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resources, either in gas or ballast, remain comparatively unimpaired.
When passing over an expanse of water, it becomes necessary to employ
small kegs of copper or wood, filled with liquid ballast of a lighter
nature than water. These float, and serve all the purposes of a mere
rope on land. Another most important office of the guide-rope, is to
point out the direction of the balloon. The rope drags, either on
land or sea, while the balloon is free; the latter, consequently, is
always in advance, when any progress whatever is made: a comparison,
therefore, by means of the compass, of the relative positions of the two
objects, will always indicate the course. In the same way, the angle
formed by the rope with the vertical axis of the machine, indicates
the velocity. When there is no angle--in other words, when the rope
hangs perpendicularly, the whole apparatus is stationary; but the larger
the angle, that is to say, the farther the balloon precedes the end of
the rope, the greater the velocity; and the converse.
"
As the original design was to cross the British Channel, and alight as
near Paris as possible, the voyagers had taken the precaution to prepare
themselves with passports directed to all parts of the Continent,
specifying the nature of the expedition, as in the case of the Nassau
voyage, and entitling the adventurers to exemption from the usual
formalities of office: unexpected events, however, rendered these
passports superfluous.
"The inflation was commenced very quietly at daybreak, on Saturday
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