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258 THE LITERARY WORLD. 
EDINBURGH FIRE BALLOON. 
AIR balloons, the principle of which was known to Favorinus and the ancients, more than two thousand years since,--as we are told, by Aulus Gellius, lib. x. c. xii., that Archytas, a scholar of Pythagoras, made a wooden pigeon, that could fly, by means of air enclosed within,--were again brought into notice by Stephen Montgolfier, by the accidental circumstance of the paper cover of a conical sugar-loaf, which he had flung into the fire, becoming inflated with smoke, and remaining suspended in the chimney; which thus impelled in the ingenious Frenchman the first thought of the fire balloon, designated, from his name, the Montgolfiere. Etienne Montgolfiere, the original discoverer, never ascended; at least, so as to come before the public in the character of a practical aeronaut. Joseph Montgolfier, his elder brother, Pilatre de Rozier, and five others, ascended in the Grand Montgolfiere, at Lyons, Jan. 19, 1784; but the immense machine took fire,* and the aerial voyagers descended without injury, in about fifteen minutes: any further attempts by the Montgolfiers, as practical aeronauts, are not recorded. 
In Scotland, some interest appears to have been excited by the popular rage respecting balloons; and the earliest attempts emanated from a chemist, at Edinburgh, named Scott, who, on Friday, March 12, 1784,† let off, between two and three o'clock in the afternoon, from Heriot's Gardens, an air balloon, of about three feet and a half diameter; the colour, a light green. It took about six minutes and a half in ascending, before it disappeared altogether; and would have gone out of sight much sooner, had it not been for a black cloud, in the midst of which it appeared like a star, and was really taken for such, by some gentlemen at the Cross. The day was extremely favourable, the wind moderate, and at west a point north; so that the balloon went in the direction of east by south; and was taken up near Haddington, about twenty miles from Edinburgh. The crowd of spectators on the occasion was immense. On the 17th,

*According to the information of M. de la Lande, editor of the Journal des Scavans; but, according to others, by a rent, or burst, near the top of the balloon. 
†The celebrated Philip Astley, by a singular coincidence, on the same day, "launched an aerostatic globe [or balloon], in St. George's Fields, in presence of a greater number of spectators than were, perhaps, ever assembled together on any occasion." The writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, p.228, who notices this fact, observes: "Many of the spectators will have reason to remember it; for a more ample harvest for the pickpockets never was presented. Some noblemen and gentlemen lost their watches, and many their purses. The balloon, launched about half-past one in the afternoon, was found at Feversham."

Mr. Scott let off another balloon, which rose more perpendicularly than the former, and continued in sight about thirty minutes. Several other balloons were started in the same month, from other places: one, launched from the Observatory of Aberdeen, went the distance of thirty-eight miles, in the space of half an hour. 
The fame of the Grand Montgolfiere inspired another adventurer, in the person of Mr. James Tytler, a chemist, also, in Edinburgh, who superintended the construction of a balloon on the Montgolfier principle, and appears to have exhibited it as the EDINBURGH FIRE BALLOON: the price of admission was three shillings.* An Edinburgh journal, for August, 1784, records--"James Tytler, chemist, in Edinburgh, has been, for some time past, employed in the construction of a fire balloon. Its dimensions are about forty feet in height, and thirty in diameter. It was the intention of the projector to have ascended, with his balloon, about the beginning of this month, during the race-week; but things not being in that forwardness and the perfection he expected, he was obliged to postpone his aerial journey. On the morning of the 27th, however, he made a decisive experiment. About five o'clock, the balloon was inflated, and soon manifested a disposition to ascend. Mr. Tytler took his seat, and, with inexpressible satisfaction, felt himself raised, with great power, from the earth. The machine entangled itself among the branches of a tree, and by a rope belonging to the mast which raised it, so that its power of ascension was greatly weakened. However, when the obstacles were removed, it ascended, rapidly, to the height of three hundred and fifty feet, as measured by a line left hanging from the bottom of the basket. The morning was calm; and, as no furnace was taken up with it, the balloon, therefore, went but a small way; it soon descended to the earth, without any damage to the projector, who, in testimony of his security, returned, while in the air, the huzzas of the spectators; and, on his return, was overwhelmed with their congratulations."
In addition to this very circumstantial account, there is extant a letter from one of the spectators, dated on the day of this ascent:

*In the very extensive collection of "tickets to places of public amusement," formed by Miss Banks, the sister of Sir Joseph Banks, and now deposited in the print-room of the British Museum, is a ticket of this exhibition, with the autograph of the exhibitor; and a manuscript memorandum on the card, that the balloon was "constructed by Mr. William Brodie." A portrait of the aeronaut, Tytler, is among the portraits etched by Andrew Kay, the quondam artistical-barber, at Edinburgh.