An account of the first aërial voyage in England : in a series of letters to his guardian, Chevalier Gherardo Compagni, written under the impressions of the various events that affected the undertaking / by Vincent Lunardi.

  • Vincenzo Lunardi
Date:
1784
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of the first aërial voyage in England : in a series of letters to his guardian, Chevalier Gherardo Compagni, written under the impressions of the various events that affected the undertaking / by Vincent Lunardi. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/76 (page 12)
    i [ 12 ] the leaft error in the application may be the occafion of confuming the apparatus, and endangering the lives of thofe who truft to it. I have chofen inflammable rather than elaflic air for my guide. It is a fubflance produced by the adiion of vitriolic acid on metals or femi-metals, and is fimilar to that vapour which takes fire in mines, and carries terror and deflrudtion wherever it approaches. This you will fay is changing one hazardous inftrumenfc for another, but the chances of fetting fire to the eiaftic Balloon, or of not applying the heat fo equally as to anfwer the pur- pofes of afcenfion, are numerous ; thofe of exploding an Inflammable Balloon, arife only from thunder clouds ; and if proper attention be paid to the weather, they are not numerous or difficult to be avoided ; befides, inflammable air being /even times lighter than atmofpherical air, and ratified air not more than three times lighter, the Ma¬ chine muft of courfe be proportionally larger in the ufe of the latter than in that of the former. My defign to ufe inflammable air, has been the occa¬ fion of my acquaintance with Do&or George Fordyce, a phyfician of eminence, a le&urer in chemiflry, and pro¬ bably the firft chemift in the ifland. I confider this as a very fortunate circumftance ; for befides the improve¬ ment and fatisfa&ion I derive from his friendfhip, he has offered in the kindeft manner to fill the Balloon, in a method which is an improvement on that of the French philosophers, as he contrives the tubes for conveying the inflammable fo as to prevent the admiflion of any atmof- pheric air. He is alfo of opinion, that air produced by the vitriolic acid and zinc alone, is the lighteft of any that has been yet ufed. But