Author Guest Post: Alastair Goodrum
UP WHERE THE WIND IS SILENT
Charles Green (1785-1870) is the man who invented coal-gas ballooning and his innovations and adventures epitomise the fusion of emerging technologies with social progress in 19th century Britain.
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Coal, that black gold and fuel of the Industrial Revolution, helped to usher in the factory age of the early 1800s and the social changes that went with it. In addition to providing the basis of steam propulsion for railways, ships and machinery, its other by-product – coal-gas (sometimes referred to as ‘town-gas’) – made it possible to illuminate homes, streets and work places in the burgeoning towns and cities of England and new gasworks companies proliferated. It was this latter development that was to facilitate the use of coal-gas in the world of ballooning, but it still needed someone to initiate the change – and that man was Charles Green.
His unique contribution to aeronautical history is that he was the first person in the world to discover the ability of coal-gas as a practical load-lifting agent and then, in 1821 – as the star entertainment at the coronation of George IV – the first to exploit coal-gas to inflate a balloon large enough to carry himself into the air. On that momentous day, Green burst into prominence in 19th century balloon aeronautics in a way that was destined to keep him at its forefront for the next thirty-five years and his technique to remain in use, unaltered, for a century. Furthermore, Green was astute enough to recognise the business potential of the spectacle of ballooning and took the gamble on himself, his apparatus and his business acumen to make ballooning his livelihood. Charles Green would become the first aeronaut to carry large groups of fare-paying passengers on pleasure flights. As a result of this, he turned the concept of public travel by air into a reality.
He was self-taught in both his experiments with coal-gas and hydrogen and as an aeronaut itself. A Londoner from a humble, working-class background, this man became the outstanding aeronaut of the Georgian and Victorian eras and well and truly imprinted the science of ballooning in the minds of the people the length and breadth of the kingdom and beyond. In doing so, Charles Green endeared himself to their hearts to such an extent that in his hey-day his name became a by-word for all things aeronautical. His contribution to the public promotion of aeronautics would be equalled only by exploits of men such as Sir Alan Cobham, a hundred years later.
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For a typical example of his flights all over the UK, we can turn to his ascent at Weymouth in 1842. The supply of a sufficient quantity of coal-gas for Charles Green’s Royal Vauxhall/Nassau balloon – which had a capacity for a stupendous 70,000 cubic feet of gas – presented considerable difficulties to several towns that craved a visit by this magnificent aerostat. Weymouth was one venue where Charles used his smaller, 25,000 cubic feet Albion, a balloon of 113-feet circumference and 50-feet tall from basket to peak, for that very reason. Charles and his companion for the event, Captain Robert William Currie, late of the 3rd (Prince of Wales’ Own) Dragoon Guards, travelled by railway train from London to Southampton, then by coach to Weymouth, arriving in the evening of Thursday, 4 August 1842. His balloon and accoutrements had arrived a few days earlier, having been carried as cargo aboard the Weymouth & Southampton Steam Packet Company’s paddle steamer Rose (Capt: Thomas Harding), which docked in Weymouth from Southampton on Tuesday, 2 August. The balloon ascent, the first ever seen in Dorset, was to take place on Friday, 12 August, the day after the Weymouth Races on the town’s Lodmoor course had finished. The town council, under Mayor Charles Bridge Esq., hoped that the crowds of racegoers would remain to witness the grand balloon event and this proved to be the case.
The original take-off enclosure was sited in front of Pulteney Terrace, but Charles’ tests found the pressure of gas in the 3-inch mains pipe at that point to be quite inadequate for filling Albion. The enclosure was therefore moved to a site adjacent to the town gas works in Westwey Road, where temporary pipes were laid from the gasholder to the balloon.
Supervised by the Gas Works Chief Engineer, Mr Bowman, extra gas was generated from 5.00 a.m. and inflation of the balloon with coal-gas began at 2.00 p.m., with take-off being scheduled for 4.00 p.m. Admission to the inner sanctum to watch the inflation process cost one shilling (≈£5 in 2023) and 1,500 people squeezed in to see this technological wonder of the age. Meanwhile, at least 200 vehicles/carriages had passed through the turnpike toll and it was estimated that at least 8,000 people were milling about the streets of Weymouth, eagerly anticipating the ascent.
In sunshine and summer clouds, to strains of the town band playing ‘God Save The Queen,’ the balloon lifted off at 4.55 p.m., drifting across the bay towards Holworth cliffs. Fifteen minutes later it was lost to sight of those in the town as it climbed above the clouds at about 3,000-feet, heading North-East. During their 15-mile passage inland, the aeronauts had the first aerial view of the White Horse of Osmington, a hill figure depicting King George III on horseback, carved into the chalk. The heat of the sun having helped to expand the gas, the balloon reached a maximum altitude of 10,000-feet before the two aeronauts descended safely one-and-a-half hours later in the valley of the River Piddle, a few miles south of Bere Regis. Upon landing, the travellers were entertained to ‘a sumptuous dinner’ at the home of the Reverend Richard Waldy, rector of Affpuddle, whose generous hospitality extended to providing a carriage into Wareham. Green and Currie reached Dorchester by 1.00 a.m. next morning and after fresh horses were found, were back in Weymouth by 8.00 a.m. Charles Green even found time to relax a little by watching a friendly game of cricket between teams from Dorchester and Weymouth, before returning first by coach to Southampton and then boarding a train service on the recently completed railway line between Southampton and London.
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