BALLOONS.
First air vehicle--Principle of Archimedes--Why balloons
rise--Inflating gases--Early history--The Montgolfiers--The
hot-air balloon--Charles’s hydrogen balloon--Pilatre de
Rozier--The first aeronaut--The first balloon voyage--Blanchard
and Jeffries--Crossing the English Channel--First English
ascensions--Notable voyages--Recent long-distance journeys
and high ascensions--Prize balloon races--A fascinating
sport--Some impressions, adventures, and hardships--Accident
record--Increasing interest in ballooning.
The balloon, though the earliest and crudest means of getting up in the
air, has not become obsolete. It has been in existence practically in
its present general form for upwards of 500 years. Appliances have been
added from time to time, but the big gas envelope enclosing a volume of
some gas lighter than an equal volume of air, and the basket, or car,
suspended below it, remain as the typical form of aerial vehicle which
has not changed since it was first devised in times so remote as to lie
outside the boundaries of recorded history.
The common shape of the gas bag of a balloon is that of the sphere, or
sometimes of an inverted pear. It is allowed to rise and float away in
the air as the prevailing wind may carry it. Attempts have been made to
steer it in a desired direction, but they did not accomplish much until
the gas bag was made long horizontally, in proportion to its height and
width. With a drag-rope trailing behind on the ground from the rear end
of the gas bag, and sails on the forward end, it was possible to guide
the elongated balloon to some extent in a determined direction.
In explaining why a balloon rises in the air, it is customary to quote
the “principle of Archimedes,” discovered and formulated by that famous
philosopher centuries before the Christian era. Briefly stated, it is
this: Every body immersed in a fluid is acted upon by a force pressing
upward, which is equal to the weight of the amount of the fluid
displaced by the immersed body.
It remained for Sir Isaac Newton to explain the principle of Archimedes
(by the discovery of the law of gravitation), and to show that the
reason why the immersed body is apparently pushed upward, is that the
displaced fluid is attracted downward. In the case of a submerged
bag of a gas lighter than air, the amount of force acting on the
surrounding air is greater than that acting on the gas, and the latter
is simply crowded out of the way by the descending air, and forced up
to a higher level where its lighter bulk is balanced by the gravity
acting upon it.
The fluid in which the balloon is immersed is the air. The force
with which the air crowds down around and under the balloon is its
weight--weight being the measure of the attraction which gravity exerts
upon any substance.
The weight of air at a temperature of 32° Fahr., at the normal
barometer pressure at the sea-level (29.92 inches of mercury), is
0.0807 lbs. per cubic foot. The gas used to fill a balloon must
therefore weigh less than this, bulk for bulk, in order to be crowded
upward by the heavier air--and thus exert its “lifting power,” as it is
commonly called.
In practice, two gases have been used for inflating balloons--hydrogen,
and illuminating gas, made ordinarily from coal, and called “coal gas.”
Hydrogen is the lightest substance known; that is, it is attracted less
by gravity than any other known substance, in proportion to its bulk.
[Illustration: One of the earliest attempts to steer a spherical
balloon by retarding its speed with the drag-rope, and adjusting the
sail to the passing wind.]
A cubic foot of hydrogen weighs but 0.0056 lbs., and it will
therefore be pushed upward in air by the difference in weight, or
0.0751 lbs. per cubic foot. A cubic foot of coal gas weighs about
0.0400 lbs., and is crowded upward in air with a force of 0.0407 lbs.
[Illustration:
Apparatus to illustrate the principle of Archimedes. At the left,
the small solid glass ball and large hollow glass sphere are
balanced in the free air. When the balance is moved under the
bell-glass of the air pump (at the right), and the air exhausted,
the large sphere drops, showing that its previous balance was due
to the upward pressure of the air, greater because of its larger
bulk.]
It is readily seen that a very large bulk of hydrogen must be used
if any considerable weight is to be lifted. For to the weight of the
gas must be added the weight of the containing bag, the car, and the
network supporting it, the ballast, instruments, and passengers, and
there must still be enough more to afford elevating power sufficient to
raise the entire load to the desired level.
