The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1878-10-03
War Balloons.

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War Balloons.
London Daily News
Experiments with war balloons will be
continued ~ Woolwich fer several
months A select balloon committee has
been appointed, who have instructions
to report the result of the experiments
to the war department Among the re-
cent improvements in the construction
of balloons is stronger fabric than for
merly used, the tear and strain of cap
tive balloons being very great. A steel
wire cable is fixed to the network of u
captive balloon and terminates on the
ground. This cable is insulated, and the
telephone will be used as means of
communication between the surveying
officers and the balloon committee on
terra frma. The Crusader assembled
Yesterday, with Il lifting power Of one
thousand four hundred pounds. The
cable, which gives two hundred yards to
one hundred pounds in weight, will bear
strain of twenty-five tons. Great
progress will also be made in balloon in
struments. There are telescopes which
command twenty-mile range, II vanc
which indicates the direction the bal
loon is going, a lamp which will burn in
safety in hydrogen gas, and a pocket
aneroid to indicate the exact altitude of
the balloon. Another point in progress
is strategical one, enabling engineer
officers to leave n besegcd city in Il bal
loon, and to return to it again. Assum-
ing that London was besicgcd with an
enemy twenty miles round and the
general commanding saysto the aeronaut
officers, "Take this dispatch to York
and return with five field telegrap hists,"
the message would be conveyed as fol-
lows: The war balloon would lcavp at
high altitude in the usual way. If the
wind happened to be north, the descent
would be made, say, at Leicester, and an
aid.de-camp would take the dispatch by
the first or by Il special train to York,
The balloon, unihtlated, would then be
taken by a circutous route to say,
Brighton and be inflated at the nearest
gas works, when the north wind would
take it and the field telegraphsts into
London. If a person in future should
want to be conveyed out Of a besieged
city, or newspaper correspondent to
enter it, they would be enabled to do
so at the cost of about Zoo. Another
important improvement is beautifully
arranged system of balloon signals. Be
fore the experiments at Woolwich are
completed, five captive balloons will
float at one time over London, at dis
tances of five miles, and converse by
signals with the greatest ease; and if
.hc order is given for balloon at Wool
wich to proceed ahoat, regardless of
wind, to Aldershot, it would be done by
attaching the earth end of the steel cable
to traction engine, railway engine, or
Il military wagon, the same cable having
pipe attached to a travelling gas making
apparatus to keep the balloon atlOat any
number of hours or days. The Crusader
has already been moved ahoat three
miles in this way. In addition to war
balloons built for various degrees OF
altitude, it is proposed to have II sea class
of balloons for use in naval warfare,
with a telephone and gas'making apa-
ratus (steam passing through iron Mt
tings) on to steamer below, with sub
sidiary steamers to convey information
to the admiral of the feet. The Crusader
Yesterday made free ascent with Capt.
remplar and two others in it; but on a
subsequent day it will remain captive,
and her majesty's troops stationed at
Woolwich will turn out in various di-
rcctions within an area of thirty square
| miles. and the surveying officers in the