a scheme of
+national ascents with balloons manned and unmanned, and this scheme was
+soon put in effect under a commission of famous names--Andree, Assmann,
+Berson, Besancon, Cailletet, Erk, de Fonvielle, Hergesell, Hermite,
+Jaubert, Pomotzew (of St. Petersburg), and Rotch (of Boston, Mass.).
+
+In November, 1896, five manned balloons and three unmanned ascended
+simultaneously from France, Germany, and Russia. The next year saw,
+with the enterprise of these nations, the co-operation of Austria and
+Belgium. Messrs. Hermite and Besancon, both French aeronauts, were the
+first to make practical trial of the method of sounding the upper air by
+unmanned balloons, and, as a preliminary attempt, dismissed from Paris
+a number of small balloons, a large proportion of which were recovered,
+having returned to earth after less than 100 miles' flight. Larger paper
+balloons were now constructed, capable of carrying simple self-recording
+instruments, also postcards, which became detached at regular intervals
+by the burning away of slow match, and thus indicated the path of the
+balloon. The next attempt was more ambitious, made with a goldbeaters'
+skin balloon containing 4,000 cubic feet of gas, and carrying automatic
+instruments of precision. This balloon fell in the Department of the
+Yonne, and was returned to Paris with the instruments, which remained
+uninjured, and which indicated that an altitude of 49,000 feet had
+been reached, and a minimum temperature of -60 degrees encountered.
+Yet larger balloons of the same nature were then experimented with in
+Germany, as well as France.
+
+A lack of public support has crippled the attempts of experimentalists
+in this country, but abroad this method of aerial exploration continues
+to gain favour.
+
+Distinct from, and supplementing, the records obtained by free balloons,
+manned or unmanned, are those to be gathered from an aerostat moored
+to earth. It is here that the captive balloon has done good service to
+meteorology, as we have shown, but still more so has the high-flying
+kite. It must long have been recognised that instruments placed on or
+near the ground are insufficient for meteorological purposes, and, as
+far back as 1749, we find Dr. Wilson, of Glasgow, employing kites to
+determine the upper currents, and to carry thermometers into higher
+strata of the air. Franklin's kite and its application is matter of
+history. Many since that period made experiments more or less in earnest
+to obtain atmospheric observations by means of kites, but probably
+the first in England, at least to obtain satisfactory results, was Mr.
+Douglas Archibald, who, during the eighties, was successful in obtaining
+valuable wind measurements, as also other results, including aerial
+photographs, at varying altitudes up to 1,000 or 1,200 feet. From that
+period the records of serious and systematic kite flying must be
+sought in America. Mr. W. A. Eddy was one of the pioneers, and a very
+serviceable tailless kite, in which the cross-bar is bowed away from the
+wind, is his invention, and has been much in use. Mr. Eddy established
+his kite at Blue Hill--the now famous kite observatory--and succeeded
+in lifting self-recording meteorological instruments to considerable
+heights. The superiority of readings thus obtained is obvious from the
+fact that fresh air-streams are constantly playing on the instruments.
+
+A year or two later a totally dissimilar kite was introduced by Mr.
+Lawrence Hargrave, of Sydney, Australia. This invention, which
+has proved of the greatest utility and efficiency, would, from its
+appearance, upset all conventional ideas of what a kite should be,
+resembling in its simplest form a mere box, minus the back and
+front. Nevertheless, these kites, in their present form, have carried
+instruments to heights of upwards of two miles, the restraining line
+being fine steel piano wire.
+
+But another and most efficient kite, admirably adapted for many most
+important purposes, is that invented by Major Baden-Powell. The main
+objects originally aimed at in the construction of this kite related to
+military operations, such as signalling, photography, and the raising of
+a man to an elevation for observational purposes. In the opinion of the
+inventor, who is a practiced aeronaut, a wind of over thirty miles
+an hour renders a captive balloon useless, while a kite under such
+conditions should be capable of taking its place in the field.
+Describing his early experiments, Major, then Captain, Baden-Powell,
+stated that in 1894, after a number of failures, he succeeded with a
+hexagonal structure of cambric, stretched on a bamboo framework 36
+feet high, in lifting a man--not far, but far enough to prove that his
+theories were right. Later on, substituting a number of small kites for
+one big one, he was, on several occasions, raised to a height of 100
+feet, and had sent up sand bags, weighing 9 stone, to 300 feet, at which
+height they remained suspended nearly a whole day.
+
+This form of kite, which has been further developed, has been used in
+the South African campaign in connection with wireless telegraphy for
+the taking of photographs at great heights, notably at Modder River, and
+for other purposes.
+
+It has been claimed that the first well-authenticated occasion of a man
+being raised by a kite was when at Pirbright Camp a Baden-Powell kite,
+30 feet high, flown by two lines, from which a basket was suspended,
+took a man up to a height of 10 feet. It is only fair, however, to state
+that it is related that more than fifty years ago a lady was lifted some
+hundred feet by a great kite constructed by one George Pocock, whose
+machine was designed for an observatory in war, and also for drawing
+carriages along highways.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV. ANDREE AND HIS VOYAGES
+
+
+Among many suggestions, alike important and original, due to Major
+Baden-Powell, and coming within the field of aeronautics, is one having
+reference to the use of balloons for geographical research generally and
+more particularly for the exploration of Egypt, which, in his opinion,
+is a country possessing many most desirable qualifications on the score
+of prevailing winds, of suitable base, and of ground adapted for such
+steering as may be effected with a trail rope. At the Bristol meeting of
+the British Association the Major thus propounded his method: "I should
+suggest several balloons, one of about 60,000 cubic feet, and, say,
+six smaller ones of about 7,000 cubic feet; then, if one gets torn or
+damaged, the others might remain intact. After a time, when gas is
+lost, one of the smaller ones could be emptied into the others, and the
+exhausted envelope discharged as ballast; the smaller balloons would be
+easier to transport by porters than one big one, and they could be more
+easily secured on the earth during contrary winds. Over the main balloon
+a light awning might be rigged to neutralise, as far as possible, the
+changes of temperature. A lightning conductor to the top of the balloon
+might be desirable. A large sail would be arranged, and a bifurcated
+guide rope attached to the end of a horizontal pole would form
+an efficient means of steering. The car would be boat-shaped and
+waterproof, so that it could be used for a return journey down a river.
+Water tanks would be fitted."
+
+The reasonableness of such a scheme is beyond question, even without the
+working calculations with which it is accompanied; but, ere these words
+were spoken, one of the most daring explorers that the world has known
+had begun to put in practice a yet bolder and rasher scheme of his own.
+The idea of reaching the North Pole by means of balloons appears to have
+been entertained many years ago. In a curious work, published in Paris
+in 1863 by Delaville Dedreux, there is a suggestion for reaching the
+North Pole by an aerostat which should be launched from the nearest
+accessible point, the calculation being that the distance from such
+a starting place to the Pole and back again would be only some 1,200
+miles, which could be covered in two days, supposing only that there
+could be found a moderate and favourable wind in each direction. Mr. C.
+G. Spencer also wrote on the subject, and subsequently Commander Cheyne
+proposed a method of reaching the Pole by means of triple balloons. A
+similar scheme was advocated in yet more serious earnest by M. Hermite
+in the early eighties.
+
+Some ten years later than this M. S. A. Andree, having obtained
+sufficient assistance, took up the idea with the determined intention
+of pushing it to a practical issue. He had already won his spurs as
+an aeronaut, as may be briefly told. In October, 1893, when making an
+ascent for scientific purposes, his balloon got carried out over the
+Baltic. It may have been the strength of the wind that had taken him by
+surprise; but, there being now no remedy, it was clearly the speed and
+persistence of the wind that alone could save him. If a chance vessel
+could not, or would not, "stand by," he must make the coast of Finland
+or fall in the sea, and several times the fall in the sea seemed
+imminent as his balloon commenced dropping. This threatened danger
+induced him to cast away his anchor, after which the verge of the
+Finland shore was nearly reached, when a change of wind began to carry
+him along the rocky coast, just as night was setting in.
+
+Recognising his extreme danger, Andree stood on the edge of the car,
+with a bag of ballast ready for emergencies. He actually passed over
+an island, on which was a building with a light; but failed to effect
+a landing, and so fell in the sea on the farther side; but, the balloon
+presently righting itself, Andree, now greatly exhausted, made his last
+effort, and as he rose over the next cliff jumped for his life. It was
+past 7 p.m. when he found himself once again on firm ground, but with a
+sprained leg and with no one within call. Seeking what shelter he could,
+he lived out the long night, and, being now scarce able to stand, took
+off his clothes and waved them for a signal. This signal was not seen,
+yet shortly a boat put off from an island--the same that he had passed
+the evening before--and rowed towards him. The boatman overnight had
+seen a strange sail sweeping over land and sea, and he had come in quest
+of it, bringing timely succour to the castaway.
+
+Briefly stated, Andree's grand scheme was to convey a suitable balloon,
+with means for inflating it, as also all necessary equipment, as far
+towards the Pole as a ship could proceed, and thence, waiting for a
+favourable wind, to sail by sky until the region of the Pole should be
+crossed, and some inhabited country reached beyond. The balloon was
+to be kept near the earth, and steered, as far as this might be
+practicable, by means of a trail rope. The balloon, which had a capacity
+of nearly 162,000 cubic feet, was made in Paris, and was provided with a
+rudder sail and an arrangement whereby the hang of the trail rope could
+be readily shifted to different positions on the ring. Further, to
+obviate unnecessary diffusion and loss of gas at the mouth, the balloon
+was fitted with a lower valve, which would only open at a moderate
+pressure, namely, that of four inches of water.
+
+All preparations were completed by the summer of 1896, and on June 7th
+the party embarked at Gothenburg with all necessaries on board, arriving
+at Spitzbergen on June 21st. Andree, who was to be accompanied on his
+aerial voyage by two companions, M. Nils Strindberg and Dr. Ekholm,
+spent some time in selecting a spot that would seem suitable for their
+momentous start, and this was finally found on Dane's Island, where
+their cargo was accordingly landed.
+
+The first operation was the erection of a wooden shed, the materials for
+which they had brought with them, as a protection from the wind. It was
+a work which entailed some loss of time, after which the gas apparatus
+had to be got into order, so that, in spite of all efforts, it was the
+27th of July before the balloon was inflated and in readiness.
+
+A member of an advance party of an eclipse expedition arriving in
+Spitzbergen at this period, and paying a visit to Andree for the purpose
+of taking him letters, wrote:--"We watched him deal out the letters
+to his men. They are all volunteers and include seven sea captains, a
+lawyer, and other people some forty in all. Andree chaffed each man
+to whom he gave a letter, and all were as merry as crickets over the
+business.... We spent our time in watching preparations. The vaseline
+(for soaking the guide ropes) caught fire to-day, but, luckily no rope
+was in the pot."
+
+But the wind as yet was contrary, and day after day passed without any
+shift to a favourable quarter, until the captain of the ship which had
+conveyed them was compelled to bring matters to an issue by saying that
+they must return home without delay if he was to avoid getting frozen
+in for the winter. The balloon had now remained inflated for twenty-one
+days, and Dr. Ekholm, calculating that the leakage of gas amounted to
+nearly 1 per cent. per day, became distrustful of the capability of such
+a vessel to cope with such a voyage as had been aimed at. The party had
+now no choice but to return home with their balloon, leaving, however,
+the shed and gas-generating apparatus for another occasion.
