# Wonderful Balloon Ascents/Part 2/Chapter 2

CHAPTER II.
EXPERIMENTS AND STUDIES—BLANCHARD AT PARIS—GUYTON DE MORVEAU AT DIJON.
The most popular name in aerostation during the Revolution and the Consulate in France is, without doubt, that of Blanchard. We have already referred to him in the chapter which treats of experiments made prior to the discovery of Montgolfier, and we now have to speak of his famous ascent from the Champ de Mars, on the 2nd of March 1784, and of the ascents which followed.
We have seen that he constructed a sort of flying boat, a machine furnished with oars and rigging, with which he managed to sustain himself some moments in the air at the height of eighty feet. This curious machine was exhibited in 1782 in the gardens of the great hotel of the Rue Taranne. But a little time afterwards Montgolfier's discoveries quite altered the conditions under which the aerostatic art was to be pursued. It had no sooner become known than it became public property. The idea was too simple in its grandeur, and was of too easy a kind not to call up a host of imitators. Of these Blanchard was one of the first; but this mechanician was anxious to incorporate his own invention with that of Montgolfier, and he arranged that on the 2nd of March, 1784, he should make an ascent in what he still called his "flying vessel," which he furnished with four wings.
Blanchard and his companion, Pesch, a Benedictine priest, were prevented from going up in the balloon, as ​represented in our illustration, which was drawn before the event it was intended to commemorate. A certain Dupont de Chambon persisted in accompanying the voyagers. Pushed back by them, he drew his sword, leaped into the car or boat,
Blanchard's Balloon.
wounded Blanchard, cut the rigging, and broke the oars or wings. The aeronaut was consequently compelled to have his machine partly re-fitted in great haste, and in the course of a few hours he made the ascent alone in the usual way. Blanchard should have known the uselessness of oars, though he did not abandon their employment ​in subsequent ascents. The Brothers Montgolfier had dreamed of the employment of oars as a means of guidance, but had ultimately rejected the idea. Joseph wrote to his brother Étienne, about the end of the year 1783:
Blanchard's Ascent (Caricature).
"For my sake, my good friend, reflect; calculate well before you employ oars. Oars must either be great or small; if great, they will be heavy; if small, it will be necessary to move them with great rapidity. I know no sufficient means of guidance, except in the knowledge of the different currents of air, of which it is necessary to ​make a study; and these are generally regulated by the elevation." The two brothers often recurred to this idea.
The pictures of the first ascent of Blanchard from the Champ de Mars on the 2nd of March, 1784, in the presence of a vast multitude, show us the oars and the mechanism of his flying-machine fitted to a balloon. The design which we here give seems to us deserving of being considered only as one of the caricatures of the time, especially when we look at the personage dressed in the fool's head-gear, who sits behind and accompanies the triumphant ascent of the aeronaut with music.
It was not with this apparatus that Blanchard effected his ascent, for we have seen that the gearing of his vessel was broken by the infuriated Dupont de Chambon. Yet the aeronaut pretends to have been, to some extent, assisted by his mechanical contrivances. The following is his narrative:—
"I rose to a certain height over Plassy, and perceiving Villette, which I did not despair of reaching in spite of the misfortune that had happened to me, I attached a rope of my rigging to my leg, not being able to make use of my left hand, which I had wrapped in my handkerchief on account of the sword-wound it had received. I fixed up a piece of cloth, and thus made a sort of sail with which I hugged the wind. But the rays of the sun had so heated and rarefied the inflammable air that soon I forgot my rigging in thinking of the terrible danger that threatened me."
Going on to narrate the dangers that beset him, Blanchard describes a number of most extraordinary experiences, which would be better worthy of a place here if they were more like the truth. His curious narrative is thus brought to a close:—
BLANCHARD'S DESCENT.
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.
ASCENT FROM DIJON IN 1784.
