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.

[Footnote 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.

Meanwhile, hardly had the news of my approaching ascension circulated
throughout Frankfort, than three persons of note asked the favour of
accompanying me. Two days after, we were to ascend from the Place de la
Comédie. I immediately occupied myself with the preparations. My
balloon, of gigantic proportions, was of silk, coated with gutta percha,
a substance not liable to injury from acids or gas, and of absolute
impermeability. Some trifling rents were mended: the inevitable results
of perilous descents.

The day of our ascension was that of the great fair of September, which
attracts all the world to Frankfort. The apparatus for filling was
composed of six hogsheads arranged around a large vat, hermetically
sealed. The hydrogen gas, evolved by the contact of water with iron and
sulphuric acid, passed from the first reservoirs to the second, and