The Express.
London, England, 1852-09-20 00:00:00

BALLOON NAVIGATION'.

The Constitutionnel has the following from Bag-
neres-dc-Luchon, dated the 10th ..—Whilst the journals
have been recording unsuccessful attempts to navigate with
balloons, we have witnessed here a fact proving that the
impossibility of navigating in the air is not absolute, and
that with genius and perseverance we may arrive at the
desired result. Yesterday the inhabitants of Luchon and
the numerous visitors were invited to the I'rado, on the
banks of the I'ique, to witness the experiment. The in-
trepid aeronaut, who was to make it at the risk of hie life,
is a man of about ill years of age, named Antonio Moles,
and resides in the small town of Serbian°, in Aragon, not
far from our frontier. In the meadow of the I'rado was a
platform, on which his apparatus was placed. It con-
sisted of a balloon of an ovoid shape, inflated with
hydrogen gas, of merely sufficient size to support
his weight, and that of the articles ho had with
him, and at the same time to have an amen-
Menai power. To the network of the balloon was
suspended • small table, on which Moles lay on his
belly, his back being also secured to the network. f o each
I of his legs between the knee and the icatep was attached a
kind of umbrella, acting freely on their sticks, sod the silk
of which was turned outwards. In each hand was a sort of
hand-screen of silk, opening with binges, and expanding or
contracting at will. A rope from the valve of the balloon
was placed round his neck, and round his body was a belt
containing sand, and about six or seven pounds of shot as
ballast. When the &gnat for letting go was made, the
balloon rose gently to a height of about 200 yards. The
aeronaut then began to make use of his means of impulsion.
his legs were alternately crossed, and then put out at full
length, the first motion closing, the second opening the
umbrella, giving a point d'apput upon a large surface of
compressed air, and causing the balloon to advance,
whilst the arms were moving in the same direction. The
atmosphere being at this time calm the aeronaut found no
difficulty in directing himself in • direct line on the axis of
the valley towards the north, and the speed appeared to in-
cream progressively as the apparatus worked better. We
saw him in a short time stop at the turning of the Cier du
Luchon, and return towards us with the same rapidity;
half an hour sufficed for him to perform a distance of 18
kilometres (about 11 miles) going and returning. When
he found himself over our heads he performed the move-
ment of turning, but rather slowly, as ho wished to turn
very abort round ; it would have been very easy for him
to have made a long turn, by using his legs like •
swimmer when ho wishes to turn to the right or to the left.
It was thus that he made the tour of the basin of Luchon
in 18 minutes, passing over the villages of St. Mamet, Mon-
tauban, Jana, Antignse, and Moustagon, and, returning
to his starting point, he came to the ground slowly in the
same meadow from whence ho had risen. It is more easy
to conceive than express the enthusiasm and excitement of
the crowd of persons who had assembled. The aeronaut
was conducted in triumph to his residence, and he has an-
nounced • second ascent for Sunlay next. It L to be
hoped that there will then be a little wind, in order to
ascertain whether that will not prove an insurmountable
obstacle. Antonio Moles has assured us that he has the
means of overcoming any difficulty of that sort, as readily
as the beet vessel on the ocean.