The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1857-10-03

Height OIL the BALLOON
To the Editors Of tie Minnesotidn:
GENTLEMEN :-"Examiner concludes in
yesterdays paper that ''the Balloon reached
the highest point about three quarters of one
mile above the earth," and gives his reasons
as follows:
ErSt-The ascent at first even was very
gradual; showing little force to spare.
Second-At very moderate elevation the
Balloon ceased to ascend, and to get any
higher it was necessary to throw over the
ballast.
Third-A view from point three-fourths
of mile high, in a country like ours, un-
broken by mountains, should have radius
Of about fifty miles, which is quite as much
as the passengers in the Minnesota claim,
and of course as much as they enjoyed.
Fourth-The line of perpetual eongdation in
this latitude is only mile and a half high, Or
less than 5000 feet.
Now, Messrs. NJ. e. G. had no overcOats,
and suffered no Inconvenience from the
cold, but found the weather balmy." Yet
water freezes at mile and hall high, and it
should be chilly rather, at half that distance.
But the " Minnesota probably reached near
ly that elevation, and no more.
The first reason has no bearing upon the
subject. An ascension may be slow or fast,
as the ;cronaut chooses, if he has ballast
enough. The slowness or graduality of the
ascent is no evidence Of the amount Of pow
er at the aronauts disposal. Thus, had l,
upon first setting out, discharged al! my bal
last, the balloon would have darted up like
an arrow Gradual ascensions in calm wealth
er being more graceful and beautiful than
rapid ones as little ballast was partel with
at first as possible. The power of the ma
chine depends upon two things-its capacity
or size, and the weight of the ballast at the
time of beginning the ascension. If the aero
naut sets out (no matter how slowly he rises,
with full supply of ballast and supply of
gas small compared with the size of the bal
loon, he can rise to the same height, neither
more nor less, attainable with the same bal.
loon full to its utmost capacity at the outset,
with little ballast, and ascending with the ex-
tremest rapidity. The rarefaction Of the up
per air causes the gas to expand, so that the
full balloon must be relieved by the discharge
of gas through the valve, and the deficiency
of power thus occasioned must be again sup
piled by an equivalent discharge of ballast
while the partly inflated machine meets tie
loss of power, occasioned by reaching rare
atmosphere, by an almost correspondingly
rarefaction and expansion of the gas within.
1 had enough ballast in the car and enough
room in the balloon to enable ME to ascend
much higher than we did.
do not see how the second reason affects
the question of our altitude. To get any
higher it was necessary to throw over the bal
last. We did throw over the ballast and rose
higher but how this tends to show that we
got no higher than three quarters of mile
1 do not understand
As to the third reason when Mr.. Craw-
ford says, ''soon all the cities, towns and vii
lagos within fifty miles became visible" he by
no means intended to say that our horizon
was only fifty miles distant. This would
have been strange mistake. Far, far away
beyond the line within which we could dis
tinguish one object from another, lay an i'm
measurable extent of dark, misty looking land
which, though distinctly bound by the hori-
zon, looked as much like a bank of clouds as
like the earth. The distance of this horizon
from us do not pretend to determine l
only know that the circle within which we
could distinguish objects was an almost inap-
preciable portion Of it.
With respect to the fourth reason, with all
courtesy must dispute with EXAMINER" the
correctness of his assertion, until very high
scientific authority has been adduced on his
side; and then, unless the soundness of the
position be scientifically proved, L shall be
presumng enough still to dispute it. l know
there are parts of the earth where at certain
attitudes SHOWS, or 'congealatiOn" may be
said to be literally perpetual. But it is diff
ticu.. matter to fix the line Of congealation
with undertaking accuracy in climate like
ours or IN any ordinary climate. Does "Ex-
aminer' believe that rain clouds are never in
this latitude at an altitude of one mile and a
half? He speaks too of the chilliness of tie
atmosphere at half that distance, as though
there were regular gradation of tempera-
ture from one height to another. The fact is
the temperature often at great attitudes is
found by the aronaut to be warmer than on
the earth, and is subject perhaps to as great
variations. John Wise says, 81 have always
found the sun oppressive when sailing over
dense strata of Clouds" Messieurs Blot and
Gay Lussac, the two celebrated French phil
osophers, when performing their experiments