balloonical age; having made that number of
ascents, and taken up one thousand four hundred
and thirteen persons, with no fatal accident
to himself, or to them, and seldom with
any damage to his balloons.

Nevertheless, from causes over which he
had no control, our veteran has had two or
three "close shaves." On one occasion he
was blown out to sea with the Great Nassau
balloon. Observing some vessels, from which
he knew he should obtain assistance, he commenced
a rapid descent in the direction of the
Nore. The valve was opened, and the car
first struck the water some two miles north
of Sheerness. But the wind was blowing fresh,
and, by reason of the buoyancy of the balloon,
added to the enormous surface it presented to
the wind, they were drawn through the
water at a speed which set defiance to all the
vessels and boats that were now out on the
chase. It should be mentioned, that the speed
was so vehement, and the car so un-boat-like,
that the aëronauts (Mr. Green and Mr. Rush,
of Elsenham Hall, Essex) were dragged through,
that is under, every wave they encountered,
and had a good prospect of being drowned
upon the surface. Seeing that the balloon
could not be overtaken, Mr. Green managed
to let go his large grapnel-iron, which shortly
afterwards took effect at the bottom, where,
by a fortunate circumstance (for them) there
was a sunken wreck, in which the iron took
hold. The progress of the balloon being thus
arrested, a boat soon came up, and relieved
the aëronauts; but no boat could venture to
approach the monster balloon, which still continued
to struggle, and toss, and bound from
side to side. It would have capsized any
boat that came near it, in an instant. It was
impossible to do anything with it till Mr. Green
obtained assistance from a revenue cutter,
from which he solicited the services of an
armed boat, and the crew fired muskets with
ball-cartridge into the rolling Monster, until
she gradually sank down flat upon the waves,
but not until she had been riddled with sixty-two
bullet holes.

So much for perils by sea; but the greatest
of all the veteran's dangers was caused by a
diabolical trick, the perpetrator of which
was never discovered. It was as follows:—

In the year 1832, on ascending from
Cheltenham, one of those malicious wretches
who may be regarded as half fool and half
devil, contrived partially to sever the ropes of
the car, in such a manner as not to be perceived
before the balloon had quitted the
ground; when receiving, for the first time,
the whole weight of the contents, they suddenly
gave way. Everything fell out of the
car, the aëronauts just having time to secure a
painful and precarious attachment to the
hoop. Lightened of its load, the balloon,
with frightful velocity, immediately
commenced its upward course, and ere Mr. Green
could obtain possession of the valve-string,
which the first violence of the accident had
placed beyond his reach, attained an altitude
of upwards of ten thousand feet. Their
situation was terrific. Clinging to the hoop
with desperate retention, not daring to trust
any portion of their weight upon the margin
of the car, that still remained suspended by
a single cord beneath their feet, lest that also
might give way, and they should be deprived
of their only remaining counterpoise, all they
could do was to resign themselves to chance,
and endeavour to retain their hold until the
exhaustion of the gas should have determined
the career of the balloon. To complete the
horrors of their situation, the net- work, drawn
awry by the awkward and unequal disposition
of the weight, began to break about the upper
part of the machine- mesh after mesh giving
way, with a succession of reports like those of
a pistol; while, through the opening thus
created, the balloon began rapidly to ooze
out, and swelling as it escaped beyond the
fissure, presented the singular appearance of a
huge hour-glass floating in the upper regions
of the sky. After having continued for a
considerable length of time in this condition,
every moment expecting to be precipitated to
the earth by the final detachment of the
balloon, at length they began slowly to
descend. When they had arrived within
about a hundred feet from the ground, the
event they had anticipated at length occurred;
the balloon, rushing through the opening in
the net-work with a tremendous explosion,
suddenly made its escape, and they fell to the
earth in a state of insensibility, from which
with great difficulty, they were eventually
recovered.

Apart from the question of dangers, which
science, as we have seen, can reduce to a
minimum—and apart also from the question
of practical utility, of which we do not see
much at present, yet of which we know not
what may be derived in future—what are
the probabilities of improvement in the art
of ballooning, aërostation, or the means of
travelling through the air in a given direction?

The conditions seem to be these. In order
to fly in the air, and steer in a given direction
during a given period, it is requisite to take
up a buoyancy and a power which shall be
greater (and continuously so during the
voyage) than needful to sustain its own
mechanical weight, together with that of the
aëronauts and their various appurtenances;
and as much also in excess of these requisitions
as shall overcome the adverse action
of the wind upon the resisting surface
presented by the machine. At present no such
power is known which can be used in combination
with a balloon, or other gas machine.
If we could condense electricity, then the
thing might be done; other subtle powers
may also be discovered with the progress of
science, but we must wait for them before we
can fairly make definite voyages in the air, and
reduce human flying to a practical utility, or
a safe and rational pleasure.