But now a brave French gentleman—M. Pilâtre de Rozier, a name ever to be remembered in the history of the conquest of the air—uprose in indignation. “Shall vile criminals have the first glory of rising into the sky!” he cried, and then and there he proudly claimed for himself the honour of being first among mortals in the history of the world to sail the air. His courageous resolve was wildly applauded, and forthwith preparations were commenced for the new venture. A yet larger balloon was made, in height as tall as a church tower, with a mouth 15 feet across. Around the mouth was fastened a gallery of wicker-work, three feet wide, to hold the passengers, and below all was slung with chains an iron brazier of burning fuel.
By way of precaution, when all was complete De Rozier made a few short captive excursions, the balloon being fastened to earth by a rope. But all proving satisfactory, he decided to hazard a “right away” trip on the 21st of November 1783, when he was also to be accompanied by an equally courageous fellow-countryman, the Marquis d’Arlandes. It would be difficult to conceive a more daring and perilous enterprise than these two brave Frenchmen set themselves. They were to venture, by an untried way, into unknown realms where no mortal had been before; they were to entrust their lives to a frail craft whose capabilities had never yet been tested, and at a giddy height they were to soar aloft with an open fire, which at any moment might set light to the inflammable balloon and hurl them to destruction.
Wild indeed was the applause of the crowd as the mighty craft, after due inflation, rose majestically into the sky, carrying with it its two brave voyagers—
the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea;
and with what anxiety was its course followed as, rising rapidly to a height of 3000 feet, it drifted away on an upper current which bore it right over the city of Paris. The travellers themselves experienced various excitements during their adventurous trip. They had constantly to stir the fire and feed it with fresh fuel; they had also with wet sponges continually to extinguish the flames when the light fabric from time to time ignited. At one period they feared descending into the river or on the house-tops, at another a sharp shock gave them the impression that their balloon had burst. But they came safely in the end through all perils and alarms, descending quietly, after a voyage of twenty-five minutes’ duration, five miles from their starting-place.
An Early Hydrogen Balloon.
Thus was invented and perfected in the course of less than a year the first of all craft which carried man into the sky—the Hot-Air or Montgolfier Balloon. To this day large hot-air balloons inflated by the same methods employed a hundred years ago occasionally take passengers aloft. Indeed, there now seems a likelihood that the use of the Montgolfier balloon will be largely revived for military purposes, since, with modern improvements, it would appear to be more quickly and easily inflated than a gas balloon in time of warfare. With miniature hot-air balloons we are all familiar, for every schoolboy has made them for himself of coloured papers, and watched them float away on the breeze with as much admiration and delight as the two brothers of Annonay watched their bag first float upwards to the ceiling.
But almost before the invention of the hot-air balloon had been completed, and before Pilâtre de Rozier had made his ascent, a rival craft had appeared upon the scene, to which we must more specially refer in the next chapter.