In June 1794, during the late war, M. ascen ded in the Entreprenant balloon, to reconnoitre the hos tile armies at the battle of Fleurus, accompanied by a general and an adjutant. They rose twice to the height 400 yards, and remained four hours in the air ; and it is said, that the signals which they communicated to General Jourdan decided the fate of the engagement. The enemy fired at the aeronauts, and one ball passed so near, that they thought at first it had struck the car.
In June 1802, M. Garnerin, together with captain Sowden, ascended from flanelagh Gardens during a storm of wind. They soon rose above the clouds, and lost sight of the earth. In their descent, they had to pass through thick black clouds, where the balloon stif f( red violent agitations ; and in three quarters of an hour from their dep:.rture, they landed sixty miles from Ran tlagh, though not without sustaining much injury from vudden gusts of wind.
On the 4th July, M. C_;arncrin, attended by Mr Lock er, ascended again during a heavy gale. On this oc casion he reached a height of 7800 feet in fifteen mi nutes ; the balloon came down nine miles distant from the place of ascent, and struck the ground with such violence as to rebound 150 or 200 feet into the air.
A discovery which enabled men to visit regions of the creation, which Nature had appropriated to another part of the animal system, and to overcome difficulties which had hitherto defied the roost daring speculations of phi losophical enterprise, excited sensations of the deepest wonder and interest over all Europe, and called forth a degree of activity and zeal in the improvement of aero nautic machines, which had seldom been devoted to the other sciences. The limits of our work, however, will not allow us to describe all the aerial voyages that have been undertaken, and the various peculiarities by which they were characterized ; but we shall indulge our readers with an -account of the most remarkable.
The fatal accidents to which the aeronaut might some times be exposed, induced philosophers to devise expe dients for diminishing the danger. So early as the year 1783, M. he Normand made the experiment of leaping: from the height of a first story with a parachute, 30 in ches in diameter, in his hand ; and so much did it breal. the force of the fall, that he was hardly sensible of any shock upon reaching the ground. He thence calculated, that a parachute, 14 feet in diameter, attached to a man, might protect Into against all possible injury, though fall ing from the regions of the clouds. During M. Blanch ard's ascent from Strasburg, 26th August, 1787, he dropped a dog, connected with a parachute, from the height of 6000 feet. A whirlwind, however, interrupted
its descent, and bore it above the clouds. M. Blanchard afterwards met the parachute, when the dog, recognis ing his master, began to bark ; and just as M. Blanch ard was going to seize it, another whirlwind suddenly carried it beyond his reach. Having passed vertically over Zell, he terminated his voyage ;—the parachute, still waving in the air, came down twelve minutes after wards. He also sent up several small balloons, contain ing parachutes, to which dogs were attached; and con structed them in such a manner as to burst on arriving at a very great height. When the balloons were burst, the parachutes were necessarily set at liberty, and conveyed the animals in perfect security to the ground. In a dar ing experiment, however, which lie had the courage to make on himself, he was less successful; for on hazard ing a descent by a parachute at Basle, he unfortunately broke his leg.
Notwithstanding the discouraging termination of M. Blanchard's attempt, M. Garnerin, by the success which followed his experiments with the parachute, gave phi losophers absolute confidence in its efficacy. The sixth occasion on which he tried it, was in his ascent from Paris On the 21st October, 1797. Between the car and the balloon was placed the parachute, half expanded, and forming a kind of tent or canopy over his head. The weather was favourable, and the balloon made a rapid ascent. When nearly 2000 feet high, as M. Garnerin conjectured, he separated the parachute from the bal loon, while he himself was attached to the parachute. Its descent, as it gradually unfolded, was slow and ver tical ; it afterwards began to oscillate, and acquire a ro tatory motion, and soon conducted the aeronaut in safety to the ground. In September 1802, he repeated the same experiment at London. M. Garnerin, as had been pre vioitsly announced, ascended at six o'clock of a clear se rerie afternoon. In eight minutes he rose 8000 feet, when he cut away the parachute from the balloon, and descended along with it. During the first thirty seconds of descent, it proceeded with astonishing rapidity ; but, undergoing a sudden expansion, it assumed a more gen tle and equable motion. Soon, however, it began to oscillate, like a pendulum, with such a degree of vio lence, as to render the aeronaut apprehensive for his own safety. His fears were soon dissipated, by its be ginning to move more calmly; and he came to the ground without any hurt. At the moment of separat ing the parachute, the balloon took an ascending direc tion; and was found next day 12 miles distant from the place of departure.