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Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies
·
Fulgence Marion
62
Sevres,
and
the
road
to
Versailles.
I
was
then
about
as
high
as
the
towers
above
the
plain,
and
I
could
hear
the
words
and
the
cries
of
joy
of
the
people
who
were
following
me
below.
At
length
I
came
to
a
plain
about
200
feet
in
extent.
The
people
then
assisted
me
and
brought
my
vessel
to
anchor.
Immediately
I
was
surrounded
by
gentlemen
and
foot
passengers
who
had
run
together
from
all
parts.”
This
voyage
lasted
one
hour
and
a
quarter.
The
most
important
incident
of
it
was
that
the
balloon
was
very
nearly
burst
by
the
expansion
of
the
hydrogen
gas.
No
balloon,
as
we
have
already
seen,
should
be
entirely
inflated
at
the
beginning
of
a
journey.
Blanchard
had
a
narrow
escape
from
being
the
victim
of
his
ignorance
of
physics,
and
it
is
a
wonder
he
was
not
left
to
the
mercy
of
fate
in
a
burst
balloon,
at
several
thousand
feet
above
the
earth.
Biot,
the
savant,
who
had
watched
the
experiment,
declared
that
Blanchard
did
not
stir
himself,
and
that
the
variations
of
his
course
are
alone
to
be
attributed
to
the
currents
of
air
that
he
encountered.
As
he
had
inscribed
upon
his
flags,
his
balloons,
and
his
entrance
tickets,
from
which
he
realised
a
considerable
sum,
the
ambitious
legend,
Sic
itur
ad
astra,
the
following
epigram
was
produced
respecting
him:--
From
the
Field
of
Mars
he
took
his
flight:
In
a
field
close
by
he
tumbled;
But
our
money
having
taken
He
smiled
though
sadly
shaken,
As
Sic
itur
ad
astra
he
mumbled.
What
is
most
important
to
examine
in
each
of
the
great
aerial
voyages
that
have
been
made,
is
the
special
character
which
distinguishes
them
from
average
experiments.
All
our
great
voyages
are
rendered
special
and
particular
by
the
ideas
of
the
men
who
undertook
them,
and
the
aims
which
they
severally
meant
to
achieve
by
them.
The
early
ascents
of
Montgolfier
had
for
their
aim
the
establishment
of
the
fact
that
any
body
lighter
than
the
volume
of
air
which
it
displaces
will
rise
in
the
atmosphere;
those
of
Roziers
were
undertaken
to
prove
that
man
can
apply
this
principle
for
the
purpose
of
making
actual
aerial
voyages;
those
of
Robertson,
Gay-Lussac,
&c.,
were
undertaken
for
the
purpose
of
ascertaining
certain
meteorological
phenomena;
those
of
Conte
Coutelle
applied
aerostation
to
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