The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-19 00:00:00

BALLOON ASCENT ON BEHALF OF THE

BI?IlI6H ASSOCI,47IOYI

Yesterday Mr. Glpii:.her, the Superintendent of
the Meteorological Department of the Royal Ob -
servatory, made a second ascent from the works of
the Gas Company, in Wolverhampton. As on the
first occasion so also now, the ascent was made in
Mr. Coxwell's mammoth balloon, and under the di-
rection of that teronaut. The instruments taken
up were some of them the same, and others simi-
lar to those used on the previous ascent, the only
exception being that of Thompson's electrometer,
which was destroyed in the descent upon the for-
mer occasion. That instrument being absent, the
observations will be confined to the primary ob-
servations contemplated by the Association, namely,
the humidity and temperature of the atmosphere,
with its pressure, the vibration of the needle, and
how much, if any, ozone there is in the atmosphere
away from the earth.
About 85,000 cubie feet of very light gas was
turned in, and shortly before one o'clock Mr.
Glaisher, having shipped all his instruments and
arranged them on the board before him, prepara-
tions were made to leave the earth. One fourth of
the quantity of gas supplied was lat out, with a few
bags of ballast, and the signal having been given
the balloon left the earth at two minutes past one,
amidst the warmest plaudits from Lord Wrottes-
ley and a large number of the gentry of the neigh-
bourhood. The ascent was a most steady one, the
wind was blowing about 20 miles an hour in the
lower region of the atmosphere, the sky was clear,
and the sun was shining brilliantly. The direction
in which the balloon was first wafted was south by
west, about half a point to the west. On attaining
to about 10,000 ft. the upper current of the atmo-
sphere was met with. The voyagers then got into
a southerly direction, were seen due south, then a
point or two to the east, and in about a quarter of
an hour after they had left the earth they were
north by east, about half a point to the east. They
then seemed to take their first dip from a high to a
lower altitude, and then again to ascend, and it was
thought a second dip was made during the time
they were in sight, which was nearly 24- hours, for
so clear was the atmosphere, so immense the size of
the balloon, and so slow the motion of the wind,
that it was 3.25 before the machine was lost to the
sight of spectators on the ground whence it
ascended. The direction taken seemed to be over
Birmingham, and towards Coventry. Great inte-
rest is taken in the experiments now being made,
the results of the previous experiments being in
many respects contrary to all previous views on the
points of meteorology that are now being investi-
gated. For instance a cloud one mile thick was
passed through on the first occasion, without there
being any dew deposited on the most sensitive
hygrometer ; and no ozone was found in the air,
notwithstanding that in the experiments on the
earth the most ozone is usually found in the highest
altitudes. For the experiments of yesterday ozone
papers were specially made by Dr. Moffatt himself.
WOLVERHAMPTON, Monday Night.— The bal-
loon descended at five minutes past four, at
Soli-
hull, 25 miles from Wolverhampton, after attaining
a height of 41 miles, where the temperature was
24 deg., the barometer about 13in., and the dew
point minus.