+
+This occasion came the following summer, when the dauntless explorers
+returned to their task, leaving Gothenburg on May 28th, 1897, in a
+vessel lent by the King of Sweden, and reaching Dane's Island on the
+30th of the same month. Dr. Ekholm had retired from the enterprise, but
+in his place were two volunteers, Messrs. Frankel and Svedenborg, the
+latter as "odd man," to fill the place of any of the other three who
+might be prevented from making the final venture.
+
+It was found that the shed had suffered during the winter, and some time
+was spent in making the repairs and needful preparation, so that
+the month of June was half over before all was in readiness for the
+inflation. This operation was then accomplished in four days, and by
+midnight of June 22nd the balloon was at her moorings, full and in
+readiness; but, as in the previous year, the wind was contrary, and
+remained so for nearly three weeks. This, of course, was a less serious
+matter, inasmuch as the voyagers were a month earlier with their
+preparation, but so long a delay must needs have told prejudicially
+against the buoyancy of the balloon, and Andree is hardly to be blamed
+for having, in the end, committed himself to a wind that was not wholly
+favourable.
+
+The wind, if entirely from the right direction, should have been due
+south, but on July 11th it had veered to a direction somewhat west of
+south, and Andree, tolerating no further delay, seized this as his best
+opportunity, and with a wind "whistling through the woodwork of the shed
+and flapping the canvas," accompanied by Frankel and Svedenborg, started
+on his ill-fated voyage.
+
+A telegram which Andree wrote for the Press at that epoch ran thus:--
+"At this moment, 2.30 p.m., we are ready to start. We shall probably be
+driven in a north-north-easterly direction."
+
+On July 22nd a carrier pigeon was recovered by the fishing boat Alken
+between North Cape, Spitzbergen, and Seven Islands, bearing a message,
+"July 13th, 12.30 p.m., 82 degrees 2 minutes north lat., 15 degrees
+5 minutes east long. Good journey eastward. All goes well on board.
+Andree."
+
+Not till August 31st was there picked up in the Arctic zone a buoy,
+which is preserved in the Museum of Stockholm. It bears the message,
+"Buoy No. 4. First to be thrown out. 11th July, 10 p.m., Greenwich mean
+time. All well up till now. We are pursuing our course at an altitude
+of about 250 metres Direction at first northerly 10 degrees east; later;
+northerly 45 degrees east. Four carrier pigeons were despatched at 5.40
+p.m. They flew westwards. We are now above the ice, which is very cut
+up in all directions. Weather splendid. In excellent spirits.--Andree,
+Svedenborg, Frankel. (Postscript later on.) Above the clouds, 7.45,
+Greenwich mean time."
+
+According to Reuter, the Anthropological and Geological Society
+at Stockholm received the following telegram from a ship owner at
+Mandal:--"Captain Hueland, of the steamship Vaagen who arrived there on
+Monday morning, reports that when off Kola Fjord, Iceland, in 65 degrees
+34 minutes north lat., 21 degrees 28 minutes west long., on May 14th
+he found a drifting buoy, marked 'No. 7.' Inside the buoy was a capsule
+marked 'Andree's Polar Expedition,' containing a slip of paper, on which
+was given the following: 'Drifting Buoy No. 7. This buoy was thrown
+out from Andree's balloon on July 11th 1897, 10.55 p.m., Greenwich mean
+time, 82 degrees north lat., 25 degrees east lon. We are at an altitude
+of 600 metres. All well.--Andree, Svedenborg, Frankel.'"
+
+Commenting on the first message, Mr. Percival Spencer says:--"I cannot
+place reliance upon the accuracy of either the date or else the lat. and
+long. given, as I am confident that the balloon would have travelled
+a greater distance in two days." It should be noted that Dane's Island
+lies in 79 degrees 30 minutes north lat. and 10 degrees 10 minutes east
+long.
+
+Mr. Spencer's opinion, carefully considered and expressed eighteen
+months afterwards, will be read with real interest:--
+
+"The distance from Dane's Island to the Pole is about 750 miles, and to
+Alaska on the other side about 1,500 miles. The course of the balloon,
+however, was not direct to the Pole, but towards Franz Josef Land (about
+600 miles) and to the Siberian coast (another 800 miles). Judging from
+the description of the wind at the start, and comparing it with my own
+ballooning experience, I estimate its speed as 40 miles per hour, and
+it will, therefore, be evident that a distance of 2,000 miles would be
+covered in 50 hours, that is two days and two hours after the start. I
+regard all theories as to the balloon being capable of remaining in the
+air for a month as illusory. No free balloon has ever remained aloft for
+more than 36 hours, but with the favourable conditions at the northern
+regions (where the sun does not set and where the temperature remains
+equable) a balloon might remain in the air for double the length of time
+which I consider ample for the purpose of Polar exploration."
+
+A record of the direction of the wind was made after Andree's departure,
+and proved that there was a fluctuation in direction from S.W. to N.W.,
+indicating that the voyagers may have been borne across towards Siberia.
+This, however, can be but surmise. All aeronauts of experience know that
+it is an exceedingly difficult manoeuvre to keep a trail rope dragging
+on the ground if it is desirable to prevent contact with the earth on
+the one hand, or on the other to avoid loss of gas. A slight increase of
+temperature or drying off of condensed moisture may--indeed, is sure to
+after a while--lift the rope off the ground, in which case the balloon,
+rising into upper levels, may be borne away on currents which may be of
+almost any direction, and of which the observer below may know nothing.
+As to the actual divergence from the wind's direction which a trail rope
+and side sail might be hoped to effect, it may be confidently stated
+that, notwithstanding some wonderful accounts that have gone abroad, it
+must not be relied on as commonly amounting to much more than one or, at
+the most, two points.
+
+Although it is to be feared that trustworthy information as to the
+ultimate destination of Andree's balloon may never be gained, yet we may
+safely state that his ever famous, though regrettable, voyage was the
+longest in duration ever attained. At the end of 48 hours his vessel
+would seem to have been still well up and going strong. The only other
+previous voyage that had in duration of travel approached this record
+was that made by M. Mallet, in 1892, and maintained for 36 hours. Next
+we may mention that of M. Herve, in 1886, occupying 24 1/2 hours, which
+feat, however, was almost equal led by the great Leipzig balloon in
+1897, which, with eight people in the car, remained up for 24 1/4 hours,
+and did not touch earth till 1,032 miles had been traversed.
+
+The fabric of Andree's balloon may not be considered to have been the
+best for such an exceptional purpose. Dismissing considerations of cost,
+goldbeaters' skin would doubtless have been more suitable. The military
+balloons at Aldershot are made of this, and one such balloon has been
+known to remain inflated for three months with very little loss. It is
+conceivable, therefore, that the chances of the voyagers, whose ultimate
+safety depended so largely upon the staying power of their aerial
+vessel, might have been considerably increased.
+
+One other expedient, wholly impracticable, but often seriously
+discussed, may be briefly referred to, namely, the idea of taking up
+apparatus for pumping gas into metal receivers as the voyage proceeds,
+in order to raise or lower a balloon, and in this way to prolong its
+life. Mr. Wenham has investigated the point with his usual painstaking
+care, and reduced its absurdity to a simple calculation, which should
+serve to banish for good such a mere extravagant theory.
+
+Suppose, he says, the gas were compressed to one-twentieth part of its
+bulk, which would mean a pressure within its receiver of 300 lbs. per
+square inch, and that each receiver had a capacity of 1 cubic foot,
+while for safety sake it was made of steel plates one-twentieth of an
+inch thick, then each receiver would weigh 10 lbs., and to liberate
+1,000 feet clearly a weight of 500 lbs. would have to be taken up. Now,
+when it is considered that 1,000 cubic feet of hydrogen will only
+lift 72 lbs., the scheme begins to look hope less enough. But when the
+question of the pumping apparatus, to be worked by hand, is contemplated
+the difficulties introduced become yet more insuperable. The only
+feasible suggestion with respect the use of compressed gas is that of
+taking on board charged cylinders under high pressure, which, after
+being discharged to supply the leakage of the balloon could, in an
+uninhabited country, be cast out as ballast last. It will need no
+pointing out, however, that such an idea would be practically as futile
+as another which has gravely been recommended, namely, that of heating
+the gas of the balloon by a Davy lamp, so as to increase its buoyancy
+at will. Major Baden-Powell has aptly described this as resembling "an
+attempt to warm a large hall with a small spirit lamp."
+
+In any future attempt to reach the Pole by balloon it is not
+unreasonable to suppose that wireless telegraphy will be put in
+practice to maintain communication with the base. The writer's personal
+experience of the possibilities afforded by this mode of communication,
+yet in its infancy, will be given.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV. THE MODERN AIRSHIP--IN SEARCH OF THE LEONIDS.
+
+
+In the autumn of 1898 the aeronautical world was interested to hear
+that a young Brazilian, M. Santos Dumont, had completed a somewhat novel
+dirigible balloon, cylindrical in shape, with conical ends, 83 feet long
+by 12 feet in diameter, holding 6,500 cubic feet of gas, and having a
+small compensating balloon of 880 cubic feet capacity. For a net was
+substituted a simple contrivance, consisting of two side pockets,
+running the length of the balloon, and containing battens of wood, to
+which were affixed the suspension cords, bands being also sewn over the
+upper part of the balloon connecting the two pockets. The most important
+novelty, however, was the introduction of a small petroleum motor
+similar to those used for motor tricycles.
+
+The inventor ascended in this balloon, inflated with pure hydrogen, from
+the Jardin d'Acclimatation, Paris, and circled several times round the
+large captive balloon in the Gardens, after which, moving towards the
+Bois de Boulogne, he made several sweeps of 100 yards radius. Then the
+pump of the compensator caused the engine to stop, and the machine,
+partially collapsing, fell to the ground. Santos Dumont was somewhat
+shaken, but announced his intention of making other trials. In this bold
+and successful attempt there was clear indication of a fresh phase in
+the construction of the airship, consisting in the happy adoption of the
+modern type of petroleum motor. Two other hying machines were heard of
+about this date, one by Professor Giampietre, of Pavia, cigar-shaped,
+driven by screws, and rigged with masts and sails. The other, which had
+been constructed and tested in strict privacy, was the invention of
+a French engineer, M. Ader, and was imagined to imitate the essential
+structure of a bird. Two steam motors of 20-horse power supplied
+the power. It was started by being run on the ground on small wheels
+attached to it, and it was claimed that before a breakdown occurred the
+machine had actually raised itself into the air.
+
+Of Santos Dumont the world was presently to know more, and the same
+must be said of another inventor, Dr. Barton, of Beckenham, who
+shortly completed an airship model carrying aeroplanes and operated by
+clockwork. In an early experiment this model travelled four miles in
+twenty-three minutes.
+
+But another airship, a true leviathan, had been growing into stately and
+graceful proportions on the shores of the Bodenzee in Wurtemberg, and
+was already on the eve of completion. Count Zeppelin, a lieut.-general
+in the German Army, who had seen service in the Franco-German War, had
+for some years devoted his fortune and energy to the practical study
+of aerial navigation, and had prosecuted experiments on a large scale.
