The blood
ran to the head, and occasioned a feeling as if our hats were too
tight. The thermometer continued to descend, and, as we ascended,
our illness increased, and we could with difficulty keep awake.
Fearing that my travelling companion might go to sleep, I
attached a cord to my thigh and to ]his, and we held the
extremities of the cord in our hands. Thus trammelled, we had to
commence the experiments which I had proposed to make.
"At this elevation, the glass, the brimstone, and the Spanish wax
were not electrified in a manner to show any signs under
friction--at least, I obtained no electricity from the conductors
or the electrometer.
"I had in my car a voltaic pile, consisting of sixty
couples--silver and zinc. It worked very well on the occasion of
our departure from the earth, and gave, without the condenser,
one degree to the electrometer. At our great elevation, the pile
gave only five-sixths of a degree to the same electrometer. The
galvanic flame seemed more active at this elevation than on the
earth.
"I took two birds with me on coming into the balloon--one of
these was now dead, the other appeared stupefied. After having
placed it upon the brink of the gondola, I tried to frighten it
to make it take to flight.
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