[AIR- 7.] A globose bag filled with gas so as to ascend in the air; the full name at first given to what is now called briefly a BALLOON. Fr. balon aérostatique.
1753. Publ. Advertiser, 25 May. A cascade, and shower of fire, and grand air-balloons, were most magnificently displayed.
1784. Johnson, in Boswell, III. 626. On one day I had three letters about the air balloon.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, France & It., I. 22. The new-invented flying chariot fastened to an air-balloon.
1829. U. K. S., Nat. Phil., I. vi. § 51. 28. Aërostats, or air-balloons, are machines, constructed so as to be able to rise in the atmosphere.