Let us assume that we have a balloon with a volume of 20,000 cubic
feet, which weighs with its appurtenances 500 pounds. The hydrogen
it would contain would weigh about 112 pounds, and the weight of
the air it would displace would be about 1,620 pounds. The total
available lifting power would be about 1,000 pounds. If a long-distance
journey is to be undertaken at a comparatively low level, this will
be sufficient to carry the necessary ballast, and a few passengers.
If, however, it is intended to rise to a great height, the problem
is different. The weight of the air, and consequently its lifting
pressure, decreases as we go upwards. If the balloon has not been
entirely filled, the gas will expand as the pressure is reduced in the
higher altitude. This has the effect of carrying the balloon higher.
Heating of the contained gas by the sun will also cause a rise. On
the other hand, the diffusion of the gas through the envelope into
the air, and the penetration of air into the gas bag will produce a
mixture heavier than hydrogen, and will cause the balloon to descend.
The extreme cold of the upper air has the same effect, as it tends to
condense to a smaller bulk the gas in the balloon. To check a descent
the load carried by the gas must be lightened by throwing out some of
the ballast, which is carried simply for this purpose. Finally a level
is reached where equilibrium is established, and above which it is
impossible to rise.
The earliest recorded ascent of a balloon is credited to the Chinese,
on the occasion of the coronation of the Emperor Fo-Kien at Pekin in
the year 1306. If this may be called historical, it gives evidence also
that it speedily became a lost art. The next really historic record
belongs in the latter part of the seventeenth century, when Cyrano de
Bergerac attempted to fly with the aid of bags of air attached to his
person, expecting them to be so expanded by the heat of the sun as to
rise with sufficient force to lift him. He did not succeed, but his
idea is plainly the forerunner of the hot-air balloon.
In the same century Francisco de Lana, who was clearly a man of
much intelligence and keen reasoning ability, having determined by
experiment that the atmosphere had weight, decided that he would be
able to rise into the air in a ship lifted by four metal spheres 20
feet in diameter from which the air had been exhausted. After several
failures he abandoned his efforts upon the religious grounds that the
Almighty doubtless did not approve such an overturning in the affairs
of mankind as would follow the attainment of the art of flying.
In 1757, Galen, a French monk, published a book, “The Art of Navigating
in the Air,” in which he advocated filling the body of the airship
with air secured at a great height above the sea-level, where it was
“a thousand times lighter than water.” He showed by mathematical
computations that the upward impulse of this air would be sufficient
to lift a heavy load. He planned in detail a great airship to carry
4,000,000 persons and several million packages of goods. Though it may
have accomplished nothing more, this book is believed to have been the
chief source of inspiration to the Montgolfiers.
The discovery of hydrogen by Cavendish in 1776 gave Dr. Black the
opportunity of suggesting that it be used to inflate a large bag and
so lift a heavy load into the air. Although he made no attempt to
construct such an apparatus, he afterward claimed that through this
suggestion he was entitled to be called the real inventor of the
balloon.
This is the meagre historical record preceding the achievements of
the brothers Stephen and Joseph Montgolfier, which marked distinctly
the beginning of practical aeronautics. Both of these men were highly
educated, and they were experienced workers in their father’s paper
factory. Joseph had made some parachute drops from the roof of his
house as early as 1771.
After many experiments with steam, smoke, and hydrogen gas, with which
they tried ineffectually to inflate large paper bags, they finally
succeeded with heated air, and on June 5, 1783, they sent up a great
paper hot-air balloon, 35 feet in diameter. It rose to a height of
1,000 feet, but soon came to earth again upon cooling. It appears that
the Montgolfiers were wholly ignorant of the fact that it was the
rarefying of the air by heating that caused their balloon to rise, and
they made no attempt to keep it hot while the balloon was in the air.
[Illustration: An early Montgolfier balloon.]