+Eventually, having formed a company with a large capital, he was enabled
+to construct an airship which in size has been compared to a British
+man-of-war. Cigar-shaped, its length was no less than 420 feet, and
+diameter 40 feet, while its weight amounted to no more than 7,250 lbs.
+The framework, which for lightness had been made of aluminium, was,
+with the object of preventing all the gas collecting at one end of its
+elongated form, subdivided into seventeen compartments, each of these
+compartments containing a completely fitted gas balloon, made of oiled
+cotton and marvellously gas tight. A steering apparatus was placed
+both fore and aft, and at a safe distance below the main structure were
+fixed, also forward and aft, on aluminium platforms, two Daimler motor
+engines of 16-horse power, working aluminium propellers of four blades
+at the rate of 1,000 revolutions a minute. Finally, firmly attached
+to the inner framework by rods of aluminium, were two cars of the same
+metal, furnished with buffer springs to break the force of a fall. The
+trial trip was not made till the summer following--June, 1900--and, in
+the meanwhile, experiments had gone forward with another mode of flight,
+terminating, unhappily, in the death of one of the most expert and
+ingenious of mechanical aeronauts.
+
+Mr. Percy S. Pilcher, now thirty-three years of age, having received his
+early training in the Navy, retired from the Service to become a civil
+engineer, and had been for some time a partner in the firm of Wilson
+and Pilcher. For four or five years he had been experimenting in soaring
+flight, using a Lilienthal machine, which he improved to suit his own
+methods. Among these was the device of rising off the ground by being
+rapidly towed by a line against the wind.
+
+At the end of September he gave an exhibition at Stamford Park before
+Lord Bray and a select party of friends--this in spite of an unsuitable
+afternoon of unsteady wind and occasional showers. A long towing line
+was provided, which, being passed round pulley blocks and dragged by
+a couple of horses, was capable of being hauled in at high speed. The
+first trial, though ending in an accident, was eminently satisfactory.
+The apparatus, running against the wind, had risen some distance,
+when the line broke, yet the inventor descended slowly and safely with
+outstretched wings. The next trial also commenced well, with an easy
+rise to a height of some thirty feet. At that point, however, the tail
+broke with a snap, and the machine, pitching over, fell a complete
+wreck. Mr. Pilcher was found insensible, with his thigh broken, and
+though no other serious injury was apparent, he succumbed two days
+afterwards without recovering consciousness. It was surmised that
+shrinkage of the canvas of the tail, through getting wet, had strained
+and broken its bamboo stretcher.
+
+This autumn died Gaston Tissandier, at the age of fifty-six; and in the
+month of December, at a ripe old age, while still in full possession of
+intellectual vigour, Mr. Coxwell somewhat suddenly passed away. Always
+keenly interested in the progress of aeronautics; he had but recently,
+in a letter to the Standard, proposed a well-considered and practical
+method of employing Montgolfier reconnoitring balloons, portable,
+readily inflated, and especially suited to the war in South Africa.
+Perhaps the last letters of a private nature penned by Mr. Coxwell
+were to the writer and his daughter, full of friendly and valuable
+suggestion, and more particularly commenting on a recent scientific
+aerial voyage, which proved to be not only sensational, but established
+a record in English ballooning.
+
+The great train of the November meteors, known as the Leonids, which at
+regular periods of thirty-three years had in the past encountered the
+earth's atmosphere, was due, and over-due. The cause of this, and of
+their finally eluding observation, need only be very briefly touched
+on here. The actual meteoric train is known to travel in an elongated
+ellipse, the far end of which lies near the confines of the solar
+system, while at a point near the hither end the earth's orbit runs
+slantingly athwart it, forming, as it were, a level crossing common
+to the two orbits, the earth taking some five or six hours in transit.
+Calculation shows that the meteor train is to be expected at this
+crossing every thirty-three and a third years, while the train is
+extended to such an enormous length--taking more than a year to draw
+clear--that the earth must needs encounter it ere it gets by, possibly
+even two years running. There could be no absolute certainty about the
+exact year, nor the exact night when the earth and the meteors would
+foregather, owing to the uncertain disturbance which the latter must
+suffer from the pull of the planetary bodies in the long journey out
+and home again among them. As is now known, this disturbing effect had
+actually dispersed the train.
+
+The shower, which was well seen in 1866, was pretty confidently expected
+in 1899, and to guard against the mischance of cloudy weather, it was
+arranged that the writer should, on behalf of the Times newspaper, make
+an ascent on the right night to secure observations. Moreover, it was
+arranged that he should have, as chief assistant, his own daughter,
+an enthusiastic lady aeronaut, who had also taken part in previous
+astronomical work.
+
+Unfortunately there were two nights, those of November 14th and 15th,
+when the expected shower seemed equally probable, and, taking counsel
+with the best authorities in the astronomical world, it seemed that the
+only course to avoid disappointment would be to have a balloon filled
+and moored in readiness for an immediate start, either on the first
+night or on the second.
+
+This settled the matter from the astronomical side, but there was the
+aeronautical side also to be considered. A balloon of 56,000 cubic feet
+capacity was the largest available for the occasion, and a night ascent
+with three passengers and instruments would need plenty of lifting power
+to meet chance emergencies. Thus it seemed that a possible delay of
+forty-eight hours might entail a greater leakage of gas than could be
+afforded.
+
+The leakage might be expected chiefly to occur at the valve in the
+head of the balloon, it being extremely difficult to render any form of
+mechanical valve gas tight, however carefully its joints be stopped with
+luting. On this account, therefore, it was determined that the balloon
+should be fitted with what is known as a solid or rending valve,
+consisting simply of balloon fabric tied hard and fast over the entire
+upper outlet, after the fashion of a jam pot cover. The outlet itself
+was a gaping hole of over 2 feet across; but by the time its covering
+had been carefully varnished over all leakage was sufficiently
+prevented, the one drawback to this method being the fact that the
+liberation of gas now admitted of no regulation. Pulling the valve line
+would simply mean opening the entire wide aperture, which could in no
+way be closed again.
+
+The management of such a valve consists in allowing the balloon to
+sink spontaneously earthwards, and when it has settled near the ground,
+having chosen a desirable landing place, to tear open the so-called
+valve once and for all.
+
+This expedient, dictated by necessity, seeming sufficient for the
+purpose at hand, preparations were proceeded with, and, under the
+management of Mr. Stanley Spencer, who agreed to act as aeronaut, a
+large balloon, with solid valve, was brought down to Newbury gas works
+on November 14th, and, being inflated during the afternoon, was full and
+made snug by sundown. But as the meteor radiant would not be well above
+the horizon till after midnight, the aeronautical party retired for
+refreshment, and subsequently for rest, when, as the night wore on, it
+became evident that, though the sky remained clear, there would be no
+meteor display that night. The next day was overcast, and by nightfall
+hopelessly so, the clouds ever thickening, with absence of wind or any
+indication which might give promise of a change. Thus by midnight it
+became impossible to tell whether any display were in progress or not.
+Under these circumstances, it might have been difficult to decide when
+to make the start with the best show of reason. Clearly too early a
+start could not subsequently be rectified; the balloon, once off, could
+not come back again; while, once liberated, it would be highly unwise
+for it to remain aloft and hidden by clouds for more than some two
+hours, lest it should be carried out to sea.
+
+Happily the right decision under these circumstances was perfectly
+clear. Other things being equal, the best time would be about 4 a.m., by
+which period the moon, then near the full, would be getting low, and the
+two hours of darkness left would afford the best seeing. Leaving, then,
+an efficient outlook on the balloon ground, the party enjoyed for some
+hours the entertainment offered them by the Newbury Guildhall Club, and
+at 4 a.m. taking their seats in the car, sailed up into the calm chilly
+air of the November night.
+
+But the chilliness did not last for long. A height of 1,500 feet was
+read by the Davy lamp, and then we entered fog--warm, wetting fog,
+through which the balloon would make no progress in spite of a prodigal
+discharge of sand. The fact was that the balloon, which had become
+chilled through the night hours, was gathering a great weight of
+moisture from condensation on its surface, and when, at last, the whole
+depth of the cloud, 1,500 feet, had been penetrated, the chill of the
+upper air crippled the balloon and sent her plunging down again into the
+mist, necessitating yet further expenditure of sand, which by this time
+had amounted to no less than 3 1/2 cwt. in twenty minutes. And then at
+last we reached our level, a region on the upper margin of the cloud
+floor, where evaporation reduced the temperature, that had recently been
+that of greenhouse warmth, to intense cold.
+
+That evaporation was going on around us on a gigantic scale was made
+very manifest. The surface of the vast cloud floor below us was in a
+perfect turmoil, like that of a troubled sea. If the cloud surface could
+be compared to anything on earth it most resembled sea where waves
+are running mountains high. At one moment we should be sailing over
+a trough, wide and deep below us, the next a mighty billow would toss
+itself aloft and vanish utterly into space. Everywhere wreaths of
+mist with ragged fringes were withering away into empty air, and, more
+remarkable yet, was the conflict of wind which sent the cloud wrack
+flying simply in all directions.
+
+For two hours now there was opportunity for observing at leisure all
+that could be made of the falling meteors. There were a few, and these,
+owing to our clear, elevated region, were exceptionally bright. The
+majority, too, were true Leonids, issuing from the radiant point in the
+"Sickle," but these were not more numerous than may be counted on that
+night in any year, and served to emphasise the fact that no real display
+was in progress. The outlook was maintained, and careful notes made for
+two hours, at the end of which time the dawn began to break, the stars
+went in, and we were ready to pack up and come down.
+
+But the point was that we were not coming down. We were at that time,
+6 a.m., 4,000 feet high, and it needs no pointing out that at such an
+altitude it would have been madness to tear open our huge rending valve,
+thus emptying the balloon of gas. It may also be unnecessary to point
+out that in an ordinary afternoon ascent such a valve would be perfectly
+satisfactory, for under these circumstances the sun presently must go
+down, the air must grow chill, and the balloon must come earthward,
+allowing of an easy descent until a safe and suitable opportunity
+for rending the valve occurred; but now we knew that conditions were
+reversed, and that the sun was just going to rise.
+
+And then it was we realised that we were caught in a trap. From that
+moment it was painfully evident that we were powerless to act, and were
+at the mercy of circumstances. By this time the light was strong, and,
+being well above the tossing billows of mist, we commanded an extended
+view on every side, which revealed, however, only the upper unbroken
+surface of the dense cloud canopy that lay over all the British Isles.
+We could only make a rough guess as to our probable locality. We
+knew that our course at starting lay towards the west, and if we were
+maintaining that course a travel of scarcely more than sixty miles would
+carry us out to the open sea. We had already been aloft for two hours,
+and as we were at an altitude at which fast upper currents are commonly
+met with, it was high time that, for safety, we should be coming down;
+yet it was morally certain that it would be now many hours before
+our balloon would commence to descend of its own accord by sheer slow
+leakage of gas, by which time, beyond all reasonable doubt, we must
+be carried far out over the Atlantic. All we could do was to listen
+intently for any sounds that might reach us from earth, and assure us
+that we were still over the land; and for a length of time such sounds
+were vouchsafed us--the bark of a dog, the lowing of cattle, the ringing
+trot of a horse on some hard road far down.
