6. The inventor of the earth-bound “vaisseau volant” (April, 1782) and a supposedly steerable hydrogen balloon, tested (unsuccessfully) in March, 1784: XXXVII, 246–7n; XLII, 16n. After the latter experiment, Blanchard returned home to Normandy and staged two more flights. In mid-August he went to London, whence, on Aug. 26, he announced in a letter to the Jour. de Paris (published on Sept. 17) that he would fly from London to France with two “hommes célèbres” of the “Académie de Londres.” If the weather proved unfavorable, he would instead ascend to an extremely high altitude and conduct experiments. In the meantime, Lunardi’s balloon ascension on Sept. 15 (XLII, 498–9) sparked an interest among local scientists. John Sheldon, F.R.S., whose own balloon had caught fire during launch (XLII, 499n), paid Blanchard to take him on a flight on Oct. 16. On Nov. 6, Dr. John Jeffries entered into an agreement to pay Blanchard 100 guineas for a joint voyage: John Jeffries’ diary, entries of Oct. 16 and Nov. 6, Harvard University Library.

On the day Blanchard wrote the present letter, he received word from Paris that the Robert brothers were about to leave for Calais in preparation for a flight across the English Channel. (In fact, it was Pilatre de Rozier who was making the preparations.) He immediately informed Jeffries that their flight would have to be postponed, as he was anxious to be the first to make the Channel crossing and collect the French royal reward: Blanchard to Jeffries, Nov. 16, 1784, Harvard University Library.

The following day, Blanchard changed his mind. He took Jeffries on a flight from the Rhedarium, in London, into Kent on Nov. 30. Two weeks later Jeffries agreed to fund the flight across the Channel, provided that he would accompany Blanchard. The pair left for Dover on Dec. 17, and, while waiting out severe winter storms, met with Pilatre de Rozier as he traveled to and from London before attempting his own aerial voyage in the opposite direction. The prevailing winds being more favorable to Blanchard, he and Jeffries embarked on their successful flight on Jan. 7, 1785: Gillispie, Montgolfier Brothers, p. 119; John Jeffries’ diary, entries of Nov. 17 and Dec. 14, 17, 25, 31, 1784; John Jeffries, A Narrative of the Two Aerial Voyages of Doctor Jeffries with Mons. Blanchard … (London, 1786), pp. 9–31, 39–42. Jeffries carried with him the Dec. 16 letter from WF to WTF, published below.

7. We know only that when Blanchard learned of BF’s intention to witness the highly publicized demonstration of his “vaisseau volant,” he offered to give BF a private tour of the mechanism: XXXVII, 246–7. The demonstration was canceled, and, to our knowledge, the private tour never took place.

8. Endnote in MS: “il vient dêtre decidé tout a lheure Monsieur le Docteur, que je passeray la mer la semaine prochaine, et que la seçonde experience que je dois faire a londre naura lieu quà mon retour de france”.

9. A sarcastic article in the Nov. 6, 1784, issue of the Mercure de France (Jour. politique de Bruxelles), pp. 16–17, accused Blanchard of trying to appropriate for himself some of the excitement created by Lunardi’s flight. The reports of his recent London flight were exaggerated, it said. The public had had quite enough of his tales and “éloquence”; any more of it would be tiresome.