Thomas Baldwin (Balloonist): Difference between revisions

 

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.

 

Thomas Baldwin was the son of the Rev. John Baldwin, rector at St Peter, Plemstall 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.

 

Baldwin made extensive preparations for his flight, so as to make a number of experiments and be prepared for what might be encountered, taking up a barometer, needles already threaded, pencils sharpened at both ends, a “speaking trumpet” and brandy (“for experiments”). He describes his lift-off in dramatic terms: