The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1869-06-11
NU MBER3 30.

the apparatus to have become heavy with
moisture. Not less than two or three hun
dred pounds weight is often added to bal
loon in this manner, and if there be no sun
to dry up the moisture, .the added weight
brings the balloon to the EARTH AS soon,
however, as the rope from the car of LES
perance begins to trail on the surface. the
balloon ceases to fall, and continues on its
way at an unvarying elevation until the sun
or wind takes the heavy moisture out Of the
rigging, when he is enabled to regain her
previous altitude in the skies. Now again
the rope acts as a check to a too great ascent
with its attendant loss of gas. The water
bags on the rope have been filed as they
were trailing through the water, and the in
creased weight prevents high fight and
keeps the balloon down to her work, so to
speak, with the whole original power or
buoyance of the rebound By this simple
and beautiful arrangement of the rope with
its water bags, the ballast of the balloon is
diminished or increased at will; indeed the
ballast adjusts itself fwthout the intervention
of the aronaut, according to the necessities
of the moment Prof Chevaier is confident
that by means of the compensation and rope
ballast with such a balloon as L'Esperance,
constructed for the occasion, elevation can
be maintained for a period of one month,
should circumstances require it.
HOW THE DIRECTION IS PRESERVED.
The second of the two great problems of
the undertaking is how to keep the balloon on
direct course Chevalier is not by any
means victim to a belief in balloon navi-
CATION. In fact he has perfect contempt
for the balloon, considered as an air-ship,
and says it is good for nothing but for the
purpose of scientific observation. A balloon
he says, so far from being a ship is not even
buoy let loose from its moorings for o
buoy floats on the surface but the aerial sea
has no surface. A balloon, says the Profess
sor, is jelly-fsh immersed in fluid by
whose every current it is helplessly carried
to and fro; the jelly-fsh makes feeble efforts
| to direct his own course, with about as much
success as those Of balloon. How then,
| is NJ Chevaier to know when he ascends
| from Landmarks Park next july whether
he is about to cross the Atlantic or the Paci-
| fc? The answer is, that though Chevalier
does not believe in balloons, he does believe
in currents. In every ascent during his long
career, he says, he found on reaching an alti-
| tude anywhere between 3, 900 and 10, 900 feet,
that the wind was favorable from the West
or rather from the Northwest, whatever way
the wind blowing near the ground; in each
of his one hundred and sixty-fve ascents be
| found Northwest current IN the upper at
mosphere. Chevalier believes this current
to be discovery of his own and it is for
the glory of: establishing his theory, rather
than of sailing three or four thousand miles
every day affair." that he undertakes his bal
loon voyage from North America to Europe.
! THE GUIDE ROPE.
! He will be greatly assisted in determining
the actual course which his balloon may be
at any time pursuing by the rope suspended
from the car, described above. AS the rope,
when touching the water will always drag in
the rear, it will only be necessary to observe
its direction by the compass, and that of the
balloon itself is at once indicated. Another
equally important determination which the
gude-rope will afford and which will not be
attainable by any other means, will be the
distance at which the balloons is from the
immediate surface of the earth at any time
when the view was obstructed by Clouds fog
or darkness The barometer affords imforma-
tion only as to the height above the mean
level of the sea, and, without the warning
given by the guide-rope, the balloon, might
at any time, when sailing too low, be dashed
against mountainous waves; and, owing to
the velocity with which it would be moving
on the wings of a storm, such shock would
be fatal.
| FINAL PREPARATIONS FOR THE VOYAGE
Mons Chevalier may be seen almost any
morning quietly at work putting on the
finishing touches on his balloon at Land
manns Park. He is quiet, unobtrusive,
yet pre-possessing young man of thirty-three
years, of dark complexion and with black
hair and moustache. He has a large and
kindly black eye, and countenance which
impresses one that its owner is stranger to
physical fear. He converses and writes in
excellent English though he speaks and
writes French, German and Russian as well.
He is very communicative entertaining in
calculating his plans ard theories. He has
not determined as to how many and what
companions he will take along with him on
his voyage. The applications for passage
on the rare but perlious journey have been
pouring in on him by hundreds
Ten THOUSAND DOLLARS WORTH OF ORANGE
PEEL.-A man from the county invested