+
+And then, as we were expecting, the sun climbed up into an unsullied
+sky, and, mounting by leaps and bounds, we watched the cloud floor
+receding beneath us. The effect was extremely beautiful. A description
+written to the Times the next morning, while the impression was still
+fresh, and from notes made at this period, ran thus:--"Away to an
+infinitely distant horizon stretched rolling billows of snowy whiteness,
+broken up here and there into seeming icefields, with huge fantastic
+hummocks. Elsewhere domes and spires reared themselves above the general
+surface, or an isolated Matterhorn towered into space. In some quarters
+it was impossible to look without the conviction that we actually beheld
+the outline of lofty cliffs overhanging a none too distant sea." Shortly
+we began to hear loud reports overhead, resembling small explosions,
+and we knew what these were--the moist, shrunken netting was giving out
+under the hot sun and yielding now and again with sudden release to the
+rapidly expanding gas. It was, therefore, with grave concern, but with
+no surprise, that when we next turned to the aneroid we found the index
+pointing to 9,000 feet, and still moving upwards.
+
+Hour after hour passed by, and, sounds having ceased to reach us, it
+remains uncertain whether or no we were actually carried out to sea
+and headed back again by contrary currents, an experience with which
+aeronauts, including the writer, have been familiar; but, at length,
+there was borne up to us the distant sound of heavy hammers and of
+frequent trains, from which we gathered that we were probably over
+Bristol, and it was then that the thought occurred to my daughter that
+we might possibly communicate with those below with a view to succour.
+This led to our writing the following message many times over on blank
+telegraph forms and casting them down:--"Urgent. Large balloon from
+Newbury travelling overhead above the clouds. Cannot descend. Telegraph
+to sea coast (coast-guards) to be ready to rescue.--Bacon and Spencer."
+
+While thus occupied we caught the sound of waves, and the shriek of a
+ship's siren. We were crossing a reach of the Severn, and most of our
+missives probably fell in the sea. But over the estuary there must have
+been a cold upper current blowing, which crippled our balloon, for the
+aneroid presently told of a fall of 2,000 feet. It was now past noon,
+and to us the turn of the tide was come. Very slowly, and with strange
+fluctuations, the balloon crept down till it reached and became
+enveloped in the cloud below, and then the end was near. The actual
+descent occupied nearly two hours, and affords a curious study in
+aerostation. The details of the balloon's dying struggles and of our own
+rough descent, entailing the fracture of my daughter's arm, are told in
+another volume.{*}
+
+We fell near Neath, Glamorganshire, only one and a half miles short
+of the sea, completing a voyage which is a record in English
+ballooning--ten hours from start to finish.
+
+* "By Land and Sky," by the Author.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI. RECENT AERONAUTICAL EVENTS.
+
+
+The first trial of the Zeppelin air ship was arranged to take place on
+June 30th, 1900, a day which, from absence of wind, was eminently well
+suited for the purpose; but the inflation proved too slow a process,
+and operations were postponed to the morrow. The morrow, however, was
+somewhat windy, causing delay, and by the time all was in readiness
+darkness had set in and the start was once more postponed. On
+the evening of the third day the monster craft was skilfully and
+successfully manoeuvred, and, rising with a very light wind, got fairly
+away, carrying Count Zeppelin and four other persons in the two cars.
+Drifting with the wind, it attained a height of some 800 or 900 feet,
+at which point the steering apparatus being brought into play it circled
+round and faced the wind, when it remained stationary. But not for long.
+Shortly it began to descend and, sinking gradually, gracefully, and
+in perfect safety, in about nine minutes it reached and rested on the
+water, when it was towed home.
+
+A little later in the month, July, another trial was made, when a wind
+was blowing estimated at sixteen miles an hour. As on the previous
+occasion, the direct influence of the sun was avoided by waiting till
+evening hours. It ascended at 8 p.m., and the engines getting to work
+it made a slow progress of about two miles an hour against the wind for
+about 3 1/2 miles, when one of the rudders gave way, and the machine was
+obliged to descend.
+
+On the evening of October 24th of the same year, in very calm weather
+and with better hope, another ascent was made. On this occasion,
+however, success was frustrated by one of the rear rudders getting foul
+of the gear, followed by the escape of gas from one of the balloons.
+
+Another and more successful trial took place in the same month, again in
+calm atmosphere. Inferior gas was employed, and it would appear that the
+vessel had not sufficient buoyancy. It remained aloft for a period of
+twenty minutes, during which it proved perfectly manageable, making
+a graceful journey out and home, and returning close to its point of
+departure. This magnificent air ship, the result of twenty years of
+experiment, has since been abandoned and broken up; yet the sacrifice
+has not been without result. Over and above the stimulus which Count
+Zeppelin's great endeavour has given to the aeronautical world, two
+special triumphs are his. He has shown balloonists how to make a
+perfectly gas-tight material, and has raised powerful petroleum motors
+in a balloon with safety.
+
+In the early part of 1900 it was announced that a member of the Paris
+Aero Club, who at the time withheld his name (M. Deutsch) offered a
+prize of 100,000 francs to the aeronaut who, either in a balloon
+or flying machine, starting from the grounds of the Aero Club at
+Longchamps, would make a journey round the Eiffel Tower, returning to
+the starting place within half an hour. The donor would withdraw his
+prize if not won within five years, and in the meanwhile would pay 4,000
+francs annually towards the encouragement of worthy experimenters.
+
+It was from this time that flying machines in great variety and goodly
+number began to be heard of, if not actually seen. One of the earliest
+to be announced in the Press was a machine invented by the Russian,
+Feedoroff, and the Frenchman, Dupont. Dr. Danilewsky came forward with
+a flying machine combining balloon and aeroplane, the steering of which
+would be worked like a velocipede by the feet of the aeronaut.
+
+Mr. P. Y. Alexander, of Bath, who had long been an enthusiastic
+balloonist, and who had devoted a vast amount of pains, originality, and
+engineering skill to the pursuit of aeronautics, was at this time
+giving much attention to the flying machine, and was, indeed, one of the
+assistants in the first successful launching of the Zeppelin airship.
+In concert with Mr. W. G. Walker, A.M.I.C.E., Mr. Alexander carried out
+some valuable and exhaustive experiments on the lifting power of air
+propellers, 30 feet in diameter, driven by a portable engine. The
+results, which were of a purely technical nature, have been embodied in
+a carefully compiled memoir.
+
+An air ship now appeared, invented by M. Rose, consisting of two
+elongated vessels filled with gas, and carrying the working gear and car
+between them. The machine was intentionally made heavier than air, and
+was operated by a petrol motor of 12-horse power.
+
+It was now that announcements began to be made to the effect that,
+next to the Zeppelin air ship, M. Santos Dumont's balloon was probably
+attracting most of the attention of experts. The account given of this
+air vessel by the Daily Express was somewhat startling. The balloon
+proper was compared to a large torpedo. Three feet beneath this hangs
+the gasoline motor which is to supply the power. The propeller is 12
+feet in diameter, and is revolved so rapidly by the motor that the
+engine frequently gets red hot. The only accommodation for the traveller
+is a little bicycle seat, from which the aeronaut will direct his
+motor and steering gear by means of treadles. Then the inclination or
+declination of his machine must be noted on the spirit level at his
+side, and the 200 odd pounds of ballast must be regulated as the course
+requires.
+
+A more detailed account of this navigable balloon was furnished by a
+member of the Paris Aero Club. From this authority we learn that the
+capacity of the balloon was 10,700 cubic feet. It contained an inner
+balloon and an air fan, the function of which was to maintain the shape
+of the balloon when meeting the wind, and the whole was operated by a
+10-horse power motor capable of working the screw at 100 revolutions per
+minute.
+
+But before the aerial exploits of Santos Dumont had become famous,
+balloons had again claimed public attention. On August 1st Captain
+Spelterini, with two companions, taking a balloon and 180 cylinders
+of hydrogen to the top of the Rigi and ascending thence, pursued a
+north-east course, across extensive and beautiful tracts of icefield and
+mountain fastnesses unvisited by men. The descent, which was difficult
+and critical, was happily manoeuvred. This took place on the Gnuetseven,
+a peak over 5,000 feet high, the plateau on which the voyagers landed
+being described as only 50 yards square, surrounded by precipices.
+
+On the 10th of September following the writer was fortunate in carrying
+out some wireless telegraphy experiments in a balloon, the success of
+which is entirely due to the unrivalled skill of Mr. Nevil Maskelyne,
+F.R.A.S., and to his clever adaptation of the special apparatus of his
+own invention to the exigencies of a free balloon. The occasion was the
+garden party at the Bradford meeting of the British Association, Admiral
+Sir Edmund Fremantle taking part in the voyage, with Mr. Percival
+Spencer in charge. The experiment was to include the firing of a mine
+in the grounds two minutes after the balloon had left, and this item
+was entirely successful. The main idea was to attempt to establish
+communication between a base and a free balloon retreating through space
+at a height beyond practicable gun shot. The wind was fast and squally,
+and the unavoidable rough jolting which the car received at the start
+put the transmitting instrument out of action. The messages, however,
+which were sent from the grounds at Lister Park were received and
+watched by the occupants of the car up to a distance of twenty miles, at
+which point the voyage terminated.
+
+On September 30th, and also on October 9th, of this year, took place
+two principal balloon races from Vincennes in connection with the Paris
+Exposition. In the first race, among those who competed were M. Jacques
+Faure, the Count de la Vaulx, and M. Jacques Balsan. The Count was the
+winner, reaching Wocawek, in Russian Poland, a travel of 706 miles, in
+21 hours 34 minutes. M. Balsan was second, descending near Dantzig in
+East Prussia, 757 miles, in 22 hours. M. Jacques Faure reached Mamlitz,
+in East Prussia, a distance of 753 miles.
+
+In the final race the Count de la Vaulx made a record voyage of 1,193
+miles, reaching Korosticheff, in Russia, in 35 hours 45 minutes,
+attaining a maximum altitude of 18,810 feet. M. J. Balsan reached a
+greater height, namely, 21,582 feet, travelling to Rodom, in Russia, a
+distance of 843 miles, in 27 hours 25 minutes.
+
+Some phenomenal altitudes were attained at this time. In September,
+1898, Dr. Berson, of Berlin, ascended from the Crystal Palace in a
+balloon inflated with hydrogen, under the management of Mr. Stanley
+Spencer, oxygen being an essential part of the equipment. The start was
+made at 5 p.m., and the balloon at first drifted south-east, out over
+the mouth of the Thames, until at an altitude of 10,000 feet an upper
+current changed the course to southwest, the balloon mounting rapidly
+till 23,000 feet was reached, at which height the coast of France was
+plainly seen. At 25,000 feet both voyagers were gasping, and compelled
+to inhale oxygen. At 27,500 feet, only four bags of ballast being left,
+the descent was commenced, and a safe landing was effected at Romford.
+
+Subsequently Dr. Berson, in company with Dr. Suring, ascending from
+Berlin, attained an altitude of 34,000 feet. At 30,000 feet the
+aeronauts were inhaling oxygen, and before reaching their highest point
+both had for a considerable time remained unconscious.
