n had in this case also
burst, owing to the release of the upper valve being delayed too long,
and the balloon had in the natural way transformed itself into a true
parachute. Moreover, the fall, which, by Albert Smith's own showing,
was that of about a mile in two minutes, was not more excessive than one
which will presently be recorded of Mr. Glaisher, who escaped with no
material injury beyond a few bruises.

One fact has till now been omitted with regard to the above sensational
voyage, namely, the name of the passenger who, sitting in the ring,
was the first to point out the imminent danger of the balloon. This
individual was none other than Mr. Henry Coxwell, the second, indeed, of
the two who were mentioned in the opening paragraph of this chapter as
marking the road of progress which it is the scope of these pages to
trace, and to whom we must now formally introduce our readers.

This justly famous sky pilot, whose practical acquaintance with
ballooning extends over more than forty years, was the son of a naval
officer residing near Chatham, and in his autobiography he describes
enthusiastically how, a lad of nine years old, he watched through a sea
telescope a balloon, piloted by Charles Green, ascend from Rochester
and, crossing the Thames, disappear in distance over the Essex flats. He
goes on to describe how the incident started him in those early days on
boyish endeavours to construct fire balloons and paper parachutes. Some
years later his home, on the death of his father, being transferred to
Eltham, he came within frequent view of such balloons as, starting from
the neighbourhood of London, will through the summer drift with the
prevailing winds over that part of Kent. And it was here that, ere long,
he came in at the death of another balloon of which Green was in charge.

And from this time onwards the schoolboy with the strange hobby was
constantly able to witness the flights and even the inflations of those
ships of the air, which, his family associations notwithstanding took
precedence of all boyish diversions.

His elder brother, now a naval officer, entirely failed to divert his
aspirations into other channels, and it was when the boy had completed
sixteen summers that an aeronautic enterprise attracted not only his
own, but public attention also. It was the building of a mammoth balloon
at Vauxhall under the superintendence of Mr. Green. The launching of
this huge craft when completed was regar