Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John
Jeffries traveled from Dover, England, to Calais, France,
in a gas balloon, becoming the first to cross the English
Channel by air.
The two men nearly crashed into the Channel along the
way, however, as their balloon was weighed down by
extraneous supplies such as anchors, a nonfunctional
hand-operated propeller, and silk-covered oars with
which they hoped they could row their way through the
air.
Just before reaching the French coast, the two balloonists
were forced to throw nearly everything out of the balloon,
and Blanchard even threw his trousers over the side in a
desperate, but apparently successful, attempt to lighten
the ship.
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John Jeffries
