The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-07-07

is, to certain extent, interested in the public
debts of the confederation.
NAVIGATION or THE AR--BAIL0oNING ON A
GRAND ScALE-TnE LATEST EXPERIMENT. The
idea Of sailing in the atmosphere, if not so
ancient as that Of navigating the ocean, il at all
events of very greet antiquity; but old as it is
II bas never cot beyond the condition Of au idea,
and in all human probability never will. Still it
must be admitted that the latest experiment ia
aerostation has been more successful than any Of
the preceding ones OF which we have any record
We published yesterday an account of this ex-
citing aerial voyage Two well known and ex.
periencsd aeronauts-- Mesers Wise and La Noun
having reasoned themselves into the u
viction that to cross the Atlantic by means Of
balloon is by no means iufeasble, and having
determined to give some evidence toward up
holding that conviction, started from the
city of St. Louis last Friday evening, the
LIST inst, on an experimental trip to the
Atlantic coast intending to descend to the
earth in the neiehborhood Of this city. Their
balloon named after the Atlantic, which it is
intended 10 crossis one of the largest that has
ever been constructed, being sixty feet in dia-
meter, aud the. entire length from the top Of the
balloon 10 the bottom Of the boat being one hun
dred and twenty feet It's buoyant capacity was
estimated ut eight thousand pounds.
The party consisted of four persons-the two
professional aeronauts before banned, Mr. eager,
who furnished the capital, and MIR. Hyde, st
Louis reporter, whore function appears to have
been to supply ballast and to write the history of
the voyage.
this and previous air voyages consists in
the fact that in this one the place of land
ing was indicated in the programme though
deviated from pretty considerably in the
execution of the project The trip was to
be rom ST. Louis to the Atlantic seaboard, some
where in the neighborhood Of New York; but If
the rroverb that imam proposes and God dis
poses" can be more true Of any one human pro
position than Of another, its creates. verifcation
must be ia ballooning matters. "The wind
bloweth where it lsteth, says one of the inspired
writer's; and no plan has yet been discovered by
which a balloon can be guided in a course con-
rary to the direction of the wind. But Mr.
La Mountain has made, with respect to wind cur
rents, discovery similar to that made by Lieut.
Maury with respect to ocean currents His obser-
vations lead him to the conclusion that at a Ger
tain elevation from the earth, and more particu-
laIly in the summer season, the direction Of the
wind is almost uniform from west to east. or
this knowledge he proposes to take advantage
and to the ordinary modes of elevating or de-
pressing the balloon, so to get into the desired
current, be has added an invention of his own in
the shape Of rotatory fans.
II, therefore, the theory about the wind cur
rents were correct, and If the contingency of
storms could be guarded against, there might
really he sere ground for faith in the ultimate
partial success Of the scheme Of aerIa navigation
But the winds are not to be relied upon, and
storms are dangerously frequent during the sum
mer season. Aud 20 we find that Messrs. Wise
and La Mountain, instead Of landing near the
Atlantic coast, as they proposed, came down in
the northwestern part Of New York, four OF five
hundred miles from this city; and that, owing to
hurricane which struck them as they descended
il is little short Of miracle that they were not
dashed to pieces in that fearful passage through
the woods described in the account that we have
published of the voyage.
Therefore, while this last experiment in bal.
looming is the Tost successful that has been yet
made-nearly twelve hundred miles having been
travelled within twenty hours or at the rate of
nile a mirute-it does not hold out the faintest
shadow OF encouragement to those who believe
that this mode of travelling across the Atlantic
will ultimately be inaugurated. On the contrary,
it only furnishes another proof to the many
which previous experiences have furnished of the
utter impossibility of such thing. When we
see how powerless against storms are even those
birds that are strongest and best adapted to re-
sist them how sea birds are blown in to land
and land birds blown out to sea, we may rest
assured that no flying machine, the work of mere
human invention, can ever be practically utilized
for travelling purposes, and that al such attempts
must result, as they heretofore have resulted, in
failures, sometimes ludicrous and sometimes de-
p)Orable.
PROPERTY INCREASED TWENTY MILLIONS IN
THE CrTY-AcrIoN OF THE SUPERVISORS the
assessment rolls submitted to the Board of Su-
pervisors on Monday by the Tax Commissioners
Represent an accurate valuation of real aud per-
sonal eetate in this city and county, it has In.
creased more than twenty millions since last
year, and Of course the taxes will increase 10
like proportion. The value Of real and personal
property in New York in 1858 was 1851, 22I, 940.
This year it is represented, as assessed by the
new Tex Commissioners, to be worth 1851 ,923,-
l22. We may fairly calculate, then, that the
property of the city is increasing at the rate OF