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[[start clipping]] [[image- engraving of a balloon with a striped envelope rising from a platform on a lake. A large crowd is gathered on the banks.]] [caption] A Correct Representation of The Great Montgofier or Fire Balloon as it appeared on the Lake at the Surry Zoological Gardens, previous to its TOTAL DESTRUCTION by the People, May 24th 1838. DRAWN ON THE SPOT BY the Publisher G. Follit, 15 Catherine St. Strand. [[end page]] [[start clipping]] BALLOON ASCENT WITHOUT GAS.--ROYAL ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, Surrey, under the immediate patronage of her MAJESTY.--On THURSDAY, May 24, the GREAT new MONTGOLFIER BALLOON, initiated with heated air, will ascend with several Aeronauts, from a large raised platform erected in the centre of the lake, being the first aerial voyage ever made in England with a Fire Balloon, and the largest aerostatic machine ever constructed in this country. It is more than half the height of the monument, 200 feet in circumference, and contains 170,000 cubic feet of air. The new ornamental gallery commands a perfect view of the process of inflation and the ascent. A splendid military band will attend. Open at 12. Admission, 1s. ^[[1838]] [[end clipping]] [[start clipping]] THE MONTGOLFIER BALLOON. ^[[May 21 1838]] Those persons to whom aerostation is a subject of interest will have an opportunity for the gratification of it on Thursday next. On that day the grand "fire balloon" will ascend from the Surrey Zoological Gardens. Three gentlemen, it is announced, will go up in the car, but their names have not been suffered to transpire. This will be the first time a Montgolfier balloon has ever ascended in this country. The danger to be dreaded from the ignition of a machine of this sort, when at a great height from the earth, and the fatal consequences which have resulted from this sort of experiment, have rendered the ascent of fire balloons extremely rare, and for many years such a thing has only been talked of, or at least carried into execution on so small a scale as to render the experiment ridiculous and without interest. The first ascent that was ever made in a fire balloon took place in the year 1784, at Lyons. The balloon made use of on that occasion was pyriform. It was made of two layers of linen cloth, enclosing a larger layer of paper between them; it measured, when inflated, 130 feet in height, and 105 in breadth, and could contain more than half a million cubic feet of air. The car was in the shape of a gallery, 72 feet in circumference; the furnace was 20 feet in diameter. This balloon had a netting, which the one at the Zoological gardens has not. In the car of the Lyons balloon at the time of the ascent were Joseph Montgolfier, the inventor, Pilatre de Rosler, the Count de Laurencin, the Marquis de Dampierre, the Count d'Anglefort, the Prince Charles de Lignes, and a young man named Fontaine, who happened to be in the car at the moment when the balloon escaped into the air. This balloon rose to a height of 3,000 feet, when a rent of four feet long was discovered in the side of it, and it descended with a fearful rapidity at a distance of little more than half a mile from the place of its ascent. No accident, however, occurred. On a subsequent ascent in a balloon on the 15th of June, 1785, from Boulogne, in company with a young man named Romain, M. de Rosler and his companion both fell victims to their courage. In order to counteract the fluctuations consequent upon all aerial excursions, and to obtain the power of increasing or diminishing the weight of his apparatus at will, without the usual expenditure of gas or ballast, he affixed to the hydrogen gas balloon, by which the principal part of the weight was to be borne, a small fire balloon. The inflammable contents of the larger sphere soon filled the vacant portions of the silk, and, pouring down the tube which formed the neck of the balloon, reached the furnace, which was disposed at its lower extremity, and became ignited. The whole was consumed in the air, and the two aeronauts were dashed to pieces between Boulogne and Calais. A monument marks the spot on which they fell. Three other persons have been victims to similar experiments, Olivari, Bittorf, and Tjambeccari. It is to be hoped the projected voyage will be accompanied by no such fatal calamity. The balloon at the gardens is in height very little short of 130 feet; it is about 50 feet in circumference, of the shape of an egg; and when inflated will contain 170,000 cubic feet of rarefied air. It has no net-work, but is fastened to a hoop by about 50 cords, which