So far, although several hundred ascents had been made, and in spite of the many and great dangers of the new-found art and the inexperience of the early voyagers, no fatal accident had marred the delight of sailing the skies. Disasters, however, were soon to come. It is sad to relate that the earliest to fall a victim was the brave Pilâtre de Rozier himself, the first of all men to go aloft in a balloon. Fired with a desire to emulate Blanchard and Jeffries, he decided that he himself would cross the Channel, this time from France to England; and to avoid, as he imagined, the cooling of the gas, which had so nearly proved disastrous on the previous occasion, he hit on the extraordinary idea of combining the principles of both the “Montgolfier” and “Charlier” balloons, and suspending a fire balloon beneath another filled with hydrogen gas. It seems a remarkable thing to us now that no one in those days saw the awful danger of such a combination. The inevitable happened. When the balloon was high in the air the furnace of the hot-air machine set fire to the highly inflammable hydrogen, a fearful explosion followed, and De Rozier and his companion were dashed to pieces. CHAPTER III FAMOUS BALLOON VOYAGES OF THE PAST Unfortunately the death of Pilâtre de Rozier was but the first of a series of fatal accidents which marred the early years of the history of ballooning. Shortly afterwards another French aeronaut, going up in too shallow a car, fell overboard when at a great height and was killed. A little later Count Zambeccari, an Italian, ascended in a hot-air balloon, which, on coming near the earth, became entangled in a tree. The furnace it carried set fire to the silk. To escape from the flames, the Count leapt to the ground and was killed on the spot. A few years after, Madame Blanchard, wife of the man who first crossed the English Channel, made a night ascent from Paris with a number of fireworks hung from the car. These, in some way, ignited the balloon, which fell to the ground, killing the unfortunate lady in its fall. On the other hand, many miraculous escapes are on record. One of the earliest balloonists spent the night alone aloft in the midst of a terrific thunder-storm, with the lightning flashing all around him, and yet descended in safety when morning broke. M. Garnerin, a famous French aeronaut of this date, also was lost in a storm. His balloon became unmanageable, and borne to earth was dashed against a mountain side, the occupant losing consciousness, until the balloon, which had ascended again, brought him safely down once more many miles away.