Mr. Green suffered severely from the cold in his hands and feet.
They were now exposed to the influence of roaring winds, but from what I can make out, it was only the effect of quick vertical ascent; here the aëronaut, owing to the exertion he had to undergo, found it a matter of the utmost difficulty to fetch his breath.
The greatest altitude reached was 27,146 feet, indicating an elevation from the earth of 5 miles and 746 feet, the barometer, at this point having fallen from 30·50 to 11, and the thermometer from 61° to 5° or 27° below the freezing point.
Ballast had been reduced to something under seventy pounds, which Green resolved on preserving, and the result of their descent, which was never minutely entered into, proved the propriety of this reservation.
In the descent, they discovered something which very much bore the appearance and consistency of snow. Mr. Rush’s attention was called to it, but after consideration they were inclined to think that the substance was not snow, but the dew and moisture congealed by the cold.
It would be instructive to know how Captain Jovis, who must have had the night dew on his balloon at the early inflation in Paris, got on in this respect. His idea was that the sun would dry the moisture, but I was under the impression that there would scarcely be time for a globular shaped machine to get dry all round during the inflation. However, they may, like Green, have encountered a snow storm without there being, as indeed was unlikely, any damp clouds overhead at that elevation; what I mean is, if the balloon itself shed and shook off innumerable particles of frozen moisture, there can be no wonder that such was noticed and mistaken for a fall of snow.
After Rush and Green had hovered over Lewes in Sussex, a descent was effected near Southover; there was not much hovering I should say.
In this ascent they had the double advantage of witnessing the setting sun (prior to their quitting the earth) and on their reaching 12,500 feet of being once more within the sun’s rays.
Another important consideration bearing upon this chapter is the celerity with which balloons make their ascent.
It is obvious that the efficient power of ascension, or the excess of the whole buoyant force above the absolute weight of the apparatus, would, by acting constantly, produce always an accelerated motion. But this is very soon checked, and a uniform progress maintained by the increasing resistance which the huge mass must encounter in its passage through the air.