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Saladin drifting seaward, from the magazine Graphic
Saladin drifting seaward, from the magazine Graphic. Photograph: De Agostini / Biblioteca Ambrosiana/Getty Images
Saladin drifting seaward, from the magazine Graphic. Photograph: De Agostini / Biblioteca Ambrosiana/Getty Images

The balloonist MP who gave his life for meteorology

This article is more than 7 years old

Intrepid trio were trying to find the cause of a thick fog that had descended on Victorian London. But then disaster struck

English meteorology may seem rather tame, but it can be hazardous, as shown by a balloon expedition by the Meteorological Council in December 1881.

The expedition, in a balloon called Saladin, was to examine the conditions that had produced “a very peculiar fog”, thick enough to delay the trains in London.

Three men were involved: Captain Templer from the Royal Middlesex Rifles, a Mr Agg-Gardener, and the Conservative MP and aeronaut Walter Powell, who piloted the balloon. The plan was to take temperature readings at different altitudes.

They may have been looking for evidence of a temperature inversion, in which cold air is trapped below warmer air, now known to be associated with smog formation.

The balloon lifted off from Bath and was blown along at over 30mph. Visibility was poor and, realising that they were approaching the sea, Templer ordered a descent. The balloon crash-landed near Bridport.

Templer and Agg-Gardener were thrown out, the latter breaking his leg. The balloon, lightened by the reduced load, rose again. Templer held on to a line and shouted to Powell to jump. The line was torn out of Templer’s grip, lacerating his hands.

The balloon continued to rise as it blew away. Templer speculated that Powell was ditching ballast, hoping to make it clear across the Channel. The balloon was soon lost to sight.

Two weeks later, fragments of the balloon were found in Asturias in Spain. There was no sign of Powell, apparently lost in the cause of meteorology.

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