Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1873-06-12
VOL. LXXlN.
.LEyA GAZETTE& & VIRGINIA ADVERTISER,

additional will be charged
Spccial contracts will be made with yearly ad-
rcrtiScrs.
Marriage and Death Notices, when not exceed
ing eight lines fifty cents
Balloon Voyage Across the Atlantic.
Speaking of the proposed balloon voyage
across the Atlautic ocean, OF Professor John
Wise and several scientific gentlemen, an ex-
change says:
There will be one large balloon and two
smaller ones, which will act as tenders to the
aerial ship and supply gas as fast as it is ex-
hausted The aggregate capacity of the three
chambers will be 325,O00 feet of gas, aud it
will take =, 700 yards of drilling to make the
large balloon. The basket, or cabin, in which
the nronauts propose to sit will be q comtorta-
bic room, with windows for ventilation, and a
lime stove to keep up a comfortable tempera-
ture and cook the meals. A calcium light will
be kept burning at night.
TO provide against contingencies, life boat
will be attached to the Car, provided With sails,
oars and provisions for thirty days voyage,
although the Prof has no fear that the boat
will ever touch the water. He desires, how
eyor, to make some sacrifice to what less cour-
agcous persons might call common prudence,
therefore he has provided the life boat, and at
tached certain water-tight bags thereto, which
in great emergency may be converted into
fe-preservcs. After all these applications
have been fastened to the balloon it will still
have lifting capacity of IL 900 pounds
The time Of starting has not been definitely
fixed, but if the balloon can be finished before
the Fourth of July next, Professor Wise will
set sail on that day from Boston Common. Ii
he lands safely in Europe he will be the most
famous man of his century. The @rial current
is supposed to move at the rale of one hundred
miles per hour and the trip will ia Ike about
thirty hours 1t may be possible, however,
that the balloon may land at some point re-
mote from telegraph lines, aud if the friends OF
the voyagers do not hear of them for five or
six days they would not still be warranted In
coming to the conclusion that the air-ship has
collapsed 1t may drift into some southwark
bouud current and carry the bold navigators to
South America or even to Africa, and if they
happen to land in some uninhabited country it
may take them long time to find out where
they are, and how to get back. They will sail
in a ship that has no rudder and cannot be
steercd, and they must 60 wherever the current
carries them.
Notwithstanding Professor Wise's elaborate
preparations, and the appropriation of $4,000
by the Boston Aldermen, there are few in
corrgible sccptics who affirm that the air-ship,
with its life boat attached will never set sail
from Boston Common.
ROYAL DRAWING RooMs.-The last draw
ing room held by her Majesty at buckingham
Palace, says an exchange, was more numerous
ly attended than any which have taken place
there for long time. The presentations, too,
increased in proportion, there being no less
than $50 names on the list for that purpose,
1t was, however, of general admission | am
told, that the drawing room was remarkable,
even more than by its numbers, by the incrcas-
ing bad taste Of its toilets. 1t seems to be tho
fashion to place in juxtaposltiOn all and every
of the glaring colors hitherto supposed to be
inharmonious, and Buckingham Palace, hear,
exhibited simply an exaggerated display of that
utter want of true taste which has of late been
shocking all well-regulated eyes at the opera
and in society" Town has long endured ex-
vandalism in color is added the result becomes
intolerabIe. The 'loud' nature Of both, now,
explains why the grand monde will not
take example by the Princess of Wales,
whose attire is always suited appropriate
ly to the occasion, is never outre, and
never antagonistic to the true principles
of art" with which dress" is sure to fly off
at an offensive tangent The Court Express
writes in favor of reform of dress at the royal
drawing rooms and strongly urges that ladies'
should be permitted to appear before her Ma
jcsty from two to four in the afternoon ln dcml-
toilet, instead of in ball costume. A woman,
however, young and fair, (says the Express }
does not feel at her ease, or look her best, thus
dccocte in garish daylight she feels shlVery,
and wholly uncomfortable; sensation similar
to that of trying on ball.dress In daylight is
the predominant sensation of the wearer OF
court costume. So rigorous is the etiquette en-
j"lued by the Lord Chamberlain that the most
transparent gauze is not permitted to be worn
oyer oyer the shoulders even by the grandmothers
OF the debutantcs Etiquette should certainly
coneede to age what it denies to youth. These
septuagenarlan ladies attend the drawing rooms
out OF duty to their children children, and not
WIN view to displaying their faded charms.
II Is positive pcnance to them to be exposed
lot hVe hours, shawlless and wrapless, to the
gaze OF the multitude and ignoble-w
the agreeable additions of scorching sun or a
piercing wind.
ARTIFICIAL CoAL.-On some of thearench
railroads. pressed coal, made from waste coal
aust, is exclusively the fuel used and at first
Possessed considerably greater economical ad-
vantage than subsequently,; the net cost of the
4rtlcle, including the motive power the wear
ana tear OF machinery, and for labor, having
Eeeh as low as forty cents per ton, In some OF
the districts Of France and Belgium, and, even
IN 10 the most important manufacturing centers,
the the average net cost per ton has been as low as
thirty cents. The increase in value, however,
soon reached to four dollars per ton at the mill;
aud the ine dirt coal, which once was merely
Worthless, thus paid a profit of nearly three
dollars per ton. But even this increase has
Oeen largely advanced upon, because the ad-
Vantages of this kind of fuel have become more
Widely known and the demand consequently
greater, and because the modes of manufacture
and the qualities of the article have been great
" improved.
When making contracts for this fuel, the
railroad companies have been accustomed to
allow SIX per cent of ash, tolerating a differ