Connecticut western news., 1894-02-15
TEN MILES ABOVE EARTH.

Interesting Experiments nt the Highest
 Point 8 Balloon Ever Reached.
 One of the most interesting experi- ments with balloons that has ever been undertaken was that of Messrs. Hermite and Besancon at Paris -Vaugirard. They succeeded in sending a balloon to the unprecedented elevation of 18, 900 meters, or about 10 miles! There were no peo- pie in the balloon, but it carried va riety of self registering instruments de- signed to record the temperature, the atmospheric pressure, etc. The little balloon was started on its lofty trip about noon, when the air was remark ably still and clear. It rose rapidly and in three-Quarters of an hour had attained an elevation of 10 miles, at which height it remained for several hours.
 It was there subjected to an atnos- pheric pressure only about one eighth as great as that at the surface of the earth, and M. Hermite explains it's floating for so long time at constant height by supposing that the temperature does not vary sensibly with the elevation of the floating body after the latter has at tained an altitude where seven-eighths of the atmospheric pressure is lacking and where there remains no trace of wa ter vapor.
 But toward o'clock, when with the decline of day the temperature began rapidly to fall, the balloon started back toward the earth, arriving with a gentle motion, which did not disturb the instru- ments it carried, at 7:11 at Chanvres, near Paris Vaugirard, from which it had | started.
 The balloon was visible with tele- scope during the entire time. 1t shone ! like the planet Venus, seen by day. By means of micrometer attached to an | astronomical telescope. the apparent di- ameter of the balloon could easily have been measured, and this would have fur nished a means of calculating it's alti- tude independent of the record of the barometer which it carried.
 The barometer and thermometer were furnished with automatic pens driven by clockwork, by means of which diagrams of the changes of pressure and tempera- ture that the balloon experienced were obtained. At the height of about 7a miles the thermometer marked tenn perature of 60 degrees F. below zero. Then the ink in the registering pens of both the thermometer and the barom- eter became frozen and the records were interrupted.
 But as the balloon continued to rise the ink was thawed again, and at the 10 mile level the automatic records were re- newed. The temperature registered there was only about degrees below zero. The increase of temperature is ascribed to the effect of the unclouded sun heat ing the air in the basket that contained the instruments. The lowest record of the barometer was 103 millimeters, CT a trife more than four inches.
 Il M. Hermite calls attention to the fact that the density of the air at the height of 10 miles, where the balloon remained during most of the afternoon, is less than that existing upon the plains of the moon, on the assumption that the at mospheric density on the moon is pro portional to the force of gravity at the surface of that orb.
 If this is correct, then the instruments would have behaved about the same il M. Hermite had been able to place them on the moon, as they did when he sent them only 10 miles above the earth Youths Companion.