About the same time the French scientist, M. Charles, decided that
hydrogen gas would be better than hot air to inflate balloons. Finding
that this gas passed readily through paper, he used silk coated with a
varnish made by dissolving rubber. His balloon was 13 feet in diameter,
and weighed about 20 pounds. It was sent up from the Champ de Mars
on August 29, 1783, amidst the booming of cannon, in the presence of
300,000 spectators who assembled despite a heavy rain. It rose swiftly,
disappearing among the clouds, and soon burst from the expansion of
the gas in the higher and rarer atmosphere--no allowance having been
made for this unforeseen result. It fell in a rural region near Paris,
where it was totally destroyed by the inhabitants, who believed it to
be some hideous form of the devil.
The Montgolfiers had already come to Paris, and had constructed a
balloon of linen and paper. Before they had opportunity of sending it
up it was ruined by a rainstorm with a high wind. They immediately
built another of waterproof linen which made a successful ascension on
September 19, 1783, taking as passengers a sheep, a cock, and a duck.
The balloon came safely to earth after being up eight minutes--falling
in consequence of a leak in the air-bag near the top. The passengers
were examined with great interest. The sheep and the duck seemed in
the same excellent condition as when they went up, but the cock was
evidently ailing. A consultation of scientists was held and it was the
consensus of opinion that the fowl could not endure breathing the rarer
air of the high altitude. At this juncture some one discovered that the
cock had been trodden upon by the sheep, and the consultation closed
abruptly.
The Montgolfier brothers were loaded with honors, Stephen receiving the
larger portion; and the people of Paris entered enthusiastically into
the sport of making and flying small balloons of the Montgolfier type.
Stephen began work at once upon a larger balloon intended to carry
human passengers. It was fifty feet in diameter, and 85 feet high, with
a capacity of 100,000 cubic feet. The car for the passengers was swung
below from cords in the fashion that has since become so familiar.
In the meantime Pilatre de Rozier had constructed a balloon on the
hot-air principle, but with an arrangement to keep the air heated by a
continuous fire in a pan under the mouth of the balloon. He made the
first balloon ascent on record on October 15, 1783, rising to a height
of eighty feet, in the captive balloon. On November 21, in the same
year, de Rozier undertook an expedition in a free balloon with the
Marquis d’Arlandes as a companion. The experiment was to have been made
with two condemned criminals, but de Rozier and d’Arlandes succeeded in
obtaining the King’s permission to make the attempt, and in consequence
their names remain as those of the first aeronauts. They came safely
to the ground after a voyage lasting twenty-five minutes. After this,
ascensions speedily became a recognized sport, even for ladies.
The greatest altitude reached by these hot-air balloons was about 9,000
feet.
[Illustration: Pilatre de Rozier’s balloon.]
The great danger from fire, however, led to the closer consideration
of the hydrogen balloon of Professor Charles, who was building one of
30 feet diameter for the study of atmospheric phenomena. His mastery
of the subject is shown by the fact that his balloon was equipped with
almost every device afterward in use by the most experienced aeronauts.
He invented the valve at the top of the bag for allowing the escape
of gas in landing, the open neck to permit expansion, the network of
cords to support the car, the grapnel for anchoring, and the use of a
small pilot balloon to test the air-currents before the ascension. He
also devised a barometer by which he was able to measure the altitude
reached by the pressure of the atmosphere.
To provide the hydrogen gas required he used the chemical method of
pouring dilute sulphuric acid on iron filings. The process was so
slow that it took continuous action for three days and three nights
to secure the 14,000 cubic feet needed, but his balloon was finally
ready on December 1, 1783. One of the brothers Robert accompanied
Charles, and they travelled about 40 miles in a little less than 4
hours, alighting at Nesles. Here Robert landed and Charles continued
the voyage alone. Neglecting to take on board ballast to replace
the weight of M. Robert, Charles was carried to a great height, and
suffered severely from cold and the difficulty of breathing in the
highly rarefied air. He was obliged to open his gas valve and descend
after half an hour’s flight alone.
