Mr. Montgolfier repeated an experi ment with a machine of his construction before the commissaries of the Academy of Sciences, on the 11th and 12th of Sep tember. This machine was 74 feet high, and about 43 feet in diameter. When dis tended, it appeared spheroidical. It was made of canvass, covered with paper both within and without, and it weighed 1000 pounds. The operation of filling it with rarefied air, produced by means of the combustion of 50 pounds of dry straw, and 12 pounds of chopped wool, was per formed in about nine minutes; and its force of ascension, when inflated, was so great, that it raised eight men who held it some feet from the ground.- This ma chine was so much damaged by the rain, that it was found necessary to prepare another for exhibitionbefore the king and royal family on the 19th. This new ma chine consisted of cloth, made of linen and cotton thread, and was painted with water colours both within and with out. Its height was near 60 feet, and its diameter about 43 feet. Having made the necessary preparations for inflating it, the operation was begun about one o'clock, on the 19th of September, before the king and queen, the court, and the Parisians who could procure a conveyance to Versailles. In eleven minutes it wassufficiently distend ed, and the ropes being cut, it ascended, hearing up with it a wicker cage, in which were a sheep, a cock, and a duck. Its power of ascension, or the weight by which it was lighter than an equal bulk of common air, allowing for the cage and animals, was 696 pounds. This balloon rose to the height of about 1440 feet ;and being driven by the wind, it descended gradually, and fell gently into a wood, at the distance of 10,200 feet from Versailles. After remaining in the atmosphere eight minutes, the animals in the cage were safely landed. The sheep was found feeding; the cock had received some hurt on one of his wings, probably from a kick of the sheep ; the tuck was perfsaly well. The success of this experimedrin duced M. Pilatrc de Rozier, with a philo sophical intrepidity which will be record ed with applause in the history of aeros tation, to offer himself as the first adven turer in this aerial navigation. Mr. Mont golfier constructed a new machine for this purpose, in a garden in the Fauxbourg St. Antoine. Its shape was oval ; its diameter being about 48 feet, and its height about 74 feet. To the aperture at the bottom was annexed a wicker gallery, about three feet broad, with aballustrade about three feet high. From the middle of the aperture was suspended by chains, which came down from the sides of the machine, an iron grate, or brazier, in which a fire was lighted for inflating the machine ; and port-holes were opened in the gallery, towards the aperture, through which any person, who should venture to ascend, might feed the fire on the grate with fuel, and regulate the dilatation of the inclosed air of the machine at plea sure. The weight of the aerostat was upwards of sixteen hundred pounds. On the fifteenth of October, the fire being lighted, and the machine inflated, M. P. do llozier placed himself in the gallery, and ascended, to the astonishment of a multitude of spectators, to the height of 84 feet from the ground, and there kept the machine afloat during 4' 25", by re peatedly throwing straw and wool upon the fire : the machine then descended gradually and gently, through a medium of increasing density, to the ground; and the intrepid adventurer assured the spectators that he had not experienced the least inconvenience in this aerial ex cursion. This experiment was,repeated on the 17th and on the 19th, when M. P. the Rozier, in his descent, and in order to avoid danger by re-ascending, evinced, to a multitude of observers, that the ma chine may be made to ascend and de scend, at the pleasure of the aeronaut, by merely increasing or diminishing the fire in the grate. The balloon having been hauled down, M. Giraude de Villiette placed himself in the gallery opposite to M. llozier : and being suffered to ascend; it hovered for about nine minutes over Paris, in the sight of all its inhabitants, at the height of about 330 feet. In another experiment the Marquis of Arlandes as cended with M. Rozier much in the same manner. In consequence of the report of the preceding experiment, signed by the commissaries of the Academy of Sciences, it was ordered. that the annual prize of 600 livres should be given to Messrs. Montgolficr for the year 1783. In the experiments above recited the ma. chine was secured by ropes ; but they weresoon succeeded by unconfined aerial ;ration. Accordingly, the balloon of 74 feet in height, above mentioned, was removed to a royal palace in the Bois de Boulogne ; and all things being ready, on the 21st of November, M. P. de Ro zier and the Marquis d'Arlandes took their respective posts in the gallery, and at 54 minutes after one the machine was absolutely abandoned to the element, and ascended calmly and majestically in the atmosphere. The aeronauts, having reach ed the height of about 280 feet, waved their hats to the astonished multitude ; hut they soon rose too high to be distin guished, and are thought to have soared to an elevation of above 3000 feet. They were at first driven by a north-west wind horizontally over the river Seine and over Paris, taking care to clear the steeples and high buildings by increasing the fire; and in rising met with a current of air, which carried them southward. Having passed the Boulevard, and desisting from supplying the fire with fuel, they descend. ed very gently in a field beyond the New Boulevard, about 9000 yards distant from the palace, having been in the air about 25 minutes. The weight of the whole apparatus, including that of the travel lers, was between 1600 and 1700 pounds. Notwithstanding the rapid progress of aerostation in France, we have no authen tic account of the aerostatic experiments performed in other countries till about the close of the year 1783. The first
experiment of this kind, publicly exhibi ted in our country, was performed in Lon don, on the 25th of November, by Count Zarnbeccari, an ingenious Italian, with a balloon of oil silk, 10 feet in diameter, and weighing 11 pounds. It was gilt, in order to render it more beautiful, and more impermeable to the gas. This bal loon, three-fourths of which were filled with inflammable air, was launched from the Artillery-Ground, in presence of a vast concourse of spectators, at one o'clock in the afternoon, and at half past three was taken nu near Petworth. in Sussex, 48 miles distant from London : so that it travelled at the rate of nearly 20 miles an hour. Its descent was occa sioned by a rent, which must have been the effect of the rarefaction of the inflam mable air, when the balloon ascended to the lighter parts of the atmosphere.