+
+In 1901 a new aeroplane flying machine began to attract attention, the
+invention of Herr Kress. A novel feature of the machine was a device to
+render it of avail for Arctic travel. In shape it might be compared to
+an iceboat with two keels and a long stem, the keels being adapted to
+run on ice or snow, while the boat would float on water. Power was to be
+derived from a petrol motor.
+
+At the same period M. Henry Sutor was busy on Lake Constance with an air
+ship designed also to float on water. Then Mr. Buchanan followed with
+a fish-shaped vessel, one of the most important specialities of which
+consisted in side propellers, the surfaces of which were roughened with
+minute diagonal grooves to effect a greater grip on the air.
+
+No less original was the air ship, 100 feet long, and carrying 18,000
+cubic feet of gas, which Mr. W. Beedle was engaged upon. In this
+machine, besides the propellers for controlling the horizontal motion,
+there was one to regulate vertical motion, with a view of obviating
+expenditure of gas or ballast.
+
+But by this time M. Santos Dumont, pursuing his hobby with unparalleled
+perseverance, had built in succession no less than six air ships,
+meeting with no mean success, profiting by every lesson taught by
+failures, and making light of all accidents, great or small. On July
+15th, 1901, he made a famous try for the Deutsch prize in a cigar-shaped
+balloon, 110 feet long, 19,000 cubic feet capacity, carrying a Daimler
+oil motor of 15-horse power. The day was not favourable, but, starting
+from the Parc d'Aerostation, he was abreast of the Eiffel Tower in
+thirteen minutes, circling round which, and battling against a head
+wind, he reached the grounds of the Aero Club in 41 minutes from the
+start, or 11 minutes late by the conditions of the prize. A cylinder had
+broken down, and the balance of the vessel had become upset.
+
+Within a fortnight--July 29th--in favourable weather, he made another
+flight, lasting fifteen minutes, at the end of which he had returned to
+his starting ground. Then on August 8th a more momentous attempt came
+off. Sailing up with a rapid ascent, and flying with the wind, Santos
+Dumont covered the distance to the Tower in five minutes only, and
+gracefully swung round; but, immediately after, the wind played havoc,
+slowing down the motor, at the same time damaging the balloon, and
+causing an escape of gas. On this Santos Dumont, ascending higher into
+the sky, quitted the car, and climbed along the keel to inspect, and,
+if possible, rectify the motor, but with little success. The balloon was
+emptying, and the machine pitched badly, till a further rent occurred,
+when it commenced falling hopelessly and with a speed momentarily
+increasing.
+
+Slanting over a roof, the balloon caught a chimney and tore asunder; but
+the wreck, also catching, held fast, while the car hung helplessly down
+a blank wall. In this perilous predicament great coolness and agility
+alone averted disaster, till firemen were able to come to the rescue.
+
+The air ship was damaged beyond repair, but by September 6th another was
+completed, and on trial appeared to work well until, while travelling at
+speed, it was brought up and badly strained by the trail rope catching
+in trees.
+
+Early in the next month the young Brazilian was aloft again, with
+weather conditions entirely in his favour; but again certain minor
+mishaps prevented his next struggle for the prize, which did not take
+place till the 19th. On this day a light cross wind was blowing, not
+sufficient, however, seriously to influence the first stage of the time
+race, and the outward journey was accomplished with a direct flight in
+nine minutes. On rounding the tower, however, the wind began to tell
+prejudicially, and the propeller became deranged. On this, letting his
+vessel fall off from the wind, Santos Dumont crawled along the framework
+till he reached the motor, which he succeeded in again setting in
+working order, though not without a delay of several minutes and some
+loss of ground. From that point the return journey was accomplished
+in eight minutes, and the race was, at the time, declared lost by 40
+seconds only.
+
+The most important and novel feature in the air ships constructed by
+Santos Dumont was the internal ballonet, inflated automatically by a
+ventilator, the expedient being designed to preserve the shape of the
+main balloon itself while meeting the wind. On the whole, it answered
+well, and took the place of the heavy wire cage used by Zeppelin.
+
+M. de Fonvielle, commenting on the achievements of Santos Dumont,
+wrote:--"It does not appear that he has navigated his balloon against
+more than very light winds, but in his machinery he has shown such
+attention to detail that it may reasonably be expected that if he
+continues to increase his motive power he will, ere long, exceed past
+performances."
+
+Mr. Chanute has a further word to say about the possibility of making
+balloons navigable. He considers that their size will have to be great
+to the verge of impracticability and the power of the motor enormous in
+proportion to its weight. As to flying machines, properly so called, he
+calculates the best that has been done to be the sustaining of from 27
+lbs. to 55 lbs. per horse power by impact upon the air. But Mr. Chanute
+also argues that the equilibrium is of prime importance, and on this
+point there could scarcely be a greater authority. No one of living men
+has given more attention to the problem of "soaring," and it is stated
+that he has had about a thousand "slides" made by assistants, with
+different types of machine, and all without the slightest accident.
+
+Many other aerial vessels might be mentioned. Mr. T. H. Bastin, of
+Clapham, has been engaged for many years on a machine which should
+imitate bird flight as nearly as this may be practicable.
+
+Baron Bradsky aims at a navigable balloon on an ambitious scale. M.
+Tatin is another candidate for the Deutsch prize. Of Dr. Barton's air
+ship more is looked for, as being designed for the War Office. It is
+understood that the official requirements demand a machine which, while
+capable of transporting a man through the air at a speed of 13 miles an
+hour, can remain fully inflated for 48 hours. One of the most sanguine,
+as well as enterprising, imitators of Santos Dumont was a fellow
+countryman, Auguste Severo. Of his machine during construction little
+could be gathered, and still less seen, from the fact that the various
+parts were being manufactured at different workshops, but it was known
+to be of large size and to be fitted with powerful motors. This was an
+ill-fated vessel. At an early hour on May 12th of this year, 1902, all
+Paris was startled by a report that M. Severo and his assistant, M.
+Sachet had been killed while making a trial excursion. It appears that
+at daybreak it had been decided that the favourable moment for trial
+had arrived. The machinery was got ready, and with little delay the air
+vessel was dismissed and rose quietly and steadily into the calm sky.
+The Daily Mail gives the following account of what ensued:--
+
+"For the first few minutes all went well, and the motor seemed to be
+working satisfactorily. The air ship answered the helm readily, and
+admiring exclamations rose from the crowd.... But as the vessel rose
+higher she was seen to fall off from the wind, while the aeronauts
+could be seen vainly endeavouring to keep her head on. Then M. Severo
+commenced throwing out ballast.... All this time the ship was gradually
+soaring higher and higher until, just as it was over the Montparnasse
+Cemetery, at the height of 2,000 feet, a sheet of flame was seen to
+shoot up from one of the motors, and instantly the immense silk envelope
+containing 9,000 cubic feet of hydrogen was enveloped in leaping tongues
+of fire.... As soon as the flames came in contact with the gas a
+tremendous explosion followed, and in an instant all that was left of
+the air ship fell to the earth." Both aeronauts were dashed to pieces.
+It was thought that the fatality was caused through faulty construction,
+the escape valve for the gas being situated only about nine feet from
+the motor. It was announced by Count de la Vaulx that during the summer
+of 1901 he would attempt to cross the Mediterranean by a balloon,
+provisioned for three weeks, maintaining communication with the
+coast during his voyage by wireless telegraphy and other methods of
+signalling. He was to make use of the "Herve Deviator," or steering
+apparatus, which may be described as a series of cupshaped plates
+dipping in the water at the end of a trail rope. By means of controlling
+cords worked from the car, the whole series of plates could be turned
+at an angle to the direction of the wind, by which the balloon's course
+would be altered. Count de la Vaulx attempted this grand journey on
+October 12th, starting from Toulon with the intention of reaching
+Algiers, taking the precaution, however, of having a cruiser in
+attendance. When fifty miles out from Marseilles a passing steamer
+received from the balloon the signal, "All's well"; but the wind had
+veered round to the east, and, remaining persistently in this quarter,
+the Count abandoned his venture, and, signalling to the cruiser,
+succeeded in alighting on her deck, not, however, before he had
+completed the splendid and record voyage of 41 hours' duration.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII. THE POSSIBILITIES OF BALLOONS IN WARFARE.
+
+
+Clearly the time has not yet arrived when the flying machine will be
+serviceable in war. Yet we are not without those theorisers who, at the
+present moment, would seriously propose schemes for conveying dynamite
+and other explosives by air ship, or dropping them over hostile forces
+or fortresses, or even fleets at sea. They go yet further, and gravely
+discuss the point whether such warfare would be legitimate. We,
+however, may say at once, emphatically, that any such scheme is simply
+impracticable. It must be abundantly evident that, so far, no form of
+dirigible air ship exists which could be relied on to carry out any
+required manoeuvre in such atmospheric conditions as generally prevail.
+If, even in calm and favourable weather, more often than not motors
+break down, or gear carries away, what hope is there for any aerial
+craft which would attempt to battle with such wind currents as commonly
+blow aloft?
+
+And when we turn to the balloon proper, are chances greatly improved?
+The eminently practical aeronaut, John Wise, as was told in Chapter
+XII., prepared a scheme for the reduction of Vera Cruz by the agency
+of a balloon. Let us glance at it. A single balloon was to suffice,
+measuring 100 feet in diameter, and capable of raising in the gross
+30,000 lbs. To manoeuvre this monstrous engine he calculates he would
+require a cable five miles long, by means of which he hoped, in some
+manner, to work his way directly over the fortress, and to remain poised
+at that point at the height of a mile in the sky. Once granted that he
+could arrive and maintain himself at that position, the throwing out of
+combustibles would be simple, though even then the spot where they would
+alight after the drop of a mile would be by no means certain. It is
+also obvious that a vast amount of gas would have to be sacrificed
+to compensate for the prodigal discharge of ballast in the form of
+missiles.
+
+The idea of manoeuvring a balloon in a wind, and poising it in the
+manner suggested, is, of course, preposterous; and when one considers
+the attempt to aim bombs from a moving balloon high in air the case
+becomes yet more absurd. Any such missile would partake of the motion
+of the balloon itself, and it would be impossible to tell where it would
+strike the earth.
+
+To give an example which is often enough tried in balloon travel when
+the ground below is clear. A glass bottle (presumably empty) is cast
+overboard and its fall watched. It is seen not to be left behind, but to
+keep pace with the balloon, shrinking gradually to an object too small
+to be discerned, except when every now and then a ray of sunlight
+reflected off it reveals it for a moment as it continues to plunge
+downwards. After a very few seconds the impression is that it is about
+to reach the earth, and the eye forms a guess at some spot which it
+will strike; but the spot is quickly passed, and the bottle travels far
+beyond across a field, over the further fence, and vastly further yet;
+indeed, inasmuch as to fall a mile in air a heavy body may take over
+twenty seconds--and twenty seconds is long to those who watch--it is
+often impossible to tell to two or three fields where it will finally
+settle.
