Part 6 (1/2)
Chapter II Experiments and Studies--Blanchard at Paris--Guyton de Morveau at Dijon
Thethe Revolution and the Consulate in France is, without doubt, that of Blanchard We have already referred to him in the chapter which treats of experiolfier, andhave to speak of his famous ascent from the Champ de Mars, on the 2nd of March 1784, and of the ascents which followed
We have seen that he constructed a sort of flying boat, a ed to sustain hihty feet This curious reat hotel of the Rue Taranne But a little tiolfier's discoveries quite altered the conditions under which the aerostatic art was to be pursued It had no sooner become known than it becarandeur, and was of too easy a kind not to call up a host of imitators Of these Blanchard was one of the first; but this mechanician was anxious to incorporate his own invention with that of Montgolfier, and he arranged that on the 2nd of March, 1784, he shouldvessel,” which he furnished with four wings
Blanchard and his cooing up in the balloon, as represented in our illustration, which was drawn before the event it was intended to comme the voyagers Pushed back by them, he drew his sword, leaped into the car or boat, wounded Blanchard, cut the rigging, and broke the oars or wings The aeronaut was consequently coreat haste, and in the course of a few hours he made the ascent alone in the usual way Blanchard should have known the uselessness of oars, though he did not abandon their eolfier had dreauidance, but had ultimately rejected the idea Joseph wrote to his brother Etienne, about the end of the year 1783:
”For ood friend, reflect; calculate well before you ereat, they will be heavy; if sreat rapidity I know no sufficient e of the different currents of air, of which it is necessary to ulated by the elevation” The two brothers often recurred to this idea
The pictures of the first ascent of Blanchard from the Champ de Mars on the 2nd of March, 1784, in the presence of a vast -ive see considered only as one of the caricatures of the tie dressed in the fool's head-gear, who sits behind and accompanies the triumphant ascent of the aeronaut with music
It was not with this apparatus that Blanchard effected his ascent, for we have seen that the gearing of his vessel was broken by the infuriated Dupont de Chambon Yet the aeronaut pretends to have been, to some extent, assisted by hisis his narrative:--
”I rose to a certain height over Plassy, and perceiving Villette, which I did not despair of reaching in spite of the misfortune that had happened toable to make use of my left hand, which I had wrapped in my handkerchief on account of the sound it had received I fixed up a piece of cloth, and thus ed the wind But the rays of the sun had so heated and rarefied the infla of the terrible danger that threatened ers that beset him, Blanchard describes a number of most extraordinary experiences, which would be better worthy of a place here if they were ht to a close:--
”Escaped fro which I had felt a great degree of cold, I ry I ate athe car nothing was to be seen but the debris of bottles and glasses, which my assailant had left behind him ere about to depart Afterwards all was so cal could be seen or heard The silence becaan to lose consciousness I noished to take snuff, but found I had left ed my seat many times; I went from prow to stern, but the drowsiness only ceased to assail me when I was struck by two furious winds, which compressed my balloon to such an extent that its size becaan to descend rapidly upon the river, which at first seemed to me a white thread, afterwards a ribbon, and then a piece of cloth As I followed the course of the river, the fear that I should have to descend into it, itate the oars very rapidly I believe that it is to theseable to cross the river transversely, and get above dry land When I saw e of Sevres, and the road to Versailles I was then about as high as the towers above the plain, and I could hear the words and the cries of joy of the people ere following th I came to a plain about 200 feet in extent The people then assisted ht entleether froe lasted one hour and a quarter The most important incident of it was that the balloon was very nearly burst by the expansion of the hydrogen gas No balloon, as we have already seen, should be entirely inflated at the beginning of a journey Blanchard had a narrow escape fronorance of physics, and it is a wonder he was not left to the mercy of fate in a burst balloon, at several thousand feet above the earth
Biot, the savant, who had watched the experiment, declared that Blanchard did not stir himself, and that the variations of his course are alone to be attributed to the currents of air that he encountered
