#aeronaut.

On August 27th 1784 James Tytler undertook the first balloon ascent in Britain. The flight took place at Carlton Hill in Edinburgh, becoming Scotland’s first aeronaut!

James Tytler was born in 1745, son of the minister at Fearn in Angus, and after a good education at the parish school, and two or three years as a surgeon’s apprentice in Forfar, he made his way to Edinburgh to study medicine at the University. The following summer, 1765, he took service aboard the Royal Bounty, a Leith whaler, as ship’s surgeon. Then came the first of many misfortunes during his life – he got married. The marriage was hasty and he now had to earn enough to support his wife, making the continuance of his studies impossible. He set up business in Leith as a pharmacist. Business was poor, eventually forcing him to flee to England, out of the reach of his creditors.

He returned to Edinburgh, now with five children as well, and set about making a living from what seemed to be his greatest skill - writing. He was a very prolific writer and editor, although the vast majority of his work went anonymously, being employed in the main by other writers and publishers. He is renowned to have had an amazing skill at editing, being able to précis an item as quickly as most people could read it.

After some attempts at his own publications, a spell in the debtors’ sanctuary at Holyrood, and his wife leaving him, he eventually found steady employment in editing the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, much underpaid at sixteen shillings a week. He spent the next six or seven years at this monumental work while living at Duddingston, using an upturned tub as a writing desk. The Encyclopaedia filled over 9,000 pages and it was during his researches for one of the appendices, covering Air Balloons and their development in the past year, that his interest was sparked.

He set about constructing his Grand Edinburgh Fire Balloon with very little money and probably even less public support. He charged 6d to see a model, and eventually had his balloon ready for a public inflation, though not for a flight. At the time Edinburgh had a building nicknamed “the largest pigeon-house in Europe” - the partly built Register House at the East End of Princes Street. This made an excellent venue for Tytler to test his 40 foot tall balloon, the unfinished dome providing shelter and support.

James Tytler then advertised the public ascent, to be held at Comely Garden (a pleasure garden, now the site of Milton Street, Waverley Park, and the Elsie Inglis Hospital) on 6 August 1784. Needless to say, James had his normal luck - bad luck - all his attempts being dogged by either technical problems or the weather. The press attacked him, and the mob attacked his balloon. Discouraged but not beaten, he was ready again towards the end of the month.

On Wednesday 25 August he inflated the balloon at an early hour in the morning, left the fire burning for another hour, stepped into his basket, and was released. The Grand Edinburgh Fire Balloon rose from the ground, tethered. According to the Edinburgh Evening Courant “the balloon, together with the projector himself, and basket in which he sat, were fairly floated”. Two days later he had even greater success, “navigating the atmosphere” for about half a mile to Restalrig, and on the 31st he made another ascent. Thus were made the first flights from British soil, predating both Lunardi and Sadler. Tytler was famous. A hero. Until another attempt failed and the ignorant press again criticised him.

October 5th 1785 saw the Pioneering Italian aeronaut Vincenzo Lunardi take his balloon from Heriot’s School, Edinburgh to Ceres in Fife.

If you remember my post about Scotland’s first balloon flight by James Tytler that happened in August 1784, we ll it must have attracted the attention of the worlds pioneering balloonists, Italian  Vincenzo Lunardi.

And so it was at 3:45 p.m. on this very day, an 1785, the Italian,  Vincenzo Lunardi lifted off in his “aerostatic machine”  from the garden of George Heriot’s School for what would be the first of a series of historic balloon flights across Scotland. 

Lunardi was invited to bring his balloon to Scotland in 1785, and it is from his account, printed a year later, that we get a real picture of Lunardi’s impression of Scots and the detail of his adventure. Lunardi arrived in September of 1785 and describes the people as “a hardy race…full of men of science and liberality” and the countryside along his journey as “almost alpine” and full of “enchanted regions of romance”.

It took this adventurous Italian the better part of a month to meet the right people to promote his balloon flights, but by the beginning of October the place and time had been set for Lunardi’s first daring flight: a 46-mile journey, over 36 miles of water, from Edinburgh to near Ceres in Fife, where a plaque now marks his landing. From a height of 1100 feet above ground, Lunardi recounts being able to see Glasgow and Paisley as well as the far shore of the Firth of Forth. Lunardi was amazed and distracted by the beauty of Scotland, so much so that he accidentally rose to almost 2000 feet and found himself out over the Forth before knowing it. His journey took him over Inchkeith, east towards North Berwick, then north  above the shore of Fife at Lower Largo and finally touching down just outside of Ceres.

After his successful journey, Lunardi rested in Cupar where he was received by many dignitaries and clubs and then invited to St Andrews by the “Gentleman Golfers”. Upon arrival in St Andrews on the 15th of October, Lunardi was made a member of the golf club, was given freedom of the town and a ball was hosted on his behalf. The next day he visited the University, and his only comment about our institution is that it is “furnished with a good library, and some very valuable ancient manuscripts”!!

October 5th 1785 saw a spectacular balloon flight by Italian aeronaut Vincenzo Lunardi from Heriot’s School, Edinburgh to Ceres in Fife, the first Scottish hydrogen-filled balloon take off.

When aeronautical pioneer Vincenzo Lunardi took off amid much fanfare from Edinburgh in his hot air balloon on what was to become Scotland’s first notable flight he probably had little idea where he would end up.

Driven by the winds, the adventurous Italian soared to an altitude of over 1,000 feet, drifting out across the Forth Estuary before making landfall at Lower Largo, on the Fife coast.

