Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-06-01
Aerial Navigation.

<hCIIah NdNISdtiOus
1t is hardly necessary to say that the
introduction of a locomotive machine
which would transport a large number of
people through the air in any direction
required, at the rate of thirty miles an
hour, would be startling novelty in
our travelling arrangements. Let us
glance at the advantage it would offer.
Comparing it first with aquatic locomO-
ton, it would be far quicker than any
boat hitherto made, vastly less expen-
sive in first outlay and cost of working,
would require no harbors, would pro-
duce no sea-sickness, and would escape
the greatest dangers inherent in water
navigation.
Viewing it, secondly, as a means of
transport, it would be quicker than
road travelling, and would compare
favorably with the ordinary speed on
railways, while it would entirely dis
pense with the enormous and costly
provisions requisite for both of these
modes of getting over the ground, and
be free from the multitude of liabilities
to accident attending them. But it NAV
naturally be objected that such mode OF
locomotion would have peculiar dangers
of its own.
No doubt balloons have hitherto been
very subject to accidents, and the bare
idea of anything going wrong at a
height of thousands of feet above the
earth has in. it something very appalling.
But much of this impression will vanish
before common sense reasoning 1t
must always be borne in mind that for
the purpose of locomotion there would
be no reason for ascending high into
the air; it would only be necessary to
keep at a sufficient altitude to clear
terrestrial impediments, and this would
not only do away with much of the
terror of the idea, but would greatly
increase the probability of a safe escape
from accidents of whatever kind.
Let us see in what direction dan ger
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
proved that the resistance of the air to
the surface exposed has sufficed to pre-
vent any rapid fall; special measures
might be easily provided, and at low
elevations over land no serious catas-
trophe need be feared on this ground.
In crossing over water precautions
would still be possible, and the cause
would not be so hopeless as In marine
casualties. The danger of fire, if prop
erly guarded against, need not be great
er than in n ship at sea. Indeed. if we
believe NJ. Giffard, who has tried the
experiment, the idea of such danger is
quite an illusion.
The accidents that arise to ordinary
balloons almost always occur in the de-
scent, which, if the wind is high, re-
quires great care and skillful MANAGE
ment. In this case the propelling pow
er would be most especially useful: the
aeronaut could choose his place of land
ing with precision, and, BY turning his
head to the wind, he could avoid the
dragging which is so dangerous. and
which has 50 often brought fatal ter
mination to balloon voyaQefs. The
worst conjecture conceivable would be a
breakdown of the propelling machinery
at time when it was wanted to aid the
descent IN gale. But the risk of such
breakdown could be made very slight
by ordinary mechanical precautions.
On the whole, there can be no rood
reason to believe that the dangers would
be more formidable with this than with
other kinds Of locomotion, and when
we remember the frightful casualties
that so frequently now occur in land,
stver aud see traffic, and consider how