Blanchard, another French inventor, about this time constructed a
balloon with the intention of being the first to cross the English
Channel in the air. He took his balloon to Dover and with Dr. Jeffries,
an American, started on January 7, 1785. His balloon was leaky and he
had loaded it down with a lot of useless things in the way of oars,
provisions, and other things. All of this material and the ballast
had to be thrown overboard at the outset, and books and parts of the
balloon followed. Even their clothing had to be thrown over to keep the
balloon out of the sea, and at last, when Dr. Jeffries had determined
to jump out to enable his friend to reach the shore, an upward current
of wind caught them and with great difficulty they landed near Calais.
The feat was highly lauded and a monument in marble was erected on the
spot to perpetuate the record of the achievement.
De Rozier lost his life soon after in the effort to duplicate this trip
across the Channel with his combination hydrogen and hot-air balloon.
His idea seems to have been that he could preserve the buoyancy of
his double balloon by heating up the air balloon at intervals.
Unfortunately, the exuding of the hydrogen as the balloons rose formed
an explosive mixture with the air he was rising through, and it was
drawn to his furnace, and an explosion took place which blew the entire
apparatus into fragments at an altitude of over 1,000 feet.
[Illustration: Car and hoop of the Blanchard balloon, the first to
cross the English Channel.]
Count Zambeccari, an Italian, attempted to improve the de Rozier
method of firing a balloon by substituting a large alcohol lamp for
the wood fire. In the first two trial trips he fell into the sea, but
was rescued. On the third trip his balloon was swept into a tree, and
the overturned lamp set it on fire. To escape being burned, he threw
himself from the balloon and was killed by the fall.
The year before these feats on the Continent two notable balloon
ascensions had taken place in England. On August 27, 1784, an aeronaut
by the name of Tytler made the first balloon voyage within the
boundaries of Great Britain. His balloon was of linen and varnished,
and the record of his ascension indicates that he used hydrogen gas to
inflate it. He soared to a great height, and descended safely.
A few weeks later, the Italian aeronaut Lunardi made his first ascent
from London. The spectacle drew the King and his councillors from their
deliberations, and the balloon was watched until it disappeared. He
landed in Standon, near Ware, where a stone was set to record the
event. On October 12, he made his famous voyage from Edinburgh over the
Firth of Forth to Ceres; a distance of 46 miles in 35 minutes, or at
the rate of nearly 79 miles per hour; a speed rarely equalled by the
swiftest railroad trains.
From this time on balloons multiplied rapidly and the ascents were too
numerous for recording in these pages. The few which have been selected
for mention are notable either for the great distances traversed, or
for the speed with which the journeys were made. It should be borne
in mind that the fastest method of land travel in the early part of
the period covered was by stage coach; and the sailing ship was the
only means of crossing the water. It is no wonder that often the
people among whom the aeronauts landed on a balloon voyage refused to
believe the statements made as to the distance they had come, and the
marvellously short time it had taken. And even as compared with the
most rapid transit of the present day, the speeds attained in many
cases have never been equalled.
A remarkable English voyage was made in June, 1802, by the French
aeronaut Garnerin and Captain Snowdon. They ascended from Chelsea
Gardens and landed in Colchester, 60 miles distant, in 45 minutes: an
average speed of 80 miles an hour.
On December 16, 1804, Garnerin ascended from the square in front
of Notre Dame, Paris; passing over France and into Italy, sailing
above St. Peter’s at Rome, and the Vatican, and descending into Lake
Bracciano--a distance of 800 miles in 20 hours. This voyage was made
as a part of the coronation ceremonies of Napoleon I. The balloon was
afterwards hung up in a corridor of the Vatican.
On October 7, 1811, Sadler and Burcham voyaged from Birmingham to
Boston (England), 112 miles in 1 hour 40 minutes, a speed of 67 miles
per hour.
On November 17, 1836, Charles Green and Monck Mason started on a voyage
in the great balloon of the Vauxhall Gardens. It was pear-shaped, 60
feet high and 50 feet in diameter, and held 85,000 cubic feet of gas.
