The advantages hitherto derived from ærial navigation have by no means proved adequate to the expectations excited by the novelty and promising aspect of the science. This failure, in their utility, may in a great degree be ascribed to the art of steering balloons being yet undiscovered. And we may here add, that no probability exists that the art will ever be attained.
The French, indeed, once instituted an academy for the purpose of improving the state of æronautics, and a corps of fifty young men were selected, and for a time trained to the service. A balloon thirty-two feet in diameter was provided, and in favorable weather was often sent up to the distance of from one hundred and sixty to two hundred and forty yards, with some of the young æronauts in it. The institution, however, is now abandoned.
Balloons are uniformly constructed of silk lustring. From the price of this article, the expense of only a moderate sized balloon is great. A balloon of only twelve feet in diameter will require fifty square yards; a balloon thirty feet in diameter requires three hundred and fourteen yards of cloth, and when filled its ascensive power will be five hundred and eighty-one pounds.
A parachute, which is much like an umbrella, is sometimes employed to descend from a balloon in case of accident. The parachute by which M. Garnerin descended from Paris, in 1797, was twenty-five feet in diameter, and was made of cloth; and that by which he descended in London, in 1802, is said to have been a large umbrella, consisting of thirty-two gores of canvass, twenty-three feet in diameter, and without ribs and handle. At the top there was a round piece of wood, ten inches in diameter, having a hole in the centre, which was fastened to the canvass by thirty-two short pieces of tape. About four feet and a half from the top of the canvass, a wooden hoop, eight feet wide, was put on and tied by a string from each seam. Several ropes, about thirty feet long, proceeding from the edge of the parachute, terminated in a common joining. From this point there issued shorter ropes, to whose extremities was fastened a circular basket, in which M. Garnerin himself was stationed. The parachute and basket were immediately disunited from the balloon, by the cutting of a cord which communicated with the net-work, and in falling downwards, the parachute naturally expanded, by the resistance of the air.
Eccentric Characters.
We propose to give to our readers a few chapters upon eccentric characters. We cannot better begin than with the
CHEVALIER DESSESSAU.
Among the singular personages who have occasionally attracted public notice in London, the individual just mentioned is not the least remarkable. He was a native of Prussia, and bore a military commission in the service of that country; but a quarrel with a brother officer resulted in a duel, in which he wounded his antagonist. Uncertain of the result, he sought refuge in England, and conceiving a partiality for the country, he resolved to pass the remainder of his days there.