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Thomas Baldwin (1742-1804), tried, in 1783 after resigning from his position as a Haslingden curate, to fund the construction of a balloon by subscription, but was unable to raise enough money.
[[File:BaldwinF4.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Baldwin's illustration of his flight. Chester can be seen at the bottom left, and the rivers incluude the Gowy, Weaver and Mersey.]]
Thomas Baldwin was the son of the Rev. John Baldwin, rector at St Peter, Plemstall (see: [[Plemstall Church]]) and lived with his father at Hoole Hall, which the older Baldwin had built. He evidently conducted extensive research at his home, but this has in the past been badly reported, with suggestions having been made that he worked on helium balloons, despite the gas not having been available until over a century later. However correspondence with his friend Thomas Pennant shows that he had quite advanced plans for balloon construction at around the time that Jacques Charles was working on the same problems in the early 1780's.
In 1785 Lunardi brought his “flying circus” to Chester with the intention of raising money for the spectacle of an ascent. Plans were laid but Lunardi managed to get serious acid burns from the vitriol being used, so his place was first taken by his assistant George Biggin, who also invented an early coffee-maker. A following ascent from Chester was made by a Lieutenant French of the Cheshire Militia, who is generally reported to have landed on the parade ground of the Militia at Macclesfield some 40 miles away – a somewhat unlikely tale. Then it was Baldwin's turn to rent the balloon. Like French he made a solo flight and had never ascended before. After the flight Baldwin wrote a detailed description in his remarkable book “Airopaidia”. There is little in the local press about his exploits, possibly due to the editor of the Chronicle being about to be slung into jail for writing the wrong thing about the Corporation.
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Baldwin initially feared he would be blown out to sea but rose to find an onshore wind. He then drifted to the north-east, passing over Chester and almost over his home at Hoole. During the flight he made sketches from which he later prepared the first ever view of the earth seen from above. Chester's street plan and the sweep of the River Dee around it can be plainly seen as can the road through Hoole to the crossings of the Gowy, Weaver and Mersey. His composite map showing the view from high above the clouds gives the impression that he reached a substantial altitude. However, this could not have been possible in an open balloon gondola without the use of oxygen.
Baldwin is careful to note down small details:
[[File:Baldwinlanding.jpg|400px|thumb|right|Baldwin's landing.]]
* '''"..He tried his Voice, and shouted for Joy. His Voice was unknown to himself, shrill and feeble. There was no echo."'''
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He noted the pressure on his soles during rapid ascents and the shadow of his balloon on the clouds surrounded by a halo of light, both being the first record of these phenomena. He noted the atmospheric pressure and cast out feathers to determine whether he was rising or falling. Baldwin also had some problems with his valve, used to release gas and prevent too high an ascent. It appears that the string which operated the valve somehow became caught and Baldwin gives an account of how he struggled to reach it. Eventually, he had to clamber up the "rigging" of his balloon to reach the valve.
His first “landing” (at Kingsley) was dramatic with a desperate casting-out of weight, and he later flew on to return once and for all to terra firma at Rixton Moss, near Warrington. There he entertained local children by giving them ascents with the last of his lift and the balloon tethered by a rope, while he waited for his “chasers” to catch-up. He would never fly again, but he did go on to be involved with the early development of steam propulsion, encouraging and funding the now mostly forgotten “rude, uncultivated, and self-taught mechanic” John Smith, who took his first steamboat along the Sankey Canal in 1797.
==Sources and Links==
* [https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/airopaidia00bald Airopaidia]: free e-book - Baldwins original text;
* [http://chester.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Baldwin A longer article on Baldwin];
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