Charles Green (balloonist)
Charles Green (born January 31, 1785 in London , † March 26, 1870 ibid) was an English aeronautical engineer .
Life
Green, son of the fruit trader Thomas Green (1762–1850), worked in his father's business after graduating from school. He made his first balloon ascent in 1821 when the first gas balloon with coal gas rose during the coronation celebrations of George IV . The flight demonstrated the applicability of the much cheaper and more practicable coal gas for balloon flights compared to the hydrogen previously used . However, the flight ended unhappily, and Green was rescued by a ship whose bowsprit pierced the balloon wall and provided for gas discharge. Many more climbs followed. On a flight in 1822, on which £ 20,000 had been wagered, the balloon basket came loose during take-off due to cut tethers. The occupants were able to hold on to the balloon ring, but injured themselves on landing. In 1828 Green took off from the back of a pony and landed in Beckenham half an hour later . He invented the guide rope that hung from a winch in the cage and was used to control take-off and landing.
In 1836 Green built the Great Nassau Balloon for the owners of Vauxhall Gardens , which he then bought from them for £ 500. In the same year he made the first flight with this balloon with eight people and landed after an hour and a half in Cliffe near Gravesend . Further flights followed that year, especially in November 1836 the celebrated continental flight with the balloon pilot and politician Robert Hollond, who paid for the flight, and the balloon pilot and flautist Thomas Monck Mason from Vauxhall Gardens via Dover and the canal to Weilburg , where they went to landed on the eighteen-hour flight the next day. In January 1837, Green and Robert Cocking ascended to an altitude of 5,000 feet , from which Cocking jumped over Lee with a parachute of his own design and died on impact with the ground. In 1838 Green made two altitude test flights at Vauxhall Gardens with George Rush, who paid for the flights, and Edward Spencer. The first flight reached an altitude of 19,335 feet with landing at Thaxted . The second flight with just two people (Green and Rush) and coal gas in the Great Nassau Balloon was supposed to set a record, so that an altitude of 27,146 feet was reached. In 1841 Green flew with Charles Frederick William, duke of Brunswick, from Hastings to Neufchâtel in five hours . In 1846 he proposed a balloon flight over the Atlantic . Green's last flight took place in 1852.
Green was married to Martha Morell and had a son George (1807-1864), who completed 83 flights on the Great Nassau Balloon. The Charles Green Salver award of the British Balloon and Airship Club (BBAC) is named after Green, which Green originally received from the London steel merchant Richard Crawshay and which was awarded to Brian Jones and Bertrand Piccard in 1999 for the first non-stop circumnavigation of the world in a balloon .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d G. C. Boase: Dictionary of National Biography (1885-1900) . 1890.
- ↑ a b CIA Notable Flights and Achievements (accessed November 30, 2016).
- ^ The Strabane Morning Post, August 6, 1822.
- ^ A b British Balloon and Airship Club: The Charles Green Salver (accessed November 30, 2016).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Green, Charles |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English balloonist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 31, 1785 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 26, 1870 |
| Place of death | London |