On the 27th August, 1804, Messrs Gay Lussac, and Blot, ascended at Paris, from the garden of the Conser vatoire des Arts, carrying along with them a variety of apparatus for the purposes of observation. The clouds. through which they passed, resembled light fogs, and excited a slight sensation of humidity. After surmount ing them, they appeared bluish, the same as wnen X 2 iewed from the mall. As they rose higher, the by ;;rometer indicated increasing dryness, and the balloon assumed a slow rotatory motion, but not always in the same direction. They ascended upwards of 13,000 feet, and came down 15 leagues from Paris.
On the sixth of September, about ten in the morning, M. Gay Lussac set out on a voyage by himself from the same place. The atmosphere below was lull of vapour, hut without clouds, and when the balloon was above 1900 feet high, he perceived a light vapour floating Through the low er regions, which allowed him an indis (met view of distant objects. At eleven minutes past three. M. Gay Lussac found himself 22,965 feet above Pai is, and was astonished to see the clouds still above him. In his former ascent none of the clouds were higher than 5 i00 feet, and the sky was as deeply co loured as Prussian blue ; but in this instance there Were no clouds below him, and the sky was dull and full of vapours. He now reached the immense height of 23,100 feet above the earth. In thirty-four minutes after the period of ascending, he landed without injury six leagues noith-west of Rouen.
On the 7th April. M. Mosment, an experienced aeronaut, uncle, took an aerial voyage from Lisle. He ascended at noon, waving a flag decorated with the im perial eagle of France, amid the shouts of the assembled spectators. The commencement of his career was so railict, as to bear him in a very short time beyond the vision of the crowd. During his ascent, he dropped an animal attached to a parachute, wIdch came safely to the ground. About one o'clock, something was observed slowly descending through the atmosphere, which pro ved on its fall to be the flag which M. Mosmcnt had carried along with him. Very soon alterwards, a mur mur circulated through the crowd, and the body of the unfortunate aeronaut was discovered in one of the fusses of the city lifeless, and covered AN ith 1)100(1. The balloon reached the ground on the same day, at the distance of 25 leagues from Lisle ; the car containing nothing ex cept an unloaded pistol, a little bread, and a piece of flesh. M. Garnerin ascribes this melancholy disaster to the extreme shallowness of the car, and the too great distance between the cords which attached it to the bal loon ; and is of Opinion, that M. Mosment, when leaning over the car to drop the animal, had lost his balance, and was precipitated to the earth.
Of all the voyages which the history of aeronautics presents to our notice, the aerial excursions of M. Garnerin must be ranked among the most en terprising and adventure us. At eleven o'clock in the evening of the 4th August, 1807, be ascended from Ti voli, at Pal is, under the Russian flag, as a token of the peace that subsisted between France and Russia. His balloon was illuminated by twenty lamps ; and to obvi at, all danger of communication betw'ecn these and the hydrogen gas, NN hid) it might be necessary to discharge in the course of the voyage, the nearest of the lamps was 14 feet distant from the balloon, and conductors were provided to carry the gas away in an opposite direction.
After his ascent, rockets, which had been let off at Tivo li, seemed to him scarcely to rise above the earth, and Paris, with all its lamps, appeared a plain studded with luminous spots. In forty minutes, he found himself at an elevation of 13,200 feet, when, in consequence of the dilatation of the balloon, he was under the necessity of discharging part of the inflammable air. About twelve O'elock, when :36C0 feet from the earth, he heard the balking of dogs ; about two, he saw several meteors fly ing around him, but none of them so near as to create apprehension. At half past three, he beheld the sun emerging in brilliant majesty, above an ocean of clouds, and the air being thereby expanded, the balloon soon rose 15,000 feet above the earth, where he felt the cold exceedingly intense. In seven hours and a half from his departure, M. Garnerin descended near Loges, 45 leagues distant from Paris.
The same intrepid aeronaut undertook a second noc turnal voyage, on the 211. September, 1807, in the course of which he was exposed to the most imminent danger. J1. Gartierin prognosticating an approachina storm, from the state of the atmosphere, refused to be accompanied by :NI. de Chassenton, who earnestly re quested it. He ascended therefore alone from Tivoli, at ten o'clock, and was carried up with unexampled ra pidity to an immense height above the clouds. The balloon was there dilated to an alarming degree, and M. Garnerin, having been prevented by the turbulence of the mob, before his ascent, from regulating those parts of the apparatus which were meant to conduct the gas away from the lamps on its escape, was totally inca pable of managing the balloon. lie had no alternative left, therefore, but with one hand to make an opening, two feet in diameter, through which the inflammable air was discharged in great quantities ; and, with the other, to extinguish as many of the lamps as he could possibly reach. The aeronaut was now without a regulating valve ; and the balloon, subject to every caprice of the whirlwind, was tossed about from current to current. 1Vhcn the storm impelled him downwards, he as for ced to throw out his ballast, to restore the ascending tendency ; and at last, every resource being exhausted, no expedient was left him to provide against future exi gencies. In this forlorn condition, the balloon rose through thick clouds, and afterwards sunk ; and the car, having struck against the ground, with a violent im pulse rebounded from it to a considerable altitude. The fury of the storm dashed him against the mountains ; and, alter many rude agitations and severe shocks, he was reduced to a state of temporary insensibility. On recovering from his perilous situation, he reached Mont Tonnerre in a storm or thunder. A very short time after his anchor hooked in a tier ; and, in seven hours and a half, alter a voyage which had neatly proved fatal to him, he landed at the distance of 300 rniles from Paris.