Morning journal and courier., 1881-12-08
Thursday Morning, Dec. 8, 1881.

BALLOONS IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS.
 Commander Cheyn is one of those who be- lieye that the North Pole may be reached by the aid of balloons, or, at least, that more progress may be made towards it than has rewarded any other plan. As he explains his scheme it looks quite reasonable His idea is to go as far north as possible on water, land and ice, and then go on easily and swift ly towards the pole in balloons. This is a fine plan if it is practical, but Carl Myers, who knows great deal about balloons and ballooning, points out some difficulties in the way of using balloons in the Arctic regions.
 Mir. Myers calls attention to the fact that it is cold near the North Pole, and that by reason of the cold the yarnish of the balloons would become as brittle as ice or other frozen matter, and, unless the greatest care was taken to warm them thoroughly, their fragile gas envelopes could never Be unfolded and spread out or otherwise handled without pro- ducing innumerable Assures for the escape of gas. Making heavier or stronger gas bags would not remedy the matter, because only the varnish holds the gas, the office of the cloth being to hold the yarnish just as the netting holds the cloth. Generating sufi- cient quantity of hydrogen gas (not less than 50,OOO cubic feet) to fill ene of these balloons with an Arctic environment would, MT. Myers also says, be attended with difficulties never before known or contemplated in con nection with ballooning, and the freshly gen. erated gas upon meeting greater cold than attended it's entrance into the bag would pre- ai, ikafo oF the interior and encrust 1t with ice, and the bag itself would rupture when changing form by the admission of gas during imitation. or by enIarging or contracting by increased or diminished air pressure at different eleva- tions.
 But even if balloons could be made to work in the Arctic regions Mir. Myers sees another and very important obstacle to their use in the way proposed by Commander Cheyn. He has paid much attention to the wind, and as result of his observations is decidedly of the opinion that it is impracticable to aim bal loon at any distant point and reach it by the unaided effect of the wind, especially if that point is northward of the starting point, as ali winds of long continuance, except a high eastward current, ultimately travel in curves, however straightforward they may appear at points distant. from the suction or partial vacuum, which is usually their exoit- ing cause" He also says upon this point: ''The natural stimulator of wind is the sun, and the natural course of aerial currents is towards the sun when not influenced by mere local causes. Agreeable to this theory, the tendency of wind in the region of the poles would naturally be to move away from them or towards the sun, and I appr ehend that a balloon crew would be in a fair way to avoid that dangerous locality by drifting helplessly away Rfrom Bit soon after they got afoat on the aerial sea, and they would probably land in some other sea-
 Why anybody wants to go sailing around in the Arctic regions in balloon, even if he can, is mystery. Enough money and lives have already been lost in the compara- lively useless search for the North PoYe. And if anybody should happen to discover it he would not be satisfied with it.