After a 46-mile journey blessed by clear skies, he finally touched down in a field to the east of the village of Ceres. A plaque marks the spot where the epic flight  ended.

Hailing from the city of Lucca near Pisa, he prides himself on being 'the first aerial traveller in the English atmosphere'.

And it was while working as a secretary to the Neapolitan Ambassador in London, he made the trip to Scotland to show off his ‘aerial car’ to the population - a hydrogen-filled balloon made of 140m squared of green, pink and yellow silk.

After his successful journey, Lunardi rested in Cupar where he was received by many dignitaries and clubs and then invited to St Andrews by the “Gentleman Golfers”. Upon arrival in St Andrews on the 15th of October, Lunardi was made a member of the golf club, was given freedom of the town and a ball was hosted on his behalf. The next day he visited the University, and his only comment about our institution is that it is “furnished with a good library, and some very valuable ancient manuscripts”!!

Interest was such in the flamboyant  Italian that the Glasgow council invited him to visit with his balloon.

Lunardi made his launch from the rear of St Andrews Kirk near Glasgow Green, and 'ascended into the atmosphere with majestic grandeur, to the astonishment and admiration of the spectators'.

Detaching a rope at back of church to begin his ascent into the sky, Lombardi was cajoled on by the sound of Glasgow's 27th Regiment playing, as well as the ringing of the church bells of all the kirks in the city.

The Glasgow Advertiser noted the next day that: “On Wednesday last Mr Lunardi fulfilled his promise in ascending in his aerial car from this city. Such a crowd of people assembled as I do not remember to have seen in a place of the kind before. The Green, the tops of the houses, and all places, were the sight could be had for nothing were immensely crowded. Many were amazingly affected. Some shed tears, and some fainted, while others insisted he was in compact with the devil, and ought to be looked upon as a man reprobated by the Almighty. And seems that given the hype surrounding his feat and the fact that he was described as a handsome young man who wore a brilliant uniform, Lombardi achieved something akin to sex symbol status with Glasgow’s female population”

The newspaper also reported how: “It is computed that there were upwards of 100,000 spectators assembled on this occasion, among whom were the greatest number of ladies ever seen in Glasgow, who were all very much interested in Mr Lunardi’s safety”

So great was the level of interest in him and his balloon that the balloon was exhibited (‘suspended in a floating state’) in the choir of Glasgow Cathedral, with an admission price of 1 shilling.

In total he made two flights from the back of the kirk, the first landing him in Hawick in the Scottish borders some 70 odd miles away from the city and the second in Campsie Glen in Milton of Campsie - just over 10 miles from Glasgow.

There is no doubt that he was treated like a celebrity in the city, with reports detailing how the Italian's praises were sung in the streets, while ladies 'conferred his name on some articles of dress' - with ‘Lunardi’ skirts decorated with balloon styles and the ‘Lunardi’ Bonnet, they were such a sensation they even merited a mention in the Rabbie Burns poem, To a Louse...

I wad na been surpris’d to spy You on an auld wife’s flainen toy; Or aiblins some bit dubbie boy, On’s wyliecoat; But Miss’ fine Lunardi! fye! How daur ye do’t?

We know his status within the city as Lunardi himself detailed his visit to Glasgow in a series of letters he sent to his guardian, which he called 'An account of five aerial voyages in Scotland'. And these letters help shed a fascinating light on the occassion.

He wrote, “I am already as well known in this city, as if i had resided in it for some months. As I paffed (walked) through the streets in the morning, a thousand eyes were fixed upon me, and if i remained in view for any considerable space, I had the pleasure of seeing the windows filled with eager beholders.”

While lodging in the city, Lunardi notes how he stayed at the Tontine Hotel in the Trongate area - which was destroyed by fire in 1911. He remarked that it adjoined “the most elegant Coffee-Room I have seen in Europe”. He also noted that he dined in The Saracen Head in Gallowgate on one occasion.

The University of St Andrews hols a copy of Lunardi’s book : “An account of five aerial voyages in Scotland”  You can read more on it below.

On August 27th 1784 James Tytler undertook the first balloon ascent in Britain. The flight took place at Carlton Hill in Edinburgh, becoming Scotland’s first aeronaut! 

James Tytler was the son of a minister, born near Brechin in 1745. As a young man he taught himself basic science and medicine before becoming apprenticed to a surgeon. He went on to take medical classes at Edinburgh University and for a short time was a ship’s surgeon aboard the whaling ship Royal Bounty. He also set up his own unsuccessful pharmacy business. His real talent lay in writing and editing, and he would publish on a home-made printing press whilst simultaneously working on many unsuccessful business ideas that frequently plunged him into deep debt. He married young, had lots of children, had lots of affairs and divorced in 1788.

It was whilst working as editor of the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica that Tytler read about the experiments of the Montgolfier brothers in France who had flown a hot air balloon. Tytler set out to see if he could do the same thing and created the Grand Edinburgh Fire Balloon. Early attempts to fly the balloon were dogged by bad weather, technical problems, hostility in the press and a superstitious mob who attacked the balloon. Eventually it was launched on a successful flight. The Edinburgh Evening Courant recorded: “the balloon, together with the projector himself, and basket in which he sat, were fairly floated”. The balloon was tethered but reached a height of 350 feet. Two days later, on the 27th August, Tytler travelled a half mile in the balloon and a few days after that made another ascent. Unfortunately on his final flight in October 1784 his balloon crashed before a crowd of paying spectators and his career as an aeronaut was over.