The Statesman.
London, England, 1823-09-08 00:00:00

ASCENT OF MR. OREEN AT LEEDS.

This gentleman, who has the honour of having first as-
cended with the cheap gas made from coal, and thus !educ-
ed the heavy expense of en aerial voyage, ascended on
Friday afternoon, at '2O minutes to fiiur o'clock, from the
yard of the White Cloth hail, with a magnificent balloon,
•liirty seven feet in hetlit. From the calmness of the day,
he was enabled to fi the machine with eater, and the
process e inflalon was completed within one hour and five
irainnt.s. Mr. Breen had given notice of his intention to
ascend at three o'clock ; but the company continuing to
flow in till half past, it was that time when he sent off the
last pilot balloon, and gave the signal of ascent. Being
favoured with a calm and almost clomtless day, and basing
in consequence completely filled his balloon, the ascent was
more imposing than that of Mr. S idler. It was,
indeed, as magnificent as any thing of this nature can be,
though Mr. Ureen's car had few ornaments. The bal.
oon soared, in a nearly perpendicular direction., steadi-
ly and majestically towards the heavens ; the aero-
naut, in the meanwhile, with perfect self passeision and
cheerfulness, standing erect on the sides of his car, and
,vaving his hand above his head. in answer to the loud ac
claim of the admiring multitude. The crowds who had
assembled both far and near were immense -on buildings,
church steeples, hill sides, and open spaces of ground to a
great distance. The whole country se-mial to have poitied
out its dense population to witness this magnificent spec-
tacle. After standing two or three minutes Mr. Breen wit
down, and waved isis,fior out of the balloon for a cousi-
.lerable time. With time assistance of a telescope, we atter•
wards saw him let out a rope from the car, which continued
to hang suspended, for the purpose, we believe, of prevent-
ing the rotatory motion which the balloon has a tendency
to assume. In a few minutes we perceived hilt shoot a bag
• of ballast out of the car, and for twenty minutes afterwards
we were able to discern the columne•of timid wlaish he dis-
charged at intervals. He evidently rose a considerable height,
and, from the extraordinary clearness of the dry, the bal.
loon was distinctly seep with the nuked eye for upwards of
25 minutes after the assent: we kept the machine in sight
nearly 10 minutes longer, and saw it shining brilliantly in
the sun a little before a cloud interposed and hid it from
our sight. It was then in fhe..direcnon of Pontefract, hut
rather more to the south-west, and certainly at a much
greater distance than that place:
Mercury Office, Saturday mortikiF, half past 3 o'clock.
We stop the press to state, that Mr. orseu has bad the mis-
fortune to lose his balloon. After a fine 'come he descended
in the neighbourhood of Exey, eine miles northward of Gains-
borough, twelve from Doncaster, and about forty from Leeds.
Here he found the lower current of the atmosphere Wowing a
hurricane. On descending to the earth, he threw out the
grappling iron in a fallow field, where, after dragging for some
distspee, the ear struck violently against a rail, and stu 'tied
Mr. Green with the shock ; the grappling iron then caught
firmly hold of the same rail. and from the velocity with which
the balloon was flying, snapped the cable, and threwthe sero-
nattfrom a small height to the ground. He was comp'etely
stunted by the fall, and severely bruised. The balloon,
lightened of all its weight and ballast, though containing only
a small quantity of gas, Instantly sprung aloft. and in twenty
minutes vanished frame the sight. From the vast elevation
which it seemed to attain after the accident, and the great ve-
locity with which it flew, all hope of seCurrag by following it
was lost. _

Mr. Green, therefore, Stough suffering considerable pain,
immediately set out, and arrived here at a quarter to two
o'clock this morning. He states that his voyage was szoemely
delightful, and the elevation be attained upwards of two
miles: the thermometer then stood at SS, being tour degrees
below the freezing point, and the barometer at IS inches and
a ball.
r, poffers rep a reward of Ilff. to any one who re-
4to bin balloon without Ott biting sustained very material