"When we reflect for a moment upon the numberless difficulties
which such a bold attempt entailed, upon the bitter criticism to
which it would have exposed its projectors had it failed through
any accident, and upon the sums that must have been spent in
carrying it out, we cannot withhold the highest admiration for
the men who conceived the idea and carried it out to such a
successful issue."
Etienne Montgolfier has left us a description of this first
balloon. "The aerostatic machine," he says, "was constructed of
cloth lined with paper, fastened together on a network of strings
fixed to the cloth. It was spherical; its circumference was 110
feet, and a wooden frame sixteen feet square held it fixed at the
bottom. Its contents were about 22,000 cubic feet, and it
accordingly displaced a volume of air weighing 1,980 1bs. The
weight of the gas was nearly half the weight of the air, for it
weighed 990 lbs., and the machine itself, with the frame, weighed
500: it was, therefore, impelled upwards with the force of 490
lbs. Two men sufficed to raise it and to fill it with gas, but
it took eight to hold it down till the signal was given. The
different pieces of the covering were fastened together with
buttons and button-holes.
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