The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-02-06
NAVIGATING THE AIR.

-1suueifn0 Man. IN Pees's Sun.
NAVIGATING THE AIR.
The Topic Considered Retrospect
lively and Prospeotively.
There is a peculiar fascination in the
bought Of navigating the air, and
ometimes we can hardly help envy.
lng the bird as he glides, with no ap-
aren't effort, so swiftly and gracefully
bver our heads, rising and falling at his
own sweet will. 1t is not strange that
the effort should have been made at a
very early period in history to invent
some means OF initiating his flight; u
hope which is not yet relinquished. Re-
cent experiments in France for propel-
ling and directing the motion Of bal
looms have met with some degree Of
success, the aerial navigator having
been able to return to the point from
which he started after travelling q con-
siderable distance; but no continuance
has ever been discovered by which the
opposing force of q strong current of
wind can be resisted, and it is impossi-
BILE that it should be SO long as we de-
pend upon gas for the support Of the
flying machine in the air. The reason
of this will be obvious enough if the
reader will remember how impossible it
would be to steer Q boat so as to make
it sail against the wind, provided that
no portion of the boat were under
water. To oppose the action Of the air
there must be some resisting medium
OF a denser nature to serve as a full
crum for the action of the lever. At
tention is now directed to the inven-
ton of other modes Of sustaining and
navigating bodies in the air, which may
possibly lead to some practical result.
The history Of balloons is all com.
prised within the period Of a century.
The idea was suggested by watching
the ascent of smoke from a chimney,
and the discovery Of hydrogen gas,
which is only one-thirteenth the weight
of common air, induced Cavallo, a dis
tinguished French electrician, to try
the experiment Of using this gas to
float bodies above the surface of the
earth. On the fifth Of June, 1888, the
Brothers Montgolfer, paper m~anufact-
urers near Lyons in France, construct
ed a balloon one hundred and ten feet
in circumference, and weighing five
hundred pounds, made Of linen lined
with paper. As they had already tried
the experiment Of raising one of these
paper balloons by means Of hydrogen,
but without success, on account of the
apid escape Of the gas through the
ores of the paper, they resorted to
ie expedient Of using heated air, sup
piled by atire placed beneath an aper-
atus in the bottom Of the balloon. This
experiment having resulted successful
iy, in the course of a few months a bal
loon made Of materials capable Of
holding hydrogen gas, was sent up
from Paris, which excited great in
terest among all classes Of people,
After a while a man was found who
was willing to take the risk Of trusting
himself in the car Of o balloon, but only
the length Of a rope attached to the
earth. Before the year had ended, the
same bold adventurer, with an equally
bold companion, assembled to the height
Of three thousand feet above tho surface
Of the earth, in q balloon seventy feet
high and forty-six in diameter, sus-
tanned by heated air. They were ab-
sent from the earth about half an hour,
having consumed only q third Of the
fuel taken with them. Soon after this
two other persons assembled from Paris
in a hydrogen balloon, alighting in less
than two hours at Nesle, twenty-five
miles off, when one Of the gentlemen
left his companion to re-ascend alone,
who continued his flight for a while,
rising to the height of nearly ten thou
sand feet. This was a little after sun
set, and we may picture to ourselves
this solitary man, when he found him
self, as it were, alone with God, and
cut off from all connection with ter
r~estrial things, at the mercy Of the
frailest element, "the only illuminated
object" as he described it; ''all the
rest Of nature being plunged in
shadow" II is an interesting fact in
connection with this expedition, that 1t
was the first tinc Of discovering that
there were different currents Of air at
different elevations.
1t is not my purpose to follow out the
history Of aerial navigation in It's further
details. The sources Of information on
this subject are open to all, and 1t may
not have the same interest to others
that 1t has to tho writer, who, in early
iife. was much given to experiments In
k,his department Of science. ! will
merely alludc to the fact that IT is just
one hundred years since DR.. John JET
fries, Of Boston, Mass, crossed the
channel in a balloon from Dover, in
company with M. Blanchard, and the
centennial Of this interesting event WAS
duly celebrated by his descendants ia
Boston md vicinity
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