The Dickinson press., 1888-04-07
PROGRESS IN BALLOONS.
WHAT THE NATIONS HAVE DONE
FOR WAR PURPOSES.

Wars of thc Futmrc-Francc Ahead Of
England and Ger.nany-Her Recent APP.
plinureS Kept Secret.
The scientists have discovered nitro-gly.
ccIinr. dynamite, melinite, raburite, and
l"t.iiite. with which armies can he destro, cd
aud Qualifications blown to atoms: they have
invented methods for the wholesale annihila-
ton uf everything and everybody, but they
have. not yet devised ways and means for the
employment of the same, except in certain
casts. which do not always present them
>siNeS. Mines sometimes are exploded ut the
least oppultl,nc moment and are only prac-
ii allie when they can he laid without le! OF
lul,irancc during IL siege, or on the suppose
ti"li that the enemy will present himself cx-
trtlT nj the proper instant, while as charges
L" pr"jectil">. they occasionally %diSappoint
those VIII" list them. And surprising even
that they did invariably come up 10 great cx-
irotati"ns. the :icll of their usefulness is
Necessarily limited. and must necessarily re-
main So until somebody does c%ontriNe ways
aud means by which they can he worked
with is easily as ordinary common powder.
Rockets and balloons, you must know, are
the particular dcsi,lcrata at presented
'''t.i ~. l liltslu ustli'hlIlS itlll IothctS lIEiU NIL
=" il. the right direction and not behave co.
reatricallv--and so far nobody has hit upon
any method for their direction which has
stood the test of practical experiences, al
though 1.-THE man who is we'll informed" las
learned that at last Il solution has been
founl TO the Very interesting problem of
aerial navigation.
With dirertable balloons we shall he i'll
l-i.i.iil, Sip,r i'm ,1,o,.,,c tIo lir ,,nv-c,,o,,o,.
for 10, Il Frcnchmun-hc has an Italian
name, hut was horn Transalpinely-a patriot
who has refused tho most tempting foreign
Offers. is about to entlow his country with a
blessing" Where will an enemy be. what
can lie do if We. sailing above his head, can
learn and so ~forrstall his every movement.
10. t" speak of III" dismay and terror sown
i'll his ranks, decimatcd 10y the explosives
which We will shower down upon his head!
| sholll say. effectively. that the enemy
@o,:ll i,t nowhere, only | nm very incrcdu-
! u%'still, having studied pretty attentivrlv
all that las been MS Yet accomplished in arl-
"%>tation, which, ii W.. We're to lav., believed
announcement similar To those made now Il
twcIvemonth ago, had even then been re-
Gluccl To ii positive certainty by Capt. krels
al the a".o>ta.ic laboratory If Mcudon.
That sterrablc free balloons will he very
useful i'll war cannot be questioned, Judging
from what WAS accomplished with the Cap
tive article at Maubeuge, Fleurus, Charleroi
and Antwerp i'll 1871, at Venice i'll 1919, ut
Richmond in June, 1862, Mt Pasa-Pucu, in
Paraguay. twenty years ago. On the 9TH of
September NJ. laurel, an apothecary of
Metz. attempted to communicate with tho
National Defense government by means of
small a"rostats, and i'll the course of the fol-
lowing ten days did get safely to their desti-
nation about twothirds of the 800 messages
sent ont from the bcieagucred city: and DUR
ing the siege of Paris. thanks to NM. Yon,
Art"iS aud the brothers Goddard. l55 per.
soils. :ai> carrier pigeons and $1,000 900 of let
tcrS reached the provinces by means of bal
looms between the 23d of September. 1870,
and the 18th If January. 1871. But these
RESULTS. although encouraging. only proved
that communications might possibly be kept
III, a~eliailH: they were not absolutely salts
factory. rs the arronauts were alw;ty. eX-
ie"sFl t" a~lcatury risks dependent upon at
"lpheric circumstances, So that there never
could he any certainty of where they would
land.
suppose. however. that the Meudcn pro-
III" have accomplished something serious i'll
;hr course of the past three years, as the
French army has now Il regular balloon
Train. with two officers, lnnety-four men and
sesA:i vehicles, including a hydrogen
WAGON. for iici! service. and Il fortress ser
vic. III iiN" officer, and l42 nnn-coinmi>-
,inlird officers and privatrS. which or5auixa-
ton has been taken as Il model by Italy. Rus
sia anil Relsium, TIL. countries in which,
urXt 4" France, most interest has been man
,lcs'el in This question.
In England military aerostatiun only be-
gan TO b. developed in 1S1s, when n series of
experiments were nl,lo at Woolwirh under
ti"' directions of Capt. Noble. assisted by
Gag. i.". Ilstlaie and Tcmpler, the latter
az i'l"iiaul of acknowledged competency.
Sat tl!.i.' experiments We're only With cap
tive hallo"ns-ti,e Saracen. the Talisman, the
Crusader. the Pioneer, etc.-and did nothing
TO advance tho solution of the most import
ant problem. how to steer balloons, which
problem still remains as it was when balloons
woie used il. .Afghanistan. Zululand and
Egypt.
LIN Germany tho balloon question is still
less advanced. although Frances powerful
ci'"ay h., spared no effort to get ut hel
ncigili'"i'' secrets. There was an attempt
nln', no. long ago. at the sham sirgeof May,
ailcc, when one balloon was lost altogether
and the other just escaped destruction. while
still more recently, the staff officers who
near Berlin. undertook to calculate from {;
balloon car the distance between the two
armies, not only failed to do so, but were
obliged to give up the job altogether, as theil
machine could never be raised to the re
uuired altitude, In spite of all the money
spent the German aerostatic corps is as badly
provided with the apparatus and is as i'll
experienced as it was in 1870, when a detach
ment, trained ut CoblentZ. could only attain
nm altitude of l:1 feet at Bischeim, when i
was desired to obtain n birds eye view o
Strashourg.
And the conclusion is that the French al
still Il long way ahead of all other nations
although there is reason to suppose the prob
ability of a disagreeable surprise on the par
of Belgium, by which, as Belgium is accuse,
If plilo-Teutonic proclivities, the German
will profit. 1t is somewhat singular that
given the inventive genius of our country
men, America should have given birth t
nothing moro important than those balloo
torprdoes which We're so much talked abou
early in the year 1850, and which are by IL
means an originality, as in lSl3 a German il
ventor proposed Il balloon system to tn
Russian government, by which Napoleon an
all his staff were to have been eliminated.
What the French have now succeeded i
doing it is impossible to know, MS they kce
1t Il profound secret. and no longer ADM
even native reporters to witness their eXrer
ments. Perhaps they have quite succeede,
perhaps they AVE not: and for the reaso
that they keep their secrets to themselves, til
public remains slleptical.-Paris Cor. Ne
York Times.