repeating in little the phenomenon of the great ascent. The sky of the
capital found itself all at once traversed by a multitude of small rosy
clouds, formed by the hand of man.

Faujas de Saint Fond says that at first an attempt was made to construct
balloons of fine, light paper; but this material being permeable, and
the gas being inflammable, balloons thus made did not succeed. It
was necessary to seek a material less porous, and, if possible, still
lighter.

The Journal de Paris, of the 11th of September, 1783, informed the
public that the Baron de Beaumanoir, "who cultivated the sciences and
the fine arts with as much success as zeal," would send up a balloon
eighteen inches in diameter. At noon of the same day he made this
experiment in presence of a numerous assembly in the garden in front of
the Hotel de Surgeres.. The little balloon mounted freely, but was held
in, like a kite, by means of a silk thread. In the course of the same
afternoon, the baron took down the balloon and filled it anew with
hydrogen, and then let it off. The spectators had the pleasure of seeing
it rise to a great height, and pass away in the direction of Neuilly,
and it is said to have been found at a distance of several leagues, by
peasants.

However trifling this experiment may appear at first sight, it added
a new fact to the science of aerostation. The material employed by
the baron was lighter and better than paper. It was what is called
gold-beaters' skin. This skin is simply the interior lining of the
large bowel of the ox. It is carefully prepared, is relieved of the fat,
stringy and uneven parts, is dried, and is afterwards softened. Little
balloons of this material came to be the fashion, and they are still
frequently seen.

At the same time, Montgolfier was busy constructing, at the request
of the Academy of Sciences, a balloon seventy feet high and forty
in diameter, with which it was proposed to repeat the experiment of
Annonay. He took up his quarters in the magnificent gardens of his
friend Reveillon, proprietor of the royal manufactory of stained paper
in the Faubourg St. Antoine. The new balloon was of a very singular
shape: the upper part represented a prism, twenty-four feet high the top
was a pyramid of the same height; the lower part was a truncated cone,
twenty feet in depth. It was made of packing-cloth, lined with good
paper, both inside and out.

The gossipping and prolix Faujas de Saint Fond thus describ