At the middle of the globe of the balloon were placed four oars, two sails, and a helm and these were under the management of the voyagers, who sat in the car and worked them by means of ropes. The car was also furnished with oars. The report of Guyton de Morveau to the Academy at Dijon informs us that these different paraphernalia were not altogether useless. The following extracts are from this report:—
"The very strong wind which arose immediately before our departure, had driven us down to the ground many times, making us fear for the safety of our oars, &c., when we resolved to throw over as much ballast as would enable us to rise against the wind. The ballast, including from 70 to 80 lbs. of provisions, was thrown over, and then we rose so rapidly that all the objects around were instantly passed and were very soon lost to view. The swelling form of our balloon told us that the gas inside had expanded under the heat of the sun and the lessening density of the surrounding air. We opened the two valves, but even this outlet was insufficient, and we had to cut a hole about seven or eight inches long in the lower part of the balloon, through which the gas might escape. At five minutes past five we passed above a village which we did not know, and here we ​let fall a bag filled with bran, and carrying with it a flag and a written message to the effect that we were all well, and that the barometer was recording 20 inches 9 lines, and the thermometer one degree and a half below zero."
Very keen cold attacked the ears, but this was the only inconvenience experienced, until the voyagers were lost in a sea of clouds that shut them out from the view of the earth. The sun at length began to descend, and they then perceived, by a slackening in the lower part of the balloon, that it was time for them to think of returning to the earth. Judging from the compass that they were not far from the town of Auxonne, they resolved to use all their endeavours to reach that place. The sailing appliances had been considerably damaged by the rough weather at starting. The rigging being disarranged, one of the oars had got broken, another had become entangled in the rigging, so that there remained only two of the four oars, and these, being on the same side, were absolutely useless during the greatest part of the voyage. The adventurers, however, assert that they made them work from eight to nine minutes with the greatest ease, making use of them to tack to the south-east.
"We hoped then to be able to descend near where we judged Auxonne to be," the writer continues, "but we lost much gas by the opening in the balloon, and descended more rapidly than we expected or wished. We looked to our small stock of ballast with anxiety, but there was no need of it, and we came very softly down upon a slope."
When the aeronauts arrived at Magny-les-Auxonne, the inhabitants gazed upon them in terror, and two men and three women fell down on their knees before them.
Here is an extract from the report of the experiment of ​the 12th of June, the principal object of which was the attempt to discover the means of steering in a certain direction:—
"M. de Verley and myself mounted in the balloon," says Guyton de Morveau, "at seven o'clock. We rose rapidly and in an almost perpendicular direction. The fall of the mercury in the barometer was scarcely perceptible when the dilation of the hydrogen gas in the balloon had become considerable. The globe swelled out, and a light vapour around the mouth announced to us that the gas was commencing to escape by the safety-valve. We assisted its escape by pulling the valve-string.
"Having reduced the dilation sufficiently for our purposes, we resolved to attempt the working of the balloon before the whole town and to turn it from the east to the north. We saw with pleasure that our machinery answered By the working of the helm, the prow of our air-boat was turned in the direction we desired. The oars, working only on one side, supported the helm, and altogether we got on as we wished. We described a curve, crossing the road from Dijon to Langres. The mercury had descended to 24 inches 8 lines, which announced that we were gradually rising. We attempted for some time to follow the route to Langres, but the wind drove us off our course in spite of all our efforts. At nine o'clock our barometer informed us that we had ascended to the height of 6,000 feet. M. de Verley took advantage of this elevation to put some touch wood to a burning-glass 18 lines in diameter, and the touch wood lighted immediately."
The aeronauts decided to direct their course for Dijon. After re-setting the helm with this intention, they worked their oars, and proceeded in that direction more than 1,000 feet. But heat and fatigue obliged them to suspend their ​endeavours, and the current drove them upon Mirebeau, where, throwing out the last of their ballast and regulating their descent, they came softly down upon a corn-field.
The adventurers were cordially welcomed by the ecclesiastics and the magistrates of the place, and after a time they, with their balloon, were carried back on men's shoulders to Dijon.