+
+All this while the risk that a balloon would run of being riddled by
+bullets, shrapnel, or pom-poms has not been taken into account, and as
+to the estimate of this risk there is some difference of opinion. The
+balloon corps and the artillery apparently approach the question with
+different bias. On the one hand, it is stated with perfect truth that
+a free balloon, which is generally either rising or falling, as well
+as moving across country, is a hard object to hit, and a marksman would
+only strike it with a chance or blundering shot; but, on the other hand
+let us take the following report of three years ago.
+
+The German artillery had been testing the efficiency of a quick-firing
+gun when used against a balloon, and they decided that the latter would
+have no chance of escape except at night. A German kite-balloon was kept
+moving at an altitude of 600 metres, and the guns trained upon it were
+distant 3,000 metres. It was then stated that after the third discharge
+of the rapid firing battery the range was found, when all was at once
+over with the balloon; for, not only was it hit with every discharge,
+but it was presently set on fire and annihilated.
+
+But, in any case, the antique mode of keeping a balloon moored at any
+spot as a post of observation must be abandoned in modern warfare. Major
+Baden-Powell, speaking from personal experience in South Africa, has
+shown how dangerous, or else how useless, such a form of reconnaissance
+has become. "I remember," he says, "at the battle of Magersfontein my
+company was lying down in extended order towards the left of our line.
+We were perfectly safe from musketry fire, as we lay, perhaps, two miles
+from the Boer trenches, which were being shelled by some of our guns
+close by. The enemy's artillery was practically silent. Presently, on
+looking round, I descried our balloon away out behind us about two miles
+off. Then she steadily rose and made several trips to a good height, but
+what could be seen from that distance? When a large number of our troops
+were ranged up within 800 yards of the trenches, and many more at all
+points behind them, what useful information could be obtained by means
+of the balloon four miles off?"
+
+The same eminent authority insists on the necessity of an observing war
+balloon making short ascents. The balloon, in his opinion, should be
+allowed to ascend rapidly to its full height, and with as little delay
+as possible be hauled down again. Under these conditions it may then
+be well worth testing whether the primitive form of balloon, the
+Montgolfier, might not be the most valuable. Instead of being made, as
+the war balloon is now, of fragile material, and filled with costly
+gas difficult to procure, and which has to be conveyed in heavy and
+cumbersome cylinders, a hot air balloon could be rapidly carried by hand
+anywhere where a few men could push their way. It is of strong material,
+readily mended if torn, and could be inflated for short ascents, if not
+by mere brush wood, then by a portable blast furnace and petroleum.
+
+But there is a further use for balloons in warfare not yet exploited.
+The Siege of Paris showed the utility of free balloons, and occasions
+arise when their use might be still further extended. The writer pointed
+out that it might have been very possible for an aeronaut of experience,
+by choosing the right weather and the right position along the British
+lines, to have skilfully manoeuvred a free balloon by means of upper
+currents, so as to convey all-important intelligence to besieged
+Mafeking, and he proved that it would have sufficed if the balloon could
+have been "tacked" across the sky to within some fifteen miles of the
+desired goal.
+
+The mode of signalling which he proposed was by means of a "collapsing
+drum," an instrument of occasional use in the Navy. A modification
+of this instrument, as employed by the writer, consisted of a light,
+spherical, drum-shaped frame of large size, which, when covered with
+dark material and hung in the clear below the car of a lofty balloon,
+could be well seen either against blue sky or grey at a great distance.
+The so-called drum could, by a very simple contrivance, readily worked
+from the car, be made to collapse into a very inconspicuous object, and
+thus be capable of displaying Morse Code signals. A long pause with the
+drum extended--like the long wave of a signalling flag--would denote a
+"dash," and a short pause a "dot," and these motions would be at once
+intelligible to anyone acquainted with the now universal Morse Code
+system.
+
+Provided with an apparatus of the kind, the writer made an ascent from
+Newbury at a time when the military camps were lying on Salisbury Plain
+at a distance of nearly twenty miles to the south-west. The ground
+wind up to 2,500 feet on starting was nearly due north, and would have
+defeated the attempt; again, the air stream blowing above that height
+was nearly due east, which again would have proved unsuitable. But it
+was manifestly possible to utilise the two currents, and with good luck
+to zig-zag one's course so as to come within easy signalling distance
+of the various camps; and, as a matter of fact, we actually passed
+immediately over Bulford Camp, with which we exchanged signals, while
+two other camps lay close to right and left of us. Fortune favouring us,
+we had actually hit our mark, though it would have been sufficient for
+the experiment had our course lain within ten miles right or left.
+
+Yet a further use for the balloon in warfare remains untried in this
+country. Acting under the advice of experts in the Service, the writer,
+in the early part of the present year, suggested to the Admiralty the
+desirability of experimenting with balloons as a means of detecting
+submarine engines of war. It is well known that reefs and shoals can
+generally be seen from a cliff or mast head far more clearly than from
+the deck or other position near the surface of the water. Would not,
+then, a balloon, if skilfully manoeuvred, serve as a valuable post of
+observation? The Admiralty, in acknowledging the communication, promised
+to give the matter their attention; but by the month of June the Press
+had announcements of how the self-same experiments had been successfully
+carried through by French authorities, while a few days later the
+Admiralty wrote, "For the present no need is seen for the use of a
+captive balloon to detect submarines."
+
+Among many and varied ballooning incidents which have occurred to the
+writer, there are some which may not unprofitably be compared with
+certain experiences already recorded of other aeronauts. Thunderstorms,
+as witnessed from a balloon, have already been casually described,
+and it may reasonably be hoped that the observations which have, under
+varying circumstances, been made at high altitudes may throw some
+additional light on this familiar, though somewhat perplexing,
+phenomenon.
+
+To begin with, it seems a moot point whether a balloon caught in a
+thunderstorm is, or is not, in any special danger of being struck. It
+has been argued that immunity under such circumstances must depend upon
+whether a sufficiently long time has elapsed since the balloon left the
+earth to allow of its becoming positively electrified by induction from
+the clouds or by rain falling upon its surface. But there are many other
+points to be considered. There is the constant escape of gas from the
+mouth; there is the mass of pointed metal in the anchor; and, again, it
+is conceivable that a balloon rapidly descending out of a thunderstorm
+might carry with it a charge residing on its moistened surface which
+might manifest itself disastrously as the balloon reached the earth.
+
+Instances seem to have been not infrequent of balloons encountering
+thunderstorms; but, unfortunately, in most cases the observers have not
+had any scientific training, or the accounts which are to hand are those
+of the type of journalist who is chiefly in quest of sensational copy.
+
+Thus there is an account from America of a Professor King who made an
+ascent from Burlington, Iowa, just as a thunderstorm was approaching,
+with the result that, instead of scudding away with the wind before the
+storm, he was actually, as if by some attraction, drawn into it. On
+this his aim was to pierce through the cloud above, and then follows a
+description which it is hard to realise:--"There came down in front of
+him, and apparently not more than 50 feet distant, a grand discharge of
+electricity." Then he feels the car lifted, the gas suddenly expands
+to overflowing, and the balloon is hurled through the cloud with
+inconceivable velocity, this happening several times, with tremendous
+oscillations of the car, until the balloon is borne to earth in a
+torrent of rain. We fancy that many practical balloonists will hardly
+endorse this description.
+
+But we have another, relating to one of the most distinguished
+aeronauts, M. Eugene Godard, who, in an ascent with local journalists,
+was caught in a thunderstorm. Here we are told--presumably by the
+journalists--that "twice the lightning flashed within a few yards of the
+terror-stricken crew."
+
+Once again, in an ascent at Derby, a spectator writes:--"The lightning
+played upon the sphere of the balloon, lighting it up and making things
+visible through it." This, however, one must suppose, can hardly apply
+to the balloon when liberated.
+
+But a graphic description of a very different character given in the
+"Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society" for January,
+1901, is of real value. It appears that three lieutenants of the
+Prussian Balloon Corps took charge of a balloon that ascended at Berlin,
+and, when at a height of 2,300 feet, became enveloped in the mist,
+through which only occasional glimpses of earth were seen. At this point
+a sharp, crackling sound was heard at the ring, like the sparking of
+a huge electrical machine, and, looking up, the voyagers beheld sparks
+apparently some half-inch thick, and over two feet in length,
+playing from the ring. Thunder was heard, but--and this may have
+significance--only before and after the above phenomenon.
+
+Another instructive experience is recorded of the younger Green in an
+ascent which he made from Frankfort-on-the-Maine. On this occasion he
+relates that he encountered a thunderstorm, and at a height of 4,400
+feet found himself at the level where the storm clouds were discharging
+themselves in a deluge. He seems to have had no difficulty in ascending
+through the storm into the clear sky above, where a breeze from another
+quarter quickly carried him away from the storm centre.
+
+This co-existence, or conflict of opposite currents, is held to be the
+common characteristic, if not the main cause, of thunderstorms, and
+tallies with the following personal experience. It was in typical July
+weather of 1900 that the writer and his son, accompanied by Admiral Sir
+Edmund Fremantle and Mr. Percival Spencer, made an evening ascent from
+Newbury. It had been a day of storms, but about 5 p.m., after what
+appeared to be a clearing shower, the sky brightened, and we sailed up
+into a cloudless heaven. The wind, at 3,000 feet, was travelling at some
+thirty miles an hour, and ere the distance of ten miles had been covered
+a formidable thunder pack was seen approaching and coming up dead
+against the wind. Nothing could be more evident than that the balloon
+was travelling rapidly with a lower wind, while the storm was being
+borne equally rapidly on an upper and diametrically opposite current. It
+proved one of the most severe thunderstorms remembered in the country.
+It brooded for five hours over Devizes, a few miles ahead. A homestead
+on our right was struck and burned to the ground, while on our left two
+soldiers were killed on Salisbury Plain. The sky immediately overhead
+was, of course, hidden by the large globe of the balloon, but around and
+beneath us the storm seemed to gather in a blue grey mist, which quickly
+broadened and deepened till, almost before we could realise it, we found
+ourselves in the very heart of the storm, the lightning playing all
+around us, and the sharp hail stinging our faces.
+
+The countrymen below described the balloon as apparently enveloped by
+the lightning, but with ourselves, though the flashes were incessant,
+and on all sides, the reverberations of the thunder were not remarkable,
+being rather brief explosions in which they resembled the thunder claps
+not infrequently described by travellers on mountain heights.
+
+The balloon was now descending from a double cause: the weight of
+moisture suddenly accumulated on its surface, and the very obvious
+downrush of cold air that accompanied the storm of pelting hail. With
+a very limited store of ballast, it seemed impossible to make a further
+ascent, nor was this desirable. The signalling experiments on which we
+were intent could not be carried on in such weather. The only course
+was to descend, and though this was not at once practicable, owing to
+Savernake Forest being beneath us, we effected a safe landing in the
+first available clearing.
