Bravo Brown! - Terence FitzSimons

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just published a work, the title of which is A System of Aeronautics.

      To J. MacSweeny Esq. Bradford, May 29, 1850.

      Since I last wrote to you I have left my native town, and have come to reside here, having changed my situation on account of ill health.

      Hampton is getting on very fast, he says, with his balloon, it will be about the size of his Erin Go Bragh. I had intended sending you a sample of the fire-proof cloth but have left it at Leeds. Did you see the advertisement in The Times the other day, relating to a flying machine where a person offers to construct one in three months for £8,000, to travel at the rate of 100 miles an hour? At Washington, U.S., a Mr Porter is raising money to construct a flying machine, with which he says he can take 150 persons to California or to London in a day. We shall see. This Mr Porter made some little stir in the spring of last year about a flying machine but his plans did not at that time succeed.

      Have you seen The Illustrated London News of Saturday last? It contains a likeness of Gay Lussae and a short notice of him, and it is stated that Mr Wise, the American aeronaut has published a work entitled A System of Aeronautics.

      From J. MacSweeny Esq., Cork, May 31, 1850.

      The Mr Hugh Bell referred to in this letter was an aeronaut who experimented with an elongated balloon, Locomotive, which he attempted to steer by use of a pedal powered propeller. Though unsuccessful, he achieved the unfortunate distinction of having killed a spectator with his balloon’s grappling hook.

      I suppose that it was your friend Coxwell who made the experiment at Leipsic mentioned in The Times. I did not see The Times in which it was, but I enclose a short notice of it from a Cork paper:

      According to The Times correspondent an Englishman had been learning to fly in Germany. He crossed from St. Thomas’s Tower to the Tower of the Schloss at Leipsic in a machine of his own invention, on the 26th of April.

      ←72 | 73→

      From the ‘Compendium’ in the Cork Southern Reporter of May 9th, 1850. You probably saw the drawing of the balloon for distributing slips of silk and paper in The Illustrated London News of May 11th, 1850.

      I have not the particulars of the voyage of Jungius.16 The ascent of Comaschi from Turin, and M. Verdun from Le Mans I gleaned from a brief notices in the London Papers.17

      I do not think that the public are yet sufficiently alive to the importance of Aerostation to support a weekly publication. A monthly one, at least, during the months of summer and autumn might possibly succeed, if conducted with system and impartiality. You probably have seen an account of a person at Washington who is trying to form an aerial navigation company. British aeronauts ought to be up and stirring. Aerostation is yet destined to go ahead. It appears by The Times of the 28th of this month, that a Mr Bell of London has not been idle. An experiment has been made by him to direct a fish shaped aerostat. In the descent in Essex, unfortunately, a man was so torn by the grapnel that he died on the following day. You will of course be on the alert to learn all the particulars. I think that some of the grapnels in use are more sharp pointed than necessary.

      If I had an accurate copy of Coxwell’s advertisement in the Hamburg paper I might perhaps be able to send you the translation of it.

      I was about to send off this letter to Leeds when yours from Bradford came to hand. I was sorry to find that you have been ill. You must take care of yourself. Aerostation cannot afford to lose you now. I am afraid that you have injured your health by too much confinement and study. Regularity of living and rural walks, when not carried to excess, will sometimes do wonders for a young man of your age. A large, well ventilated bedroom is of the greatest importance for health. You must live to see the triumphs of Aerostation for triumph it assuredly will. Gale, I dare say, will be able to inform you about Bell’s experiment in London. I have seen the article about Gay Lussac in The Illustrated London News of May 25th. I wish that ←73 | 74→you would send me the account of Grellon’s ascent at Madrid. Where did you see the account of Montemayor’s balloon?

      In overhauling my papers, if I find Gypson’s descent I shall send you an account of it.18

      To Mr George. Burcher Gale, Bradford, Yorkshire, June 6, 1850.

      I thought I should have heard from you before this time, but I suppose you must have been busy. How are you getting on? I should very much like to hear from you. I was told on Sunday that you were about to make an ascent from Wakefield. One from this town I think would pay very well; there has been nothing of the kind since 1828. Can you give me any particulars relative to the balloon with which Mr Bell ascended on Friday week from Kennington? I have seen the account given in the newspapers, but should like to have a more particular one from you. My friend Dr MacSweeny is very anxious to learn all the particulars of the experiment. I think something extraordinary will be done this year – a great deal is promised.

      Coxwell has been lecturing at Hamburg. I saw his advertisement in a Hamburg paper, but did not hear how he succeeded. The Sun of Saturday evening stated that he had just made two ascents from Hamburg, and was about to make a third.19 Has Graham got his balloon completed yet? I have not seen any notice of him in the papers. I wrote for an Ipswich paper containing an account of your ascent, and the account given was very interesting

      I shall be glad to receive your portrait if you can make it convenient to let me have it. From what you said in your last letter I expected to hear from you again soon, hoping I shall do so.

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      To J. MacSweeny Esq., Bradford, Yorkshire, June 6, 1850.

      The experimental ascent of the Arctic Surveying Balloon was advertised for the 11th of July – the event was cancelled and brought forward to the 18th of July. Hampton obtained the obtained the services of the bands of the 71st Highlanders and the 42nd Regiment of Foot to provide musical entertainment. In addition day leave had been granted to the boys of the Royal Hibernian School, and the pupils of the Deaf and Dumb School so they could attend at the Rotunda Gardens.

      I have just received a proof of the bill Hampton intends to have printed announcing the exhibition of the fire balloon. It appears from his letter, and also from his bill, that he does not intend to make a voyage with it yet, but to have it confined by cords. The balloon is to be exhibited at the Rotunda Gardens, Dublin, and Hampton hopes to have it completed by the end of this month. It will be 70 feet high, and 45 in diameter and will be tastefully ornamented. I advised him to have a large valve in the top to be used when a rapid descent was required, or for exhausting the balloon speedily when it landed. He calls the balloon in the bill The Arctic Surveying Balloon.

      In my last letter I stated that a Frenchman named Grellon had ascended in Spain with a Montgolfier, and as you are desirous to learn the particulars of his voyage, I will give you the fullest account I have got met with, which appeared in The Morning Chronicle about the middle of last month in the Madrid letter to that paper:

      M. Grellon ascended with his large Montgolfier balloon from the Circus of M. Paul, Calle de Barquillos, Madrid, and the balloon, which was impelled by a strong north western breeze, passed over the Plaza de Toros, where a bull fight was going on, and attracted the attention of the spectators there till it disappeared. It fell at no great distance from Madrid, having passed over the Retiro, from which all the movements of M. Grellon and his descent were clearly seen.

      The above is the account I saw of it, and I have looked in vain in the newspapers for a fuller account.

      I wrote to Gale yesterday and requested he would send me the particulars of Bell’s balloon which ascended from Kennington where Gale resides. I scarcely know what to think of this man. When he was here in February, he was altogether without money. I lent him a couple of pounds ←75 | 76→and also took him to a friend of mine, who lent him money, but he never writes to me now. The last letter I had from him was in March last and in it no mention was made at all of the money, but requesting I would send him his book containing his lecture, which I immediately forwarded to him. I shall see if he answers my letter of yesterday.

      I have tried to procure a copy of Wise’s work, mentioned in my former letter, but cannot. The Editor

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