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128
Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies
·
Fulgence Marion
68
Shortly
afterwards
they
safely
landed
forty
miles
from
the
spot
from
which
they
had
started.
It
was
not
only
the
man
of
science
or
the
mechanician
that
devoted
himself
to
the
task
of
taking
possession
of
the
new
empire,
but
the
nobles
gave
their
hands
to
the
aeronauts,
and
humbly
asked
the
favour
of
an
ascent.
The
king
had
addressed
letters
to
the
Brothers
Montgolfier,
and
the
marvellous
invention
had
become
an
affair
of
state.
The
princes
of
the
blood
and
the
nobles
of
the
court
considered
it
an
honour
to
count
among
the
number
of
their
friends
a
celebrated
aeronaut.
The
Count
d’Artois,
afterwards
Charles
X.,
and
the
Duke
de
Chartres,
father
of
Louis
Philippe,
made
experiments
in
aerial
navigation.
The
chemists
Alban
and
Vallet
made
a
magnificent
balloon
for
the
Count,
who
went
up
many
times
in
it,
with
several
persons
of
all
ranks.
Already
at
St.
Cloud,
the
Duke
of
Chartres,
afterwards
Philippe
Egalite,
had,
on
the
15th
of
July,
1784,
made,
with
the
Brothers
Robert,
an
ascent
which
put
their
courage
to
terrible
tests.
The
hydrogen
gas
balloon
was
oblong,
sixty
feet
high
and
forty
feet
in
diameter,
and
it
had
been
constructed
upon
a
plan
supplied
by
Meunier.
In
order
to
obviate
the
use
of
the
valve,
he
had
placed
inside
the
balloon
a
smaller
globe,
filled
with
ordinary
air.
This
was
done
on
the
supposition
that,
when
the
balloon
rose
high,
the
hydrogen
being
rarefied
would
compress
the
little
globe
within,
and
press
out
of
it
a
quantity
of
ordinary
air
equal
to
the
amount
of
its
dilation.
At
eight
o’clock,
the
Brothers
Robert--Collin
and
Hullin--and
the
Duke
of
Chartres,
ascended
in
presence
of
an
immense
multitude.
The
nearest
ranks
kneeled
down
to
allow
those
behind
to
have
a
view
of
the
departure
of
the
balloon,
which
disappeared
among
the
clouds
amid
the
acclamations
of
the
prostrate
multitude.
The
machine,
obedient
to
the
stormy
and
contrary
winds
which
it
met,
turned
several
times
completely
round.
The
helm,
which
had
been
fitted
to
the
machine,
and
the
two
oars,
gave
such
a
purchase
to
the
winds
that
the
voyagers,
already
surrounded
by
the
clouds,
cut
them
away.
But
the
oscillations
continued,
and
the
little
globe
inside
not
being
suspended
with
cords,
fell
down
in
such
an
unfortunate
manner
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