Page:All the Year Round - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/307

Charles Dickens] now scarcely half tilled continent will, ere long, ameliorate the condition of the poor, who are with us always

WAR BALLOONS.

first actual application of a balloon to any military purpose, occurred at Valenciennes, in 1793, and resulted in failure. The garrison, sorely pressed by the English and allied armies, despatched a small parachute (to which was attached a letter addressed to the National Assembly), with a fair breeze blowing towards Paris. About evening the wind changed round, and the balloon fell in the camp of the allies.

About this time a scientific commission had been deputed by the Committee of Public Safety to inquire into various improvements in warlike materiel. Among its members was Guyton-Morveau, who had already made several successful balloon ascents in various parts of France. By him the question of aerostation was brought before the commission, and admitted for consideration: with the proviso, that sulphur should not be employed in the manufacture of the hydrogen gas to be used for inflation. The war had put an end to the importation of sulphur from Sicily, and the powder-mills might feel the effects of a shortened supply. Lavoisier had already shown that hydrogen might be produced by directing a jet of steam upon a surface of red-hot iron, but it remained to be proved whether enough gas could be thus obtained.

A young captain of engineers named Coutelle, then in his twenty-third year, together with Citizens Charles and Conté, were ordered to report upon this matter. Their experiments were conducted in the old Salle des Maréchaux of the Tuileries. By passing several jets of steam through a series of cast-iron pipes filled with iron filings, they succeeded in producing, in a moderate space of time, from five hundred to six hundred cubic feet of hydrogen. Thus the first difficulty was removed.

It was next considered advisable to take the opinion of Jourdan, who had lately succeeded Houchard in the command of the armies of the North, on the military bearings of the question. Coutelle was deputed to lay the matter before him. It affords a curious picture of the state of affairs in the rural districts of France at this time, to find that Coutelle, an officer on duty charged with an important mission, was within an ace of being shot on his road by order of a certain Representative Duquesnoy, who could not be made to understand his explanations:—"Young man," said the Gallic Justice Shallow, "who ever heard of balloons in war? You appear to me a suspect, and to set all doubts at rest, I will have you shot!" How the matter was compromised, we are not told; but Coutelle succeeded in reaching the frontier, and in submitting his project to Jourdan: who heartily approved of it, but recommended that the experiments should be continued in Paris, as the state of the frontier forbade their being carried out in a satisfactory manner, in the neighbourhood of the army. Coutelle accordingly returned to Paris, and set about establishing workshops and other requisites at the château of Meudon. A large brick furnace was erected for the manufacture of gas; and a balloon twenty-seven feet (old French measure), or nine metres, in diameter, with a car capable of holding two persons, was constructed. The weight of the balloon and car (without the aeronauts) was about two and a half hundred-weight. Its ascensional power when filled with hydrogen was about five hundred-weight, and its cost somewhere about two thousand five hundred francs. The balloon was to be held by two guy-ropes, each two hundred and seventy toises, or four hundred and fifty yards, in length, attached to its equator. A system of signals was established by means of small pendants and burgees, coloured red, white, and yellow, by which orders for hauling the balloon in any particular direction, or for lowering it, or allowing it to rise, could be conveyed from the balloon to the ground. In like manner orders could be transmitted from the ground to the balloon. The practice of sending down reports by means of a guy-rope having proved inconvenient, small bags of sand were provided, in which slips of paper, containing the reports, were to be tied up. Small coloured pendants were attached to each bag, to enable the eye to follow it readily in its fall.

These arrangements having been completed, the balloon was tried in the presence of Monge, Foucroy, and Guyton-Morveau. Several ascents were made by Coutelle to a height of five hundred and forty feet: the balloon being held by five men at each guy, without the slightest mishap.

So satisfactory were these results considered, that a "décret" of April 2nd, 1794, sanctioned the immediate formation of a company of "aérostiers" to be attached to the art (?), and to consist of Coutelle, as captain-commandant, one lieutenant, one sergeant-major, one sergeant, two corporals, and twenty privates. Their weapons were to be sabres and pistols, their uniform was to be dark blue, with the black velvet facings which for more than sixty years had been (like the garter-blue velvet of our own Royal Engineers) a distinguishing badge of the French "corps de génie."

Shortly after its formation, the company was ordered to join the army of the Sambre and Meuse; Conté, who had been associated with Coutelle in the above-related experiment, taking charge of the establishment (now the "Institut Aéronautique") at Meudon.

The aérostiers arrived in camp at Maubeuge on the 3rd of May, the balloon equipage, which followed by easy stages under a small escort, arrived some days later. The ballooners appear to have been at first regarded with some jealousy and a good deal of contempt, by the rest of the army. Coutelle earnestly besought the general that his men might be allowed to take part in a projected sortie on the left bank of the Sambre. Permission was accorded, and two of the corps, an officer and a