The daily republic. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1853-1853, 1853-07-14
THE REPUBLIC.
RriaI voyages.

y
An ardent and firm believer in the practicable
ty Of travelling with great CELEBRITY through the
air, in such manner as soon to render the art of
great service to the human family in the prose-
cY&on of the business of every day life, (Mr
HEus Porter promises the citizens of Wash
ipgton an early demonstration of the feasibility
d1his plan. We shall believe in his discovery and
sehder him all honor upon witnessing the sue
cete of his experiment In the meantime, how
eIbr, the views of other experimenters may not
b4 embarrassing to our readers. Wequote from
tm Philadelphia Inquirer:
p"We recently published q highly interesting
correspondence between Mr. John Wise, the cele-
bAted wronaut, of Lancaster, Penn, and the
ion. Ellis Lewis, in relation to a plan, as pro-
Yssed by the former, of crossing the ocean in q
Balloon. The subject has attracted considerable
attention, and we perceive that the correspond
ence is copied in detail or in abstract by many
of our contemporaries of various portions of the
Union. The estimate for an experimental trip is
$25 900; but in the first place Mr.. Wise proposes
to make at least one successful voyage from one
of the western cities to the seaboard, and thus
having in some degree tested his capa city and
his enterprise, to commence arrangements for
the more hazardous undertaking Of crossing the
Atlantic. In letter now before US, he enters
more fully into his views and expectations, and
expresses the utmost confidence in his ability to
carry the daring project into successful exami-
nation. He says: Il always find strong currents
from the N. w. and s. w. at elevations within
three miles. These two currents traverse and
form a compound current between them, making,
Of course, current eastward. The why or the
wherefore of these currents it is not for me to
explain; suffice it to say that | have found them
thirty mine out of forty times in my experience,
and the one exception presented calm at the
altitude of nearly eight miles, (barometrica,) on
which occasion, no doubt, two or three thousand
feet more altitude would have reached them. /
mention this single exception, because it was
the only time that did not, over an altitude Of
two miles, find an eastward current. tf h~
sssThese facts are substantiated as existing in the
longitude of Great Britain by the experience and
observations of Mr.. Charles Green, an mronaut of
hundreds of ascensions, and published by him some
years ago in the Polytechnic Journal of London.
His noted @rial voyage, when accompanied by
Lord Holland and Monet Mason, from London to
Welburg in the Duchy of Nassau, in Germany,
is also demonstrative proof of these currents /
have found these upper currents from forty to
eighty miles per hour-oftener over fifty miles per
hour than under. | might mention particular
voyages which ] made from west to east of forty
to over one hundred miles in length, but as they
are recorded in printed work, it is unnecessary
to erumerate them here. Assuming then the We
locity ut sixty-eight miles per hour, and the dis
lance to Europe at twenty seven hundred miles, it
would require forty five hours to make the voy-
age. Now, balloon, so impcrvious that it shall
not deteriorate the gas by diffusion to the amount
of three per cent. per twenty-four hours, can
construct of silk and prepared lseed oil, when of
a capacity sufficient for this purpose. Surface
does not increase as rapidly as cube therefore,
very large balloon, say one hundred and twenty
five feet in diameter, made as perfect as balloon
thirty feet in diameter, will only lose two and
-" Al
of its gas power by diffusion. But linseed oil and
silk can be made SO impervious to gas that it will
retain it as well glass. The high polish, te--
nacty, elasticity, and ndestructibility of linseed
oil. with all the fat and fecula driven from it, are
not generally appreciated. doubt whether it is
known by any workers in linseed oil or even to
chemists, that it will attain red heat before it
gives up by vaporization its fact and fecula.' 81
ssAll this may seem wild and. visionary to some;
and yet this, it must be remembered, is an age of
progress, and Mr.. Wise has already shown, by his
many and successful balloon ascensions, that he is
not tho mn n tn he intimidated nv trif1es. -