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 sunk 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 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

way.

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.

The "latest news" of new inventions in balloons we shall comprise within the period of the last ten or eleven years. A writer in the "Polytechnic Journal" (1840) thought he had discovered a certain means of propelling balloons at the will of the aëronaut. He proposed to do

this without taking up an additional power, or engine, but simply by a new application of the weight, as well as the strength, of the aëronaut and his passengers. A fan-wheel is to be constructed to act upon the air, for the direction of the course of the balloon; and this wheel is to be worked after the manner of the tread-mill. When a certain impulse, in a direction against the wind, is to be given, the aëronaut and his friends will get into the wheel, and work it round by the usual process, If more power is needed, they must use their hands, and also carry weights on their shoulders!

Passing over M. Poitevin's equestrian performances in

the air as simply censurable, we come at once to the three or four announcements which have last interested the lovers of "this delightful art," as Monck Mason terms it. Of the Spanish nobleman lately arrived in Paris, who is to fly in a new machine, accompanied by his daughter, we are unable to say more than he has himself put forth, which amounts to nothing but the announcement. Respecting the New American Flying Ship, with its copper boilers, and engines of twelve-horse power, which are to cause a revolution of floats, not yet being finished, (owing to the unhandsome hanging-back of the American public in the amount of dollars still necessary to be subscribed,) we make no remarks -but offer a word or two on the invention of M. Petin, a respectable tradesman of Paris, who has devoted many years to" this delightful art." Instead of sailing horizontally, he proposes alternately to ascend and descend in an oblique direction; and at each ascent and descent he contends that the balloon can be driven forward. The apparatus he employs is gigantic. First, there is an immense framework, seventy yards long by ten wide, and to it three large balloons are to be attached; connected with the frame-work are large frames of sail-coth, which open and close, somewhat like those of a conservatory. When all these frames are closed, the resistance of the air is alike on all, and the machine swims horizontally; but when some at one end are opened, the resistance of the air becomes unequal, and the machine rises or descends. Advantage is taken of this movement to propel the balloon by means of a screw, worked by a mechanical apparatus.

But the French are not to carry off all the honours of these aërial fancies. We have a Steam Aërostation Society, with an Office in the Strand, London, where it is announced that "Lectures explanatory of the object will be given, on the payment of five shillings, which constitutes a Perpetual As

sociate, with privilege to attend the progress of the Machine now building on the premises." The Duke of Brunswick is also hard at work on a new Aërial Machine.

In the Great Exposition, we have had the pleasure of examining the new Aërial Machine invented by Mr. E. Mason, of Brompton, together with the Locomotive Balloon, and Locomotive Parachute of Mr. H. Bell, of Millbank. The former of these presents the appearance of a huge vegetable marrow, with a broad Dutch rudder at the stern, and an apparatus of revolving sails at each bow; Mr. Bell's invention is a long silver fish, for a boat, with revolving fans, in place of fins, for progression, and sustained by a balloon of blue silk. (It is said that Marshal Ney expended a considerable sum in experiments with a balloon of the fish-shape; but it could not be made to swim the air as he wished.) Mr. J. Brown, of Leadenhall Street, has a most solid-looking model, like a mahogany Dutch boat sustained by an immense inflated bonnet, or closed hood, and guided by a jib in front, with a tri-sail for a rudder. Mr. H. Plummer has a machine to fly with wings only, the power to be derived from the action of springs, &c. Mr. G. Graham exhibits a steering apparatus for a balloon. sembles some enormous fire-work case, or skeleton of some fabulous bird. These long wings are, in fact, to be used as immense oars; a project somewhat resembling that of Messrs. Aine and Robert, in 1784. Mr. W. Sadd, of Wandsworth, exhibits a singularly light, and curious aërial machine, evidently the result of immense consideration in its principles and details, and if ever we ventured up in an experimental trip of this kind, we should be disposed to give this —— but it is good to be careful, and better still, perhaps, not to venture for a long time to come. All these machines have a wonderfully eccentric look, of course; and there are no explanations to any of them, excepting the following:

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