ENGLAND’S FIRST AIRMAN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3894, 12 January 1929, Page 1

ENGLAND’S FIRST AIRMAN.

MEMORIAL AT OXFORD. It has taken Oxford 100 years _ to remember one of her most distinguished sons —James Sadler, the First English aeronaut, who astonished his fel-low-citizens on October 4. 1784, by “ascending into the atmosphere with firmness and intrepidity” (says the Oxford correspondent of the Sunday Times). Recently, the Bishop of Oxford dedicated a memorial tablet to Sadler in tlie Church of St. Peter in the East, it is a tribute which has been subscribed to by the aeronautical societies, while ' the list of donors includes the names of Sir Samuel Hoarc and Sir Phillip Sassoon. Sadler, born in 1753, the son of a pastrycook, died in 1828, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Peter in the East. His tomb fell into a state of decay, and his grave Fas unheeded , , Only recently the Royal Aerouatutical Society, realising that this was the centenary of the death of the Englishman who “first adventured to sad through the air,” restored the tombstone. The placing of the memorial (tablet, which is simply worded and bears a representation of a Sadler balloon copied from a rare coloured aquatint of 3810, lias been made possible bv the perseverance of Mr J. E. Hodgson, of Chancery Lane. Sadler’s balloon was 170 feet in circumference, and carried a small brazier, suspending under the envelope, in order to maintain heated air to "ivo the power of ascension. It shot,, up to a height of 3600 feet, and was blown by a gen'tle breeze to the northwest. 'Sadler had fitted his stove so that ho could increase or decrease the heat. Alter being in the air for some tune ho lost the fork used to handle the fuel, and it is said that lie avoided coming down in a wood by using oars. This flight lasted hall' an hour, the balloon travelling about six miles. Within a fortnight, lie made another ascent, this time in the view of a great crowd of people, who gazed with awe at the “flying coach,” fhe invention ot which only a year before by the brothers Montgolfier had stirred all Europe. This time Sadler adopted the hydrogen method of inflation, and in three minutes was lost to sight in the clouds. In 20 minutes he was down near Aylesbury, 14 miles away. After a quarter of a century as chemist, engineer and inventor, Sadler returned to ballooning at the age ot 67, and in his sixtieth year he failed to cross from Ireland to England. In the spring of 1814,• with his son, he made a daring descent from Burlington House, Piccadilly, the venture being witnessed by a great crowd which the police could not control. Janies Sadler died peacefully in his bed after bis adventurous and useful career, having survived his son Windham, who was killed during an ascent from Bolton in 1824.