The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1885-06-05
Navigating the Air.
Description of the Big War Balloon that
will Destroy Armies and Cities.

Gen. Russell, the inventor OF balloon
which can be steered in any direction, has
been instructed by the ordnance board Of
the United States army to begin Immediate
ly the construction of a monster balloon that
will cost at least $4,000. This balloon, If a
success, will be the most destructive imple-
ment of war known to modern science. Gen.
Thayer claims that he can lay city In
ashes with it in a night. Tons of dynamite
percussion bombs may be carried into the
clouds and dropped while the balloon sails
over a camp or fortifcation or feet of ships.
The bag is made of oiled silk, and there Is
a wooden deck in place of the ordinary
wicker car. There is sack within the bag
whereby the balloon is made to ascend or
descend at the will of the aeTonaut When
he wants to descend he pumps the hydrogen
from the bag into the inner sack, thus COM
pressing it and rendering it heavier than air.
To ascend he merely allows the compressed
hydrogen to escape into the outer bag. The
descent can be made without the use of bal
last. The balloon has speed of 80 miles
an hour, Independent of the wind. The mo-
tive power is compressed air. The motor is
a gas engine, connected With a compressor
and a chamber called an accumulation. This
accumuates the air and discharges it at in
tervals toward the rear, producing at each
discharge a motion forward. AS these dis
charges of air from the compressor, which
is cylindrical in shape, occur at regular in
IerVals (about once every three secondsl,
the motion is practically continuous, and
the balloon is propelled through the air at
speed of half mile minute. The princi-
pie is practically the same as that which
makes the fragments of an exploding boiler
fly in every direction. There is valve At
the end of the compressor which opens with
every discharge of air, thus thrusting the
balloon forward. To steer the balloon the
motive power is detected by nozzle-shaped
rudder in the reaf. This enables the aero
naut to sail in any direction.
There will be many deviations from the
model in the actual monster when construct
ed. 1t will be the largest balloon ever
made, with a diameter Of go feet and a
length of 1S5 feet. Being pointed at both
ends, it will sail through the air longitudin-
ally.
What the consequences OF the success Of
this implement of destruction will likely be
s plainly stated by well known writer as
follows:
A machine that can lay a great city in
ashes in a single night-for such is the claim
further made in behalf of the new balloon
would of course have no difficulty in dispos-
ing of a feet or an army. In fact, nc limit
could well be assigned to its malefic power,
so that its possessor, it might be said, could
almost dictate peace before, in any given in-
stance, hostilities had begun. II we apply
the case, for example, to Central Asia. If
the English had the ''dirigible" monster at
Herat they could "wipe out" the enterpris-
ing Gen. Komaroff in half an hour, they
could lombard Cronstadt without risking
their iron clads, and they could even knock
the Kremlin about the ears of the Czar and
burn his ancient capital after the fashion
brought about by Napoleon's insane rush at
Moscow early in the century.
Suppose Gen. Thayer's flying machine to
succeed-as we heartily wish it may do
what would be the practical conseq1encesf
They are very obvious. Others of its own
pattern would at once be constructed to meet
and foil it. Men, instead of the 'fends'
that Scott sings of, would fight, not only on
earth, but in upper air. Like belligerent
birds, each would strive continually to soar
above its opponent, and whatever else they
might do, each, as in the case of the Monitor
and Merrimac, would have so much to at
tend to in taking care of the other that nei-
ther would be of much use for anything else.
OF course, this is no argument against the
construction of "dirigible" war balloons, II
such machines are possible, any mose than
it would have been against the original
making of armor, or ironclad ships, or the
use of gunpowder; but it seems to dispose
of the sanguine not on that whoever builds
such an engine is necessarily going to have
things all his own way What is sauce for
the goose is sauce for the gander everywhere,
and it may be that the inevitable application
of the homely maxim to the future of de-
structible implements of war is after all des-
tined to prove in the sequel the best preserv-
atIve of the worlds peace.