are sewn one within each seam; from this hoop the car is suspended. The car is close upon the under extremity of the balloon; in the centre of the car is the furnace, having a tube going into the balloon, through which the heat necessary for the rarefaction is conveyed. The balloon is made of glazed or oiled lawn, of which there is but a single layer. Its colour is white, with red stripes. -Observer. [[end clipping]] [[start clipping]] THE MONTGOLFIER BALLOON. ^[[Herald]] MR.EDITOR,- A report being prevalent that the persons who were to have ascended in the Montgolfier balloon are foreigners (and not having the slightest wish to conceal any fact), I beg to say such is not the case. The constructors are scientific gentlemen, who have for a length of time made aerostation their study, and they were assisted by Mr. Dean, who has been engaged in the management of balloons for many years, and who was, with several others, to have ascended. It is also, I understand, reported, that the car, &c., were not provided. I can only say that the car, grapnel, and all other requisites are still in the garden for the inspection of any person. I here repeat that, recollecting the disastrous fate of Mr. Cocking, I was solely actuated in the decision I came to by a desire to prevent the inevitable loss of human life which must have ensued, had the aeronauts ascended in the manner they wished to do, and that up to a quarter of an hour of the disappointment being announced, I felt confident of the ascension taking place. I beg to offer my most sincere thanks to the many thousands of respectable persons who, by their interference, repressed the conduct of those who, fancying themselves intentionally deceived, would not admit of an explanation, nor receive the very compensation they were clamorous for. I must also publicly thank the police employed, for their excellent, temperate, and efficient conduct on this occasion.- I have the honour to be, sir, your very obedient humble servant, E. CROSS. Royal Zoological Gardens, Surrey, May 26. ^[[1838]] [[end clipping]] [[start clipping]] HUMBUG. MR. CROSS AND THE SURREY ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. Of all the schemes invented to plunder and rob poor John Bull, the one practised by Cross of the Zoological Gardens was the most complete. This fellow had the audacity on Thursday last to swindle upwards of 12000 persons out of £600. money, paid for admission into his gardens under pretence of sending up a Montgolfier Balloon, when we told him such a thing was never contemplated, and the whole affair was a disgraceful swindle. He knew well enough the night before the balloon exhibition, (and at the time when he received the admission money at the doors) that the whole thing was a vile hoax, and receiving one shilling in payment for admission to the gardens under such circumstances, was obtaining money under false pretences. The magistrates ought to order the gardens to be closed and never allow him to be permitted to show his face in Surrey again. Had a poor half starved wretch in the last agonies of despair and hunger, snatched a single shilling from the person of any one of the visitors to the Zoological Gardens on the day in question, what would have been his fate? - Transportation beyond the seas for the natural term of his life. In vain would have been his plea about starving wife and children. He transgressed the laws by robbing the public, and humanity must succumb to justice. He would be sent out of the country forthwith. Now we put it to our readers which would be the greatest criminal - Mr. Cross or the poor half famished wretch we have just alluded to. They answer Cross, and most heartily do we respond to them. In the nefarious, base, dirty, and contemptible transactions of Thursday. Mr. Cross has proved himself worse than the veriest humbug that ever humbugged an easily gulled people, and if the public feel as we do at the time of perusing this article, his picture of Mount Vesuvius and other monstrosities will fume and fret in the Surrey Zoological Gardens to none other spectators than Mr. Virago Cross and the Master and Misses Cross. We should not have mentioned the man or his family at all in the pages of Paul pry, but for the fixed determination with which we set out (to expose every description of fraud and villany), andthis feeling induces us to put a few questions to Mr. Cross, which if he has any manly feelings, are calculated to make him hide his head from the vengeance of an infuriated populace. The blood curdles neither one editorial veins when we think of the consequences which would have resulted had he carried his base and horrible threat into execution; and upon cool reflection we are induced to hope that it was only caused by the excitement of the moment, for we cannot bring ourselves to believe it. At the desire of a Correspondent, who states he was present the whole of the afternoon, we put to Mr. Cross the following queries. 