ascending and descending.

On July 6th, 1785, a favourable breeze gave Rozier his
opportunity of starting from the French coast, and with a
passenger aboard he cast off in his balloon, which he had named
the 'Aero-Montgolfiere.' There was a rapid rise at first, and
then for a time the balloon remained stationary over the land,
after which a cloud suddenly appeared round the balloon,
denoting that an explosion had taken place. Both Rozier and his
companion were killed in the fall, so that he, first to leave
the earth by balloon, was also first victim to the art of
aerostation.

There followed, naturally, a lull in the enthusiasm with which
ballooning had been taken up, so far as France was concerned.
In Italy, however, Count Zambeccari took up hot-air ballooning,
using a spirit lamp to give him buoyancy, and on the first
occasion when the balloon car was set on fire Zambeccari let
down his passenger by means of the anchor rope, and managed to
extinguish the fire while in the air. This reduced the buoyancy
of the balloon to such an extent that it fell into the Adriatic
and was totally wrecked, Zambeccari being rescued by fishermen.
He continued to experiment up to 1812, when he attempted to
ascend at Bologna; the spirit in his lamp was upset by the
collision of the car with a tree, and the car was again set on
fire. Zambeccari jumped from the car when it was over fifty feet
above level ground, and was killed. With him the Rozier type of
balloon, combining the hydrogen and hot air principles,
disappeared; the combination was obviously too dangerous to be
practical.