3-028-190 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Aerial Voyages", 1870. 'Under the title of "Voyages Aeriens," a large and finely-printed volume of 600 pages has been published by Messrs. Louis Hachette and Co...It is adorned with 117 wood engravings and six chromolithographs, designed after sketches taken by M. Albert Tissandier...The book contains a minute and accurate description of all the most remarkable balloon ascents made by Mr. Glaisher, by M. Camille Flammarion, by M. de Fonville, and by M. Gaston Tissandier, for purposes of scientific observation. [Our illustration shows] an incident of Mr. Glaisher's great ascent, with Mr. Coxwell, at Wolverhampton, on Sept. 5, 1862, when they attained the elevation of 29,000 ft., and Mr. Glaisher suffered a momentary attack of faintness, which deprived him of the power of speaking or moving, and even blinded him for an instant, though he never lost consciousness. He would perhaps have died, but that Mr. Coxwell, having climbed to the hoop above the car, opened the valves of the balloon, and let out some of the gas, when they rapidly descended to a more tolerable region'. Note equipment and caged birds to monitor altitude and air density. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.