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London 16 Septr 1784.

Wilson has to far relented that he has permitted
me to write you some account of Lunardi's excursion with his air
balloon — Fordyce undertook to fill it with inflammable air
& executed his part of the business with great coolness & success — He intended
to have begun his operations on Tuesday evening about six oClock but
was prevented by various accidents till 5 next morning so that
he was obliged to make 10 Gallons of air in a second which exposed
the balloon to be set on fire from the great heat produced by this rapid
process. The ingredients were Oil of vitriol & Zinck with a great quantity of water & by according to
his calculations he was from £150 worth of each to collect a sufficient
quantity of air & at the same time to make as much white
vitriol as would sell for £400 — at the rate of £10 less per Ton than
the market price. By this good management £100 will be gained
by the process — About one o Clock, the time fixed for the balloon to go off
Lunardi became very impatient & was afraid the mob would
have broke in so that Fordyce was obliged to humour him altho'
he had not been able notwithstanding all his exertions to collect
the quantity of air he wished — upon trial it was found that
there was not enough to raise the two Travellers with 25 pounds of
ballast which obliged Biggins to get out and Lunardi set out by him
self with about 30 pounds of ballast part of which he threw out
almost immediately after he rose from the ground to enable him
to clear a row of houses adjoining the artillery ground. We saw
every thing so distinctly & were so much satisfied with the safety of
the attempt that it was by no means that awful or solemn

Identifier: | JB/009/009/010 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 9.
Date_1	1784-09-16	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	009	Main Headings
Folio number	009	Info in main headings field
Image	010	Titles
Category	correspondence	Number of Pages	4
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering
Penner	james trail	Watermarks	curteis & sons
Marginals		Paper Producer	edward blaquiere
Corrections	jeremy bentham	Paper Produced in Year
Notes public	letter 515, vol. 3; also printed in bowring, x, 136-8; attached is newspaper cutting about lunardi and his balloon launch	ID Number	3310
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