Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1888-04-04
PROGRESS IN BALLOONS.
What the Nations Have Done for war
PURPOSES

glycerine, dynamite, melinite, raourlte,
and hetlinIte, with which armies can
be destroyed and Notifications blown to
atoms; they have invented methods for
the wholesale annihil1tiOn of everything
and everybody, but they have not yet
devised ways and means for the employ
ment Of the same, except in certain
cases, which do not always present
themselves. Mines sometimes are ex-
ploded at the least Opportune moment,
and are only practicable when they can
be laid without let or hindrance during
a Siege, or on the suppOsltiOn that the
enemy will present himself exactly at
the proper instant, while as charges To
proiectiles, they occasionally disappoint
those who use them. And suppOsing
even that they did invariably come up
to great expectations, the field of their
usefulness IS necessarily limited, ana
most necessarily remain so until some
body does cuutriye ways and means by
which they can be worked with as
easily as ordinary common powder.
Rockets and balloons, you must know,
are the particular desIderata at present
of course, mean balloons and rock
cts that will GO in the right direction
and not behave eccentrically-and so
far nobody has hit upon any method
for their direction which has stood the
test Of practical experience, although
s.the man who Is well infOrmedn has
learned that at Inst a solution has been
found 70 the very interesting problem
Of aerial navigation
With directable balloons we shall be
invincible, sing in chorus the big news
papers, for 10! Frenchman-he has an
Italian name, hut was born Transal-
plnley-a patriot who has refused the
most tempting foreign offers, Is about
20 endow his country with "blesS-
iug,' Where will an enemy be? what
can he do II We, sailing above his head,
can learn and so forestall his every
movement, not Co speak Of the dismay
and terror sOwu in ms ranks, decimated
by the explosives which we will shower
down upon his headg 1 should Say,
effectively, that the enemy would be
nowhere, only / am very incredulous
still, having studied pretty attentiyely
all that has been Is Yet accomplished IN
aerOstatiOu, which. II We were 70 have
believed announcements similar 10 those
made now a twelyemuutL ago, had even
then been reduced % "A positive certain
ty by Capt krels nc the aerOstatIc
laboratory uf Nleuduu.
That steerIbie free balloons viii be
very Gseful in war cannot be question:
ed, judging from what was accomp-
ished with the Captive article at Maui
beuge, Eieurus, CharleTOi and Antwerp
in 1874, at Feuice in 1919, ut Richmond
in June, 1852, st PIS.I-Pueu, in Para
quay, twenty years ago. On the 9TH Of
September NJ. laurel, an apothecary Of
Metz, attempted 10 communicate with
the National Defense government by
means Of small rerOstats, and in the
course of the following ten days did get
safely 10 their destination about two
thirds of the 800 messages sent out |
from the bele3guercd city; and during |
the siege Of Paris, thanks 10 NM YOu, |
D'Artois and tue brothers Goddard, |
155 persons, Sos carrier pigeons and /
3,OOO,uO of letters reached the pro- |
vinces by means Of balloons between !
the % OF September, 1870, and the 2Sth /
OF January, 1871. But these results, /
although encouraging, only proved that /
communications might possibly be kept /
up aerially; they were not absolutely
satisfactory, as the aerOnauts were al /
ways exposed TO aleatory risks depen- |
dent upon atmospheric circumstances, |
80 that there never could be any csr- |
tainty of where they would land.
l suppose, however, 1T the MeudOn /
people have accomplished something /
serious in the course of the past three /
years, as the French army has now a
regular balloon train, with two officers,
ninety-fOur men and seven vehicles,
including a Hydrogen wagon" for
field service, and a fortress service of
five officers and 1i2 non-commisslonedI
officers and privates, which organiza-
ton has been taken rs model by Italy,
Russia and Belgium, the countries in
which, next 20 France, most interest
has been manifested in this question.
In England military acrostation only
began to be developed in 1873, when a
series Of experiments were made at
WOOlwiCh under the directions of Capt.
Noble, assisted by Capts. Lee, Elsjale
and Templer, the latter an aeronaut of
acknowledged competency. But their
experiments were only with captive
balloOns-the Saracen, the Talisman,
the Crusader, the Pioneer, etc.,-and
did nothing to advance the solution of
the most important problem, how to
steer balloons, which problem still re-
mains as It was when balloons were
used in Afguauistau, Zu!uland and
Egypt.
In Germany the balloon question is
still less advanced, although Frances
powerful enemy has spared 10 effort to
get at her neigLbor'S secrets. There
was an attempt made not long ago, at
the sham seige of Mayence, when one
balloon was lost altogether and the
other Just escaped destruction, while,
Still more recently, the staff officers
who, near Berlin, undertook to calcu-
late from balloon car the distance
between the two armies, not only failed
to DO SO, but were obliged to give Hp
the job altogether, rs their machine
could never he raised to the required
altitude. In spite Of all the money
spent the German aerostatic corps is as
badly provided with the apparatus aud
IS as inexperienced rs it was in 1870.
when detachment, trained ut Cob
leutz, could only attain an altitude ol
l3S feet at Bischeim, when it was dc.
sired to obtain birds eye view OF
Strasbourg.
And the conclusion is that the French
are still long way ahead of all Other
nations, although there is reason q
suppose the probability of a disagree
BILE surprise on the part of Belgium, by
which, rs Belgium is accused Of phIlO
TeutOnic pUoclIvities, the Germans vii
profit 1t is somewhat singular that
given the inventive genius of our coun
trymen, America should have giver
birth TO nothing more important THAI
those balloon t0rpedoeS which were 5,
much talked about early in the yea
1850, and which are by no means aI
originality, rs in 1912 German inven
tor proposed n balloon system to tn,
Russian government, by which Napo
leon and all his staff were to have beef
eliminated.
What the French have now Succeede,
in doing IL Is impossible TO know, a
they keep it profound secret, and N
longer admit even native reporters &
witness their experiments. Perhap
they have quite succeeded, perhap
they have nots and for the reason tina
they keep their secrets to themselves
the public remains skeptical.