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Hfoncey, in France , the inode of inflating their balloons bymeans of rarified air. They first made the experiment in1732, with a fine silk bag, of about 40 cubic feet in capacity,the air being rarified by applying burning paper at the loweraperture, and the bag rose to the height of .about 70 feet.In the following year, one on a larger scale was exhibited atParis , having a sheep, a cock and a duck placed in a basketattached to the balloon, which ascended to the height of 1500feet, and in eight minutes dropped to the ground at the dis-tance of two miles from Paris , without any injury to thetravellers.

Pilatre de Rozier was the first person who ventured toascend in a balloon, which took place at Paris in October,1783. The balloon was constructed upon the principle beforementioned, and was forty-eight feet in diameter, and seventy-four in height. M. Pilatre having placed himself in the gal-lery, the machine was inflated, and being fastened to theground by ropes, ascended to the height of 84 feet, and atanother time to the height of 330 feet; he afterwards ventured,in company with the Marquis de Orlandes, to make an aerialvoyage ; they ascended on the 2lst November, 1783, from theChateau of Muette, to upwards of 1000 yards, and after ajourney of twenty-five minutes round the city of Paris ,safely alighted beyond the Boulevards j this intrepid aeronautsoon afterwards unfortunately perished in one of his aerialexcursions, in consequence of his balloon taking fire.

In 1783, Messrs. Roberts and Charles constructed a balloonwith inflammable instead of rarified air, in which they ascen-ded from Paris , and alighted in safety at the distance of 27miles from the city. The merit, however, of this discovery,is due to Dr. Black, of Edinburgh , who first suggested theidea in his lecture in 1768 : it was afterwards experimentallytried by Cavallo, of which an account was read to the Royal Society on the 20th of June, 17S2. On the 7 th January,1785, Mr. Blanchard and Dr. Jefferies determined upon the