Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1873-08-13
aerial NAVIGATION.

No douhi ii IS dangcTOasi very caHgeFoai
The rist i % great that il Would be wren
to venture II there Is no, = prospect
success, aud # 20 rOod is TO eoue froH
accomplishing the journey. Bat neiihe
OF thesc suggestions Is correct. The pros
peci Of success Is 50 great as to make
worth while to try the experiment. An'
il the experiment is successful, the ad
vaniages to follow 1t are almost meal
culablc
Mr.. Wise is 4 man Of great experience
in Electromagnetic. We may be sure
then, tina: as FAR as safety can be secured
anil danger prevented by ample preeau'
tious, these will be ,akes. lie knows per
fectly what accidents may happen, end
what has caused disaster hitherto. He
knows the liiting-pOwer of gas required
the amount Of leakage, the amount Of loss
by the necessity of ascending, etc. We
may presume that bis balloon Is amply
able to sustain him and his companion and
their freight during the full time ealcula-
ted as necessary to cross the Atlantic. al.
lowing for all probable delays. The only
great danger which remains, therefore,
concerns the possibility of finding the AIR
current setting from West to East. If
this is not found if the balloon is to BE-
driven helplessly to and fro, backward
and forward, then, of course, the sustain
ing power must be at last exhausted, and
the eronauts be deposited IN the sea.
But all the laws ofmoteorOlogy, and all
the observations of meteOrologists, indi-
cate a general upper current in the north
orn hemisphere from southwest to north
east. 1t is implied in the trade winds,
which, coming from the poles, mus; re-
turn to them again. 1t is indicated by
the frequent north-easerly storms, which,
as is well known, move CONSTANT y from the
southwest to the northeast. These great
storm-clouds are SO lofty that the largest
part Of them is rooted in the upper current
of air setting to the north and east. Their
mass is always carried in this current, no
matter VIVA. may be the dirrcctien of the
winds below-.jns as the fleets of iceburgs
from the Arctic circle sail steadily to TIE
south, no matter how the winds may blow
or the currents tend on the surface of the
ocean. The icoburgs are sunk so deep in
the sea that their chief bulk is rooted in
the lower current setting always toward
the north and east. AS soon as Mr.. Wise
finls himself in this current, he will be
carried by it to the coast of Norway or
Denmark, and in few days be landed
somewhere in the Scandinavian regions.
But here a new difficulty arises, 1.-THE
heroic navigator remains near the surface
Of the ocean he will not find this great re-
turn current Of air. and may be driven
north, south or west, and so never reach
Europe. But, if he ascends high enough
to reach the steady westerly tide of air,
how can he tell his course at all? While |
near the sea, the rapid fight of the bal |
loon will be transferred to the waves be-
low, and his compass will tell him the d.
rectlon of his movement, as being the re-
verse of these. But when he so high as
not to be able to distinguish the lines on
the water, how can he know which way
he is moving2 You may say-By the
clouds. But will the balloon move faster
than the clouds? II he is in the same
air-stratum with the clouds probably not
1t in different one, then their apparent
motion will result not merely from the di.
rection Of the balloon, but also from their
own proper motion in this different cur.
rent Of air. This is difficulty which we
confess ourselves unable to resolve
Another danger from travelling in tie
upper air-current may come from extreme
rarefaction Of the air and extreme cold.
Even the storm-clouds Of a summer day
will sometimes DO so lofty as to rise into
the region of perpetual frost. Every sum-
NOR hail-storm is proof of this-for the
best explanation of hail is, that the up
ward suction of air in a lofty cloud car.
RES the drops of rain up SO high that they
are frozen, and thrown out at the top of
the cloud, on either side, as Jumps of ice.
Let us hope, therefore, that our adven,
turous navigator may find his westerly
wind SO low down as to be able to avoid
these difficulties and dangers. They,
however, certainly incline us to the opin.
ion that the form which air-navigation is
ultimately to take will not be that of |
balloon, but rather some imitation of
bird. The Duke of Argyll, in his Reign
Of La'o, has very interesting chapter on
the flight of BIRDS in which he shows that
birds, BY being heavier than the air, have
great advantage over balloon. The
balloon is helpless in the current, but the
weight Of the bird opposes resistance TO