1st. Pray, Mr. Cross, when Tyler came round to you and told you that the company were beginning to throw stones at the balloon, did you not say with the utmost sang froid imaginable, "Let e'm, they shall have twenty such balloons for such another garden. 2d. Pray, Mr. Cross, when the Superintendant of the Police told you that the public would probably withdraw they patronage from the Gardens in the event of imposition, did you or did you not turn upon your heel and say "They may be d-d." 3rd. And lastly- Did you dare to threaten the company, that if they did not quietly take their money back at the doors and quit the gardens, you would disperse them in a minute by letting the wild beasts out of your menagerie!!!! Now, if Mr. Cross did say, and do these things, we think that he has fully proved himself to be quite unworthy of the support and patronage of the British public, and to their scorn and indignation, we learn him with this observation of our own, that whenever he announces "Fancy Fair" "Horticultural Fete" or any other rubbish, we will be on the look out to caution the pleasure seeker, and to whisper in his ear these remarkable words: "Remember, Cross of the Surrey Zoological Gardens, and his last swindle about the Montgolfier balloon!!!" Seriously, the affair ought to be enquired into. [[end clipping]] [[start clipping]] MONTGOLFIER BALLOON. - A Montgolfier or fire balloon, of extraordinary dimensions, so as to ascend with several aeronauts, is now being manufactured under the immediate superintendence of Mr. H. Green (a brother of the celebrated aeronaut) and will shortly ascend. ^[[oct. 1858]] [[end clipping]] [[start clipping]] ^[[two words written in pencil, In Post??]] ^[[May 24. 1838]] THE GREAT MONTGOLFIER BUBBLE "The earth is full of bubbles, these are of them." Yesterday the Surrey Zoological Gardens were made the scene of an aero-static performance, which threatened at one period of the entertainment to terminate in their total demolition! Now that the danger is past, Mr. Cross will doubtless exclaim, "'Tis well it's no worse," and, growing wiser by experience, will eschew such flatulent exhibitions in future. The facts are these:- "A generous and confiding public" was informed that a collossal fire balloon, with a car full of aeronauts, would be let loose yesterday from the Surrey Balloon Menagerie, "Doors to be open at twelve;" and thereupon credulous London poured forth her thousands from all quarters at all hours, from noon tide till dusk, to behold the raree [[rare?]] show. The plants alas have not yet "come out" this season (indeed the incipient smoke-dried buds looked rather the worse for their proximity to Mount Vesuvius) - so all inquiring eyes were patiently turned upon a lage bag, constructed of alternate stripes of white and red, upheld by ropes attached to masts in regular balloon array above a platform in the water, from twelve o'clock to six, while "a full military band" entrenched in the Pagoda, discharged amongst the crowd a succession of exasperating airs, which in the fulness of time produced their natural effect, and (it was also generally remarked) tended not a little to arouse the bile of the feroe naturoe. No car was to be seen - no arrangement for attaching it was perceptible - no intelligence could be gained of the interprising voyageurs. At length a serried [[?]] platform, full of spectators who, for the small charge of a shilling extra, sat tete-a-tete with the empty bag for six hours, looking (as an old lady observed) "just like beau-pots ranged on a tall flower stand" - began to stamp and make most audible signals of dissatisfaction with its non-performance. Not even a shower of rain occurred to dissipate their ennui - nothing but the serio-comical phenomenon of some gigantic gentlemen striding (like Gulliver in Lilliput) over the mole and city of Naples. From six till half-past six the bag was seen to be undergoing a change for the better, but by what agency the fulfilment was accomplished could not exactly be discovered, for a canvas screening concealed all the interesting pyrotechny which people wanted to see; and, in short, everything but the heads and shoulders of the attendants. For the next hour the bag did nothing, and the assistants appeared to be occupied in helping it; but, as the bag ceased to swell, the immense