It was cut loose at half-past one in the afternoon, and in 3 hours had
reached the English Channel, and in 1 hour more had crossed it, and
was nearly over Calais. During the night it floated on over France
in pitchy darkness and such intense cold that the oil was frozen. In
the morning the aeronauts descended a few miles from Weilburg, in
the Duchy of Nassau, having travelled about 500 miles in 18 hours. At
that date, by the fastest coaches the trip would have consumed three
days. The balloon was rechristened “The Great Balloon of Nassau” by the
enthusiastic citizens of Weilburg.
[Illustration:
Prof. T. S. C. Lowe’s mammoth balloon “City of New York,” a
feature of the year 1860, in which it made many short voyages in
the vicinity of New York and Philadelphia.]
In 1849, M. Arban crossed the Alps in a balloon, starting at Marseilles
and landing at Turin--a distance of 400 miles in 8 hours. This
remarkable record for so long a distance at a high speed has rarely
been equalled. It was exceeded as to distance at the same speed by the
American aeronaut, John Wise, in 1859.
One of the most famous balloons of recent times was the “Geant,” built
by M. Nadar, in Paris, in 1853. The immense gas-bag was made of silk of
the finest quality costing at that time about $1.30 a yard, and being
made double, it required 22,000 yards. It had a capacity of 215,000
cubic feet of gas, and lifted 4½ tons. The car was 13 feet square,
and had an upper deck which was open. On its first ascent it carried
15 passengers, including M. Nadar as captain, and the brothers Godard
as lieutenants. A few weeks later this balloon was set free for a
long-distance journey, and 17 hours after it left Paris it landed at
Nieuburg in Hanover, having traversed 750 miles, a part of the time at
the speed of fully 90 miles per hour.
In July, 1859, John Wise, an American aeronaut, journeyed from St.
Louis, Mo., to Henderson, N. Y., a distance of 950 miles in 19 hours.
His average speed was 50 miles per hour. This record for duration at so
high a rate of speed has never been exceeded.
During the siege of Paris in 1870, seventy-three balloons were sent
out from that city carrying mail and dispatches. These were under
Government direction, and receive notice in a subsequent chapter
devoted to Military Aeronautics. One of these balloons is entitled to
mention among those famous for rapid journeys, having travelled to the
Zuyder Zee, a distance of 285 miles, in 3 hours--an average speed of 95
miles per hour. Another of these postal balloons belongs in the extreme
long-distance class, having come down in Norway nearly 1,000 miles from
Paris.
In July, 1897, the Arctic explorer Andrée started on his voyage to the
Pole. As some of his instruments have been recently recovered from
a wandering band of Esquimaux, it is believed that a record of his
voyage may yet be secured.
In the same year a balloon under the command of Godard ascended
at Leipsic, and after a wandering journey in an irregular course,
descended at Wilna. The distance travelled was estimated at 1,032
miles, but as balloon records are always based on the airline distance
between the places of ascent and descent, this record has not been
accepted as authoritative. The time consumed was 24¼ hours.
In 1899, Captain von Sigsfield, Captain Hildebrandt, and a companion
started from Berlin in a wind so strong that it prevented the taking
on of an adequate load of ballast. They rose into a gale, and in two
hours were over Breslau, having made the distance at a speed of 92
miles per hour. In the grasp of the storm they continued their swift
journey, landing finally high up in the snows of the Carpathian Alps in
Austria. They were arrested by the local authorities as Russian spies,
but succeeded in gaining their liberty by telegraphing to an official
more closely in touch with the aeronautics of the day.
In 1900 there were several balloon voyages notable for their length.
Jacques Balsan travelled from Vincennes to Dantzig, 757 miles; Count
de la Vaulx journeyed from Vincennes to Poland, 706 miles; Jacques
Faure from Vincennes to Mamlity, 753 miles. In a subsequent voyage
Jacques Balsan travelled from Vincennes to Rodom, in Russia, 843 miles,
in 27½ hours.
[Illustration: The balloon in which Coxwell and Glaisher made their
famous ascent of 29,000 feet.]
One of the longest balloon voyages on record in point of time consumed
is that of Dr. Wegener of the Observatory at Lindenberg, in 1905. He
remained in the air for 52¾ hours.
