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The Literary World:
A JOURNAL OF POPULAR INFORMATION AND ENTERTAINMENT.
CONDUCTED BY JOHN TIMES, ELEVEN YEARS EDITOR OF "THE MIRROR."
NO.70] SATURDAY, JULY 25, 1840. [Price 2d.
THE FIRST AERIAL VOYAGE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

[[image - black and white illustration of a barrel shaped balloon with person in gondola below, in flight above a mountain scene.]]

THE EDINBURGH FIRE BALLOON.
(from a Ticket in the British Museum.) 
VOL. III 8

^[[Printed by Whitehead & Co. 76,Fleet-street, London.]] written vertically on left of page.]]
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Edinburgh, August 27th, 1784. 
Mr. Tytler has made several improvements upon his fire balloon. The reason of its failure, formerly, was its being made of porous linen, through which the air made its escape. To remedy this defect, Mr. T. has got it covered with a varnish to retain the inflammable* air, after the balloon is filled. 
Early this morning, this bold adventurer took his first aerial flight: the balloon being filled at Comely Garden, he seated himself in the basket, and the ropes being cut, he ascended very high, and descended quite gradually on the road to Restalrig, about half a mile from the place where he rose, to the great satisfaction of the spectators. Mr. Tytler went up without the furnace this morning; when that is added, he will be able to feed the balloon with inflammable air, and continue his aerial excursions as long as he chooses.
Mr. Tytler is now in high spirits, and, in his turn, laughs at those infidels who ridiculed his scheme as visionary and impracticable. Mr. Tytler is the first person in Great Britain who has navigated the air.
 
Mr. Tytler, in accordance with the concluding portion of the letter, is entitled, as Mr. Monck Mason correctly states, to the triple distinction of being the first native of Great Britain who achieved an aerial ascent; of having accomplished the first aerial voyage in these realms; and, with the exception of a recent experiment,* the only person, upon the principle of the original inventor, in which the agent of the ascension was atmospheric air rarified by the application of artificial heat; and, notwithstanding the unquestionable testimony afforded in the above-quoted papers, this event has been disallowed or overlooked by all who, previously to Mr. Mason, had professed to chronicle the progress of aerostation. It is pitiable to observe with what obstinacy the several

* As Mr. Monck Mason observes, the application, here, of the term inflammable, is, evidently, an error of the writer, arising from an ignorance of the real meaning of the word, and an incorrect association between the material and the cause of its production. 
**Mr. Sneath ascended in a balloon of his own constructions, from Bleak-hill, near Mansfield, on the night of May 24, 1837, being the only instance on record, as Mr. Mason states, in which with the exception of Mr. Tytler's from Edinburgh, such an expedient has succeeded in any part of the British dominions. After being in the air two hours, the balloon began to descend; and, at eleven, the grapnel took effect in a hedge, near the village of Spondon. Apprehensive of the escape of the balloon, should he quit it, and fear of allowing the first to abate, lest, no longer able to support itself, the balloon might fall upon the furnace, and be consumed, he was compelled to continue in the car till half-past four on the following morning, when some workmen, passing by, came to his assistance, and relieved him from his dangerous situation. 
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writers upon the subject have perverted the admission of this ascent, and concur in ascribing to Lunardi the merit of having accomplished the first aerial voyage in this country; whereas he did not ascend  till September 15th following. It may, probably, be urged, that Tytler's ascent was not attended with any of those astounding circumstances by which the exploits of the earlier aeronauts were generally signalized: neither was the distance run over, nor the rate at which it was accomplished, such as to entitle it to particular notice on the score of these attributes. To regulate the merits of an asent according to such a scale, would, however, be most unjust; these are, in fact, matters wholly dependent on circumstances over which the individual can have no possible control; and many instances might be quotes of experiments, remarkable enough in other particulars, which, in these, might be considered as singularly deficient. Were such, in fact, to be taken as the test of admission to the honours of aerostation, Pilatre de Rozier and Arlandes must relinquish the glory of the first aerial flight, whose utmost stretch did not exceed 5,000 toises; and the celebrated ascent of Joseph Montgolfier, in the Grand Montolfiere, at Lyons, must be erased from the list; as, in that, the distance accomplished was even inconsiderable to that achieved by the Edinburgh Fire Balloon.                      B.

We are indebted for the Drawing whence our wood-cut is derived, to Mr. Edward Spencer, jun., the eldest son of the distinguished aeronaut, Mr. Edward Spencer, so often the associate of Mr. Charles Green in his aerial expeditions.
 
Madame Thible, the first female aeronaut, and possibly the only woman who has ascended in a fire balloon, did so in a Montgolfiere, from Lyons, June 4, 1784, in company with M. Fleuraud, in the presence of the court, and of Gustavus, King of Sweden, then traveling under the fictitious name of Count Haga.

The numerous aerostatic attempts during the year 1784, occasioned the following amusing lines, entitled

The Air Balloon.
 
By land let them travel, as many as list, 
And by sea, those who like the hard fare;
In an airy balloon whilst I sit at my ease, 
And pleasantly glide through the air!

Round this globe, the farthest they ever can reach, 
Let them travel night, morning, and noon;
Such excursions as these are but mere bagatelles,
When compared with a trip to the moon:

In my chariot aerial, how pleasant to go, 
To see all my friends in the stars:
Take a breakfast with Mercury, and dine, if I please, 
With Jupiter, Saturn, or Mars!

And should I fatigued or wearisome prove, 
When from planet to planet I'm dodging;
With Venus I'm welcome to stay all the night;
Where on earth can you find such a lodging?
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