assemblage began to inflate with an energy of impatience that would not be repressed. Shouts of "Let go!" "Off!" &c, resounded through the Gardens; but the only response appeared in the shape of placards, on which it was announced in printed characters that "the balloon could not ascend" (why or wherefore was not stated), "and the the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius would take place instead." This unfortunate "typographical error" decided the fate of the placards and the balloon. The bearers were hustled, kicked, and tossed about by the indignant crowd; while, like Lord Marmion's pennon in the fight of Flodden - "Advanced, forced back, now low, now high, The placards sunk and rose. ***** But darly [[darkly]] closed the war around, Like pine-trees rooted from the ground, They sunk amid the foes." The multitude exclaimed that the affair was "a hoax," "a cross," "a bag of smoke!" and forthwith proceeded to take vengeance on the unlucky bag, which never had been (they were convinced) destined for a balloon, and which assuredly never shall be. A continuous volley of stones was directed against it on all sides, and the blows resounded "Fast, thick, and heavy as a thundershower," or like those of shillelaghs against heads at an Irish fair. Soon holes were seen (neither few nor far between) in the party-coloured giant's side, out of which the warm life-breath rushed rapidly, intermingled with sundry comically-curling gasps of smoke, as the body of the martyr sank in a state of mortal collapse upon the gridiron or fryingpan upon which it had been spiritualized. Pity that the attendants (when they found it thus, judged, condemned, and executed at a blow) did not aid it to die gloriously in its own internal fires, and ascend, once for all, in purifying flame to its proper paradise. Such a sacrifice might have propitiated the insulted multitude and restored its good humour on the instant. Indeed the balloon seemed to think so, for it twice heroically set itself on fire as it fell, but the ill-timed attentions of its attendants prevented its effecting its own brilliant apotheosis, which would really have been worth beholding. Nothing of this kind occurring the crowd proceeded to take further vengeance, despite of the attempted apology of Mr. Cross (who made just as much impression the roaring assailants as Demosthenes did on the stormy waves), and despite of the threats of a surly keeper that he would turn out the tigers to clear the gardens, they pulled down the palings that guarded the ropes attached to the mails [??] for the guidance of the balloon, and then "yo heave oh!" down came the masts too; one snapped across and the other caught by the bough of a tree as it fell on the ladies and gentlemen on the flower stand. The destruction of this gay parterre appeared to be next in progress; but the ladies seated thereupon screamed as the first planks were torn up, and its execution was suspended. Stones were heard rattling against the glass roof of the beautiful circular menagerie; but the energetic cries of "Shame, shame," from the more considerate part of the company saved it from demolition, after about one hundred holes had been made, and the ladies who had taken shelter there from the external riot had uttered as many supplicating shrieks. Personal captures were made by the police, and instantaneous rescues by the crowd followed; but at length the former, through prudence or weakness, gave up the struggle, and then the "spirit of movement," having nothing to struggle against, died quietly away. Perhaps the smoke which issued timely from Vesuvius tended in some degree to occupy and turn their attention from further deeds of retribution; or, as rage generates hunger, who knows but the whole refreshment room might have been devoured as an acceptable trophy of "a great public triumph." We really think that Mr. Cross has had a wonderful escape from that "most untamable animal," a disappointed English crowd, and we trust that he will not recklessly thrust his head within his jaws again for the benefit of any projector of bubbles or parachutes. He showed particular good sense, however, in not returning the money called for so vociferously by the 5,000 who departed, for 5,000 more had got into the garden gratuitously during the assault on the balloon, and remained to applaud the performance of Mount Vesuvius, which (we must do it, or Mr. Cross, the justice to say) was really splendid. We strongly recommend him to keep the mountain ready charged, and the next time a balloon misses fire to discharge it on the instant. It will certainly prove a restorative for popular good humour.
