Charles Green (balloonist)
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's most famous balloonist
Balloon (aircraft)
A balloon is a type of aircraft that remains aloft due to its buoyancy. A balloon travels by moving with the wind. It is distinct from an airship, which is a buoyant aircraft that can be propelled through the air in a controlled manner....
of the 19th century. He experimented with coal gas
Coal gas
Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made by the destructive distillation of coal containing a variety of calorific gases including hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and volatile hydrocarbons together with small quantities of non-calorific gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen...
as a cheaper and more readily available alternative to hydrogen
Hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
for lifting power. His first ascent was in a coal gas balloon on 19 July 1821. He became a professional balloonist and had made 200 ascents by 1835. In 1836, he set a major long distance record in the balloon "Royal Vauxhall", flying overnight from Vauxhall Gardens
Vauxhall Gardens
Vauxhall Gardens was a pleasure garden, one of the leading venues for public entertainment in London, England from the mid 17th century to the mid 19th century. Originally known as New Spring Gardens, the site was believed to have opened before the Restoration of 1660 with the first mention being...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to Weilburg
Weilburg
Weilburg is, with just under 14,000 inhabitants, the third biggest town in Limburg-Weilburg district in Hesse, Germany, after Limburg an der Lahn and Bad Camberg.- Location :...
, Duchy of Nassau (Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
) a distance of 480 miles (772.5 km): this record was not broken until 1907. By the time he retired in 1852, he had flown in a balloon more than 500 times.
Green is credited with the invention of the trail rope as an aid to steering and landing a balloon.
A trophy named after him, the "Charles Green Salver", is awarded by the British Balloon and Airship Club (BBAC) for exceptional flying achievements or contributions in ballooning. The trophy was originally given to Green by Richard Crawshay
Richard Crawshay
Richard Crawshay was a London iron merchant and then South Wales ironmaster.Richard Crawshay was born in Normanton in the West Riding of Yorkshire...
after a ballon trip in Norfolk. Recipients have included Brian Jones
Brian Jones (aeronaut)
Brian Jones is an English balloonist.Brian Jones, along with Bertrand Piccard, co-piloted the first successful uninterrupted circumnavigation of the world on board the balloon Breitling Orbiter 3...
and Bertrand Piccard
Bertrand Piccard
Bertrand Piccard is a Swiss psychiatrist and balloonist.Born in Lausanne, Vaud canton, Bertrand Piccard, along with Brian Jones, was the first to complete a non-stop balloon flight around the globe...
for the first round-the-world balloon flight. Green was included in the ballooning Hall of Fame in 1999.
Biography
Green, son of Thomas Green, fruiterer, of Willow Walk, Goswell Street, London, who died in May 1850, aged 88, was born at 92 Goswell Road, London, on 31 January 1785, and on leaving school joined his father's business. His first ascent was from the Green Park, London, on 19 July 1821, by order of the government, at the coronation of George IV, in the first ever balloon filled with carburetted hydrogen gas. After that time he made 526 ascents. On 16 August 1828 he ascended from the Eagle Tavern, City Road, on the back of his pony, and after being up for half an hour descended at Beckenham in Kent. In 1836 he constructed the Great Nassau balloon for Gye and Hughes, proprietors of Vauxhall Gardens, from whom he subsequently purchased it for 500 pounds, and on 9 September in that year made the first ascent with it from Vauxhall Gardens, in company with eight persons, and, after remaining in the air about one hour and a half, descended at Cliffe, near Gravesend. On 21 September he made a second ascent, accompanied by eleven persons, and descended at Beckenham in Kent. He also made four other ascents with it from Vauxhall, including the celebrated continental ascent, undertaken at the expense of Robert HollondRobert Hollond
Robert Hollond was an English balloonist and politician. He funded and then took part in establishing a distance ballooning record with Thomas Monck Mason and Charles Green. He later served as a Whig politician representing the constituency of Hastings.-Biography:Hollond was born in 1808 to...
, M.P. for Hastings, who, with Monck Mason
Thomas Monck Mason
Thomas Monck Mason was a flute player, writer and balloon aeronaut. He wrote concerning the balloon trip and on theology. He was impoverished after renting London theatres to stage opera.-Biography:...
