Lowe's latest balloon, the "City of New York", was a massive 103-foot (31.4 m) diameter balloon with an 11½ ton (10,433 kg) lift capacity (on coke gas, 22½ ton (20,412 kg) on hydrogen), which included a 20-foot (6 m) diameter, eight-man canvas-covered gondola and a suspended lifeboat named for his wife Leontine. It was prepared for a test flight to be launched at Reservoir Square in New York on November 1, 1859. Unfortunately the local gas company was not able to deliver a sufficient supply of gas. Within a week Lowe was invited to Philadelphia by Prof. John C. Cresson of the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Sciences, who also happened to be Chairman of the Board of the Point Breeze Gas Works. They promised a sufficient supply of gas. Lowe stored the balloon in Hoboken and waited for spring to do the test flight.