The longest voyage, as to distance, up to 1910, was that of Count de
La Vaulx and Count Castillon de Saint Victor in 1906, in the balloon
“Centaur.” This was a comparatively small balloon, having a capacity
of only 55,000 cubic feet of gas. The start was made from Vincennes on
October 9th, and the landing at Korostischeff, in Russia, on October
11th. The air-line distance travelled was 1,193 miles, in 35¾ hours.
The balloon “Centaur” was afterward purchased by the Aero Club of
America, and has made many voyages in this country.
The Federation Aeronautique Internationale, an association of the
aeronauts of all nations, was founded in 1905. One of its functions is
an annual balloon race for the International Challenge Cup, presented
to the association by James Gordon Bennett, to be an object for
competition until won three times by some one competing national club.
The first contest took place in September, 1906, and was won by the
American competitor, Lieut. Frank P. Lahm, with a voyage of 402 miles.
The second contest was from St. Louis, Mo., in 1907. There were three
German, two French, one English, and three American competitors. The
race was won by Oscar Erbslöh, one of the German competitors, with an
air-line voyage of 872¼ miles, landing at Bradley Beach, N. J. Alfred
Leblanc, now a prominent aviator, was second with a voyage of 867
miles, made in 44 hours. He also landed in New Jersey.
The third race started at Berlin in October, 1908, and was won by the
Swiss balloon “Helvetia,” piloted by Colonel Schaeck, which landed in
Norway after having been 74 hours in the air, and covering a journey of
750 miles. This broke the previous duration record made by Dr. Wegener
in 1905.
The fourth contest began on October 3, 1909, from Zurich, Switzerland.
There were seventeen competing balloons, and the race was won by E. W.
Mix, representing the Aero Club of America, with a voyage of 589 miles.
The fifth contest began at St. Louis, October 17, 1910. It was won by
Alan P. Hawley and Augustus Post, with the “America II.” They travelled
1,355 miles in 46 hours, making a new world’s record for distance.
Among other notable voyages may be mentioned that of the “Fielding”
in a race on July 4, 1908, from Chicago. The landing was made at West
Shefford, Quebec, the distance travelled being 895 miles.
In November of the same year A. E. Gaudron, Captain Maitland, and C. C.
Turner, made the longest voyage on record from England. They landed at
Mateki Derevni, in Russia, having travelled 1,117 miles in 31½ hours.
They were driven down to the ground by a severe snowstorm.
On December 31, 1908, M. Usuelli, in the balloon “Ruwenzori” left the
Italian lakes and passed over the Alps at a height of 14,750 feet,
landing in France. This feat was followed a few weeks later--February
9, 1909--by Oscar Erbslöh, who left St. Moritz with three passengers,
crossing the Alps at an altitude of 19,000 feet, and landed at Budapest
after a voyage of 33 hours. Many voyages over and among the Alps
have been made by Captain Spelterini, the Swiss aeronaut, and he has
secured some of the most remarkable photographs of the mountain scenery
in passing. In these voyages at such great altitudes it is necessary
to carry cylinders of oxygen to provide a suitable air mixture for
breathing. In one of his recent voyages Captain Spelterini had the good
fortune to be carried almost over the summit of Mont Blanc. He ascended
with three passengers at Chamounix, and landed at Lake Maggiore seven
hours later, having reached the altitude of 18,700 feet, and travelled
93 miles.
[Illustration: Photograph of the Alps from a balloon by Captain
Spelterini.]
In the United States there were several balloon races during the year
1909, the most important being the St. Louis Centennial race, beginning
on October 4th. Ten balloons started. The race was won by S. von Phul,
who covered the distance of 550 miles in 40 hours 40 minutes. Clifford
B. Harmon and Augustus Post in the balloon “New York” made a new
duration record for America of 48 hours 26 minutes. They also reached
the highest altitude attained by an American balloon--24,200 feet.
On October 12th, in a race for the Lahm cup, A. Holland Forbes and Col.
Max Fleischman won. They left St. Louis, Mo., and landed 19 hours and
15 minutes later at Beach, Va., near Richmond, having travelled 697
miles.