Aerostatic experiments and aerial voy ages became so frequent in the course of the year 1784, that the limits of this arti cle will not allow our particularly record ing them. We shall, therefore, mention those which were attended with any pe culiar circumstances. Messrs. de Mor veal; and Bertrand ascended from Dijon, in April, to the height of about 13,000 feet, with an inflammable air balloon : the thermometer was observed to stand at 25 degrees. They were in the air during an hour and 25 minutes, and went to the distance of about eighteen miles. The clouds floated beneath them, and seclud ed them from the earth ; and they jointly repeated the motto inscribed on their aerostat :—" Surgit nunc gallus ad aethe ra." In May, four ladies and two gentle men ascended with a Montgolfier at Paris above the highest buildings: the machine was confined by ropes. It was 74 feet high, and 72 in diameter. In a second voyage, performed by Mr. Blanchard from Rouen in May, it was observed, that his wings and oars could not carry him in any other direction than that of the wind. The mercury in the barometer descended as low as 20.57 inches ; but on the earth, be fore he ascended, it stood at 30.16 inches. On the 23d ofJune, a large aerostat, on the principle of rarefied air, 911- feet high, and 79 &air' diameter, was elevated by Mont. golfier at Versailles, in the presence of the royal family and the King of Sweden. M. Pilatre de Rozier, and M. Proust, as cended with it, and continued for 28 mi nutes at the height of 11,732 feet, and observed the clouds below them, that re flected to the region which they occupied the rays of the sun ; the temperature of the air being 5° below the freezing point; and in three quarters of an hour they travelled to the distance of 36 miles. In consequence of this experiment, the king granted to M. Rozier a pension of 2000 livres. On the 15th of July the Duke of Chatres, the two brothers Roberts, and another person, ascended with an inflam mable air balloon, of an oblong form, 551 feet long, and 34 feet in diameter, from the Park of St. Cloud : the machine re mained in the atmosphere about 45 mi nutes. This machine contained an inte rior small balloon, filled with common air, by which means it was proposed to make it a.scend or descend without any loss of inflammable air or ballast. The boat was furnished with a helm and oars, intended for guiding it. At the place of departure the barometer stood at 30.12 inches. Three minutes after ascending, the bal loon was lost in the clouds, and involved a dense vapour. An agitation of the air, reseinhling a whirlwind, alarmed the aerial voyagers, and occasioned several shocks, which prevented their using. any of the instruments and contrivances pre pared for the direction of the balloon. Other circumstances concurred to in crease their danger ; and when the mer cury, standing in the barometer at 24.36 inches, indicated their height to be about 5100 feet, they found it neceasary to make holes in the bottom for discharging the inflammable air : and having made a rent of between seven and eight fe'et, they de scended very- rapidly, and at last came safely to the ground. The first aerial voyage in England was performed in Lon don, on the 15th of September, by Vin cent Lunardi, a native of Italy. His bal loon was made of oiled silk, painted hi alternate stripes of blue and red. Its di ameter was 33 feet. From a net which went over about two-thirds of the bal loon, descended 45 cords to a hoop hang ing below the balloon, and to which the gallery was attached. The balloon had no valve ; and its neck, which terminated in the form of a pear, was the aperture through which the inflammable air was introduced, and througli which it might he let out. The an' for filling the balloon was produced from zinc, by means of di luted vitriolic acid. M. Lunardi depart ed from the Artillery Ground at two o'clock ; and with him were a dog, a cat, and a pigeon. After throv.ing out some sand to clear the houses, he ascended to a great height. The direction of his mo tion was at first north-west by west ; but as the balloon rose higher, it fell into another current of air, which carried it nearly north. About halfafter three he de scended very near the ground, and landed the cat, which was almosthead with cold : then rising, he prosecuted his voy-age. He ascribes his descent to the action of an oar ; but as he was under the necessi ty of throwing out ballast in order to re ascend, his descent was probably occa sioned by the loss of inflammable air. At ten minutes past four he descended on a meadow, near Ware, in Hertford shire. The only philosophical instrument -which he carried with him was a ther mometer, which in the couise of his voy age stood as low as 29°, and he observed that the drops of water which collected round the balloon were frozen.