BALLOT

Before and since, have as yet served no other purpose tJian to gratify idle curiosity; and from the total failure of every scheme that has been proposed for directing their course through the air, there is little reason to anticipate any great advantages from them to society. Neverthele , the comparative cheapne and facility with which they can be filled by coal gas, now so generally used for the purposes of illumination, have been the cause of directing public attention again to the subject; and the recent feat of Mr. Green and two companions, who, with a stupendous balloon, and carrj'ing with them a ton of ballast, ascended from Vauxhall in November, 1836, cro ed the channel, and, after a journey through the air of eighteen hours, safely descended in the territory of Na au in Germany, has contributed to revive the hope of rendering balloons available to useful purposes. [s. 134]