BALLOON. A balloon generally consists of a bag of silk, or other light material, in flated with gas or heated air, so that, being lighter than an equal bulk of common air, it will rise from the earth with sufficient force to lift a car, in which persons may perform an aerial voyage.
The notion of flying or sailing through the air, evidently suggested by the flight of birds, is very ancient ; but passing over the early fables or traditions on the subject, we find the first idea of a real balloon suggested by the Jesuit Francis Lana, in a work published in 1670. The actual invention of balloons, how. ever, is of much later date, and is due to Stephen and Joseph de Montgolfier, paper - manu facturers at Annonay, near Lyon. They first tried to confine hydrogen in paper. Failing in this, in consequence of the escape of the gas through the pores of the paper, they suc ceeded in raising a small balloon by heating and thereby rarefying the air within it. The balloon was made of large pieces of paper 110 feet in circumference, fixed to a frame, the whole weighing about 500 pounds, and containing 22,000 cubic feet (French measure). On the application of fire underneath, the mass gradually unfolded and assumed the form of a large globe, striving at the same time to burst from the arms which held it. At length it rose with great rapidity, and in less than ten minutes was at 1000 toises of elevation. It then described a horizontal line of 7,200 feet, and gradually sank. This balloon contained nothing but heated air, maintained in a state of rarefaction by a fire, the receptacle of which was attached under neath the globe of paper, which had an orifice opening downwards. This occurred in 1783.
Very soon afterwards balloons were made of varnished silk, and small animals were caused to ascend in them, or suspended from them.
In November M. Patre de Rozier made the first aeronautical voyage attempted with a free balloon. The balloon used was a Mont. golfier (fire balloon), 70 feet high, and 40 feet in diameter. It ascended from the Château de la Muette, near Passey, gained an elevation of at least 3000 feet, and, after catching fire, which was easily extinguished by the intrepid voyagers, descended safely, after a journey of 5000 toises (about 6 miles), which was performed in from twenty to twenty five minutes. On the 1st of December M. Charles ascended to the height of 1500 toises (nearly 2 miles), in a hydrogen balloon of 26 feet diameter, from the Tuileries ; and on the 19th of January seven persons as cended in a Montgolfier 126 feet high, and 102 feet in diameter. To reduce the
above measures, which are French, to the English standard, it should be remembered that the French foot was equal to 12.7892 English inches.
On the 22nd of February, 1784, a small balloon, launched by itself from Sandwich, crossed the Channel ; and in the course of that year several personal ascents were made with both kinds of balloon. M. Blanchard, in his first ascent from Paris on the 2nd of March, with a hydrogen balloon, added wings and a rudder, but found them use less. He also first attached a parachute, or open umbrella, above the car, to break his fall in case of becoming accidentally separated from the balloon. In one of the French ascents of this year the use of oars was tried, with, it was thought, some effect. In England a hydrogen balloon of 10 feet in diameter was launched from the Artillery Ground, London, by Count Zambeccari, on the 25th of November, 1783; but the first personal ascent was made by Vhscentio Lu nardi, from the same place, on the 15th of September, 1784. On the 7th of January, 1785, M. Blanchard and Dr. Jeffries crossed the Channel from Dover ; and on the 15th of Jnno following M. Piltitre de Rozier and M. Romain ascended from Boulogne with the same object, with a Montgolfier, which caught fire, and precipitated them from a height of 1000 yards. Among the more memorable subsequent ascents may be mentioned that of M. Garnerin in 1802, from London, on which occasion he descended successfully by means of a parachute ; that of the same person from Paris, in 1807, in which, after encoun tering great risks, he landed at, or rather was dashed against, Mount Tonnerre, at a distance of 300 miles from his starting.point; that of MM. Gay Lussac and Biot, from Paris, in 1804, to the height of 13,000 feet, for the pur pose of making scientific observations ; the subsequent ascent of M. Gay Lnssac alone, in the same year, to the height of 23,000 feet ; and the attempt made in 1806, by Carlo Bri oschi, astronomer royal at Naples, and Signor Andreani, to attain a yet greater elevation ; when they reached an atmosphere so rarefied that the balloon burst, its remains proving, however, sufficient to break their fall so that their lives were saved.