The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1881-04-05
Navigating tl,e Air,

! IL ID hardly necessary to say that the in
PRODUCTION of locomotive machine which
would transport large number OF pcoplc
through the air In any direction reu1ircd
AZ the rate of thirty miles an hour, would
be startling novelty in our travelling ar
rangemcnts. Let us glance at the advan-
| tages 1T would offer. Comparing It, first
with aquatic locomotion, 1t would be far
| quicker than any boat hitherto made, vast.
| ly less expensive in first outlay and cost of
working, would require no harbors, would
produce no sea sickness and would escape
the greatest dangers inherent in water nav
igation. Viewing it, secondly, as a means
of land transport, it would be quicker than
common road travelling, and would COM
pare fairly with the ordinary speed on rail
ways, while it would entirely dispense
with the enormous aud costly provisions
requisite for both these modes of getting
over the ground, and be free from the
multitude Of liabilities to accident attend
ing them. But IL may naturally bc object
ed that such mode of locomotion would
have peculiar dangers of its own. No
doubt balloons have hitherto been very sub
ject to accidents. and the bare idea of any
thing going wrong ut a height of thousands
OF feet above the earth has in it something
very appalling. But much Of this impress.
sion will vanish before common-sen rea-
soning. 1t must always be borne in mind
that, for the purposes of locomotion, there
would be no reason for ascending high Into
the air; it would only be necessary to keep
sufficient altitude to clear terrestrial inl-
pcdiments. and this would not only do
away with much of the terror of the idea,
but would greatly increase the probability
frnn
ever kind. Let us see in what direction
danger might, in extreme cases, lie. The
loss of gas by rupture of the envelope or
otherwise is a remote possibility but the
experience of many actual cases has prov
cd that the resistance Of the air to the large
surface exposed has sufiiccd to prevent any
rapid fall special measures might be casi-
ly provided, and at low elevations over
land no serious catastrophe need be feared
on this ground. In crossing over water,
precautions would sill be possible and the
case would not be so hopeless as III many
marine casualties. The danger of fire, If
properly guarded against, need not be great
er than in ship at sea. Indeed, if we be-
leVe Dl. Giffard, who has tried the expert
ment, the idea of such danger is quito
an illusion. The accidents that arise
10 ordinary balloons almost always occur in
the descent, which. if the wind is high re-
qulfcs great care and skillful management,
In this case the propelling power would be
most especially useful; the aeronaul could
choose his place of landing with precision,
and, ny turning his head to the wind, he
could avoid the dragging which is 30 dan
gerous, and which has so often brought n
fatal termination to balloon voyages. The
worst conjecture conceivable would be q
break down of the propelling machinery at
q tlme when 1t was wanted to aid the de-
bffeak down could be made very slight by
ordinary mechanical precautions. On the
whole there can be no good reason to be-
l1eve that the dangers would be more for
midable with this than with other kinds Of
locomotlon, and when we remember the
frightful casualties that 80 frequently now
occur in land, river and sea traffic, and
consider how many of these causes would
be absent in the free paths of the air, we
may probably even venture to assert that
balloons would be the safest as well as the
pleasantncst mode of travelling. AS a set
of against all this, however, there Is one
great objection to aerial locomotion, name
~, the uncertainty it must always be liable
to In consequence of the effect of The wind
we must not ignore this; on the contrary,
we will cndcavor to estimate its exact
value. We will assume that VIC can steam
through the air IN any direction at the rate
Of thirty miles al bour; but this will only
count for useful locomotion in dead calm;
if there is any wind, by carrying the bal
loon along with it will clearly influence
both the effective direction and the circc
tive speed.