Vincent Lunardi—S.F. Fores (pub.) | The enterprizing Lunardi's Grand Air Balloon, September 23rd 1784

Vincent Lunardi—S.F. Fores (publisher)

The enterprizing Lunardi's Grand Air Balloon. London: S.W. Fores, Sept. 23, 1784

Etching (350 x 223mm.), laid down on card, mounted, lightly dust-stained and spotted, mount stained and bumped

A RARE PRINT COMMEMORATING THE FIRST BALLOON ASCENT IN ENGLAND.

Vincent Lunardi (1759-1806) was secretary to the Neapolitan Ambassador in London. On 15 September 1785 he made the first balloon ascent in England from the parade ground of the Honourable Artillery Company at Moorfields. He landed near Ware in Hertfordshire. He made twelve further ascents in Great Britain. On 19 September 1786 at Newcastle, Lunardi's balloon was accidentally released and a young man called Ralph Heron was caught in the rope as the balloon rose empty into the air. The rope broke and Heron was killed. Lunardi made no more ascents in England after this accident. In August 1787 Lunardi left England for the Continent, where between 1789 and 1794 he made a number of ascents. He died in poverty in a convent at Barbadinas, Lisbon, on 31 July 1806. 

Lunardi "pioneered a method of filling a balloon with hydrogen meant as an improvement over the Montgolfier’s hot air method. Lunardi was to have made this flight with George Biggin, but at the last moment it was decided that the weight of two men might be too much, so Lunardi made the ascent along with a dog, a cat, and a pigeon. The pigeon escaped almost immediately. One oar which was dropped by Lunardi as the balloon ascended, was mistaken for the body of the aeronaut by a woman viewer who later died from the stress. The balloon landed finally at Standon, near Ware in Hertfordshire. The cat, who seemed too cold to continue the journey, had been let off the balloon during a first brief landing in North Mimms." (MIT Libraries)

Lunardi wrote an account of his balloon ascent in a letter to his guardian, the Chevalier Gherardo Compagni. It is reproduced in full in An Account of the First Aerial Voyage in London by Vincent Lunardi (London, 1784):

"At five minutes after two the last gun was fired, the cords divided, and the Balloon rose, the company returning my signal of adieu with the most unfeigned acclamations and applauses. When the thermometer was at fifty, the effect of the atmosphere, and the combination of circumstances around, produced a calm delight, which is in-expressible, and which no situation on earth could give. The stillness, extent and magnificence of the scene, rendered it highly awful. 'At twenty minutes past four, I descended in a spacious meadow, in the parish of Standon, near Ware, in Hertfordshire. Some labourers were at work in it. I requested their assistance; they exclaimed they would have nothing to do with one who came in the Devil's house, or on the Devil's horse (I could not distinguish which of the phrases they used) and no intreaties could prevail on them to approach me. I at last owed my diliverance to the spirit and generosity of a female. A young woman, who was likewise in the field, took hold of the cord which I had thrown out, and calling to the men, they even denied that assistance to her request which they had refused to mine. A croud of people from the neighbourhood soon assembled, who very obligingly assisted me to disembark."