Published in Windelsora 02 (1983)
© WLHG
In 1783, the first hydrogen and hot air balloon ascents were made in France and therefore 1983 is the bicentenary of this success. The idea of flight by man was not a popular one. To ascend to the sky was to challenge the Creator and His Angelic Hosts. Earthly flight could only be done by magic and magic was unlawful and in the case of witches, was likely to result in being burnt at the stake. Confessions of flight by witches may be attributed to torture, or from old ladies getting ‘high’ on the country plants and simples they knew so well, flying only in their minds after rubbing ointment, containing strong drugs such as digitalis, into their more sensitive surfaces.
The idea of flight by man was denigrated in England right to the top of the Establishment – except King George III. He heard about the successful experiments in France and wrote to Sir Joseph Banks, the President of the Royal Society, offering to meet the cost of experiments in England. Sir Joseph Banks replied that such experiments were worthless, adding “No good whatever could come of them, as the properties by which such a globe acts are as well-known as if twenty experiments were made….“
The King was well informed and on November 25th 1783, the day of the first successful small hydrogen balloon experiment by Count Zambececari in England, George III invited the Prussian scientist Professor Argand of Geneva, who was in England, to come to Windsor Castle the very next day to carry out similar experiments to be watched by the King. On November 26th, Professor Argand made hydrogen by the action of sulphuric acid on zinc or iron filings and collected the gas in a bladder about 30 inches in diameter, suspended so that the hydrogen could be conducted up the neck of the balloon. When it was sufficiently full, Argand handed the King a string attached to the balloon which floated freely upwards.
The Queen and princesses were watching from an upper window of Windsor Castle and the King allowed the balloon to rise up to them, then pulled it down again repeating this until eventually he cut the string and Windsor’s first balloon silently floated away over the fields watched by the King, Queen and princesses until it disappeared.
No doubt some Windsorians saw this wonder and certainly the celebrated Dr Lind wrote from Windsor about the event to his friend Faujus de Saint-Fond. The letter is now in a balloon museum in France. He added that Boulton and Watt, the famous members of the Lunar Society, had attached a cracker’ to a similar balloon which was released and allowed to rise until the fuse – two feet long – set off an “aerial explosion, simulating thunder”, causing alarm to the populace.
There are very few contemporary references in this country to the royal experiment, one being in The Scots Magazine. Possibly Sir Joseph’s denigration of such experiments was the reason for this silence and perhaps Dr Lind felt inhibited about publicising this lighter side of the royal family at home.
It may be significant that Sir Joseph later headed the list of subscribers to Lunardi’s famous ascent on 15th September 1784 from the Royal Artillery grounds, Moorfields. This was shortly after the first ascent by man in Britain by Mr Tyler of Edinburgh on 27th August 1784.
And the King? The experiment was afforded him the utmost satisfaction and Argand was invited to remain for two days in order to give further exhibitions at Windsor Castle., “au milieu de cette interessante Cur.” It was a pleasant change to the problems of his son and the rebellious colonists of North America.
The Aerial History of Windsor had begun.
Gordon Cullingham
Windsor Local History Group 