t reached the ground in safety; and this first
attempt, crowned with such decisive success, secured for ever to
the brothers Montgolfier the glory of one of the most astonishing
discoveries.

"When we reflect for a moment upon the numberless difficulties which
such a bold attempt entailed, upon the bitter criticism to which it
would have exposed its projectors had it failed through any accident,
and upon the sums that must have been spent in carrying it out, we
cannot withhold the highest admiration for the men who conceived the
idea and carried it out to such a successful issue."

Etienne Montgolfier has left us a description of this first balloon.
"The aerostatic machine," he says, "was constructed of cloth lined with
paper, fastened together on a network of strings fixed to the cloth.
It was spherical; its circumference was 110 feet, and a wooden frame
sixteen feet square held it fixed at the bottom. Its contents were about
22,000 cubic feet, and it accordingly displaced a volume of air weighing
1,980 1bs. The weight of the gas was nearly half the weight of the air,
for it weighed 990 lbs., and the machine itself, with the frame, weighed
500: it was, therefore, impelled upwards with the force of 490 lbs. Two
men sufficed to raise it and to fill it with gas, but it took eight
to hold it down till the signal was given. The different pieces of
the covering were fastened together with buttons and button-holes.
It remained ten minutes in the air, but the loss of gas by the
button-holes, and by other imperfections, did not permit it to continue
longer. The wind at the moment of the ascent was from the north. The
machine came down so lightly that no part of it was broken."

Chapter V. Second Experiment.

(Charles's Balloon, Paris, Champ de Mars, 27th of August, 1783.)

The indescribable enthusiasm caused by the ascent of the first balloon
at Annonay, spread in all directions, and excited the wondering
curiosity of the savants of the capital. An official report had been
prepared, and sent to the Academy of Sciences in Paris, and the result
was that the Academy named a commission of inquiry. But fame, more rapid
than scientific commissions, and more enthusiastic than academies,
had, at a single flight, passed from Annonay to Paris, and kindled the
anxious ardour of the lovers of science in that city. The great desire
was to rival Montgolfier, although neither the report nor the
letters from Annonay had made mention o