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

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.

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$[ 3+ J l ©lit their inhabitants to hail my appearance : you will allow me fome merit at not having been exceedingly in¬ toxicated with my fituation. To prolong the enjoyment of it, and to try the effect of my only oar, I kept myfelf in the fame pa¬ rallel reflecting the earth, for nearly half an hour. But the exercife having fatigued, and the experiment having fatisfied me, I laid afide my oar, and again had recourfe to my bottle \ this I emptied to the health of my friends and benefactors in the lower world. All my affections Were alive, in a manner not eafily to be conceived, and you may be affured that the fentiment which feemed to me moft congenial to that happy fituation was grati¬ tude and friendfhip. I will not refer to any fofter paflion. I fat down and wrote four pages of defultory obfervations, and pinning them to a napkin, committed them to the mild winds of the region, to be conveyed to my honoured friend and patron. Prince Caramanico. During this bufinefs I had afcended rapidly 5 for, on hearing the report of a*gun, fired in the Artil¬ lery Ground, I was induced to examine the ther¬ mometer, and found it had fallen to 32^. The Bal¬ loon was fo much inflated as to affume the form of an oblong fpheroid, the fhorteft diameter of which was in a line with me, though I had afcended with it in the fhape of an inverted cone, and wanting nearly one third of its full compliment of air. Having no valve, I could only open the neck of the Balloon; thinking it barely poflible that the ffrong rarefaction might force out fome of the inflammable air. The condenfed vapour around its neck was frozen, though I found no inconve¬ nience$