Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1859-10-07

al like o LiFd. In the fourteenth century,
Albert OF SaNony, an Augustine monk,
maintained the practicabiliry Of balloon
navigation, and recommended that balloons
be constructed air-tight, aud that NJ air be
admitted into them; for by the admission
of air they would be made to descend, as
shT sinks downwsrd by adWissian of wa.
ter Two centuries later the Portuguese
Mendoza, and the German Schott, occu-
pied themselves with similar speculations,
and conceived the project Of an aerial ship,
with sails, oars, and rudder The qlchcm-
lists Cardan, Fabry, and o,hcrs, thought
that the reiraction OF air. by heat would
prove OF advantage in making n tiying-ma-
chine. In 1870 the Jesuit Lana proposed
a balloon made of very ihin copper-plaie,
from which all air should be extracted, and
which would thus become lighter than the
atmosphere. Four of these, he calculated,
wond bear up an immense vehicle for tray-
el and transport: Though he affirmed that
be only doubted Of the success of the plan
frona fear that Con would not permit any
invention to be made that would so cnlqn-
ger civil government, it was yet shown, a
little later, that if copper we're reduced to
the necessary thinness it would he unable
TO resist the external pressure of the air.
The discovery Of hydrogen gas in the
latter half of the last century introduced a
new era in the projects ana progress of bal
looming The French engineers, the broth
ers Montgolier, we're however bafilrd in
their attempts 10 conEne this subtle gas,
and sent up in 1888 at Annonay, in France
the first well-accredted balloon, which con-
tanned only heated air, maintained in state
OF rarcfaction by constant fire. They
soon after transferred the experiment to
Paris, where sheep was carried up and
brought down again safely. The invention
became matter Of European interest.
DIR. Franklin affirmed that il was the birth
of child whose future could not be pre-
dicted; and numerous limitations and i'm
provements were attempted. The defect
of the n.antgolGeres, as the balloons fillrd
with rarefed air were called, was the great
magnitude which had to be given them to
acquire sufficient power, the heated air be-
ing only two or three times lighter than the
atmospheric air. III. Charles succeeded in
inventing u canvas that would hold hydro
gen gas, and within year sent up a by
drogen balloon which rose with upprece-
Jepted velocity till it was lost in the clouds.
As yet no one had trusted himself to the
mercies Of the invention; qnadrupeds were
the first aerial voyagers, but i'll the same
year the Marquis d Arlandes and M. Pill
atre de Roster rose in a car attached TO a
montgolfere, ascended to a height of three
thousand feet, crossed over Paris, and in
twenty-five minutes landed safely. NJ.
Charles quickly followed in hydrogen
balloon, started from the garden of the
Tuilcries, rose seven thousand feet and de-
scended after few minutes at distance
of nine leagues. The experiment was
! deemed so hazardous that the king forbade
/ a repetition Of it. In 1885 the daring
/ Pilaire de Roster, the first who had ven
tured TO follow balloon into the air, lost
his life with a companion in an attempt, d
voyage from Boulogne across the channel.
| The balloon took fire, and he fell from a
height of three thousand feet. In 1901
Gay-Lussac ascendcd at Faris TO height
of twepty-thrpe thousand feet, the greatest
/ yet attained
Balloons were now common in Italy anG
| England, as well as France. The most
brilliant voyages in Italy were by Nine.
/ Blanchard, whose husband was also dis
| tinguished aeronauf. Her ascensions were
witnessed by throngs at Rome, Naples, Tu-
rim, and the principal cities of France. In
! 1919 she set out at ten O'clock in the eve
ming on her sixty-seventh ascension from
| the Tivol in Paris. Her balloon was
| beautifully illuminated, and after reaching
| a considerable height she began TO dis
| charge fireworks around her. Soon her
/ balloon was seen to be in flames, and while
many of the spectators tainted, amid the
murmuring cries of the capital which was
watching her exploit, she fell head down
ward upon one of the houses, breaking
/ through its roof Another Italian aeronaut
was dashed to pieces in an ascent at Co
/ peni,agep in 1881.
The most successful of recent English
aeronauts has been Mr.. Green, wdlo in
/ 1886 crossed with the great Nassau bal
4 loon from the Vauxhall Gardens, London,
to Weilburg, in the Duehy of Nassau. be-
ing eighteen hours in the air Mr.. Cock
/ ing was his associate, and a victim in 1886
to the parachute His parachute was in
veriel, and he fell through three thousand
4 five hundred feet in the time of one and a
half minutes, descending the last sixty feet
/ in q single second. In 1882 Nine. poite:
vim was prohibited from ascending at thc
/ Cremorne Gardens on horses, and as Eu-
ropa on q BULL on the ground Of cruelty
+ to anim1is.
Though several propositions have recent
! ly been made for guiding balloons, none OF
/ them have seemed to give any adequate
protection against the winds. Possibly
The demonstration furnished by the laie
American aerial voyage from ST. Louis 10
/ Like Ontario of the existence of currents
at different altiindes WHICH may be uaade
available for diff, r. Mt directions will pro-
/ vide the key to right motion in the skies.
blanchard was the first who made any
attempt to give a course TO a balloon other
1 thar that of the winds, previous acronauis
T having aimed at rotlnng more than to gf
M aud to get back to the earth some time
and some where Ills machine might be
described as either a bird-shapcd boat or a
boat-shaped bird, and II also bore much re-
semblance to fish. II hal ten large
Wines. Which miglt also be called eiihc;