Page:Wonderful Balloon Ascents, 1870.djvu/75

Rh provided with dried straw and wool, could in a few minutes kindle a fire and create fresh smoke, when that in the balloon began to be exhausted. The machine weighed, in all, 1,600 lbs. The public had previously been warned, in the Journal de Paris, that the approaching experiments were to be of a strictly scientific character; and as they would be only interesting to savants, they would not afford amusement for the merely curious. This announcement was necessary, to abate in some degree the excitement of the people until some satisfactory results should be obtained; it was also necessary for those engaged in the work, whose firmness of nerve might have suffered from the enthusiastic cries of excited spectators.

On Wednesday, the 15th of October, Pilatre des Roziers, who had on other occasions given proofs of his intelligence and courage in performing dangerous feats, and who had already signalised himself in connection with balloons, offered to go up in the new machine. His offer was accepted; the balloon was inflated; stout ropes, more than eighty feet long, were attached to it, and it rose from the ground to the height to which this tackle allowed it. At this elevation it remained four minutes twenty-five seconds; and it is not surprising to hear that Roziers suffered no inconvenience from the ascent.

What was really the interesting thing in this experiment was, that it showed how a balloon would fall when the hot air became exhausted, this being the point which caused the greatest amount of disquietude among men of science. In this instance the balloon fell gently; its form distended at the same time, and, after touching the ground, it rose again a foot or two, when its human passenger had jumped out.