As he had inscribed upon his flags, his balloons, and his entrance tickets, froend, Sic itur ad astra, the following epigra hiht: In a field close by he tuh sadly shaken, As Sic itur ad astra he mumbled
What is es that have been uishes thees are rendered special and particular by the ideas of the men who undertook them, and the aims which they severally olfier had for their aihter than the volume of air which it displaces will rise in the atmosphere; those of Roziers were undertaken to prove thatactual aerial voyages; those of Robertson, Gay-Lussac, &c, were undertaken for the purpose of ascertaining certain ical phenomena; those of Conte Coutelle applied aerostation to military uses A considerable nu a systee in a certain direction by ate the possibility of sailing through the air to any point fixed upon It ith this object that the experiments at Dijon took place, and these were the most serious attempts down to our times that have been lobe of the balloon were placed four oars, two sails, and a helers, who sat in the car and worked them by means of ropes The car was also furnished with oars The report of Guyton de Morveau to the Academy at Dijon inforether useless The following extracts are fro hich arose iroundus fear for the safety of our oars, &c, e resolved to throw over as ainst the wind The ballast, including from 70 to 80 lbs of provisions, was thrown over, and then we rose so rapidly that all the objects around were instantly passed and were very soon lost to view The swelling foras inside had expanded under the heat of the sun and the lessening density of the surrounding air We opened the two valves, but even this outlet was insufficient, and we had to cut a hole about seven or eight inches long in the lower part of the balloon, through which the gas ht escape At five e which we did not know, and here we let fall a bag filled with bran, and carrying with it a flag and a written e to the effect that ere all well, and that the baro 20 inches 9 lines, and the therree and a half below zero”
Very keen cold attacked the ears, but this was the only inconvenience experienced, until the voyagers were lost in a sea of clouds that shut thean to descend, and they then perceived, by a slackening in the lower part of the balloon, that it was ti from the compass that they were not far from the town of Auxonne, they resolved to use all their endeavours to reach that place
The sailing appliances had been considerably da disarranged, one of the oars had got broken, another had beco, so that there re on the sareatest part of the voyage The adventurers, however, assert that they reatest ease,use of them to tack to the south-east
”We hoped then to be able to descend near where we judged Auxonne to be,” the writer continues, ”but we lostin the balloon, and descended more rapidly than we expected or wished We looked to our small stock of ballast with anxiety, but there was no need of it, and we came very softly down upon a slope”
When the aeronauts arrived at Magny-les-Auxonne, the inhabitants gazed upon them in terror, and two men and three women fell down on their knees before them
Here is an extract from the report of the experiment of the 12th of June, the principal object of which was the atte in a certain direction:--
”M de Verley and myself mounted in the balloon,” says Guyton de Morveau, ”at seven o'clock We rose rapidly and in an almost perpendicular direction The fall of the mercury in the baroen gas in the balloon had becoht vapour around theto escape by the safety-valve We assisted its escape by pulling the valve-string
”Having reduced the dilation sufficiently for our purposes, we resolved to atte of the balloon before the whole town and to turn it from the east to the north We saith pleasure that ourof the helm, the prow of our air-boat was turned in the direction we desired The oars, working only on one side, supported the helot on as ished We described a curve, crossing the road frores The mercury had descended to 24 inches 8 lines, which announced that ere gradually rising We atteres, but the wind drove us off our course in spite of all our efforts At nine o'clock our baroht of 6,000 feet M de Verley took advantage of this elevation to put solass 18 lines in diahted immediately”
The aeronauts decided to direct their course for Dijon After re-setting the helm with this intention, they worked their oars, and proceeded in that direction ed them to suspend their endeavours, and the current drove the out the last of their ballast and regulating their descent, they came softly down upon a corn-field
The adventurers were cordially welcoistrates of the place, and after a time they, with their balloon, were carried back on men's shoulders to Dijon
Chapter III