Part 3 (1/2)

A night ascent, which reads as yet more sensational and extraordinary, is reported to have been made a year or two previously, and when it is considered that the balloon used was of the Montgolfier type the account as it is handed doill be allowed to be without parallel It runs thus: Count Zambeccari, Dr Grassati of Rome, and M Pascal Andreoli of Antona ascended on a Nove their balloon to rise with excessive velocity In consequence of this rapid transition to an extreme altitude the Count and the Doctor beca Andreoli alone in possession of his faculties At two o'clock in theover the Adriatic, at which time a lantern which they carried expired and ith difficulty re-lighted Continuing to descend, they presently pitched in to the sea and beca that the balloon, which could not be prevented falling in the water, is yet enabled to ascend froe of ballast (It would be interesting to inquire what meanwhile happened to the fire which they presuions of cloud, where they became covered with hoar frost and also stone deaf At 3 a with the waves till picked up by a shore boat The balloon, relieved of their weight, then fleay into Turkey

However overdrawn this narrative ht of another account, the bare, hard facts of which can adain Count Zana, this tiolfier or fire balloon, and on nearing earth it becoled in a tree and catches fire The aeronauts jump for their lives, and the Count is killed on the spot Certainly, when every allowance is eration, it iants in those days Giants in the conception and acco Men who caer by virtue of the cal other appalling disasters we have an exaht in which the adventurers yet escape with their lives

It was the summer of 1808, and the aeronauts, MM Andreoli and Brioschi, ascending froht inches, indicating upwards of 30,000 feet At this point the balloon bursts, and falls precipitately near Petrarch's to on this, Mr Glaisher, the value of whose opinion is second to none, is not disposed to question the general truth of the narrative In regard to Zambeccari's escape from the sea related above, it should be stated that in the case of a gas-inflated balloon which has no enerally perfectly possible to raise it again from the water, provided there is on board a store of ballast, the discharge of which will sufficiently lighten the balloon A case in point occurred in a e accomplished by Mr Sadler on the 1st of October, 1812

His adventure is one of extraordinary interest, and of no little value to the practical aeronaut The following account is condensed frorounds of Belvedere House, Dublin, with the expressed intention of endeavouring to cross over the Irish Channel to Liverpool There appear to have been two principal air drifts, an upper and a lower, byhis desired course But froers and difficulties Ere he had left the land he discovered a rent in his silk which, occasioned by so To reach this, it was necessary to extemporise by means of a rope a species of ratlins by which he could cli He then contrived to close the rent with his neckcloth He was, by this ti his craft by aid of the two currents at his disposal, he was carried to the south shore of the Isle of Man, whence he was confident of being able, had he desired it, of landing in cu contrary to his intention, he entrusted hiher current, and by it was carried to the north-west of Holyhead Here he dropped once again to the lower current, drifting south of the Skerry Lighthouse across the Isle of Anglesea, and at 430 p now approaching, he had deter, but at this critical juncture the wind shi+fted to the southward, and he became blown out to sea Then, for an hour, he appears to have tried high and low for athe danger of his situation, and,down the Channel, he boldly descended in the sea about a mile astern of them He must for certain have been observed by these vessels; but each and all held on their course, and, thus deserted, the aeronaut had no choice but to discharge ballast, and, quitting the waves, to regain his legitimate element His experiences at this period of his extraordinary voyage are best told in his oords ”At the ti Already the shadows of evening had cast a dusky hue over the face of the ocean, and a cri in the evening breeze, they died away in distance, or broke in foaainst the sides of the vessels, and before I rose fro only the twilight glireat, therefore, was my astonishment, and how incapable is expression to convey an adequate idea of ion of the air, the sun, whose parting beaain burst on my view, and enco the shadows of even, whilst the clear bea vehicle which bore hts three ness to stand by, whereupon he pro beneath the two rear- allant attempt at rescue, will rival any like tale of the sea For the wind, now fast rising, caught the half empty balloon so soon as the car touched the sea, and the vessel astern, though in full pursuit, holly unable to coiron by way of drag, and shortly afterwards tried the further expedient of taking off his clothes and attaching the to overhaul hih with reasonable reluctance, determined to further cripple the craft that bore hias, a desperate, though necessary, expedient which nearly cost him his life

For the car now instantly sank, and the unfortunateat the hoop, found he could not even so keep hi, as a last hope, to the netting The result of this could be foreseen, for he was frequently plunged under water by theof the balloon Cold and exertion soon told on hi frantically to the valve rope, and when his strength failed hi his head through the meshes of the net It was obvious that for avail helpvessel, now close, appeared to hold off, fearing to becoled in the net, and in this desperate extre from exhaustion and scarcely able to cry aloud, Mr Sadler himself see his failing strength, he shouted to the sailors to run their bowsprit through his balloon