+
+As has been mentioned, Mr. Glaisher and other observers have recorded
+several remarkable instances of opposite wind currents being met with
+at moderate altitudes. None, however, can have been more noteworthy or
+surprising than the following experience Of the writer on Whit Monday of
+1899. The ascent was under an overcast sky, from the Crystal Palace at
+3 p.m., at which hour a cold drizzle was settling in with a moderate
+breeze from the east. Thus, starting from the usual filling ground near
+the north tower, the balloon sailed over the body of the Palace, and
+thence over the suburbs towards the west till lost in the mist. We then
+ascended through 1,500 feet of dense, wetting cloud, and, emerging in
+bright sunshine, continued to drift for two hours at an average altitude
+of some 3,000 feet; 1,000 feet below us was the ill-defined, ever
+changing upper surface of the dense cloud floor, and it was no longer
+possible to determine our course, which we therefore assumed to have
+remained unchanged. At length, however, as a measure of prudence, we
+determined to descend through the clouds sufficiently to learn something
+of our whereabouts, which we reasonably expected to be somewhere in
+Surrey or Berks. On emerging, however, below the cloud, the first object
+that loomed out of the mist immediately below us was a cargo vessel,
+in the rigging of which our trail rope was entangling itself. Only
+by degrees the fact dawned upon us that we were in the estuary of the
+Thames, and beating up towards London once again with an cast wind. Thus
+it became evident that at the higher level, unknown to ourselves, we had
+been headed back on our course, for two hours, by a wind diametrically
+opposed to that blowing on the ground.
+
+Two recent developments of the hot-air war balloon suggest great
+possibilities in the near future. One takes the form of a small captive,
+carrying aloft a photographic camera directed and operated electrically
+from the ground. The other is a self-contained passenger balloon of
+large dimensions, carrying in complete safety a special petroleum burner
+of great power. These new and important departures are mainly due to the
+mechanical genius of Mr. J. N. Maskelyne, who has patented and perfected
+them in conjunction with the writer.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE AIR.
+
+
+Some fair idea of the conditions prevailing in the upper air may have
+been gathered from the many and various observations already recorded.
+Stating the case broadly, we may assert that the same atmospheric
+changes with which we are familiar at the level of the earth are to
+be found also at all accessible heights, equally extensive and equally
+sudden.
+
+Standing on an open heath on a gusty day, we may often note the rhythmic
+buffeting of the wind, resembling the assault of rolling billows of
+air. The evidence of these billows has been actually traced far aloft in
+balloon travel, when aeronauts, looking down on a wind-swept surface of
+cloud, have observed this surface to be thrown into a series of rolls
+of vapour, which were but vast and veritable waves of air. The interval
+between successive crests of these waves has on one occasion been
+estimated at approximately half a mile. We have seen how these air
+streams sometimes hold wide and independent sway at different levels.
+We have seen, too, how they sometimes meet and mingle, not infrequently
+attended with electrical disturbance
+
+Through broad drifts of air minor air streams would seem often literally
+to "thread" their way, breaking up into filaments or wandering rills of
+air. In the voyage across Salisbury Plain lately described, while the
+balloon was being carried with the more sluggish current, a number of
+small parachutes were dropped out at frequent intervals and carefully
+watched. These would commonly attend the balloon for a little while,
+until, getting into some minor air stream, they would suddenly and
+rapidly diverge at such wide angles as to suggest that crossing our
+actual course there were side paths, down which the smaller bodies
+became wafted.
+
+On another occasion the writer met with strongly marked and altogether
+exceptional evidence of the vehemence and persistence of these minor
+aerial streamlets. It was on an occasion in April weather, when a heavy
+overcast sky blotted out the upper heavens. In the cloud levels the wind
+was somewhat sluggish, and for an hour we travelled at an average speed
+of a little over twenty miles an hour, never higher than 3,000 feet.
+At this point, while flying over Hertfordshire, we threw out sufficient
+ballast to cause the balloon to rise clear of the hazy lower air, and
+coming under the full influence of the sun, then in the meridian, we
+shot upwards at considerable speed, and soon attained an altitude of
+three miles. But for a considerable portion of this climb--while, in
+fact, we were ascending through little less than a mile of our upward
+course--we were assailed by impetuous cross currents, which whistled
+through car and rigging and smote us fairly on the cheek. It was
+altogether a novel experience, and the more remarkable from the fact
+that our main onward course was not appreciably diverted.
+
+Then we got above these currents, and remained at our maximum level,
+while we floated, still at only a moderate speed, the length of a
+county. The descent then began, and once again, while we dropped
+through the same disturbed region, the same far-reaching and obtrusive
+cross-current assailed us. It was quite obvious that the vehement
+currents were too slender to tell largely upon the huge surface of the
+balloon, as it was being swept steadily onwards by the main wind, which
+never varied in direction from ground levels up to the greatest height
+attained.
+
+This experience is but confirmation of the story of the wind told by the
+wind gauges on the Forth Bridge. Here the maximum pressure measured on
+the large gauge of 300 square feet is commonly considerably less than
+that on the smaller gauge, suggesting that the latter must be due to
+threads of air of limited area and high velocity.
+
+Further and very valuable light is thrown on the peculiar ways of
+the wind, now being considered, by Professor Langley in the special
+researches of his to which reference has already been made. This
+eminent observer and mathematician, suspecting that the old-fashioned
+instruments, which only told what the wind had been doing every hour,
+or at best every minute, gave but a most imperfect record, constructed
+delicate gauges, which would respond to every impulse and give readings
+from second to second.
+
+In this way he established the fact that the wind, far from being a
+body of even approximate uniformity, is under most ordinary conditions
+irregular almost beyond conception. Further, that the greater the speed
+the greater the fluctuations, so that a high wind has to be regarded as
+"air moving in a tumultuous mass," the velocity at one moment perhaps
+forty miles an hour, then diminishing to an almost instantaneous calm,
+and then resuming. "In fact, in the very nature of the case, wind is not
+the result of one simple cause, but of an infinite number of impulses
+and changes, perhaps long passed, which are preserved in it, and which
+die only slowly away."
+
+When we come to take observations of temperature we find the conditions
+in the atmosphere above us to be at first sight not a little complex,
+and altogether different in day and night hours. From observations
+already recorded in this volume--notably those of Gay Lussac, Welsh, and
+Glaisher--it has been made to appear that, in ascending into the sky in
+daytime, the temperature usually falls according to a general law; but
+there are found regions where the fall of temperature becomes arrested,
+such regions being commonly, though by no means invariably, associated
+with visible cloud. It is probable, however, that it would be more
+correct not to interpret the presence of cloud as causing manifestation
+of cold, but rather to regard the meeting of warm and cold currents as
+the cause of cloud.
+
+The writer has experimented in the upper regions with a special form
+of air thermometer of great sensibility, designed to respond rapidly
+to slight variations of temperature. Testing this instrument on one
+occasion in a room of equable warmth, and without draughts, he was
+puzzled by seeing the index in a capillary tube suddenly mounting
+rapidly, due to some cause which was not apparent, till it was noticed
+that the parlour cat, attracted by the proceedings, had approached near
+the apparatus. The behaviour of this instrument when slung in the clear
+some distance over the side of the balloon car, and carefully watched,
+suggests by its fitful, sudden, and rapid changes that warmer currents
+are often making their way in such slender wandering rills as have been
+already pictured as permeating the broader air streams. During night
+hours conditions are reversed. The warmer air radiated off the earth
+through the day has then ascended. It will be found at different
+heights, lying in pools or strata, possibly resembling in form, could
+they be seen, masses of visible cloud.
+
+The writer has gathered from night voyages instructive and suggestive
+facts with reference to the ascent of air streams, due to differences
+of temperature, particularly over London and the suburbs, and it is
+conceivable that in such ascending streams may lie a means of dealing
+successfully with visitations of smoke and fog.
+
+One lesson taught by balloon travel has been that fog or haze will come
+or go in obedience to temperature variations at low levels. Thus thick
+haze has lain over London, more particularly over the lower parts, at
+sundown. Then through night hours, as the temperature of the lower air
+has become equalised, the haze has completely disappeared, but only to
+reassert itself at dawn.
+
+A description of the very impressive experience of a night sail
+over London has been reserved, but should not be altogether omitted.
+Glaisher, writing of the spectacle as he observed it nearly forty years
+ago, describes London seen at night from a balloon at a distance as
+resembling a vast conflagration. When actually over the town, a main
+thoroughfare like the Commercial Road shone up like a line of brilliant
+fire; but, travelling westward, Oxford Street presented an appearance
+which puzzled him. "Here the two thickly studded rows of brilliant
+lights were seen on either side of the street, with a narrow, dark space
+between, and this dark space was bounded, as it were, on both sides by
+a bright fringe like frosted silver." Presently he discovered that this
+rich effect was caused by the bright illumination of the shop lights on
+the pavements.
+
+London, as seen from a balloon on a clear moonlight night in August
+a year ago (1901), wore a somewhat altered appearance. There were the
+fairy lamps tracing out the streets, which, though dark centred, wore
+their silver lining; but in irregular patches a whiter light from
+electric arc lamps broadened and brightened and shone out like some
+pyrotechnic display above the black housetops. Through the vast town
+ran a blank, black channel, the river, winding on into distance, crossed
+here and there by bridges showing as bright bands, and with bright
+spots occasionally to mark where lay the river craft. But what was most
+striking was the silence. Though the noise of London traffic as heard
+from a balloon has diminished of late years owing to the better paving,
+yet in day hours the roar of the streets is heard up to a great height
+as a hard, harsh, grinding din. But at night, after the last 'bus has
+ceased to ply, and before the market carts begin lumbering in, the
+balloonist, as he sails over the town, might imagine that he was
+traversing a City of the Dead.
+
+It is at such times that a shout through a speaking trumpet has a most
+startling effect, and more particularly a blast on a horn. In this case
+after an interval of some seconds a wild note will be flung back from
+the house-tops below, answered and re-answered on all sides as it echoes
+from roof to roof--a wild, weird uproar that awakes suddenly, and then
+dies out slowly far away.
+
+Experiments with echoes from a balloon have proved instructive. If, when
+riding at a height, say, of 2,000 feet, a charge of gun-cotton be fired
+electrically 100 feet below the car, the report, though really as loud
+as a cannon, sounds no more than a mere pistol shot, possibly partly
+owing to the greater rarity of the air, but chiefly because the sound,
+having no background to reflect it, simply spends itself in the air.
+Then, always and under all conditions of atmosphere soever, there ensues
+absolute silence until the time for the echo back from earth has fully
+elapsed, when a deafening outburst of thunder rises from below, rolling
+on often for more than half a minute. Two noteworthy facts, at least,
+the writer has established from a very large number of trials: first,
+that the theory of aerial echoes thrown back from empty space, which
+physicists have held to exist constantly, and to be part of the cause of
+thunder, will have to be abandoned; and, secondly, that from some cause
+yet to be fully explained the echo back from the earth is always behind
+its time.
+
+But balloons have revealed further suggestive facts with regard to
+sound, and more particularly with regard to the varying acoustic
+properties of the air. It is a familiar experience how distant
+sounds will come and go, rising and falling, often being wafted over
+extraordinary distances, and again failing altogether, or sometimes
+being lost at near range, but appearing in strength further away. A free
+balloon, moving in the profound silence of the upper air, becomes an
+admirable sound observatory. It may be clearly detected that in certain
+conditions of atmosphere, at least, there are what may be conceived to
+be aerial sound channels, through which sounds are momentarily conveyed
+with abnormal intensity. This phenomenon does but serve to give an
+intelligible presentment of the unseen conditions existing in the realm
+of air.
