CHAPTER XXIII EXPLORATIONS OF THE HIGHER REGIONS OF THE ATMOSPHERE You have probably heard the story of Daedalus, the Greek sculptor, who invented wings for flying like a bird. His son, Icarus, who believed sufficiently in his father's invention to use these wings, was drowned in the Icarian Sea. It was claimed that Icarus succeeded in mounting in the air, and, in his pride at thus being able to leave the earth, he flew towards the sun, the heat of which melted the wax his father had employed for fastening the feathers in his wings. so that he fell to the earth where he found a watery grave. Of course, the story of Icarus is entirely imaginary. In more recent years various unsuccessful efforts have been made by men to provide themselves with wings and actually fly through the air. All these efforts have failed, because man is not sufficiently strong to raise himself in the air by his own exertions. Among the many efforts made in this direction, I will mention only a few. In 1678 Besnier, a French locksmith, constructed a flying-machine consisting of four wings, or flaps, attached to the ends of levers resting on his shoulders, and driven by the alternate motions of the hands and feet. Besnier was never able to leave the ground by the use of this machine, but, by going to the edge of a precipice, and throwing himself from it into the air, he could descend in a diagonal direction, and even cross a river that flowed near the foot. A somewhat similar device, employing only two wings, was made by a watchmaker in Vienna named Jacob Dagen. But, coming now to balloons that actually carried people through the air, it appears that the honor of being the first to make an ascent in a balloon is due to Pilâtre de Rozier, a young and talented French physicist. After the safe aërial voyage of the rooster, duck, and sheep sent up by Montgolfier, as related in the last chapter, it was determined to send up a balloon large enough to carry two men with it into the air. This was done on the 15th day of October, 1783, by means of a Montgolfier, or hot-air balloon, sent up from Paris. There was naturally some little hesitation on the part of any one to risk his life in this experiment. The king and his court, however, wishing to have the experiment tried, decreed that two men under sentence of death should make the ascent. On hearing this decree, Pilâtre de Rozier exclaimed to his friends: "What! shall vile criminals be given the honor of being the first to be carried through the air? No, no; that will never do." These remarks being noised through the city, at length reached the court, and the king, at the earnest entreaties of the Marquise d'Arlandes, who agreed to accompany de Rozier, gave permission to the young physicist to make the attempt. This ascension was made on the 15th of October, 1783. The fire was lighted in a gallery placed below the open mouth of the balloon and the balloon was rapidly inflated by the hot air. It carried M. de Rozier to a considerable height. After remaining in the air for a short time, he descended in safety. In this first ascension Pilâtre de Rozier was alone. These experiments were so successful that a prize of 600 livres was given to the Montgolfier brothers for their invention. But I must now give you a brief description of the first aërial voyage made by a man in a ballon filled with inflammable air, or hydrogen gas. The success of the first hydrogen balloon, referred to in the preceding chapter as having been sent up from the Champ de Mars, as well as Pilâtre de Rozier's successful ascension, led to an attempt being made in Paris to construct a hydrogen balloon large enough to carry two men. A subscription was started in Paris, and the balloon, properly inflated with gas, was freed from the ropes that held it to the ground on December 1st, 1783. The balloon was made of silk covered with varnish so as to render it gas-tight. It was spherical in shape, and measured twenty-seven and a half feet in diameter. It was constructed by the Roberts brothers, French mechanics. A car, or boat, was swung below the balloon by ropes attached to a network of cords passing over the top. In order to prevent the bursting of the balloon by the expansion of the hydrogen, on the relief of the atmospheric pressure in the higher regions of the air, a valve was provided in the top of the balloon which could be opened by pulling a rope, so as to let out some of the inflammable gas and thus reduce the pressure. There was great excitement in the city. The crowd was so great that it was necessary to place soldiers to preserve order. The two men, who were given the honor of making this first ascension in a hydrogen balloon, were one of the Roberts brothers and Professor Charles, Professor of Physics, in Paris, who had successfully sent up a hydrogen balloon in 1782. When the balloon reached a height of 600 yards, the two aërial navigators indicated their safety by frequently waving two pennants. The balloon remained stationary at this height for a short time, when it was carried in a horizontal direction to the N.N.W. across the Seine and over several towns and villages in the neighborhood, where it caused great astonishment. After an hour and three-quarters, it descended in a field about twenty-seven miles from Paris. The balloon had travelled at the rate of about fifteen miles an hour, with no inconvenience to its passengers saving only the sudden changes of temperature to which they were exposed. When the balloon reached the ground, it still contained considerable gas, so that Professor Charles determined to ascend once more by lightening the balloon. He therefore requested Mr. Roberts to get out, thus decreasing the weight by 130 pounds. It had been intended to replace most of this weight by ballast, but, as it was nearly sunset, and Professor Charles did not wish to lose any more time, he gave the signal to the peasants to let the machine go. At this time there were two kinds of balloons that were capable of carrying aëronauts through the upper realms of the air: the hot-air balloon of Montgolfier and the gas balloon of Charles. I would say, in passing, that Professor Charles did much towards the improvement of the balloon. It was he who invented the valve for allowing the gas to escape, and thus permit a slow and gradual descent of the balloon, as well as prevent its bursting when under the relief of atmospheric pressure in the upper regions of the air. It was he who also arranged the basket, or car, for the aëronaut to sit in, with the ropes to support it. He, too, suggested the use of ballast to regulate the height of the ascent, as well as the varnish that renders the silk impermeable and so prevents the loss of gas. It is not surprising, therefore, that in France gas balloons are generally known as Charliers, just as the hot-air balloons are called Montgolfiers. Pilâtre de Rozier, the first aëronaut, made a number of successful balloon ascensions. He was not only the first to soar through the air by the aid of a balloon, but he was also the first to be killed during an ascension. An Englishman by the name of Blanchard had successfully crossed the Straits of Dover on the 7th of January, 1785, on a clear frosty morning when a mild breeze was blowing from England to France. When Pilâtre de Rozier heard of this successful voyage, he determined to cross the Channel in the opposite direction, from France to England, and, accompanied by a French gentleman named Romaine, left Boulogne on the 15th of June, 1785. For this voyage Pilâtre de Rozier conceived the idea of making his balloon of a type that united the system of Montgolfier and that of Charles, and was called a Charlo-Montgolfier balloon, in which the balloon was inflated by hydrogen gas, but a small fire balloon was also used by the heat of which Rozier hoped to alter the density of the hydrogen gas as occasion might demand. The inventor was correct in his theory, but was unfortunate in its application. When the balloon rose in the air and distended its sides so as to threaten to burst, some of the inflammable gas escaped from the tube that formed the neck of the balloon. It reached the flame of the hot-air furnace and set fire to the balloon, which was partly consumed in the air, and the unfortunate aëronauts were dashed on the rocks between Calais FIG. 46. THE PARACHUTE and Boulogne. Pilâtre was almost instantly killed and all his bones broken. Romaine still showed some signs of life, but died soon afterwards. It was largely owing to this accident that the parachute was invented. Its general appearance is represented in Fig. 46. When it becomes necessary for an aëronaut to abandon his balloon, he safely descends in the parachute. The |