This was done, and the drowning man was hauled on board with the life scarcely in hi sequel to the above adventure followed five years afterwards

The Irish Sea remained unconquered No balloonist had as yet ever crossed its waters Who would attempt the feat once more? Who more worthy than the hero's own son, Mr Windha his father's enterprising spirit, chose the saest day of 1817, inds seemed favourable, left the Porto Bello barracks at 120 pm His endeavour was to ”tack” his course by such currents as he should find, in the round current blew favourably from the WSW He, however, allowed his balloon to rise to too high an altitude, where he must have been taken aback by a contrary drift; for, on descending again through a shower of snow, he found himself no further than Ben Howth, as yet only tenby his ulation, kept his balloon within due limits, and successfullya spot in Wales not far from Holyhead an hour and a half before sundown The course taken was absolutely the shortest possible, being little more than seventy miles, which he traversed in five hours

From this period of our story, noteworthy events in aeronautical history gro and far between As a mere exhibition the novelty of a balloon ascent had much worn off No experimentalist was ready with any new departure in the art No fresh adventure presented itself to thespirits; and, whereas a few years previously ballooning exploits crowded into every sulected even in winter months, there is now for a while little to chronicle, either abroad or in our own country A certain revival of the sensational ele was occasionally witnessed, and not without mishap, as in the case of Madaht with fireworks froed to set fire to her balloon and lost her life in her terrific fall Half a dozen years later a Mr, as also Mrs, Grahaure before the public in some bold spectacular ascents

But the fame of any aeronaut of that date ht shed by two stars of the firstin two opposite parts of the world--Mr John Wise in America, and Mr Charles Green in our own country The latter of these, who has been well styled the ”Father of English Aeronautics,” now entered on a long and honoured career of so great importance and success that we must reserve for him a separate and special chapter

CHAPTER VI CHARLES GREEN AND THE NassAU BALLOON

The balloon, which had gradually been dropping out of favour, had now been virtually laid aside, and, to all appearance, ht have continued so, when, as if by chance concurrence of events, there arrived both the hour and the man to restore it to the world, and to invest it with a new practicability and ie the Fourth was at hand, and this becaenius mentioned at the end of the last chapter, and now in his thirty-sixth year, to put in practice a new ement and inflation, the entire credit of which must be accorded to hias balloon, an expensive and fragile structure in itself, had proved at all tily costly in actual use Indeed, we find that at the date at which we have now arrived the esti a balloon of 70,000 cubic feet--no extraordinary capacity--with hydrogen gas was about L250 When, then, to this great outlay was added the difficulty and delay of producing a sufficient supply by as at best a clumsy process, as also the positive failure and consequent disappointment which not infrequently ensued, it is easy to understand how through un to be regarded with distrust, and the profession of a balloonist was doomed to become unremunerative A simpler and cheaper mode of inflation was not only a desideratuathered from the fact that we find there were not seldom instances where two or three days of continuous and anxious labour were expended in generating and passing hydrogen into a balloon, through the fabric of which the subtle gas would escape almost as fast as it was produced

It was at this juncture, then, that Charles Green conceived the happy idea of substituting for hydrogen gas the ordinary household gas, which at this time was to be found ready to hand and in sufficient quantity in all towns of any consequence; and by the day of the coronation all was in readiness for a public exhibition of this method of inflation, which was carried out with coether without unrehearsed and a incident, as must be told

The day, July 18, was one of summer heat, and Green at the conclusion of his preparations, fatigued with anxious labour and oppressed by the crowding of the populace, took refuge within the car of his balloon, which was by that tinal that was to announce thethe refreshed his friends ere holding the car of his balloon in restraint to keep it suspended at a few feet fro done, it would appear that he fell into a doze, from which he did not awake till he found that the balloon, which had slipped froh above the crowd and requiring his prompt attention This was, however, by no means an untoward accident, and Green's triumph was complete By this one venture alone the success of the new method was entirely assured The cost of the inflation had been reduced ten-fold, the labour and uncertainty a hundred-fold, and, over and above all, the confidence of the public was restored It is little wonder, then, that in the years that now folloe find the balloon returning to all the favour it had enjoyed in its pal ht to the aid of his profession ideas which were ht and scientifically sound It is true he still clung for a while to the antiquated notion that e, be used to cause a balloon to ascend or descend, or to alter its direction in a tranquil atating a balloon should be by a study of upper currents, and this he was able to put to practical proof on amanner, as we shall presently relate

He learned the lesson early in his career while acquiring facts and experience, unassisted, in a nuesthese he is careful to record an occasion when, ht ascent from Boston, Lincolnshi+re, he maintained a lofty course, which promised to take hi to a lower level, and his balloon diverging at an angle of sorees, he now headed for Newark This experience he stored away

