The Portland daily press., 1895-06-19

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monograph, which would have been re
garded as wonders inconceivable gen
Grafton ago. The future of aerial naviga-
ton lies in this direction, and not toward
aeroplaneS or other such devices for so
called flying machines.
50 The tremendous strides recently made
in the science of aeronautics are not gen.
orally realized. We have learned for the
first time how to make a gas-tight bal
loon-obviously a prime requisite for
success in navigating the atmosphere
Next we have demonstrated the practi-t
cability of propelling the airship. Pro
pulsion once accomplished, there is no
difficulty about steering. You cannot
steer a balloon that is merely drifting
with the air currents. For the same
reason, you cannot exercise with rudder
any control over a boat that is drifting
with the current of a stream. But give
to the boat even little power of propul-
sion, and you can steer The same propo-
sition applies to an airship. For want
of better means. ! would equip my pole
bound balloon with propellers which
could be worked with the feet like bicy-.
Gle To go straight against the wind
would be too laborious, but l could tack.
If L could go only two miles an hour my
rudder would act
A TRIP OF ONLY THIRTY DAYS.
"The distance to be traversed from the
islands off the Lena delta to the pole is
only few hundred miles. Going at the
rate of only two miles an hour it would
be practicable to reach the destination
and return within thirty days. But,
with strong and favoring wind, we
might get there in a couple of days, or
even less. Having attained the goal, any
wind would carry us southwark for we
should not be obliged to back to our
original point of departure. The party,
conceive, ought to consist of six men. l
would take with me second and smaller,
balloon, the neck of which could be at
tached to the neck of the larger gas bag
This secondary balloon might have a ca :
pacity of 40, 600 cubic feet, but it would
be empty at the start.
81 1t is very i'm portant for the aeronaut,
when he finds the wind against him, to
be able to rise above the unfavorable cur
rent. In a higher level of the atmosphere
he may strike favorable breeze, which
at an elevation of a mile and a half is
likely to blow at a tremendous rate
perhaps forty or fifty miles an hour.
Hitherto the trouble has been that, owing
to the greater tenuity of the atmosphere
above, the gas would expand as the bal
loon rose, and escaped out of the neck
This loss of precious gas is prevented by
the smaller bag, which receives the gas
descending to lower level the gas thus
saved is returned to the large balloon
simply by pulling down the little one,
when the hydrogen which it contains
obeys the law of nature and ascends into
the great bag.
/ have said that our big balloon would
lift A. 600 pounds. Let US suppose that
fviv. 70 fIn Jro hirf-yy
days, during which we would lose one
per cent of gas per diem, or twice as
much as the due allowance. This escape
would signify alloss of 4, 200 pounds lift.
ing power. We have left, then, $500
pounds. Six men would weigh 900
pounds. Add for balloon, outfit and
propeller. /, 100 pounds, and for boat,
the men consumed five pounds of food
and water per diem. That would made.
thirty pounds day, or 900 pounds for
thirty days Sum these items up, and
you will have a total of 3, 400 pounds
So you would start with 6, 400 pounds of
ballast. A part of this ballast would
consist of the empty smaller balloon,
which could be cut up and thrown away
piecemeal in case of an emergency. The
last thing to be sacrificed would be the
boat, which would be the hope of safety
in case the air ship collapsed and fell in
to the water. Many aeronauts have been
reduced to the extremity of cutting away
the basket and holding on to the ring of
the balloon.
'We should require as many as six
men, in order that they might take turns
in operating the propeller. A start
might be made conveniently from so de-
grees north latitude, which would be 700
miles from the pole. have said that no
great speed would be required. In case
of head wind we could throw out an
anchor and wait for favorable breeze,
or we might rise to higher level and
elevation of one and a half miles the
winds are apt to blow at rate ten times
as fast as near the surface of the earth.
With breezes not extremely unfavorable,s
we could run straight to the pole. Give
me steam propeller and would go up
humming.''