The times., 1893-06-30
UP IN A BALLOON.
Odd Experience To Be Enjoyed
at the Exposition.
LITTLE DANGER OF ACCIDENT.

|
WORLDS FAIR, June "a Especial. i
Among the odd experiences to be en-.
joyed at the fair none is more novel or in.
teresting than that of going up in bal
loon. This balloon which has beeI
placed here for the amusement of visitors
and for the enrichment of its proprietors
is not free-fying balloon. That is to say,
it does not sail through space as fast as
the winds of the earth may drive 1t.
This is captive balloon and good, large
rope it is that is used to hold the monster
to earth. Ascents in it are comparatively
free from danger.
The balloon park is little ways beyond
the vertical wheel. You pay small adj
mission fee to this park, and when inside
may do as you please about going up in
the balloon. There are restaurants here,
and pleasant pavilions, and one may sit
and rest and sip his beer or his glass of
lemonade while watching the eronaut and
his assistants manage their aerial craft
and get the passengers properly fixed in
the car before starting on journey to the
clouds. There is something about bal
loon which catches the popular fancy. I
never saw balloon that did not want to
get near it and study it, and finally to
make an ascent in it. Probably majority
Of the human race are similarly affected.
1t must be that the balloon is fascinating
because it is mysterious, and because 1t
scars to regions which man can visit in no
other way, because it is sort Of connect
ing link between terra firma and the
heavens. At any rate, whatever the cause,
large numbers of people do come to this
park to see the captive air-ship, and many
of them pay 81 each for the privilege Of
making the ascent.
The balloon is larger than you thought
1t was. A very cumbersome and un-
wieldy thing it appears to be as it towers
above your head, tugging at its ropes, and
looking slick and impatient in the air.
This balloon is about sixty feet in diameter,
and being nearly spherical has capacity
of 100000 cubic feet of gas. 1t Is made Of
silk, of two thicknesses placed together.
The silk for balloons is several times light
ly vanished, the advantage of a number
of coats being that where one may fail to
stop pore in the fabric another will be
pretty sure to do so. The advantage OF
the double envelope is apparent, for the
same reason. 1t is not an easy matter to
make balloon that will hold hydrogen
gas, but it can be done, and is done. This
air-ship loses no more than one-half of one
per cent. of its contents during day, and
g 80 !. AL,
each seven or eight times lightly vanished,
it would not lose even this much. Hydro
gen, you know, is the lightest of all known
substances. Ithas only one-fourteenth the
weight of common air, and air is not very
heavy, since more than thirteen cubic feet
of it are required to make one pound
weight.
This is why the balloon must be so large.
The buoyant power is obtained by the diff
ference between the weight of hydrogen
and the weight of the air displaced. If
the hydrogen were perfectly pure this diff
ference would be one and one-sixth ounces
per cubic foot, but as 1t is difficult to pro-
duce hydrogen altogether pure lifting
power of one ounce per cubic foot is all that
can be reckoned on with safety. That is
about what is obtained in this balloon,
its own weight, is about 6,250 pounds, or
more than three tons. The balloon itself
and its net, car and lines weigh about 1000
pounds. so that there is left a net power of
two tons Tor passengers. Under favorable
conditions the air-ship is able to carry up
twenty-five or thirty passengers, but it
rarely takes more than fifteen at one load.
A curious thing about balloons is the
.f..I - @Ia,v-
their diameter is increased. If balloon
sixty feet in diameter is able to lift total
weight of 5000 pounds, ,one would naturally
suppose balloon of double the diameter, or
100 feet, would lift twice the weight, or six
tons. AS matter of fact, balloon Of
this size would lift twenty-eight tons. Sup
pose man were to build a balloon, spher-
ical, 800 feet in diameter, and fill it with
hydrogen gas. That would be a pretty
large air-ship, 1t Is true, but not nearly so
large in its diameter as some Of these big
buildings at the fair. It Is perhaps prac-
tically impossible balloon, but II such a
monster were built and inflated It would
have q lifting power Of more than 5000
tons. II hydrogen gas could be made as
cheaply as coal gas 1t would cost nearly
$500, 900 to all such q balloon.
The captive balloon had its origin in
France. It has been used there, and later
In England and Germany, as well as the
United States, for the purposes Of military
observation and signalling. The French
were the first to put 1t In use, and II was
under the great Napoleon that the earliest
trials were made. The French were also
the first to adopt the captive balloon as
means Of giving pleasure to people on such
occasions as worlds fairs, and at the two
last expositions universal held in Paris
there were large captive balloons, one OF
them very much larger than this one.
This balloon was built in Paris, and it's
managed by Partisan @ronaut, M. Allier,
who has been in the ballooning business
oil his life The French are the great ex.
perts in eronautics. During the siege OF
Paris, twenty years ago, they built and
sent out of the city about 200 balloons, all
but three or four Of which descended with.
out accident to their occupants. The most
successful experiments madein navigation
of the air, up to this time, have been made
In France, though happen to know that
the most promising Of these experiments
was made after plan suggested by Ger.
tain distinguished American.
Before taking seats in the car of this cap
tive air-ship let us see a little more of its