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THE CASKET 
Of Literature, Science, and Entertainment. 
THE VAUXHALL BALLOON AND PARACHUTE. (As they appeared at the Time of Ascending.)
FROM DRAWINGS AND SKETCHES FURNISHED EXCLUSIVELY TO THIS WORK BY THE LATE LAMENTED MR. COCKING. 
[[image hot air balloon and parachute over trees]]
THE BALLOON AND PARACHUTE ASCENT, WITH FULL PARTICULARS OF THE FATAL RESULT OF THE DESCENT, WRITTEN EXCLUSIVELY FOR THIS WORK BY AN EYE-WITNESS. 
TO WHICH IS ADDED
MR. GREEN'S ACCOUNT OF THE VOYAGE. 
PARACHUTES were first constructed and appended to a balloon by Mr. Blanchard, with the view that, in the event of an accident to the balloon itself, the parachute might present a means of escape from any serious consequences which thereupon might threaten. During one of Blanchard's aerial voyages in 1785, upon which occasion he 'set gas' from Lisle, whence he sailed along for three hundred miles in the 'boundless skies,' without a single halt, he let down a dog when at a great height, in a basket attached to the parachute. The canine 'descendant' fell gently through the air, until he effected a safe landing on terra firma, without even the slightest bruise. After that period other aeronauts brought the system more into operation, and M. Garnerin, in his own country, repeatedly descended from a considerable altitude by means of a parachute. In the year 1802 this adventurous Frenchman came over to England and made two fine ascents in a balloon; on the second occasion having announced it to be his intention to return to the earth in a parachute, leaving his balloon to go whither the winds might waft it. The ascent was singularly grand; and at a moment when the eyes of countless spectators were fixed upon his movements, and he was at an amazing elevation, he disengaged himself from his buoyant power and commenced a rapid descent. For several seconds the machine came down with an accelerating velocity frightful to behold, and but one feeling pervaded the breasts of those who were anxiously watching its progress. That feeling was one of apprehension, reduced to almost a certainty, that the subject of their solicitude must of necessity be dashed to atoms. The parachute tossed first on one side, then on the other; ever and anon making such wide oscillations as that 

No. 30.-July 30, 1837. Price Twopence.