I then filled up the remaining
holes, and placed the barrels over them in their destined situation.
Besides the articles above enumerated, I conveyed to the depot,
and there secreted, one of M. Grimm's improvements upon the
apparatus for condensation of the atmospheric air. I found this
machine, however, to require considerable alteration before it could
be adapted to the purposes to which I intended making it applicable.
But, with severe labor and unremitting perseverance, I at length met
with entire success in all my preparations. My balloon was soon
completed. It would contain more than forty thousand cubic feet of
gas; would take me up easily, I calculated, with all my implements,
and, if I managed rightly, with one hundred and seventy-five pounds of
ballast into the bargain. It had received three coats of varnish,
and I found the cambric muslin to answer all the purposes of silk
itself, quite as strong and a good deal less expensive.
Everything being now ready, I exacted from my wife an oath of
secrecy in relation to all my actions from the day of my first visit
to the bookseller's stall; and promising, on my part, to return as
soon as circumstances would permit, I gave her what little money I had
left, and bade her farewell.
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