Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies: A History of Balloons and Balloon VoyagesMarion, Fulgence
History
Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies: A History of Balloons and Balloon Voyages
Marion, Fulgence
Balloon ascensions; Balloons
Mosment made his last ascent at Lille on the 7th of April, 1806. His
balloon was made of silk, and was filled with hydrogen gas. Ten minutes
after his departure he threw into the air a parachute with which he had
provided himself. It is supposed that the oscillations consequent on the
throwing off of the parachute were the cause of they aeronaut’s fall.
Some pretend that Mosment had foretold his death, and that it was caused
by a willful carelessness. However this may be, the balloon continued
its flight alone, and the body of the aeronaut was found partly buried
in the sand of the fosse which surrounds the town.
Bittorff made a great many successful ascents. He never used any machine
but the Montgolfiere. At Manheim, on the 17th of July, the day of his
death his balloon, which was of paper, sixteen metres in diameter, and
twenty in height, took fire in the air, and the aeronaut was thrown down
upon the town. His fall was mortal.
Harris, an old officer of the English navy, together with another
English aeronaut, named Graham, had made a great many ascents. He
conceived the idea of constructing a balloon upon an original plan; but
his alterations do not seem to have been improvements. In May, 1824, he
attempted an ascent from London, which had much apparent success, but
which terminated fatally. When at a great elevation, it seems, the
aeronaut, wishing to descend, opened the valve. It had not been well
constructed, and after being opened it would not close again. The
consequent loss of gas brought the balloon down with great force. Harris
lost his life with the fall; but the young lady who had accompanied him
received only a trifling wound.
Sadler, a celebrated English aeronaut, who, in one of his many
experiments, had crossed the Irish Channel between Dublin and Holyhead,
lost his life miserably near Bolton, on the 28th of September, 1824.
Deprived of his ballast, in consequence of his long sojourn in the air,
and forced at last to descend, at a late hour, upon a number of high
buildings, the wind drove him violently against a chimney. The force of
the shock threw him out of his car, and he fell to the earth and died.
His prudence and knowledge were unquestionable, and his death is to be
ascribed alone to accident. It was an aerial shipwreck.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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