Page:Once a Week June to Dec 1863.pdf/693

12, 1863.] for any man to imagine a more terrible end than falling from a body of flame amidst the clouds to the surface of the earth), the same Garnerin ascended from the Tivoli Gardens, at Paris, one evening, with fourteen coloured lamps hanging from the car. As it was certain he would have to let out gas, there was an imminent risk of this igniting and, by communicating with that in the balloon, blowing the whole concern to pieces. He remained in the air seven hours and a half, and suffered much from cold. He settled some moot points with respect to the alleged loss of magnetic power by the loadstone, &c., on this occasion. His next night ascent from Paris was extremely perilous, the weather being very bad, the wind blowing strongly, accompanied with heavy rain. He reached the ground, however, in safety more than 150 miles from the place whence he had set out. As will be imagined from Garnerin having ascended under such dangerous circumstances, ballooning had now lost some of its novelty; but just about this time it received a fillip from an event which came off at Paris. A M. Grandpre and one Le Pique had a dispute about an opera-dancer, which ended in a challenge to fight a duel. It is not unlikely that it was at the suggestion of the lady that they agreed to settle their difference in the air—a duel on the earth at that time being a very common-place affair, except to the parties concerned. The balloons were taken to a field adjoining the Tuileries, and everything being arranged the principals, with their seconds, took their places, the ropes were released, and in a few seconds they were floating in the air about fifty yards apart. Each was armed with a blunderbuss; and when about 1000 yards from the earth Le Pique fired at his antagonist, without inflicting any damage; the other returned the fire almost immediately, and some of the balls shattered the balloon, which at once collapsed, and the unfortunate occupants fell headlong to the ground and were dashed to a jelly. Women, from the days of Madame Blanchard to this day, seem to have been unlucky when they have ascended alone. This poor woman had several children, and it is probable that necessity compelled her to incur such dreadful risks. In one of her ascents she was caught in such a tempest of wind, hail, and rain, that the noise and cold stunned her, and she became insensible. How long she remained in this condition she did not know, but she was absent from the earth more than fourteen hours. Her end was a fearful one. She ascended one night with a number of lighted Bengal fire-pots and a quantity of fireworks. As soon as she had attained a sufficient altitude she began letting off the fireworks. These were seen flashing and darting about, when, all of a sudden, a great broad red flame leaped forth among the clouds, cries of horror rose from the spectators, and in a few minutes they were aware of the mangled body of a woman having been picked up at a short distance from where they were assembled.

Sadler and Green were both great aeronauts in their day, and made some wonderfully quick voyages, distances of from sixty to eighty miles having been repeatedly traversed by them in an hour, and the latter actually ascended from London and came down at Coblentz. But since their time balloon ascents have become so common that now a man who has been up would hardly think of mentioning it, and if Nadar has succeeded in reawakening the excitement with respect to aerial travelling, it is not so much on account of the extraordinary size of his balloon, as from the curiosity he has excited with respect to the new machine, or Aeronef, as he calls it, which is to ascend without the aid of gas, and to be navigable in any direction. M. Nadar’s Giant is certainly the largest balloon ever constructed, and probably the strongest; in point of fact it is a double balloon, one inside the other; both are made of silk of the very best quality. From the crown of the balloon to the bottom of the car is nearly 200 feet, and the greatest circumference of the balloon is about 300 feet. Its capacity is 6098 cubic metres. It is pear-shaped, as usual; but below the larger balloon is a small one, attached to the stalk, so to speak, which is placed there for the purpose of receiving the gas as it dilates in the upper part, and so preserving it, instead of allowing it to escape into the atmosphere as heretofore, thereby enabling the aeronaut to remain in the air apparently as long as his provisions hold out. The car is the most novel part of the machine. Its appearance is that of a fourwheeled caravan, and it is unsinkable in water. The interior is divided into six compartments. At one end is the captain’s cabin, with a berth, and beneath the berth a receptacle for luggage; at the other end the passengers’ cabin, with three berths. The other compartments are—1, larder; 2, dressing-room; 3, photographic-room; 4, printing-office; all of them well stocked with materials.

M. Nadar’s object in constructing this enormous balloon was to raise a fund sufficiently large to defray the cost of making the Aeronef, which is to give us the long-sought means of traversing the air in any direction desired. There is a design of this proposed aerial ship in his journal. “L’Aeronaute,” which represents something like an ordinary steam-engine partially enveloped in a cloud. The ascensional power of this aerial machine is derived from two screws attached to a vertical shaft, which being made to revolve by means of the engine at the foot of the shaft with great rapidity, works its way upward through the air—in the same way as a screw fixed at the bow of a vessel would drag the vessel along, which, when placed at the stern of a ship, propels it. It is not quite easy to distinguish the shape of the sails, or, to speak more technically, the blades of the screw in the engraving; we may therefore say, as the simplest way of giving an idea of their form, that they resemble half a pear hollowed out with the hollow side downward, and fixed to the shaft with an oblique inclination. Let us say that it is a fact proved by experiment with a small model invented by MM. Ponton d’Amécourt and de la Landelle, that the rapid rotation of these arms, or by whatever other name we may please to call them, will cause the machine of which they form part, to rise in the air, provided, of course, that the weight to be raised is not greater than the ascensional power derived from the rotation of the screws. Above the screws is a parachute, which is intended chiefly,