Robertson presented
himself at the house of Esseid-Ali, to obtain his autograph. The
Turkish ambassador willingly granted the request, and wrote his
name in letters, each of which was two inches in height, on a
sheet of paper. He then offered the aeronaut coffee and comfits,
and promised to be present to witness the balloon ascent. His
name was painted in large characters on a balloon fifteen feet in
diameter, and on the form of which was the figure of a crescent.
The experiment delighted the ambassador, and was well received by
the public.
Jacques Garnerin, when he came to make his debut as an aeronaut,
made an attempt with the parachute, the following August, at the
garden of the Hotel de Biron. The ambassador was asked to honour
the fete, but he declined, saying that he had "made up his mind
that man was not intended for flying--Mahomet had not so willed
it."
Of one of Robertson's more interesting ascents he himself has
left us the following sketch:--
"I rose in the balloon at nine a.m., accompanied by my
fellow-student and countryman, M. Lhoest. We had 140 lbs. of
ballast. The barometer marked twenty-eight inches; the
thermometer sixteen degrees Reaumur. In spite of some slight
wind from the north-west, the balloon mounted so perpendicularly
that in all the streets each of the spectators believed we were
mounting straight up above his head.
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