[AEROSTATION] GODARD, Eugène (1827-1890)

[AEROSTATION] GODARD, Eugène (1827-1890)

Autograph letter signed « Eugène Godard » to M. de Fouville
Paris, 30th July 1869, 1 p. 1/2 in-8°
Upper margin cropped off, some letters cropped off (see scan)

Scarce letter from the famous aeronaut announcing his very next scientific ascent

« Je vais faire après demain dimanche une ascension scientifique avec le ballon la citta di firenze à 1400 mètres… Voulez-vous être de la partie, si oui envoyez moi un télégramme pour que je retienne votre place. Dans le cas où vous ne seriez pas à Paris je prie Mme Claudine d’avoir l’obligeance de faire cette proposition à M. Gaston Tissandier [aventurier scientifique et aérostier français] en le priant de m’avoir [dit] télégraphiquement s’il accepte.
Je vous serre la main tous les deux.
Mes salutations amicales à Madame Claudine.
Eugène Godard »

Considered one of the greatest French aeronauts, it was his meeting with the British Charles Green in 1849 that convinced Eugène Godard to fly in a balloon inflated with lighting gas. Until the declaration of Franco-Prussian war in 1870, Godard made a very large number of scientific ascents, including those of 1867 that have remained famous, in the company of Camille Flammarion. At the fall of the Second Empire, he carried out captive observation flights in Paris. The provisional government of National Defence then asked him to build balloons for airmail. On September 28, 1873, in the company of his son Eugène II, Godard flew to Amiens and took Jules Verne with him.

Nice signature