24, he
attempted an ascent from London, which had much apparent success, but
which terminated fatally. When at a great elevation, it seems, the
aeronaut, wishing to descend, opened the valve. It had not been well
constructed, and after being opened it would not close again. The
consequent loss of gas brought the balloon down with great force. Harris
lost his life with the fall; but the young lady who had accompanied him
received only a trifling wound.

Sadler, a celebrated English aeronaut, who, in one of his many
experiments, had crossed the Irish Channel between Dublin and Holyhead,
lost his life miserably near Bolton, on the 28th of September, 1824.
Deprived of his ballast, in consequence of his long sojourn in the air,
and forced at last to descend, at a late hour, upon a number of high
buildings, the wind drove him violently against a chimney. The force of
the shock threw him out of his car, and he fell to the earth and died.
His prudence and knowledge were unquestionable, and his death is to be
ascribed alone to accident. It was an aerial shipwreck.

Cocking had gone up twice in Mr. Green's balloon as a simple amateur.
He took it into his head to go up a third time. He wished to attempt a
descent in a parachute of his own construction, which he believed was
vastly superior to the ordinary one. He altered the form altogether,
though that form had been proved to be satisfactory. In place of a
concave surface, supporting itself on a volume of air, Cocking used
an inverted cone, of an elaborate construction, which, instead of
supporting him in the air, only accelerated his fall. Unhappily, Green
participated in this experiment. The two made an ascent from Vauxhall,
on the 27th of September, 1836, Green having suspended Cocking's
wretched contrivance from the car of his balloon. Cocking held on by a
rope, and at the height of from 1,000 to 1,200 feet the amateur,
with his patent parachute, were thrown off from the balloon. A moment
afterwards Green was soaring away safely in his machine, but Cocking was
launched into eternity.

"The descent was so rapid," says one who witnessed it, "that the mean
rate of the fall was not less than twenty yards a second. In less than a
minute and a half the unfortunate aeronaut was thrown to the earth, and
killed by the fall."

Madame Blanchard, thinking to improve upon Garnerin, who had decorated
the balloon which ascended in celebration of the coronation of Napoleon
I. with colou