Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 1, A-AME

220 A E R O S
the foies of his feet. At the diftance of what appeared
to him feven miles from the earth, though by the ba¬
rometer fcarcely a mile and a half, he had a grand and
moft enchanting view of the city of Chefter and its
View from adjacent places below. The river Dee appeared of a
the balloon, red colour •, the city very diminutive; and the town
entirely blue. The whole appeared a perfeft plain,
the higheft building having no apparent height, but
reduced all to the fame level ; and the whole terreftrial
profpeft appeared like a coloured map. Jult after his
firft afcent, being in a well watered and maritime part
of the country, he obferved a remarkable and regular
tendency of the balloon towards the fea ; but ftiortly
after riling into another current of air, he efcaped the
danger : this upper current, he fays, was vifible to him
at the time of his afcent, by a lofty found ftratum of
clouds flying in a fafe direftion. The perfpe&ive ap¬
pearance of things to him was very remarkable. The
lowelt bed of vapour that firlt appeared as cloud was
anceofthe Pure white, in detached fleeces, increafing as they
clouds. rofe : they prefently coalefced, and formed, as he ex-
prefles it, a fea of cotton, tufting here and there by
the action of the air. In the undilturbed part of the
clouds, the whole became an extended white floor
of cloud, the upper furface being fmooth and even.
Above this white floor he obferved, at great and un¬
equal diftances, a vaft aflemblage of thunder clouds,
each parcel confifting of whole acres in the denfeft
form : he compares their form and appearance to the
fmoke of pieces of ordnance, which had confolidated as
it were into maffes of fnow, and penetrated through the
upper furface or white floor of common clouds, there
remaining vifible and at reft. Some clouds had mo¬
tions in fhm and various directions, forming an appear¬
ance truly ftupendous and majeftic.” He endeavours
to convey fome idea of the fcene by a figure; (and from
this fig. i. Plate II. is copied. A reprefents a cir¬
cular view he had from the car of the balloon, himfelf
being over the centre of the view, looking down on
the white floor of clouds, and feeing the city of Chefter
through an opening, which difcovered the landfcape be¬
low, limited by furrounding vapour to lefs than two
miles in diameter. The breadth of the outer margin
defines his apparent height in the balloon (viz. 4 miles)
above the white floor of clouds. Mr Baldwin alfo gives
a curious defcription of his tracing the fhadow of the
balloon over tops of volumes of clouds. At firft it
was fmall, in fize and ftiape like an egg ; but foon in-
creafed to the magnitude of the fun’s difc, ftill grow¬
ing larger, and attended with a moft capivating ap¬
pearance of an iris encircling the whole ftiadow at fome
diftance round it, the colours of which were remarkably
brilliant. The regions did not feel colder, but rather
warmer than below. The fun was hotteft to him when
the balloon was ftationary. The difcharge of a can¬
non, when the balloon was at a confiderable height,
was diftinftly heard by the aeronaut ; and a difcharge
from the fame piece when at the height of thirty yards,
fo difturbed him as to oblige him for fafety to lay hold
firmly of the chords of the balloon. At a confiderable
height he poured down a pint bottle full of water ; and
as the air did not oppofe a refiftance fufficient to break
the fleam into fmall particles, it moftly fell down in large
drops. In the courfe of the balloon’s track it was
foupd much affctted by the water (a circumftance ob-
' A T I O N. Hiftory.
ferved in former aerial voyages). At one time the
direction of the balloon kept continually over the wa¬
ter, going direflly towards the fea, fo much as to en¬
danger the aeronaut ; the mouth of the balloon was
opened, and in two minutes’ he defeended into an under
current blowing from the fea : he kept defcending, and
landed at Bellair farm in Rinlley, I 2 miles from Chefter.
Here he lightened his car by 31 pounds, and inftantly
reafcending, was carried into the interior part of the
country, performing a number of different manoeuvres.
At his greateft altitude he found his refpiration free
and eafy. Several bladders which he had along with
him crackled and expanded very confiderably. Clouds
and land, as before, appeared on the fame level. By
way of experiment, he tried the upper valve two or
three times, the neck of the balloon being clofe: and
remarked, that the efcape of the gas was attended with
a growling noife like millftones, but not near fo loud.
Again, round the fhadow of the balloon, on the clouds
he obferved the iris. A variety of other circumftances
and appearances he met with, is fancifully defcribed ;
and at 53 minutes paft three he finally landed.
The following is an account of an eftahlifhment
formed in France during the late war for the improve¬
ment of aerial navigation :
“ The aeroftatic inftitute, founded by the commit-^ero^atjc
tee of public fafety, and enveloped in the moft pro-inflitute
found fecreey at Meudon, to which alfo was added a France,
camp for the exercife of the artillery, is even yet
looked upon as a fecret arrangement of the repub¬
lic, refpe&ing which the greateft precautions are
taken ; the doors being fhut againft the public and all
foreigners.
It was impoflible to have felefted a more convenient
fpot for the eftablifhment of the aeronautic inftitute
than the royal lodge of Meudon. From its elevated
fite on a mountain, it commands a beautiful and exten-
five profpeft over a plain covered with villages and cul¬
tivated fields, interfered by the Seine, and terminated
by the city of. Paris.
The perfedflion and the rational application of aero-objeds of
nautics are the objects of the labours of this eftablifti-it.
ment, to which the celebrated natural philofopher Guy¬
ton Morveau has in particular rendered the moft import¬
ant fervices. But the inftitution flood in need of fuch a
direftor as Conte, for whom Guyton Morveau has pro¬
cured the appointment. With a love of the fcience
Conte unites a penetrating genius for refearch and in¬
vention, accompanied by indefatigable afliduity.
The corps of aeronauts, intended to ferve in the ar-£mpi0y.
mies of the republic, and confifting of fifty courageous ment of the
youths, is trained at the fchool of Meudon : it is there Pupfls'
the balloons are prepared which are fent off to the ar¬
mies ; and every day in fummer the pupils are em¬
ployed, at one time in performing their exercifes, at
another in making refearches, in natural philofophy,
with a balloon which is kept conftantly filled for the
purpofe.
The improvement in the preparation of the balloon,
the difcovery of a new mode of filling it with inflam¬
mable air from the fubftanoe of w7ater (hydrogen gasj),
difcovered by Lavoifier, the invention of a new tele¬
graph, conne£ted with the balloon, are the principal
advances which have been made in aeroftatics at Meu¬
don under the direftion of Conte,
The