In 1910, in the United States, a remarkable race, with thirteen
competitors, started at Indianapolis. This was the elimination race
for the International race on October 17th. It was won by Alan P.
Hawley and Augustus Post in the balloon “America II.” They crossed the
Alleghany Mountains at an elevation of about 20,000 feet, and landed
at Warrenton, Va., after being 44 hours 30 minutes in the air; and
descended only to escape being carried out over Chesapeake Bay.
In recent years the greatest height reached by a balloon was attained
by the Italian aeronauts Piacenza and Mina in the “Albatross,” on
August 9, 1909. They went up from Turin to the altitude of 30,350 feet.
The world’s height record rests with Professors Berson and Suring of
Berlin, who on July 31, 1901, reached 35,500 feet. The record of 37,000
feet claimed by Glaisher and Coxwell in their ascension on September 5,
1862, has been rejected as not authentic for several discrepancies in
their observations, and on the ground that their instruments were not
of the highest reliability. As they carried no oxygen, and reported
that for a time they were both unconscious, it is estimated that the
highest point they could have reached under the conditions was less
than 31,000 feet.
The greatest speed ever recorded for any balloon voyage was that
of Captain von Sigsfield and Dr. Linke in their fatal journey from
Berlin to Antwerp, during which the velocity of 125 miles per hour was
recorded.
Ballooning as a sport has a fascination all its own. There is much of
the spice of adventure in the fact that one’s destiny is quite unknown.
Floating with the wind, there is no consciousness of motion. Though
the wind may be travelling at great speed, the balloon seems to be
in a complete calm. A lady passenger, writing of a recent trip, has
thus described her experience:--“The world continues slowly to unroll
itself in ever-varying but ever-beautiful panorama--patchwork fields,
shimmering silver streaks, toy box churches and houses, and white roads
like the joints of a jig-saw puzzle. And presently cotton-wool billows
come creeping up, with purple shadows and fleecy outlines and prismatic
rainbow effects. Sometimes they invade the car, and shroud it for a
while in clinging warm white wreaths, and anon they fall below and
shut out the world with a glorious curtain, and we are all alone in
perfect silence, in perfect peace, and in a realm made for us alone.
“And so the happy, restful hours go smoothly by, until the earth has
had enough of it, and rising up more or less rapidly to invade our
solitude, hits the bottom of our basket, and we step out, or maybe roll
out, into every-day existence a hundred miles away.”
The perfect smoothness of motion, the absolute quiet, and the absence
of distracting apparatus combine to render balloon voyaging the most
delightful mode of transit from place to place. Some of the most
fascinating bits of descriptive writing are those of aeronauts. The
following quotation from the report of Capt. A. Hildebrandt, of the
balloon corps of the Prussian army, will show that although his
expeditions were wholly scientific, he was far from indifferent to the
sublimer influences of nature by which he was often surrounded.
In his account of the journey from Berlin to Markaryd, in Sweden, with
Professor Berson as a companion aeronaut, he says: “The view over Rügen
and the chalk cliffs of Stubbenkammer and Arkona was splendid: the
atmosphere was perfectly clear. On the horizon we could see the coasts
of Sweden and Denmark, looking almost like a thin mist; east and west
there was nothing but the open sea.
“About 3:15 the balloon was in the middle of the Baltic; right in the
distance we could just see Rügen and Sweden. The setting of the sun at
4 P.M. was a truly magnificent spectacle. At a height of 5,250 feet, in
a perfectly clear atmosphere, the effect was superb. The blaze of color
was dimly reflected in the east by streaks of a bluish-green. I have
seen sunsets over France at heights of 10,000 feet, with the Alps, the
Juras, and the Vosges Mountains in the distance; but this was quite as
fine.
“The sunsets seen by the mountaineer or the sailor are doubtless,
magnificent; but I hardly think the spectacle can be finer than that
spread out before the gaze of the balloonist. The impression is
increased by the absolute stillness which prevails; no sound of any
kind is heard.
[Illustration: Landscape as seen from a balloon at an altitude of 3,000
feet.]
