The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-21 00:00:00

reinorne Gardens—Ascent of "The Eagle,"

AT, Eugene Godard, " Aeronaute de l'Empereur," last
night made a remarkable and successful ascent at Cremorne
Gardens, in an enormous balloon of bia own construction,
which he styles "The Eagle." Balloons are common at
Cremorne, but the particular vehicle taken into the air by
M. Godard is said far to exceed in its dimensions all bal-
loons that have risen since the days of Montgolfier, while
it is filled on the Montgolfier principle--that is to say, is
Fred not with gas, but with air rarefied by means of fire.
The following statistics of " The Eagle" may not be
uninteresting. It is 117 feet 7 inches in height, 95 feet
9 inches in circumference, 300 feet 6 inches superficial,
30,000 feet in area, 2,0051bd. in weight, 498,556 cubic
contents, contains 4,793 square yards of silk in 1,910 pieces
of 96 stripes, 14,203 feet of stitching, 95 overlaps of joints,
154 feet long, making 13,848 feet more of sewing. The
hoop and the car are attached by 64 mwal cords. In the
centre of the car is an 18 feet stove, including the chimney,
930 pounds in weight, Eft Gin in diameter, and inside the
flue is a metal colander to intercept sparks. Last evening
the ground usually appropriated to aeronautical purposes
was occupied by an expectant throng, who stood round a
shapeless bag, anxiously waiting to see it expand into some-
thing like a spherical form. A privileged few were allowed
to enter the gradually-expanding marquee, and to behold a
huge furnace which was constantly fed with rye-straw, and
which afterwards appeared as the central part of the car.
As the process of iafietion was slow, the anxiety of the spec-
tators was long kept in a state of tension, and the develop-
ment of the irregular figure into a globe, adorned with
symbolical figures, was watched with increasing curiosity.
At a quarter to 8 the whole fabric stood up amongst the
trees and poles of the somewhat crowded ground, and the
various ropes that held it to the earth were cut away one by
one. M. Godard ran rapidly round the solid wicker car,
shouting orders through a speaking trumpet with pardon-
able excitability. Two gentlemen took their places in the
car—Mr Prowse and an officer in the Guards, and a third
heavy military gentleman leaped in, much against the wish
of M. Godard. The final rope was cut away, and the huge
ball, half the height of the monument, rolled rather than rose
towards the east side of the gardens. Here it met a firm
lofty pole to which some of its detaining ropes had been
attached, and this pole was bent creaking on to the roof of
a theatrical Swiss cottage, which broke in like a piece of
pastry, For a few seconds the balloon seemed to return to
the gardens, and to descend towards the grass, while the
stokers were seen desperately throwing the small trusses of
Compressed straw into the mouth of the fiery furnace. M.
Godard raved through his trumpet, and the excitement
caused several ladies to faint, and a large portion of the
crowd to rush panic- striker', towards the hotel. In less than
a minute, however, the" Eagle" had regained her buoyancy,
and ascended with all the majesty proper to such occasions.
Then, those who had shrieked with alarm began to shout
with admiration, and the gigantic vehicle was watched with
interest as it diminished in the distance. ' There was little
wind stirring, and her course appeared to be in the direction
of Woolwich. Her appearance was peculiar, as she had no
variegated stripes of colour, like the ordinary oil-skin bal-
loons; the yellow furnace gleamed just above the travellers
and under her neck, and numbers of small straw trusses
hung dangling underneath her car. The balloon safely de-
scended at Greenwich.
The balloon is to ascend again from Cremorne on Monday
next.