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128
Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies
·
Fulgence Marion
114
had
shut
himself
up
in
his
own
house.
Having
appealed
in
vain,
and
fearing
that
the
villagers
might
do
us
some
injury,
we
resolved
to
re-ascend.
“In
making
this
second
ascent,
we
threw
over
all
our
ballast;
but
in
this
we
were
imprudent,
for
after
sailing
about
at
a
great
height,
and
having
lost
much
gas,
I
perceived
that
our
descent
would
be
very
rapid,
and
to
provide
against
accident,
I
gathered
together
all
the
instruments,
the
bread,
the
ropes,
and
even
such
money
as
we
had
with
us,
and
placed
them
in
three
sacks,
to
which
I
attached
a
rope
of
a
hundred
feet
in
length.
This
precaution
saved
us
a
shock.
The
weight,
amounting
to
thirty
pounds,
reached
the
ground
before
us,
and
the
balloon,
thus
lightened,
came
softly
to
the
ground
between
Wichtenbech
and
Hanover,
after
having
run
twenty-five
leagues
in
five
and
a
half
hours.”
After
this
ascent
Robertson
became
acquainted
with
some
savants
of
Hamburg,
and
amongst
others
with
Professor
Pfaff,
who
was
interested
in
aerial
travelling
as
a
means
of
settling
certain
meteorological
problems.
Some
days
after
Robertson’s
ascent,
the
professor
wrote
to
him--
“You
speak
of
a
certain
height
at
which
the
hydrogen
gas
will
find
itself
in
equilibrium
in
the
air
of
the
atmosphere.
I
believe
that
this
height
is
the
extremity
of
the
atmosphere
itself;
for
as
the
gas
has
an
elasticity
much
greater
than
that
of
the
air,
it
will
go
on
dilating
as
it
mounts
into
the
higher
regions
of
the
atmosphere,
and
its
specific
weight
will
diminish
as
the
weight
of
atmospheric
air
diminishes;
and
it
will
not
cease
to
mount
until
it
rises
above
the
atmosphere
itself,
if
two
conditions
be
completely
fulfilled--1,
the
condition
that
the
gas
may
be
allowed
to
dilate
without
leaving
the
balloon
as
it
rises;
2,
the
condition
that
the
gas
shall
not
be
allowed
to
mix
at
all
with
the
atmospheric
air.”
Another
ascent
was
arranged
for
the
14th
of
August,
in
which
Robertson
was
to
be
accompanied
by
the
professor,
but
the
latter,
yielding
to
the
entreaties
of
his
family,
did
not
go.
“I
went
up
with
my
friend
Lhoest,”
says
Robertson,
“at
forty-two
minutes
past
twelve
midday.
In
a
minute
or
two
we
rose
up
between
two
masses
of
cloud,
which
seemed
to
open
up
and
offer
us
a
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