The balloons were made of strong cambric, oiled, and of about 70,000 cubic feet capacity; they were filled with coal gas, and could carry a load of 2,000 pounds, including 600 pounds of ballast and 1,000 pounds of despatches.
The first of these bore Gambetta, he was accompanied by his intimate friend, M. Spuller. The political results of this voyage are well known.
One balloon travelled to Norway. Many were fired at, but few injured. Three balloons fell into the hands of the enemy near Paris, and two in Germany. Two were lost at sea, each manned by a sailor.
The average distance travelled, was about 180 miles, and the speed varied from seven to fifty miles an hour, and in one instance, eighty miles.
During four months, sixty-six balloons left Paris, of which fifty-four were specially made by the administration of posts and telegraphs.
One hundred-and-sixty persons were carried over the Prussian lines.
Nine tons of despatches, or 3,000,000 letters were successfully conveyed to their destinations. 360 pigeons were taken up, of which, however, only fifty-seven returned to Paris, these conveyed, as Lieut. Baden-Powell reminds us, 100,000 messages.
Wilfrid de Fonvielle gives us a vivid and thrilling account of how he left Paris in a balloon.
The members of the scientific commission, he informs us, conceived the idea of sending off balloons by night. He took his departure on the 20th of November; he was apprehensive, owing to the weather, of some crushing catastrophe.
“The ‘Egalité’ began to show its graceful form and bright colours. The sun was shining on the golden sphere, which the wind was gracefully oscillating. I was looking on the clouds, which had a direction inclining somewhere towards Prussian soil, when I heard people shouting.