Benjamin Franklin andthe First Balloons
BY
ABBOTT LAWRENCE ROTCH
Reprinted from the
Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society
Volume XVIII
WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS
THE DAVIS PRESS
1907
BY ABBOTT LAWRENCE ROTCH.
The recent bi-centenary of Franklin’s birth, which coincidedwith the revival of interest in balloons, makes this atimely topic, especially since Franklin’s descriptions of thefirst balloon ascensions are almost unknown and do notappear among his philosophical papers. The five letterswhich I have the honor to present were written to SirJoseph Banks, President of the Royal Society of London, in1783, when Franklin was Minister to the Court of Franceand, with the collateral documents, they give perhaps themost complete and accurate account of the beginning ofaerial navigation, enlivened with the humor and speculationcharacteristic of the writer. It is certainly remarkablethat Franklin, in the midst of diplomatic and social duties,could have found time to investigate personally this newinvention of which he at once appreciated the possibilities.
The documents which I publish are copies of Franklin’sletters, made on thin paper in a copying press (probablythe rotary machine invented by Franklin), and all but onebear his signature in ink. They have corrections in theauthor’s hand-writing and, except for a few words, arequite legible. They were purchased by me from Dodd,Mead & Co., in December, 1905, and previously had belongedto G. M. Williamson, of Grandview-on-the-Hudson, towhom they had come from Vienna. None of the lettersappear in Sparks’ edition of Franklin’s Works, and whileall but one are included in the collections compiled byBigelow and Smyth, there are numerous inaccuracies, someof which will be specified hereafter. Drafts of three of the[4]letters are deposited in the University of Pennsylvania,but the existence of one letter and the whereabouts ofanother were unknown to the late Mr. Smyth, the editorof the last and most complete edition of Franklin’s Works,[1]who made careful search for the original documents.Although the American owners of these copies did not allowthem to be transcribed, Mr. Smyth states that he printed oneletter from my copy, and he noted how the other copies differedfrom the drafts in the University of Pennsylvania. Ingeneral it may be said that, whereas Bigelow gives the textwithout paragraphs, capital letters or the old spelling,[2]Smyth follows the originals more closely. In view of thehistoric and scientific interest of these letters, they are nowprinted exactly according to the press-copies. The letterdated November 30, appears never to have been printedand whereas Smyth reproduced the letter of November 21from the University of Pennsylvania draft, this or anotherdraft (or possibly this copy) was in the possession of theFrench aeronaut, Gaston Tissandier, about 1887.[3]
Passy, Aug. 30, 1783.
Sir,
On Wednesday, the 27th Instant the new aerostatic Experiment,