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[[Second Column]] LIKE A BLAZING FURNACE. producing a most acute pain whenever it struck the bare skin. This Mr. Wise attributed to the impurity of the gas which had settled upon his hands and face. He soon, however, plunged down through the oceans of vapor. Mr. Wise issued an announcement, as long ago as 1843, of his intention of crossing the Atlantic in a balloon. He said that, having from a long experience in aerostatics been convinced that a regular current of air is blowing from the northeast to east, with a velocity of from twenty to forty miles per hour, according to its height from the earth; and having discovered a composition which will render silk or muslin impervious to hydrogen gas so that a balloon may be kept afloat for many weeks, he felt confident, with these advantages, that a trip across the Atlantic would not be attended with as much real danger as by the common modes of transition. He announced that the balloon for this purpose should be 100 feet in diameter, and that a seaworthy boat should be used for the car. The boat was to be depended upon in case the balloon should fail in accomplishing the voyage, or in case the regular current of wind should be diverted from the course by the influence of the ocean or through other causes. ----- The Great Voyage from St. Louis. As heretofore remarked, Mr. Wise has ever cherished an abiding faith in the existence of a great easterly air current, and in 1859 we find him busy with his pet project. To demonstrate the truth of his theory as to its existence, the memorable balloon journey from St. Louis was undertaken, the aeronauts landing in the great North Woods, after travelling by the easterly current twelve hundred miles in the almost incredibly short time of nineteen hours. A publication of the current time (1859), discussing the feasibility of air passage to Europe, and the probability of finding a constant easterly current, remarked: "The point thus settled to Mr. Wise's satisfaction,he proposed to turn it to account by planning a transatlantic balloon voyage. He knew that he could make a balloon which would remain aloft for three or four days, which would amply suffice for the voyage, as fifty miles an hour is quite moderate speed for airships; and he knew that the current was there." Accordingly, preparations were made for the overland trip referred to. Professor Wise associated with himself Mr. Gager, of Boston, the inventor of a balloon boat with air wheels; Mr. Lamountain, of Troy, a balloon builder, and a fervent believer in the science; and, subsequently, Mr. James P. Gage, of New York, the patentee of a new contrivance, entitled Gage's "halyard kedging disc." These gentlemen agreed that the question to be determined was whether long aerial voyages from west to east were practicable; and, for the purpose of determining this question, they projected three voyages, the first to be from St. Louis to New York. If this was successful, the next voyage would be from San Francisco [[?]] [[column truncated]] [[Third Column]] [[column truncated]] beat with [[?]] against it, and had he ascended in a paper [[one?]] as was his original intention, it would inevitably have been destroyed. The thermometer at that point stood at 20 degrees. The balloon was so loaded with ice and water that it commenced to descend at the rate of 300 feet per minute. The aeronaut endeavored to empty three of the sand bags to ease this rapid descent, but found the sand in each in turn frozen solid. He succeeded, however, in emptying the sand from the fourth, thus checking the rapid descent of the balloon. The temperature grew so much warmer, that the icicles melted and dropped from the netting. At four o'clock he came in sight of the earth, and perceiving that the country was clear, allowed the balloon to descend at a rapid rate. When about 1,000 feet above the earth, his course, which had been towards a town at the west, changed to northwest. He concluded to drop his anchor, which he did, but it did not catch in a fence, as he had hoped it would, but went dancing over the frozen ground, frequently causing the balloon to jump in the air, and subjecting him to annoyance, if not peril. In the course of its erratic wanderings, the anchor took in an incidental school-house, the roof of which it considerably damaged, much to the consternation of the school-master and pupils. Its course was finally stayed, however, and at twenty minutes past four o'clock p.m. he landed one mile from the town of Applebachville, having made the trip of thirty miles in one hour and thirty-five minutes. IN A PAPER BALLOON. On Saturday, May 17, Mr. Donaldson carried into effect his project of making an ascent in a paper balloon. This he constructed of strong brown manilla wrapping-paper, the strips being glued together. At two o'clock the process of inflating was commenced on Penn square, Reading, which proved to be a work of no little embarrassment and duration. Finally, at a quarter after seven o'clock, the balloon was filled, and the netting placed over it. Despite all fears, it remained firm, and Mr. Donaldson was enabled to ascend. It was found impossible, however, to carry a bag of ballast, as was desired, the carrying capacity of the balloon being just sufficient to raise the aeronaut. Mr. Donaldson, slowly ascending, entered upon a scene of extraordinary beauty and grandeur. When he reached an altitude of 2,000 feet, the earth seemed dark, but, reaching the line of the clouds, the sun burst forth from behind the western horizon, and flooded the air with its golden rays. The sun soon set, however, to him for a second time, and all was darkness. Soon after, he made one of the most satisfactory landings he ever experienced, and returned to Reading late that night. This was the most daring of ascensions, by reason of the extreme frailty of the balloon, if not from any extraneous peril. REMARKABLE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS. On April 4, 1873, Mr. Donaldson left Centre square, Allentown, in his balloon Magenta. At [[column truncated]] [[Fifth Column]] [[column truncated]] male [[female]] deity who raised herself to heaven by the smoke of a great fire. Roger Bacon says there certainly was a flying machine, but he had never seen one, nor did he know of anybody who had. In the year 1766 it was discovered that hydrogen gas was seven times lighter than air; whereupon Dr. Black suggested in his lectures that if a bladder, sufficiently light and thin, was filled with this gas it would form a mass much lighter than the same bulk of atmospheric air; and that it would float in the latter. But natural as it might seem to use hydrogen for the purposes of levitation, the experiment of balloons succeeded, at first, only with a very different agent. From this point practical aerostation begins. MONTGOLFIER In the year 1782, two brothers, Stephen and Joseph de Montgolfier, paper manufacturers at Annonay, about thirty-six miles from Lyons, formed a scheme which led, in a short time, to the practice of aerostation on a large scale. They had both studied natural philosophy and chemistry, and their business have them facilities for procuring large masses of light envelopes, so that we owe the invention of balloons to one of two accidents, either to that of philosophers being paper-makers, or to that of paper-makers being philosophers. Stephen Montgolfier is said to have derived the first idea from the accidental circumstance of the paper cover of a conical sugar loaf which he had flung into the air becoming inflated with smoke, and remaining suspended in the chimney. Struck with the notion of confining something lighter than air in a recipient as the means of making the latter ascend, the Montgolfiers tried this method at about the same period as M. Cavallo tried that of confining hydrogen in some tight envelope. The Montgolfiers' first public experiment was made at Annonay, June 5, 1783, when they caused a fire balloon to rise a distance of 6,000 feet, whence it descended gently to the ground. In August of the same year a hydrogen balloon was sent up at Versailles. Human life, however, was not trusted in a balloon till the experiment of "captive" balloons--balloons held with ropes--had been made. In this manner Pilatre de Rozier ascended 100 feet on the 5th of October, and the principle of ballooning was established. On the 22d of February a small balloon, launched by itself from Sandwich, crossed the English Channel, and was found miles from Lisle, having travelled about thirty miles an hour, which is the rate at which some of the lower currents of the atmosphere travel; though the higher currents have a much greater rate of speed. On June 4, 1784, Madame Thible, the first female aeronaut, and possible the only woman who ever ascended in a fire balloon, made an ascent in a Montgolfier, from Lyons, in company with M. Fleurand, in the presence of the Court, and of Gustavus, King of Sweden, then travel- [[column truncated]]
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