+
+It would be reasonable to suppose that were an eye so constituted as to
+be able to see, say, cumulus masses of warmer air, strata mottled with
+traces of other gases, and beds of invisible matter in suspension,
+one might suppose that what we deem the clearest sky would then appear
+flecked with forms as many and various as the clouds that adorn our
+summer heavens.
+
+But there is matter in suspension in the atmosphere which is very far
+from invisible, and which in the case of large towns is very commonly
+lying in thick strata overhead, stopping back the sunlight, and forming
+the nucleus round which noisome fogs may form. Experimenting with
+suitable apparatus, the writer has found on a still afternoon in May, at
+2,000 feet above Kingston in Surrey, that the air was charged far more
+heavily with dust than that of the London streets the next day; and,
+again, at half a mile above the city in the month of August last dust,
+much of it being of a gross and even fibrous nature, was far more
+abundant than on grass enclosures in the town during the forenoon of the
+day following.
+
+An attempt has been made to include England in a series of international
+balloon ascents arranged expressly for the purpose of taking
+simultaneous observations at a large number of stations over Europe, by
+which means it is hoped that much fresh knowledge will be forthcoming
+with respect to the constitution of the atmosphere up to the highest
+levels accessible by balloons manned and unmanned. It is very much to
+be regretted that in the case of England the attempt here spoken of has
+rested entirely on private enterprise. First and foremost in personal
+liberality and the work of organisation must be mentioned Mr. P. Y.
+Alexander, whose zeal in the progress of aeronautics is second to none
+in this country. Twice through his efforts England has been represented
+in the important work for which Continental nations have no difficulty
+in obtaining public grants. The first occasion was on November 8th,
+1900, when the writer was privileged to occupy a seat in the balloon
+furnished by Mr. Alexander, and equipped with the most modern type of
+instruments. It was a stormy and fast voyage from the Crystal Palace to
+Halstead, in Essex, 48 miles in 40 minutes. Simultaneously with this,
+Mr. Alexander dismissed an unmanned balloon from Bath, which ascended
+8,000 feet, and landed at Cricklade. Other balloons which took part in
+the combined experiment were two from Paris, three from Chalais Meudon,
+three from Strasburg, two from Vienna, two from Berlin, and two from St.
+Petersburg.
+
+The section of our countrymen specially interested in aeronautics--a
+growing community--is represented by the Aeronautical Society, formed in
+1865, with the Duke of Argyll for president, and for thirty years under
+the most energetic management of Mr. F. W. Brearey, succeeding whom
+as hon. secs. have been Major Baden-Powell and Mr. Eric S. Bruce. Mr.
+Brearey was one of the most successful inventors of flying models.
+Mr. Chanute, speaking as President of the American Society of Civil
+Engineers, paid him a high and well-deserved compliment in saying that
+it was through his influence that aerial navigation had been cleared of
+much rubbish and placed upon a scientific and firm basis.
+
+Another community devoting itself to the pursuit of balloon trips and
+matters aeronautical generally is the newly-formed Aero Club, of whom
+one of the most prominent and energetic members is the Hon. C. S. Rolls.
+
+It had been announced that M. Santos-Dumont would bring an air ship
+to England, and during the summer of the present year would give
+exhibitions of its capability. It was even rumoured that he might circle
+round St. Paul's and accomplish other aerial feats unknown in England.
+The promise was fulfilled so far as bringing the air ship to England was
+concerned, for one of his vessels which had seen service was deposited
+at the Crystal Palace. In some mysterious manner, however, never
+sufficiently made clear to the public, this machine was one morning
+found damaged, and M. Santos-Dumont has withdrawn from his proposed
+engagements.
+
+In thus doing he left the field open to one of our own countrymen, who,
+in his first attempt at flight with an air ship of his own invention and
+construction, has proved himself no unworthy rival of the wealthy young
+Brazilian.
+
+Mr. Stanley Spencer, in a very brief space of time, designed and built
+completely in the workshops of the firm an elongated motor balloon, 75
+feet long by 20 feet diameter, worked by a screw and petrol motor. This
+motor is placed in the prow, 25 feet away from, and in front of, the
+safety valve, by which precaution any danger of igniting the escaping
+gas is avoided. Should, however, a collapse of the machine arise from
+any cause, there is an arrangement for throwing the balloon into the
+form of a parachute. Further, there is provided means for admitting air
+at will into the balloon, by which the necessity for much ballast is
+obviated.
+
+Mr. Spencer having filled the balloon with pure hydrogen, made his
+first trial with this machine late in an evening at the end of June.
+The performance of the vessel is thus described in the Westminster
+Gazette:--"The huge balloon filled slowly, so that the light was rapidly
+failing when at last the doors of the big shed slid open and the ship
+was brought carefully out, her motor started, and her maiden voyage
+commenced. With Mr. Stanley Spencer in the car, she sailed gracefully
+down the football field, wheeled round in a circle--a small circle,
+too--and for perhaps a quarter of an hour sailed a tortuous course over
+the heads of a small but enthusiastic crowd of spectators. The ship was
+handicapped to some extent by the fact that in their anxiety to make the
+trial the aeronauts had not waited to inflate it fully, but still it did
+its work well, answered its helm readily, showed no signs of rolling,
+and, in short, appeared to give entire satisfaction to everybody
+concerned--so much so, indeed, that Mr. Stanley Spencer informed the
+crowd after the ascent that he was quite ready to take up any challenge
+that M. Santos Dumont might throw down." Within a few weeks of this his
+first success Mr. Spencer was able to prove to the world that he had
+only claimed for his machine what its powers fully justified. On a still
+September afternoon, ascending alone, he steered his aerial ship in an
+easy and graceful flight over London, from the Crystal Palace to Harrow.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX. CONCLUSION.
+
+
+The future development of aerostation is necessarily difficult to
+forecast. Having reviewed its history from its inception we have to
+allow that the balloon in itself, as an instrument of aerial locomotion,
+remains practically only where it was 120 years ago. Nor, in the nature
+of the case, is this to be wondered at. The wind, which alone guides the
+balloon, is beyond man's control, while, as a source of lifting power, a
+lighter and therefore more suitable gas than hydrogen is not to be found
+in nature.
+
+It is, however, conceivable that a superior mode of inflation may yet
+be discovered. Now that the liquefaction of gases has become an
+accomplished fact, it seems almost theoretically possible that a
+balloonist may presently be able to provide himself with an unlimited
+reserve of potential energy so as to be fitted for travel of indefinite
+duration. Endowed with increased powers of this nature, the aeronaut
+could utilise a balloon for voyages of discovery over regions of the
+earth which bar man's progress by any other mode of travel. A future
+Andree, provided with a means of maintaining his gas supply for six
+weeks, need have no hesitation in laying his course towards the North
+Pole, being confident that the winds must ultimately waft him to some
+safe haven. He could, indeed, well afford, having reached the Pole, to
+descend and build his cairn, or even to stop a week, if he so desired,
+before continuing on his way.
+
+But it may fairly be claimed for the balloon, even as it now is, that
+a great and important future is open to it as a means for exploring
+inaccessible country. It may, indeed, be urged that Andree's task
+was, in the very nature of the case, well nigh impracticable, and his
+unfortunate miscarriage will be used as argument against such a method
+of exploration. But it must always be remembered that in Andree's case
+the rigours of climate which he was compelled to face were the most
+serious of all obstacles to balloon travel. The extreme cold would
+not only cause constant shrinkage of the gas, but would entail the
+deposition of a weight of moisture, if not of snow, upon the surface of
+the balloon, which must greatly shorten its life.
+
+It would be entirely otherwise if the country it were sought to explore
+were in lower latitudes, in Australia, or within the vast unknown belt
+of earth lying nearer the equator. The writer's scheme for exploring the
+wholly unknown regions of Arabia is already before the public. The
+fact, thought to be established by the most experienced aeronauts of
+old times, and already referred to in these pages, that at some height
+a strong west wind is to be found blowing with great constancy all
+round the globe, is in accordance with the view entertained by modern
+meteorologists. Such a wind, too, may be expected to be a fairly fast
+wind, the calculation being that, as a general rule, the velocity of
+currents increases from the ground at the rate of about three miles
+per hour for each thousand feet of height; thus the chance of a balloon
+drifting speedily across the breadth of Arabia is a strong one, and,
+regarded in this light, the distance to be traversed is certainly
+not excessive, being probably well within the lasting power of such a
+balloon as that employed by Andree. If, for the sake of gas supply, Aden
+were chosen for the starting ground, then 1,200 miles E.N.E. would carry
+the voyager to Muscat; 1,100 miles N.E. by E. would land him at Sohar;
+while some 800 miles would suffice to take him to the seaboard if his
+course lay N.E. It must also be borne in mind that the Arabian sun by
+day, and the heat radiated off the desert by night, would be all in
+favour of the buoyancy of the balloon.
+
+But there are other persistent winds that, for purposes of exploration,
+would prove equally serviceable and sure. From time immemorial the
+dweller on the Nile has been led to regard his river in the light of a
+benignant deity. If he wished to travel down its course he had but to
+entrust his vessel to the stream, and this would carry him. If, again,
+he wished to retrace his course, he had but to raise a sail, and the
+prevalent wind, conquering the flood, would bear him against the stream.
+This constant north wind, following the Nile valley, and thence trending
+still southward towards Uganda, has been regarded as a means to hand
+well adapted for the exploration of important unsurveyed country by
+balloon. This scheme has been conceived and elaborated by Major B.F.S.
+Baden-Powell, and, so far, the only apparent obstacle in the way has
+proved the lack of necessary funds.
+
+It will be urged, however, that for purposes of exploration some form of
+dirigible balloon is desirable, and we have already had proof that where
+it is not sought to combat winds strongly opposed to their course such
+air ships as Santos-Dumont or Messrs. Spencer have already constructed
+acquit themselves well; and it requires no stretch of imagination to
+conceive that before the present century is closed many great gaps in
+the map of the world will have been filled in by aerial survey.
+
+But, leaving the balloon to its proper function, we turn to the flying
+machine properly so called with more sanguine hopes of seeing the real
+conquest of the air achieved. It was as it were but yesterday when the
+air ship, unhampered by huge globes of gas, and controlled by mechanical
+means alone, was first fairly tried, yet it is already considered by
+those best able to judge that its ultimate success is assured.
+
+This success rests now solely in the hands of the mechanical engineer.
+He must, and surely can, build the ship of such strength that some
+essential part does not at the critical moment break down or carry away.
+He may have to improve his motive power, and here, again, we do not
+doubt his cunning. Motor engines, self-contained and burning liquid
+fuel, are yet in their infancy, and the extraordinary emulation now
+existing in their production puts it beyond doubt that every year will
+see rapid improvement in their efficiency.
+
+We do not expect, nor do we desire, that the world may see the
+fulfilment of the poet's dream, "Argosies of magic sails" or "Airy
+navies grappling in the central blue." We would not befog our vision of
+the future with any wild imaginings, seeking, as some have done, to see
+in the electricity or other hidden power of heaven the means for its
+subjugation by man; but it is far from unreasonable to hope that but
+a little while shall pass, and we shall have more perfect and reliable
+knowledge of the tides and currents in the vast ocean of air, and when
+that day may have come then it may be claimed that the grand problem of
+aerial navigation will be already solved.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dominion of the Air, by J. M. Bacon
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