Montgolfier returned from Versailles, and
constructed a new machine in the gardens of the Faubourg St.
Antoine. It was completed on the 10th of October Its form was
oval, its height 70 feet, its diameter 46 feet and its capacity
60,000 cubic feet. The upper part, embroidered with
fleurs-de-lis, was further ornamented with the twelve signs of
the zodiac, worked in gold. The middle part bore the monogram of
the king, alternating with figures of the sun, while the lower
part was garnished with masks, garlands, and spread eagles. A
circular gallery made of osiers and festooned with draperies and
other ornaments, was attached by a set of cords to the bottom of
the structure. The gallery was three feet wide, and was
protected by a parapet over three feet in height. It did not in
any way interfere with the opening at the neck of the balloon,
under which was suspended a grating of iron wire upon which the
occupants of the gallery, who were to be provided with dried
straw and wool, could in a few minutes kindle a fire and create
fresh smoke, when that in the balloon began to be exhausted. The
machine weighed, in all, 1,600 lbs. The public had previously
been warned, in the Journal de Paris de Paris, that the
approaching experiments were to be of a strictly scientific
character; and as they would be only interesting to savants,
they would not afford amusement for the merely curious.
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