A Voyage in a Balloon (1852)

by Jules Verne

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A VOYAGE IN A BALLOON

by

Jules Verne

Translated from the French by Anne T. Wilbur

1852

I.

My Ascension at Frankfort—The Balloon, the Gas, the Apparatus, the Ballast—An Unexpected Travelling Companion—Conversation in the Air—Anecdotes—At 800 Metres [A] —The Portfolio of the Pale Young Man—Pictures and Caricatures—Des Rosiers and d’Arlandes—At 1200 Metres—Atmospheric Phenomena—The Philosopher Charles—Systems—Blanchard—Guyton-Morveaux—M. Julien—M. Petin—At 1500 Metres—The Storm—Great Personages in Balloons—The Valve—The Curious Animals—The Aerial Ship—Game of Balloons.

[A] A metre is equal to 39.33 English inches.

In the month of September, 1850, I arrived at Frankfort-on-the-Maine. My passage through the principal cities of Germany, had been brilliantly marked by aerostatic ascensions; but, up to this day, no inhabitant of the Confederation had accompanied me, and the successful experiments at Paris of Messrs. Green, Godard, and Poitevin, had failed to induce the grave Germans to attempt aerial voyages.