Abstract
THE lessons learnt at Paris in regard to balloon navigation will be of great value in any future employment of aërial machines, and the statistics which have now been collected and published are well worthy of a brief notice. As many as sixty-four balloons, it appears, actually started from Paris in good order, with a personnel of 161, and with something like three million letters. The first ascent was made on the 23rd of September, 1870, by M. Duruof with safety, and the fifth balloon carried in it Gambetta, who arrived without accident at Amiens after a voyage of four hours. M. Janssen, whom, it will be remembered, was desirous of watching the approaching eclipse in the south of Europe, left Paris with all his instruments complete in the balloon Volta, on the 2nd of December, landing at Savenay (Loire Inférieure) after a journey of five hours and a half. One of the later voyages was made with two cases of dynamite, to be dropped and exploded at a seasonable moment; but fortunately for the enemy no such opportunity presented itself. The last balloon left Paris on the 28th of January, 1871.
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The Paris Siege Balloons . Nature 6, 88 (1872). https://doi.org/10.1038/006088a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/006088a0