First Attempts at Ballooning.

T

HIS is the time for Ballooning, get your soap-suds, your tobacco pipe, and your lather; blow, blow, away. There! you have a fine globe of soap and water; blow, blow, larger and larger. It is now as big as an apple; blow, blow, again, see it is as large as-but 'tis burst; try again, now we have it, larger and larger. Behold the

beautiful rain-bow painted on its sides, those beautiful prismatics, smiling like hope-snap-it has burst! This is the way with earthly joys and of many earthly speculations. But let us talk about ballooning.

If my young friends were to make use of hydrogen gas, instead of their breath, to inflate their soap bubbles, they would then have real gas balloons. To do this is very easy. Get some iron-filings, put them into a common wine-bottle, pour on them half-a-pint of water, into which put about half an ounce of sulphuric acid; the gas will then come off in abundance during the effervesence that ensues, and may be

easily collected in a bladder, having the small end of a tobacco pipe inserted at its orifice. Then dip the bowl into the soapsuds, and squeeze the bladder, and your bubbles will be filled with hydrogen gas, and will immediately rise high in the air, and if they can get out of doors they will rise out of sight. This will be a more amusing sight than your common soap bubbles, which do not rise so high; and, some people would say, a vast deal more Philosophical.

But to the origin of Balloons. The celebrated Friar Bacon, who lived about 600 years ago, is spoken of as the first to describe a machine which would enable a man to rise into, and sail through the air. It was to consist of two hollow balls or globes, which were to be filled with light air, but whether it was ever practically tested by him is not known. But in 1766, Mr. Cavendish discovered hydrogen gas, and in 1782, Mr. Cavallo made trial of this gas, and in the same year, Messrs. Mongolfier found out the means of raising balloons by means of heated air. A large bag of silk was made, and straw being burnt at its open end, while it was suspended above the heated air, being lighter than the surrounding atmosphere it ascended, and this was, practically, the first balloon.

Some time after this ascent, M. Robert made a balloon of thin silk varnished. It was filled with hydrogen gas. It was then conveyed to the Champ de Mars, and, in the presence of an immense multitude, ascended and floated in the air for three quarters of an hour, descending in a field fifteen miles from where it was sent up.

It was not a great while after this that Mongolfier was invited to Paris, and there he made an oval balloon of linen,

lined with paper. It was very large, being more than twelve times the height of a man, and forty-three feet wide. It was at first injured by a storm, but in a few days after it was placed before the King's Palace, the Tuilleries. It was inflated by burning hay and straw under its orifice, and was able to raise a weight of 500lb. A basket was fastened to it, which contained a duck, a cock, and a sheep: the balloon was allowed to ascend. It reached the height of 1,500 feet, and then fell about two miles from Versailles. None of the animals were hurt by the descent, and the sheep was found quietly feeding near the spot where the descent made. It was not a very great while after this that Mongolfier made a very strong balloon, and a Frenchman, named De Rogier, volunteered to go up. When the machine was inflated he seated himself in the car, and rose in the balloon to the height of 300 feet, which was as high as the rope would let him ascend. After remaining for some time he gradually descended.

The success of this and some other experiments gave him confidence, and at last, in November, 1683, he undertook, in company with the Marquis d'Arlandes, to make a voyage through the air. The balloon was visible during the whole time of the journey, and it carried them a distance of five miles from the city, where they descended in safety.

The persons who had preferred the use of hydrogen gas to heated air for inflating balloons, now determined to try their method on an enlarged scale. They made a large balloon, and having filled it with gas, two persons went up in it to the height of two thousand feet, and continued high in the air for nearly two hours, when they descended twenty-seven miles

from Paris. The balloon still having the power of ascending;' one of the voyagers again ventured up, and soon reached an elevation of nine thousand feet; and after seeing the sun descend and the moon rise, he opened the valve and descended safely in a field only three miles from Paris.

In the following year, M. Blanchard ascended for the first time. He filled his balloon with hydrogen gas. When it began to mount high in the air, his companion lost his presence of mind, and, by some imprudent act, caused it to fall with a heavy shock. But, Blanchard, who afterwards became a very celebrated æronaut, was not discouraged. He took the sole management of the balloon, and rose to the height of a mile. After having been for two hours driven through different currents of air, for it was in the month of March, he descended in safety.

The Industrial Arts and Manufactures of

Great Britain.

APPLICATION OF GLASS TO VARIOUS OBJECTS.

LASS is employed in a great many ways; to say nothing of its common uses, it is employed in the composition of artificial gems, in the manufacture of lenses, watch glasses, lunette glasses, barometer tubes, dial plates, beads, mock pearls, and in many other

ways.

It is somewhat strange, that for a very long period before glass became of general use, it was employed in the production of ornaments. The ancient Egyptians, and also the Greeks and Romans had glass beads and imitation gems in great variety, as had also the ancient Britons. Specimens of these are frequently found in tombs. Amulets, and other instruments of idolatry were also made of glass, and Peter Parley saw some very beautiful specimens in the unique cabinet of Mr. Wyncoppe, who has done so much for our Medieval antiquities in the town of Woodbridge.