of subsequent aeronauts are the same
as those already described, or differ from them only in minor points. No
important advance is recorded in the art. We shall therefore endeavour
not to confine ourselves to the narrative of a dry and monotonous
chronology, but to select from the number of ascents that have taken
place within the last eighty years, only those whose special character
renders them worthy of more detailed and severe investigation.

In order to give an idea of the rapid multiplication of aeronautic
experiments, it will suffice to state that the only aeronauts of
1783 are Roziers, the Marquis d'Arlandes, Professor Charles, his
collaborateur the younger Robert, and a carpenter, named Wilcox, who
made ascents at Philadelphia and London.

A number of balloons were remarkable for the beauty and elegance which
we have already spoken of. Among the most beautiful we may mention the
"Flesselles" balloon and Bagnolet's balloon.

Of the ascents which immediately succeeded those that have been treated
in the first part of our volume, and which are the most memorable in
the early annals of aerostation, that of the 17th of January, 1784, is
remarkable. It took place at Lyons. Seven persons went into the car on
this occasion--Joseph Montgolfier, Roziers, the Comte de Laurencin, the
Comte de Dampierre, the Prince Charles de Ligne, the Comte de Laporte
d'Anglifort, and Fontaine, who threw himself into the car when it had
already begun to move.

A most minute account of this experiment is given in a letter of Mathon
de la Cour, director of the Academy of Sciences at Lyons:--"After the
experiments of the Champ de Mars and Versailles had become known,"
he says, "the citizens of this town proposed to repeat them and a
subscription was opened for this purpose. On the arrival of the elder
Montgolfier, about the end of September, M. de Flesselles, our director,
always zealous in promoting whatever might be for the welfare of the
province and the advancement of science and art, persuaded him to
organise the subscription. The aim of the experiment proposed by
Montgolfier was not the ascent of any human being in the balloon. The
prospectus only announced that a balloon of a much larger size than any
that had been made would ascend--that it would rise to several thousand
feet, and that, including the animals that it was proposed it should
carry, it would weigh 8,000 lbs. The subscription was fixed at L12, and
the number of subsc