Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1873-07-15
BY BALLOON TO EUROPE.
Professor Wise's Explanation
of the Great Undertaking.

The balloon proper will be spheroid
of 100 feet, traverse, ANA ITO perpendlc-
ular and diameter. The supplemental
baloon will he spherUid Lhirty-siX
feet In diameter. These with allow
ance tor expansion oil gas, will give Us
a lifting power of 10, $40 pounds, aud "a
net Carrying power or $500 pounds,
and of disposable ballast, 1909 pounds.
Our fiuals will hot lose by eXOsulOsc o..
gas over fifteen pc MS per hour, and
that will enable us to keep afiOat
twenty days. But Allowing a liberaI
margin for the free escape of gas IN the
higher and rairtied regions OF The al
mOsphere, We may still calculate safely
for ten days ouOyant power, and, l.
deemed necessary, we can dispose oi
the boat and gallery. and thus restort
a buuyant force or 200 pounds, which
would serve us for sevaral days more
so that, under the most adverse clrcuIn-
stances, We can hardly fail to reach the
European shore,
We shall carry boat for the purpose
of providing for contingency thai
may possibly arise from any damage
10 the main balloon, but one that We
have little cause TO apprehend' The
boat will be stored with water ana
provisions to serve for thirty days
Our kind friends are thus assured thai
We are not foolhardy, seeming that We
shall provide against all and any Coli
tlngeucies that are likely possible 10
arise
Our main reliance is on the great
cas- ward drift of the trade wind. anu
after your publication OF DIR. Ramsey
admirable paper on the motion OF the
atmosphere. always and forever east
ward. without all attempt at the exact
solution of its cause. since the fact IL
patent, and with the Smithsonian
Institutes reply TO my letter on the
same subject. that this eastward motion
of the air lis an established fact of
science of every days experience, We
have, l think, little to fear for the
result of the voyage. We do not pre-
tend that in this first experimental
voyage we shall be ale to make given
points on land. but we have an eye to
the Gulf stream, the great warm river
in the ocean, which forms above it. III
the ocean, of air, a corresponding aerial
river that will float us to the coastIOf
Ireland. II becomes a physical cor
relative that the air, on being warmed
by the Gulf Stream heat, will rise and
move forward in the insobaric line OF
least resistance, which must inevitably
be in the direction of the Gulf Stream
Meteologists will take great interest
in the part of the problem to be solved
or attempted to lie solved These great
but silent imponderable elements, the
most potent of ali the grand cosmogony
are yet so little understood by science
that lifetime's devotion of the eluci-
dation of single feature in them will
be spent, and that is the animating
principle that moves us to the expert
ment. We are not scientifically
presumptous, but we know what we
d. know, and that is, the atmosphere
above us moves eastward; the heavens |
above attest the fact in its fieecy mess |
engers constantly to be seen in this
aerial highway. What we do not |
know is the actual condition of this |
force of nature over and above the sea,
and, az q methoood of exploration, We
intend to make this aerial voyage and |
i'm our humble way endeavOr to mark
out untrodden path for men and
mails. We have living faith in its
success, and a belief that we shall aid
the too little cultivated science of
and in that We look for
Dur reward-that satisfaction of that lit
tie honorable ambition, without the
which man is but poor thing.