to be described in the remaining chapters. CHAPTER III BALLOONS--NOTABLE ASCENTS AND RESULTS OBTAINED--CAPTIVE BALLOONS In the first chapter the invention of the hot-air and the hydrogen balloon was chronicled, and it was stated that on December 1, 1783, Charles rose from Paris to a height of 9000 feet. Public interest in France was greatly excited by this wonderful extension of the realm of man, and numerous ascensions with _MontgolfiËres_ and _CharliËres_, as the hot-air and hydrogen balloons were respectively called, took place in Paris and the provinces. The uses of the balloon seemed innumerable, and Lavoisier was instructed by the Academy of Sciences to draw up a report on the value of the new discovery. After having described in detail the ascensions which he had witnessed, the great chemist stopped, appalled at the multitude of problems which the balloon could solve. History has shown, however, that no commercial application of the balloon was possible, and that aside from its spectacular attractions, its chief use has been for scientific observations. The first persons in England who devoted themselves to aÎrial navigation were foreigners. Two of them were Italians, the philosopher Tiberius Cavallo, who already in 1782 had showed to a London assembly that soap-bubbles filled with hydrogen will rise, and therefore had almost anticipated the invention of the hydrogen balloon, and the diplomatist Vincent Lunardi, who made some daring balloon ascents in 1784. But the honour of making the first scientific balloon voyage is due to a Bostonian, Dr. John Jeffries. Dr. Jeffries graduated at Harvard College in 1763 and then practised medicine in England, where he became a loyalist, and during the Revolution was with the British troops. In London he interested himself in aerostation, and, aided by the Royal Society, ascended in a balloon because, he said, "I wished to see the following points more clearly determined: first, the power of ascending or descending at pleasure, while suspended and floating in the air; secondly, the effect which oars or wings might be made to produce towards the purpose and in directing the course of the balloon; thirdly, the state and temperature of the atmosphere at different heights from the earth; and fourthly, by observing the varying course of the currents of air, or winds, at certain elevations, to throw some new light on the theory of winds in general." A French professional aeronaut named Blanchard had made three ascents in France and one in England, and Dr. Jeffries paid one hundred guineas to accompany Blanchard on his fifth ascent, which was made from London November 30, 1784. He took with him a thermometer, a barometer, a hygrometer, an electrometer, and a mariner's compass, also several numbered bottles, filled with water and provided with glass stoppers, which were to be emptied and corked up at different heights in the atmosphere.