Nothing of importance came of Blanchard's first attempt at guiding a balloon with rudder and wings, except perhaps to emphasize the fact that wings of an oarlike type were useless for propulsion; but nevertheless Blanchard soon prepared a somewhat similar balloon in which he proposed to steer himself across the English Channel. Before this time, as will be remembered, several balloons had crossed the Channel, but none of them had carried passengers. On this voyage Blanchard proposed to make the attempt, taking with him as companion an American physician named Jeffries. On January 7, 1785, these two embarked from the cliffs of Dover, a strong wind at the time setting toward the French coast. Before their journey was half completed they discovered that an insufficient amount of ballast had been shipped, and that the balloon was gradually descending at a rate which would land them in the Channel several miles from shore. To avert this calamity they were obliged to throw out everything in the car--books, provisions, anchors, ropes, the "wings" that were intended for guiding, and also most of their garments. They were, indeed, about to cut loose the car itself, and climb into the shrouds, when suddenly the balloon, caught by a fresh current of air, began to rise, and was wafted to a safe landing place. This was the most daring exploit as yet performed by the aeronauts. Although at least fifty different persons had made more or less extended aerial voyages during the two years that had intervened since the invention of the first balloon, no one of them had been seriously injured. Indeed, this apparently most dangerous undertaking had been relegated to the grade of commonplace in popular opinion, owing to these fortunate results. But the world was soon to learn that its first estimates of the dangers of ballooning had not been exaggerated. Since the invention of the Montgolfier balloon two distinct schools of balloonists had arisen, one of which favored the hot-air, and the other the hydrogen balloon. By the advocates of the hot-air balloon it was claimed that the relatively small expense, and the fact that the balloonist could descend at any time and renew his supply of fuel, made this the most desirable type, at least for long-distance voyages. By the advocates of the hydrogen balloon it was shown that the hot-air balloon must be constructed much larger to obtain the same amount of lifting power, could be maintained in the air for a comparatively short time at most, and was in constant danger from the fire that must be kept burning in the grate. In reply to this last charge the hot-air advocates pointed out that a tiny spark of electricity, which would not affect the hot-air balloon, might explode the hydrogen balloon, thus introducing an element of danger quite as great as that of the fire in the hot-air balloons.