James Sadler (balloonist)

James Sadler (1753–1828) was the first English balloonist.

Sadler was the second person to make a balloon ascent in England, very soon after the Tuscan Vincent Lunardi's flight on 15 September 1784 in the grounds of the Honourable Artillery Park at Moorfields. Sadler made his ascent during the month after on 4 October 1784 from Christ Church Meadow, Oxford. The balloon rose to about 3,600 feet and landed near Wood Eaton, around six miles away. His second ascent in 1785 a year later reached Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire after a twenty-minute flight. In May of that year he took off near Moulsey Hurst, Surrey, accompanied by W. Wyndham MP, hoping to reach France, but in fact descending in the Thames Estuary, and thus failing to repeat the earlier exploit of Jean-Pierre Blanchard and his passenger.

He was appointed Chemist in 1796 in the newly created Naval Works Department under Sir Samuel Bentham. Although the post was only abolished in 1807, he had major disagreements with Bentham and carried out few works. His most important invention was that of the table steam engine. [J. E. Hodgson, ‘James Sadler of Oxford’, "Trans. Newcomen Society", 8,1927–8, 66–82: BL Add. MS 40221 f. 272, Add. MS 37888 f. 161: Science Museum library Goodrich MS C11]

He resumed his ballooning activities although he was devastated by the death of his younger son, Windham, in a ballooning accident in 1824. [J. E. Hodgson. "The history of aeronautics in Great Britain." 1924. ·]

Selected balloon ascents

* 7 July 1810: at Oxford, on the occasion of the installation of Lord Grenville as Chancellor at Oxford University.
* September 1810: from Bristol, with the chemist William Clayfield, landing safely near Combe Martin in the Bristol Channel.
* 29 August 1811: from Hackney to East Thorpe in Essex (near Colchester), with Henry Beaufoy (1786–1851); a number of experiments were performed.
* 7 October 1811: a speed record during a gale, travelling over a hundred miles in about 1 hour 20 minutes.
* 1 October 1812: from Belvedere House near Mullingar, Ireland, attempting to cross the Irish Sea; he almost drowned in the attempt.
* 1814: in London, to open the Jubilee celebrations that year.

References

* [http://www.georgianindex.net/balloonists/sadler.html Balloonists at the Turn of the 18th & 19th Century, The English Flights — James Sadler]