M. Wilfrid de Fonvielle, by correct calculations, found it too small for the intended elevation.
Whether aëronauts of the highest rank, such as the Tissandiers, Camille Flammarion, and de Fonvielle, were too polite and forbearing, as to impossibilities, I am not aware. The latter authority is known to be free from all party prejudices, to have an opinion of his own, and to utter it when necessary.
De Fonvielle may well have had doubts, I remember that Green had, as to the heights attained by Robertson and Gay-Lussac, the former being credited with having risen over 7,000 metres, while the latter reached 23,000 feet—higher, be it observed, than the 22,960 feet reached by Jovis.
Green never could make out, to use his own words, “how it was that they did it with balloons, as small as were quoted in the accounts of Robertson’s and Gay-Lussac’s experiments.”
“Certainly,” as the veteran observed, “they used hydrogen, but there must have been very little left of it on returning to the earth, if the diameters of their small balloons were no more than stated,” that is as Green added with emphasis, “if they touched 22,000 or 23,000 feet.”
By the light of our present investigations and deductions, it appears that many of the accounts of the early ascents in this century, viz., in 1803 and 4, are unreliable statements, and not altogether excusable.
For instance, Robertson, in his journey from Hamburg, said that “his head swelled, and that blood came from his nose.”
M. L’Hoest, his companion, was violently affected in a similar way; he could not get his hat on.
Mr. Glaisher’s head and mine were covered with caps, but I did not notice any cerebral expansion, being very intent upon the expansion of the gas; in short, we were always sticking to more important business.
“At their greatest elevation they could scarcely hear each other speak.”