right to make known, so that alarm be not occasioned to the
people.

"On calculating the different weights of inflammable and
common air, it has been found that a balloon filled with
inflammable air will rise toward heaven till it is in
equilibrium with the surrounding air; which may not happen
till it has attained a great height.

"The first experiment was made at Annonay, in Vivarais, by
Messrs. Montgolfier, the inventors. A globe formed of canvas
and paper, 105 feet in circumference, filled with
inflammable air, reached an incalculated height.

"The same experiment has just been renewed at Paris (August
27th, 5 P.M.), in presence of a great crowd. A globe of
taffeta, covered with elastic gum, thirty-six feet in
circumference, has risen from the Champ-de-Mars, and been
lost to view in the clouds, being borne in a northeasterly
direction; one cannot foresee where it will descend.

"It is proposed to repeat these experiments on a larger
scale. Any one who shall see in the sky such a globe (which
resembles the moon in shadow) should be aware that, far from
being an alarming phenomenon, it is only a machine, made of
taffeta or light canvas, covered with paper, that cannot
possibly cause any harm, and which will some day prove
serviceable to the wants of society.

"Read and approved, September 3, 1783.
"DE SAUVIGNY.
"Permission for printing. LENOIR."

Balloons made of paper and goldbeater's-skin were now sent up by
amateurs from all places which this intelligence reached; and in
September another important step was made, an account of which, and of
the ascents which followed during the next two years, I take from the
quaint but graphic _History of Aerostation_, by Tiberius Cavallo.

Tiberius Cavallo was an electrician and natural philosopher, born at
Naples, 1749. He came to England in 1771, where he devoted his time to
science and literature till his death, in 1809.

On September 19, 1783, the King, Queen,[31] the court, and innumerable
people of every rank and age assembled at Versailles, Jacques
Montgolfier being present to explain every particular. About one o'clock
the fire was lighted, in consequence of which the machine began to
swell, acquired a convex form, soon stretched itself on every side, and
in eleven minutes' time, the