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Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies
·
Fulgence Marion
56
never
been
used.
The
new
idea
had
now
passed
the
frontiers
of
France,
in
which
it
was
originally
conceived,
and
among
the
other
nations,
as
at
first
in
France,
the
power
of
the
inflated
balloon
came
to
be
tested
everywhere
by
the
construction
of
small
toy
globes.
It
was
just
about
five
months
after
the
first
experiment
at
Annonay--viz.,
on
the
25th
of
November,
1783--that
the
first
balloon
ascended
in
London.
We
are
informed,
in
the
History
of
Aerostation
by
Tiberius
Cavallo,
that
an
Italian,
Count
Zambeccari,
who
was
staying
in
the
English
capital,
made
a
balloon
of
silk,
covered
with
a
varnish
of
oil.
Its
diameter
was
ten
feet,
and
its
weight
eleven
pounds.
It
was
gilded
for
the
double
purpose
of
enhancing
its
appearance
and
preventing
the
escape
of
air.
After
having
been
exposed
to
public
inspection
for
several
days,
it
was
filled
three
parts
full
of
hydrogen
gas,
a
tin
bottle
was
suspended
from
it,
containing
an
address
to
whoever
might
find
it
when
it
should
fall,
and
it
was
let
off
from
the
Artillery
Ground,
in
presence
of
a
vast
assembly.
On
the
11th
of
December,
1783,
a
little
balloon,
made
of
gold-beaters’
skin,
was
let
off
publicly
at
Turin.
This
was
an
experiment
similar
to
that
which
had
been
tried
at
Paris
in
September.
The
balloon
was
seen
to
penetrate
the
clouds,
then
to
mount
still
higher,
and
finally
to
disappear
entirely
in
five
minutes
fifty-four
seconds
from
the
time
when
it
was
set
free.
It
was
natural,
after
the
experiments
made
long
before
with
electric
paper
kites,
to
employ
the
balloon
in
the
investigation
of
the
electric
conditions
of
the
atmosphere.
The
first
to
use
it
for
this
purpose
was
the
Abbe
Berthelon
de
Montpellier.
He
sent
up
a
number
of
balloons,
to
which
he
had
attached
pieces
of
metal,
long
and
narrow,
and
terminating
in
a
cylinder
of
glass,
or
other
substance
suitable
for
the
purpose
of
isolation,
and
he
obtained
sufficient
electricity
by
these
means
to
demonstrate
the
phenomena
of
attraction
and
repulsion,
as
well
as
electric
sparks.
Cavallo
mentions
an
accident
which
took
place
in
England
about
this
time,
and
which
served
as
a
warning
to
all
who
had
to
do
with
balloons
filled
with
hydrogen
gas.
A
balloon
thus
inflated
had
been
sent
up
at
Hopton,
near
Matlock,
and
was
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