Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/210

Rh 192 AERONAUTICS [REMARKABLE ASCENTS. who ascended from Ireland. Mr Crosbie had inflated his balloon on May 12, 1785, but it was unable to take him up, when Mr Maguire, a student at the university, who was present, offered to ascend. His offer was accepted, and he made the ascent. For this he was knighted by the Lord-Lieutenant (Monck Mason, p. 2GG). On July 22, 1785, Major Money ascended 1 roin Norwich. The balloon was blown out to sea, and he was obliged to descend into the water. After remaining there seven hours he was rescued by a revenue cutter which had been despatched to his assistance. Mr James Sadler attempted to cross St George s Channel on the 1st of October 1812, and had nearly suc ceeded, Avhen, in consequence of a change in the wind, he was forced to descend into the sea off Liverpool. After remaining in the water some time, he was rescued by a fishing-boat. But on July 22, 181 7, Mr Windham Sadler, his second son, succeeded in crossing the Channel from Dublin to Holyhead. On May 24, 1837, Mr Sneath ascended from near Mansfield in a fire-balloon, and descended safely. At half-past one ox-lock on November 7, 1836, Mr Robert Holloud, Mr Monck Mason, and Mr Charles Green ascended from Yauxhall Gardens, and descended at about two leagues from Weilburg, in the duchy of Nassau, at half-past seven the next morning, having thus traversed a distance of about 500 miles in 18 hours; Lie^ge was passed in the course of the night, and Coblentz in the early morning. A full account of this trip is given by Mr Monck Mason in his Aeronautica (1838). The balloon in which the journey was performed (a very large one, containing about 85,000 cubic feet of gas), was subsequently called the Nassau Balloon, and under that name became famous, and ascended frequently. The Great Nassau Balloon. questrian We ought also, perhaps, to notice a curious ascent made iceuts. by Mr Green on July 29, 1828, from the Eagle Tavern, City Road, on the back of a favourite pony. Underneath t^e balloon was a platform (in place of a car) containing places for the pony s feet, and some straps went loosely under his body, to prevent his lying down or moving about. Everything passed off satisfactorily, the balloon descending safely at Beckenham ; the pony showed no alarm, but quietly ate some beans with which its rider supplied it in the air. Equestrian ascents have since been repeated. In 1852, Madame Poitevin, who had made several such jour neys in Paris, ascended from Cremorne Gardens, London, on horseback (as &quot; Europa on a bull 1 ); but after the first journey its repetition was stopped in England by applica tion to the police courts, as the exhibition outraged public feeling. Lieutenant Gale was killed at Bordeaux on Sept. 8, 1850, in descending after an equestrian ascent, through mismanagement in landing of the horse. M. Poitevin, de scending in 1858, after an equestrian ascent from Paris, was nearly drowned in the sea near Malaga. Among remarkable balloon ascents must also be noticed that of Mr Wise, from St Louis, on June 23, 1859, in which a distance of 1120 miles was traversed. In 1803, Nadar, a well-known photographer at Paris, constructed an enormous balloon, which he called &quot; Le Geant.&quot; It was the largest gas-balloon ever constructed, containing over 200,000 cubic feet of gas. Underneath it was placed a smaller balloon, called a compensator, the object of which was to prevent loss of gas during the voyage. The car had two stories, and was, in fact, a model of a cottage in wicker-work, 8 feet in height by 13 feet in length, containing a small printing-office, a photographic department, a refreshment-room, a lavatory, tc. The first ascent took place at five o clock on Sunday, October 4, 18G3, from the Champ de Mars. There were thirteen per sons in the car, including one lady, the Princess de la Tour d Auvergne, and the two aeronauts Louis and Jules Godard. In spite of the elaborate preparations that had been irade and the stores of provisions that were taken iip, the balloon descended at nine o clock, at Meaux, the early descent being rendered necessary, it was said, by an accident to the valve-line. A second ascent was made a fortnight later viz., on October 18; there were nine passengers, including Madame Nadar. The balloon descended at the expiration of seventeen hours, near Nienburg in Hanover, a distance of about 400 miles. A strong wind was blowing, and the balloon was dragged over the ground a distance of 7 or 8 miles. All the passengers were bruised, and some more seriously hurt. The balloon and car were then brought to England, and exhibited for some time at the Crystal Palace at the end of 18G3 and beginning of 18G4. The two ascents of Nadar s &quot; balloon excited an extraordinary amount of enthusiasm and interest, vastly out of pro portion to what they were entitled to. The balloon was larger than any of the same kind that had previously ascended; but this was scarcely more than just appreci able to the eye, as the doubling the contents of a balloon makes comparatively slight addition to its diameter. M. Nadar s idea was to obtain sufficient money, by the ex hibition of his balloon, to carry out a plan of aerial locomotion he had conceived possible by means of the principle of the screw; in fact, he spoke of &quot;Le Geant ;; as &quot; the last balloon. ; He also started L Aeronaute, a newspaper devoted to aerostation, and published a small book, which was translated into English under the title Tlie Right, to Fly. Nadar s ascents had not the remotest connection with science, although he claimed that they had; nor was his knowledge, as shown in his writings, sufficient to have enabled him to advance it in any way. Directly after Nadar s two balloon ascents, M. Eugene Godard constructed what was perhaps the largest aerial machine that has ever been made. It was a Montgolfier or fire-balloon, of nearly half-a-million cubic feet capacity (more than double the capacity of Nadar s). The balloon Flesselles, 1783, is said to have slightly exceeded this size. The air was heated by an 18 feet stove, weigh - Xadar s ljulloon. Eugene Godard large fir balloon.