Aeronautica, or Voyages in the Air

The copy in leather-backed boards that made £650 in Eldreds’ June 26 sale in Plymouth was not dated, but the extensive bibliography of Hodgson’s 1926 History of Aeronautics in Great Britain gives the publication date as 1802.

This particular copy was inscribed “Frederick Locker from his old friend Walter(?) Thornby – A very humble marriage present” and as the auctioneers point out, pp49-50 of the book contain Locker’s own account of a balloon ascent with M. Garnerin.

André-Jacques Garnerin, a pioneering French balloonist who is also remembered as the man who made the first descent from a balloon in a parachute, made a number of ascents in England in the early 19th century and on his second, Edward Hawke Locker, who was then in the Navy Pay Office, handed over a considerable sum for the privilege of a trip in Garnerin’s balloon.

The ascent was made on July 5, 1802, from Lord’s Cricket Ground [then on the site of what is now Dorset Square], and though high winds – a gale according to Locker – caused the postponement of the parachute jump that Garnerin had announced would “irrevocably take place”, the balloon did lift off shortly before 5 o’clock. This proved but little consolation for the huge crowd (perhaps ambitiously estimated at 150,000) who had been waiting impatiently for over two hours, as it was very quickly lost to sight in heavy dark clouds.The voyage lasted only a few minutes before a landing, of sorts, was effected at Chingford Green. On first striking the ground, the balloon rebounded some 200ft into the air, and on the second attempt Garnerin was dashed into a tree, but not seriously hurt.

Locker, who was later to become Civil Commissioner of the Greenwich Hospital and set up the Royal Naval Gallery, produced a fine illustration of his ascent from Lord’s, as well as a portrait of Garnerin, but while both were published as prints, neither appears in the book in question, which seems to have been a brief survey of ballooning from the time of the Montgolfiers.