The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1883-07-18
BALLooNiNG.
Good service which Has Been Done BY
Aeronauts.

One hundred years ago the brothers
Montgolfier practically solved the doubts
which had previously existed as to the pos
sibility of aerial navigation by man. Their
balloons consisted essentially of enormous
bags, which assembled in consequence of the
fghtness of the heated air and smoke with
which they were filed, aud their ascensive
power was maintained by feeding the FIRE
which was carried in the car as long as was
desired, or as long as the fuel lasted. The
progress of chemical science soon enabled
hydrogen, the lightest of all known gases,
to be used instead of smoke, and the enor-
nous size of the balloon was reduced; but
the gas was found expensive to manufacture,
and it possesses power of rapidly passing
through the tissue of the balloon. Hence
coal gas, which is cheaper and less diffusive,
was substituted, and more than half GEN.
fury ago the balloon assumed its present
character. The practical results of balloon
ing have at present hardly been commem-
surate with the expenditure of scientific
effort, of money and of human life which
its progress has ontailed. Franklin, one of
the most practical of all philosophers, re-
piled, when asked the use of balloon, that
it resembled newborn infant, it might
become man. At present. though 100
years old, the balloon can hardly be said to
have attained maturity. In the hands OF
the celebrated French sapant, Guy Lussac
it was made subservient to the scientific
exploration of the upper air, and by its
means Messrs. Coxwell aud Glaisher have
enlarged the boundaries of human know
ledge. 1t has also been utilized in some
military operations. But the most signal
service in which it has been employed was
during the seige of Paris, when it furnished
the means by which the inhabitants of the
beleaguered city communicated with the
world outside the Prussian lines, and by
which they sent out the voyageur pigeons
that brought back to them thousands of
microscopic messages which their enemy
could find no means of intercepting. Few
know the extent to which the balloon aud
pigeon post served the exigencies of the
Parisians between September, 1870, and
y,
balloons assembled from Paris, and, in adj
dition to the sixty-four aeronauts, they chr.
ried out of the city ninety one passengers, Of
whom Gembetta was the most eminent. OF
these balloons five fell into the hands of the
Prussians, whose anger was so great ut be-
ing thus foiled in isolatng the city that they
used the prisoners with extreme harshness,
which was even extended to one unfortunate
Englishman, whose sole desire was to
escape to his own country. Two of the
balloons had a still more unhappy fate.
they were carried out to sea, where tho
aeronauts "a sailor in one case and soldier
la the other persisted miserably, but not
before the letter bags had been thrown over
into The Channel, from whence some were
rescued and reached their destination. The
sixty-four balloons carried ont of Paris 1868
pigeons, of which number fifty seven return.
ed, bringing the thin films on which were
printed the microscopic letters, to be mag
nifed, transcribed and transmitted in few
hours. In the balloons were Q, 1000 kilos OF
dispatches, equal to 10000 pounds in
weight these consisted of more than three
million letters, which were distributed all
over the world. In this case Benjamin
Franklin's baby did good service, and doubt.
less in the future it will again subserve the
causes of science and human progress, and
we may exposes hope ti,at it may aid in
some mors pleasant epis..Ie than the deadly
conflict between two Nations, urged on by
the pride aud ambition of their leaders,
London Queen.