The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-06-25
UP IN A BALLOON.
Odd Experience To Be Enjoyed
at the Exposition.
LITTLE DANGER CF ACCIDENT.
TIE Eriai Ship Is Captive and Ascepds
by Iieans of Hydrogen Gas, but Il
Brought to Terra Fir,na Again By
Means of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Of
the Raf!Oeu.

Means of acknowledgements Of
the Balloon.
WORLDS FAIR, June 81 tSpeciaLl 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 been
placed here for the amusement OF visitors
and for the enrichment Of its proprietors
is not a free-flying balloon. That is to say,
it does not sail through space as fast as
the winds ef the earth may drive it.
| This is ca ptive balloD IN and a good, large
rope it is that is used to hold tie monster
to earth. Accents in it are comparatively
free from danger.
The balloon park is little ways beyond
that other monster Of the overhead regions,
the vertical wheel. You pay small ad-
mission Zee to this park, and when inside
may do as you please about going up il
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 aronaut 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.
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.
T. he Lnx la1l SC fo-n
because it is mysterious, and because it
scars to regions which man can visit in no
other way because it is sort of connect
ing link between terra trma 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 50 each for the privilege of
making the ascent.
The balloon is larger than you thought
1t was. A very cumbersome and I'M
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. It is made of
silk, of two thicknesses placed together.
The silk for balloons is several times light
IL vanished, the advantage Of number
OF coats being thai where one may fail to
stop a 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 a.balloon that will hold hydrogen
gas, but il can be done, and is done. This
air-ship loses no more than one-haif of one
per cent. of its contents during day, and
if it were made of three thicknesses of silk,
each seven or eight times lightly vanished,
il would net lose even this much. Hydro
gen, you know, is the lightest of all known
substances. 1t has 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 2ne pound
weight.
This is Why the balloon must be so large.
The buoyant power is obtained by the dit
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 ore-sixth ounces
per cubic foot. but as it 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,
and its lifting power, therefore, including
its own weight, is about $3.50 pounds, or
more than three tons. The balloon itself
and its net car and lines weigh about 2,0O0
pounds, so that there is LETT net power of
two tons for 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
wonderful increase Of their power when
their diameter is increased. If a balloon
sixty feet in diameter is able to lift a total
weight of GOO pounds, one would naturally
suppose a balloon of double the diameter, or
120 feet, would lift twice the weight, or six
tons. As a matter of fact, balloon of
this size would lift twenty-eight tons. Sup
pose a man were to build a balloon, spher
ical, 500 feet in diameter, and fiji it with
hydrogen gas. That would be q pretty
large air-ship. it is true, but not nearly so
large in its diameter as some of these big
buildings at the fair. 1t is perhaps prac-
tically impossible balloon, but if such
monster were built and inflated it would
have lifting power of more than 5000
tons. If hydrogen gas could be made as
cheaply as coal gas 1t would cost nearly
$500, go to I'LL such balloon.
The captive balloon had its origin in
France. 1t has been used there, and later
in England and Germany. as well as the
United States, for the purposes OF military
observation and signaling. The French
were the first 70 put it in use, and 1t was
under the great Napoleon that the earliest
trials were made. The French were also
the first 70 adop. the captive balloon as a
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 il is
b. Partisan fsronaut, u. AllIer,
who has been IN the baiiooning business
all his life. The French are the great ex-
perts in 8ronautics. During the siege OF
Paris, twenty wars ago. they bull, and
sent out OF the city about 200 balloons, all
but three or four Of which descended with
out accident 70 their occupants The most
successful experiments madein navigation
of the air, Up 10 this time, have been made /
IL France, though happen to know that
the most promising Of these experiments
was made after plan suggested ly Ger
tain distinguished American.
Before taking seats in thecar OF this cap
tive air-ship let Us see little mere Of itS
method o! manufacture and operation
There are three valves Oh i;s under side.
Orle Of these Is used Tor the injection of
:lore hydrogen, when repleEishing is made
necessary by the leakage which Is going On
all the time. Another Is FOR pumping sir
into the balloonet The balloonet j. com
parativeiy aew invention. and the man
who built this ship has g patent on II Il
IS nothing but a smaller balloon within