Charles Green (balloonist)
[1][4] The trip got into trouble and he had to be rescued by a passing ship captained by the mate, Francis Cheesman, who ran the silk through with his bowsprit, releasing the gas.
On 16 August 1828 he ascended from the Eagle Tavern, City Road, on the back of his pony, and after being up for half an hour descended at Beckenham in Kent.
They left Vauxhall Gardens at 1:30 p.m. on 7 November 1836, and, crossing the channel from Dover the same evening, descended the next day, at 7 a.m., at Weilburg in Nassau, Germany, having travelled altogether about five hundred miles in eighteen hours.
At a height of five thousand feet Cocking liberated himself from the balloon, and descending in a parachute of his own construction[2] into a field at Burnt Ash Farm near Lee.
[4] In 1838 Green made two experimental ascents from Vauxhall Gardens at the expense of George Rush of Elsenham Hall, Essex.
The second experiment was made on 10 September, and was for the purpose of ascertaining the greatest altitude that could be attained with the Great Nassau balloon inflated with carburetted hydrogen gas and carrying two persons only.
Green ascended with Rush for his companion, and they reached the elevation of 27,146 feet (8,274 m), or about five miles (8 km) and a quarter, as indicated by the barometer, which fell from 30.50 to 11 inHg (1033 to 373 hPa), the thermometer falling from 61 to 5 °F (16 to −15 °C), or 27 °F below freezing point.
On 31 March 1841 Green ascended from Hastings, accompanied by Charles Frederick William, duke of Brunswick, and in five hours descended at Neufchatel, about ten miles (16 km) south-west of Boulogne.
In 1827 Green made his 69th ascent, from Newbury in Berkshire, accompanied by H. Simmons of Reading, a deaf and dumb gentleman, when a violent thunderstorm threatened the safety of the balloon.
He was also the inventor of the "guide-rope", a rope trailing from the car, which could be lowered or raised by means of a windlass and used to regulate the ascent and descent of the balloon.
