The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1873-09-12
Fai1u,e of the Balloon Expedition.

The Transatlantic Balloon expedi-
ton. about which so much has been |
said and written during the past few
months, was to have left New York |
on last Wednesday afternoon, but
owing to the fact that the mammoth /
balloon became totally unmanagea~
ble after being being about one-fourth
filled with gas the time for departure
WAS postponed until yesterday after
noon. since when nothing further has
been learned. 1t is also announced
that Prof. Wise had not appeared
uDou the ground up TO IL O'Clock on
Wednesday, nor did he send any eX>
planation, and it was generally be-
iieved that he had abandoned the trip.
Be this as it may, 1t is fair to pre-
sumo, from present indications, that
the whole thing will prove a huge
fzzIe and that the Graphic pro-
prietors have had their fingers badly
burned, financially
Apropos of this much vaunted but
unsuccessful balloon enterprise, the
following in relation to some of the
balloon ascensions of the olden time
will be read with no little interest:
Tho desire to navigate the atmosphere
is ne new ambition. Five centuries ago
old Roger Bacon said ''we were walking
about at the bottom of sea of air, whose
density grew less as we assembled higher;
and that if we could reach the summit of
this sea, we might float bodies that were
still lighter on its surface" The old friar
was partly right and partly wrong, for the
occupants of vessels floating on that ocean
would have to he differently constituted
than are men-posSibly Loche's Nesper-
tii8 HOmiueS-the beings he said Sir
John Hcrschella had discovered by means
of that vast telescope, which he had not
at the Cape of Good Hope, (but which eX-
listed only in Loche's fervent imagination,
whence it was transferred to the columns
of Moses y. Beach's n. y. Sun, might
work such ships. In the seventeenth CEN
tury an Italian named Francis Lana sug-
gested making globes which would float
in mid-air but it was reserved for the
middle of the eighteenth century, about a
hundred and twenty years ago, for the
full realization of Bacon's and Lana S
ideas. Stephen Montgolfier, a paper
maker in Paris, caught she idea from
seeing what he had seen every day during
all his life. and what every man, woman
and child had seen since Tubal Cain
kindled his first fire i'll which to work his
brass and iron-he saw that smoke as
cended through the atmosphere, and at
once the idea of a balloon entered his
mind. In conjunction with his brother
Joseph he constructed a large balloon of
paper which he inflated with hot air from
a fire made of cat straw. 1t of course
rose up and tlOated through the air. In
1882 and also in the following year an as
ceusion. was effected, the parties carrying
with them brazier containing charcoal
fire which they fed with cut straw; they
crossed the city of Paris and alighted in
safety. Gen. JouTdau, the commander of
the French army which operated in Bel
gium in 1894, used balloons for the pur-
pose of discovering the dispositions of the
Austrian army. Napoleon had one with
him in Egypt. In 1904 Guy Lussac and
Blot, two Freuchmen of science, first used
the balloon for scientific purposes; carry
ing with them n barometer and ther-
monneter, as well as a voltic and electric
battery, and also living creatures of va
rious sorts; at $500 feet they liberated a
bee, which sailed off happily; at II, 900
feet bird was set off; like Noah's dove it
returned to the vessel, but subsequently
flew down perpenGiculaIly towards the
earth. They reached the height of II. coo
feet above the sea level and descended in
safety. In 1852 scientific researches were
prosecuted in England by means of the
same instrumentality.
The first balloon ever sent up in this
country was by the Frenchman, Blan-
chard, who made an ascent from Phila-
delphia in 1896. Gillie, Robertson, and
DuIaut, were also celebrated, but none
have ever pursued the investigation of
navigating the air as persistingly as
Wise