, accompanied him. They left Vauxhall Gardens at 1:30 p.m. on 7 November 1836, and, crossing the channel from Dover the same evening, descended the next day, at 7 a.m., at Weilburg
Weilburg
Weilburg is, with just under 14,000 inhabitants, the third biggest town in Limburg-Weilburg district in Hesse, Germany, after Limburg an der Lahn and Bad Camberg.- Location :...
in Nassau, Germany, having travelled altogether about five hundred miles in eighteen hours. This journey was celebrated with a painting by John Hollins that is now in the National Portrait Gallery in London. The painting shows Green, John Hollins (the artist), Robert Hollond M.P. Sir William Milbourne James
William Milbourne James (judge)
Sir William Milbourne James was a British judge and Privy Councillor.-Life history:James was born in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales in 1807 to Christopher James a prosperous provision merchant. His cousin was Charles Herbert James, who later became Member of Parliament for Merthyr Tydfil...
, Thomas Monck Mason
Thomas Monck Mason
Thomas Monck Mason was a flute player, writer and balloon aeronaut. He wrote concerning the balloon trip and on theology. He was impoverished after renting London theatres to stage opera.-Biography:...
and Walter Prideaux
Walter Prideaux
Walter Prideaux was a poet and lawyer. Prideuax rose to be clerk to Goldsmiths' Hall.-Biography:Walter Prideaux was born 15 April 1806 to Sarah and Walter Prideaux. He was born at Bearscombe near Kingbridge and Loddiswell...
.
On 19 December 1836 he again went up from Paris with six persons, and on 9 January 1837 with eight persons. The Great Nassau ascended from Vauxhall Gardens on 24 July, Green having with him Edward Spencer (aeronaut) and Robert Cocking
Robert Cocking
Robert Cocking was the developer of an early unsuccessful parachute design and the first person to be killed in a parachuting accident.-Parachute design:...
. At a height of five thousand feet Cocking liberated himself from the balloon, and descending in a parachute of his own construction into a field at Burnt Ash Farm near Lee
Lee, London
Lee is a district of south London, England, located mostly in the London Borough of Lewisham and partly in the London Borough of Greenwich. The district lies to the east of Lewisham, one mile west of Eltham, and one mile south of Blackheath village...
. Cocking was killed on reaching the ground. The balloon came down the same evening near Town Malling, Kent, and it was not until the next day that Green heard of the death of his companion.
On 31 March 1841 Green ascended from Hastings, accompanied by Charles Frederick William, duke of Brunswick, and in five hours descended at Neufchatel, about ten miles (16 km) south-west of Boulogne. His last and farewell public ascent took place from Vauxhall Gardens on Monday, 13 September 1852. In 1840 he had propounded his ideas about crossing the Atlantic in a balloon, and six years later made a proposal for carrying out such an undertaking.
Many of his ascents were made alone, as when he went up from Boston in June 1846, and again in July when he made a night ascent from Vauxhall. During his career he had many dangerous experiences. In 1822, when ascending from Cheltenham, accompanied by Mr. Griffiths, some malicious person partly severed the ropes which attached the car to the balloon, so that in starting the car broke away from the balloon, and its occupants had to take refuge on the hoop of the balloon, in which position they had a perilous journey and a most dangerous descent, when they were both injured. Mr. Green received a serious contusion on the left side of the chest, and Mr. Griffith a severe injury of the spine. This is the only case on record of such a balloon voyage. In 1827 Green made his 69th ascent, from Newbury in Berkshire, accompanied by H. Simmons of Reading, a deaf and dumb gentleman, when a violent thunderstorm threatened the safety of the balloon. On 17 August 1841, on going up from Cremorne with Mr. Macdonnell, a jerk of the grappling-iron upset the car and went near to throwing out the aeronaut and his companion. Green was the first to demonstrate, in 1821, that coal-gas was applicable to the inflation of balloons. Before his time pure hydrogen gas was used, a substance very expensive, the generation of which was so slow that two days were required to fill a large balloon, and then the gas was excessively volatile. He was also the inventor of ‘the guide-rope,’ a rope trailing from the car, which could be lowered or raised by means of a windlass and used to regulate the ascent and descent of the balloon. After living in retirement for many years he died suddenly of heart disease at his residence, Ariel Villa, 51 Tufnell Park, Holloway, London, 26 March 1870.
He married Martha Morrell, who died at North Hill, Highgate, London. His son, George Green, who had made 83 ascents with the Nassau balloon, died at Belgrave Villa, Holloway, London, on 10 February 1864, aged 57.
See also
- Timeline of aviation — 1830s