“As soon as the sun went down, it was necessary to throw out some
ballast, owing to the decrease of temperature.... We reached the
Swedish coast about 5 o’clock, and passed over Trelleborg at a
height of 2,000 feet. The question then arose whether to land, or to
continue through the night. Although it was well past sunset, there
was sufficient light in consequence of the snow to see our way to
the ground, and to land quite easily.... However, we wanted to do more
meteorological work, and it was thought that there was still sufficient
ballast to take us up to a much greater height. We therefore proposed
to continue for another sixteen hours during the night, in spite of the
cold.... Malmö was therefore passed on the left, and the university
town of Lund on the right. After this the map was of no further use,
as it was quite dark and we had no lamp. The whole outlook was like a
transformation scene. Floods of light rose up from Trelleborg, Malmö,
Copenhagen, Landskrona, Lund, Elsinore, and Helsingborg, while the
little towns beneath our feet sparkled with many lights. We were now at
a height of more than 10,000 feet, and consequently all these places
were within sight. The glistening effect of the snow was heightened by
the blaze which poured from the lighthouses along the coasts of Sweden
and Denmark. The sight was as wonderful as that of the sunset, though
of a totally different nature.”
Captain Hildebrandt’s account of the end of this voyage illustrates the
spice of adventure which is likely to be encountered when the balloon
comes down in a strange country. It has its hint also of the hardships
for which the venturesome aeronaut has to be prepared. He says:--
“Sooner or later the balloon would have been at the mercy of the
waves. The valve was opened, and the balloon descended through the
thick clouds. We could see nothing, but the little jerks showed us
that the guide-rope was touching the ground. In a few seconds we saw
the ground, and learned that we were descending into a forest which
enclosed a number of small lakes. At once more ballast was thrown out,
and we skimmed along over the tops of the trees. Soon we crossed a big
lake, and saw a place that seemed suitable for a descent. The valve
was then opened, both of us gave a tug at the ripping cord, and after
a few bumps we found ourselves on the ground. We had come down in deep
snow on the side of a wood, about 14 miles from the railway station at
Markaryd.
[Illustration: Making a landing with the aid of bystanders to pull down
upon the trail-rope and a holding rope.]
“We packed up our instruments, and began to look out for a cottage;
but this is not always an easy task in the dead of night in a foreign
country. However, in a quarter of an hour we found a farm, and
succeeded in rousing the inmates. A much more difficult job was to
influence them to open their front door to two men who talked some
sort of double Dutch, and who suddenly appeared at a farmyard miles
off the highway in the middle of the night and demanded admittance.
Berson can talk in six languages, but unfortunately Swedish is not one
of them. He begged in the most humble way for shelter ... and at the
end of three-quarters of an hour the farmer opened the door. We showed
him some pictures of a balloon we had with us, and then they began
to understand the situation. We were then received with truly Swedish
hospitality, and provided with supper. They even proposed to let us
have their beds; but this we naturally declined with many thanks....
The yard contained hens, pigs, cows, and sheep; but an empty corner
was found, which was well packed with straw, and served as a couch for
our tired limbs. We covered ourselves with our great-coats, and tried
to sleep. But the temperature was 10° Fahr., and as the place was only
an outhouse of boards roughly nailed together, and the wind whistling
through the cracks and crevices, we were not sorry when the daylight
came.”
Lest the possibility of accident to travellers by balloon be judged
greater than it really is, it may be well to state that records
collected in Germany in 1906 showed that in 2,061 ascents in which
7,570 persons participated, only 36 were injured--or but 1 out of 210.
Since that time, while the balloon itself has remained practically
unchanged, better knowledge of atmospheric conditions has aided in
creating an even more favorable record for recent years.
That the day of ordinary ballooning has not been dimmed by the advent
of the airship and the aeroplane is evidenced by the recently made
estimate that not less than 800 spherical balloons are in constant
use almost daily in one part or another of Christendom. And it seems
entirely reasonable to predict that with a better comprehension of the
movements of air-currents--to which special knowledge the scientific
world is now applying its investigations as never before--they will
come a great increase of interest in simple ballooning as a recreation.