A e from Vauxhall Gardens, destined to be the scene of many meave proof of his capability as a close and intelligent observer It was a July night, near 11 pm, moonless and cloudy, yet the earth was visible, and under these circumstances his simple narrative becouished the reflective properties of the face of the diversified country he traversed Over Battersea and Wandsworth--this was in 1826--there hite sheets spread over the land, which proved to be corn crops ready for the sickle Where crops were not the ground was darker, with, here and there, objects absolutely black--in other words, trees and houses Then he ely to the aeronaut who has e in these latter days The strea on the water These were the lighted bridges; but, here and there, were dark planks, and these too were bridges--at Battersea and Putney--but without a light upon theraphic, narratives Green draws his own pictures of Nature in her quieter moods But he was not without early experience of her horse play, a highly instructive record of which should not be o froathered from his oords The ascent was from Newbury, and it can have been no mean feat to fill, under ordinary circuers and a considerable weight of ballast at the so But the circumstances were not ordinary, for the as extremely squally; a tremendous hail and thunderstorm blew up, and a hurricane swept the balloon with such force that two tons weight of iron and a hundred men scarce sufficed to hold it in check

Green on this occasion had indeed a companion, whose usefulness however at a pinch may be doubted e learn that he was both deaf and dumb

The rest of the narrative runs thus: ”Between 4 and 5 pe with unabated fury the whole of the evening At 6 pave the word 'Away!' The hts it was torn by the violence of the wind fro in a southeasterly direction, and in a very short space of time attained an elevation of two miles At this altitude we perceived two immense bodies of clouds operated on by contrary currents of air until at length they became united, and at that est continued peal of thunder I have ever heard These clouds were a fullat the sa, which froed with electricity, I considered it prudent to discharge twenty pounds of ballast, and we rose half a mile above our former elevation, where I considered ere perfectly safe and beyond their influence

I observed, ae of thunder all the detached pillars of clouds within the distance of a mile around became attracted and appeared to concentrate their force towards the first body of clouds alluded to, leaving the atmosphere clear and cal variations we continued the same course until 715 pm, e descended to within 500 feet of the earth; but, perceiving fro wind existed near the earth, we again ascended and continued our course till 730 pm, when a final descent was safely effected in a meadow field in the parish of Crawley in Surrey, situated between Guildford and Horshae was performed in one hour and a half”

It was after Green had followed his profession for fifteen years that he was called upon to undertake the s considered, has never been surpassed in genuine enterprise and daring The conception of the project was due to Mr Robert Hollond, and it took shape in this way This gentlee, possessed of all the ardour of early un to devote himself with the true zeal of the enthusiast to the pursuit of ballooning, finding due opportunity for this in his friendshi+p with Mr Green, who enjoyed the ement of the fine balloon made for ascents at the then popular Vauxhall Gardens In the aututheir soile property to be conveyed to that city, Mr Hollond boldly came forward and offered to transfer it thither, and, as nearly as this h the sky The proposal was accepted, and Mr

Holland, in conjunction with Green, set about the needful preparations

These, as will appear, were on an extraordinary scale, and no blame is to be imputed on that account, as a little consideration will show For the venture proposed was not to be that ofthe Channel, which, as we have seen, had been successfully effected no less than fifty years before The voyage in contemplation was to be fro, ht, and under conditions of which no living aeronaut had had actual experience

Calculation, based on a sufficient knowledge of fast upper currents, told that their course, ere finished, th, and it is not too e of that day, could predict within a thousand ht find them The equipment, therefore, was coin with, they limited their number to three in all--Mr Hollond, as chief and keeper of the log; Mr

Green, as aeronaut; and an enthusiastic colleague, Mr Monck Mason, as the chronicler of the party Next, they provided themselves with passports to all parts of the Continent; and then ca of the aerial craft itself, calculated to carry soas, and a counterpoise of a ton of ballast, which took the forear and apparatus, and for the rest of sand and also lime, of which more anon Across the middle of the car was fixed a bench to serve as table, and also as a stage for the winding in and out of an enorned by Mr Green to e At the bottoe cushi+on to serve the purposes of rest When all was in readiness unfitness of weather baulked the travellers for soed a favourable day, so that the inflation was rapidly proceeded with, and at 130 pm the ”Monstre Balloon,”

as it was entitled in the ”Ingoldsby Legends,” left the earth on her eventful and ever , and, rising with a an to traverse the northern parts of Kent, while light, drifting upper clouds gave indication of other possible currents Mr Hollond was precise in the deters and we learn that at exactly 248 p the Medway, six miles west of Rochester, while at 45 pm the lofty towers of Canterbury ell in vieo miles to the east, and here a little function ell carried out Green had twice ascended froe of the authorities, and the idea occurred to the party that it would be a graceful coe to the Mayor as they passed A suitable note, therefore, quickly written, was dismissed in a parachute, and it may be mentioned that this, as also a similar missive addressed later to the Mayor of Dover, were duly received and acknowledged