After this the Montgolfiers appeared to have become ambitious of accomplishing greater things, and giving to their discoveries publicity; for we are told that, "they invited the members of the provincial meeting of the states of the Vivarais, then assembled at Annonay, to witness the first _public_ aerial ascent. On the 5th June 1783, amidst a very large concourse of spectators, the spherical bag or balloon, consisting of different pieces of linen, merely buttoned together, was suspended from cross poles. Two men kindled a fire under it, and kept feeding the flame with small bundles of chopped straw. The loose bag gradually swelled, assuming a graceful form, and in the space of five minutes it was completely distended, and made such an effort to escape that eight men were required to hold it down. "On a signal being given the stays were slipped, and the balloon instantly rose with an accelerating motion till it reached some height, when its velocity continued uniform, and carried it to an elevation of more than a mile. All was admiration and transport. Amidst the shouts of unbounded applause, the progress of the artificial cloud retiring from sight arrested every eye. It was hurried along by the wind; but its buoyant force being soon spent, it remained suspended only ten minutes, and fell gently in a vineyard at a distance of about a mile and a half from the place of its ascension. So memorable a feat lighted up the glow of national vanity, and the two Montgolfiers were hailed and exalted by the spontaneous impulse of their fellow-citizens."