Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies

“Fifty pounds of dry straw were fired in parcels under the balloon, and upon the fire were thrown at intervals several pounds of wool. This fuel produced in ten minutes such a volume of smoke that the huge balloon was speedily filled. It rose, with a weight of 500 lbs. holding it down, to some height above the ground, and had the ropes by which it was attached to the ground been cut, it would have mounted to a great height. Meantime the storm broke, rain descended, and the wind blew with great force. The most likely means of saving the balloon was to let it fly but as it was to ascend again on another occasion, at Versailles, the greatest efforts were made to bring it down, and these, together with the damage caused by the storm, eventually rent it into numberless fragments and tatters. It withstood the storm for twenty-four hours; then, however, the paper came peeling off, and this beautiful structure was a wreck.” Chapter VII. Fourth Experiment. (Versailles, 19th September, 1783, in presence of Louis of XVI.) Of course another balloon was wanted for the fete at Versailles. The king had demanded an ascent for the 19th, a week after the disaster at the Faubourg St. Antoine. Already the possibility of a man going up with the balloon was discussed, and people indulged in visions of splendid aerial trips; but the king would not hear of the proposal. Balloons were novelties, not offering sufficient security, and he was unwilling that any of his subjects should risk their lives in attempting the unknown. He consented, however, to a proposal that animals might be sent up in the first instance, by way of experiment, suspended in an osier cage attached to the neck of the balloon.