The aim of the experiment proposed by Montgolfier
was not the ascent of any human being in the balloon. The
prospectus only announced that a balloon of a much larger size
than any that had been made would ascend--that it would rise to
several thousand feet, and that, including the animals that it
was proposed it should carry, it would weigh 8,000 lbs. The
subscription was fixed at L12, and the number of subscribers was
360."
It was on these conditions that Montgolfier commenced his balloon
of 126 feet high and 100 feet in diameter, made of a double
envelope of cotton cloth, with a lining of paper between. A
strength and consistency was given to the structure by means of
ribbons and cords.
The work was nearly finished when Roziers went up in his
fire-balloon from La Muette. Immediately the Comte de Laurencin
pressed Montgolfier to allow him to go up in the new machine.
Montgolfier was only too glad of the opportunity--refused up to
this time by the king--of going up himself. From thirty to forty
people made application to go with the aeronauts; and on the 26th
of December, 1678, Roziers, the Comte de Dampierre, and the Comte
de Laporte, arrived in Lyons with the same intention. Prince
Charles also arrived; and as his father had taken one hundred
subscriptions, his claim to go up could not be refused.
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