To Benjamin Franklin from Charles-Eléonor Dufriche de Valazé: Résumé, 3 March 1784
From Charles-Eléonor Dufriche de Valazé
ALS: American Philosophical Society
⟨Paris, Hôtel d’Orléans, March 3, 1784, in French: I have one more thing to tell you, not wanting to take more of your time in person. I had the honor of giving you two copies of Loix pénales; you accepted one, and promised to send the other to Congress.3 That book alone will not achieve its aim: it calls for a new penal system, but does not specify the manner of implementing it. I have a manuscript prepared on that subject, which I have given to the king’s brother. I beg you to offer a copy on my behalf to Congress. Though my plan is designed for France, it could easily be adapted for other countries, and I seek your advice on making it suitable for America.4 The balloon experiment conducted yesterday by M. Blanchard leaves no doubt that one might be able to navigate by using different air currents found at different heights of the atmosphere.5⟩
3. Dufriche must finally have obtained the interview that he had twice requested, first on Jan. 14 and again on Feb. 10 when sending a copy of Loix pénales: XLI, 458. It was presumably during that interview that he jotted down the title of his book and the shop where it could be found (Royez, on the corner of the quai des Augustins) on the verso of an unrelated, undated note from L’Enfant et al. That note, without Dufriche’s notation, was published in XLI, 480.
4. The author delivered the 31-page “Etablissement et administration Des Maisons de Correction” to Passy on April 8 (Hist. Soc. of Pa.). On April 9, he wrote to BF suggesting ways of editing the text to suit America, and repeated his request that BF send it to Congress along with Loix pénales. On May 26, writing from his home in Essay, lower Normandy, Dufriche asked whether BF had thought the treatise worth forwarding. Having heard nothing, on June 8 he wrote again, concerned that BF’s silence indicated ill health. The king’s brother had inquired about the book’s reception in America, and Dufriche asked BF to confirm, at least, that it had been sent. (All three letters are at the APS.) The following week, Dufriche asked BF for a personal favor; see his letter below of June 15.
5. On March 2 Jean-Pierre Blanchard launched a hydrogen balloon from the Champ de Mars to which he had attached a rudder and a primitive motor: double-bladed paddles shaped like wings, operated by a treadle. The launch of this supposedly steerable airship turned unexpectedly dramatic when a would-be passenger attacked the inventor. Blanchard was wounded, instruments were broken, and the propeller mechanism was destroyed. The experiment proceeded, regardless. Blanchard later claimed to have steered the ship by means of an improvised sail; in fact, he had been buffeted by various air currents at different altitudes. BFB, who attended the launch, recorded in his journal that Blanchard had done nothing more than repeat the experiment performed by Charles on Dec. 1, 1783 (for which see XLI, 248–51). In this, he voiced the opinion of many spectators: Gillispie, Montgolfier Brothers, pp. 95, 97; BFB’s journal, entry of March 2, 1784.