On September 5, 1862, British meteorologist James Glaisher and aeronaut Henry Tracey Coxwell reached a record altitude of approximately 11,000 meters in a gas balloon from Wolverhampton, England. Both men suffered severe hypoxia, with Coxwell having to use his teeth to open a frozen valve, but they survived and brought back valuable atmospheric data that advanced scientific understanding of upper atmosphere conditions.

This dramatic survival story inspired Victorian poetry exploring themes of human endurance, scientific sacrifice, and the limits of bodily capacity. Tennyson and other Victorian poets referenced extreme altitude experiences in their works, while the incident contributed to literary depictions of the sublime terror found at boundaries of human experience, influencing Gothic and adventure literature.