Evening star., 1895-06-15


z.-;.'ts.sE-@a the weather bureau
iS1.8sg-esIA yesterday. 81 see
IIassss@5sE that King Oscar of
ISa9y ESEz Sweden has contrib
- s@ uted 10000 kroners to
- Tfxs~ help out the project
e-EC- of NJ Andree who
proposes to start on
his aerial journey
from from the islands to the northwest of
Spitzbergen. For certain reasons which 1
will presently mention, 1 think that his
choice of point of departure is bad one
To begin with, however, 1 would like to
state why 1 regard other methods of at
tanning this object as not feasible.
"It has been quite generally assumed
that there is in all likelihood an open sea
around the pole. This notion has no foun-
dation save in the Imagination of theorists.
In a modern map of that part of the world
you will find that Lockwood of Greely's
party is credited justly with having reach
ed the farthest north. at Cape Britannia
He got there by skirting the land. An ex-
ploit of even greater hardhood was that
Of Markham. British naval officer, who,
having arrived at the shore of the palace
crystic sea, started across it directly to
the north. In his account of the trip he
says that he was obliged to cover fifty
miles in order to accomplish ten miles of
northing, owing to the mountains of
broken ice over which he and his men had
to climb. The difficulties were so stupen-
dous. in fact, that he was compelled to turn
back before getting quite so far as the
latitude of Cape Britannia.
Lockwood, in 1SS2. was only 341 miles
frem the pole; but. though this distance
hardly be practicable in ali probability for
men starting fresh and with plenty of
provisions. For my own part, 1 do not
believe that it will ever be accomplished.
1t may fairly be assumed that the broken
ice masses of the palaeocrystic sea extend
all the way to the pole, the region sur
rounding which must present aspect of
extreme desolation. In latitudes so far
north as those reached by Markham and
Lockwood there is no animal life what
ever, save a few flying waterfowl in sum-
mer. That extremity of the earth's axis
is interesting from the scientific point of
view, but not otherwise presumably.
The Starting Point Important.
Now, where is Andree to come out on
his balloon journey? In the neighborhood
of Iceland there is a permanent low-pres-
sure area, and the tendency of the winds
is to blow around that area In direction
opposite to that of the hands of a clock.
The circuit of these winds reaches as far
east as Norway. If Andree trusts himself
to this current, he will be carried westward
and not northward. A similar low-pressure
area is in the vicinity of Bering sea, with
corresponding air-current circulating
about it. Obviously, then. the start by bal
loon ought not to be made from either of
these regions This question Of starting
point Is extremely important. I should
rather be inclined to recommend Hudson's
bay or, else the islands in the Arctic ocean
off the Lena Delta and the north coast of
Siberia.
Il am not attempting to speak with au-
these matters
been studied to any extent. Recently the ex-
plorer Nansen started to reach the pole by
launching stanch vessel from the ST.
terian coast and deliberately getting him
self entangled in the arctic ice pack, with
a view to taking advantage of an ocean
current which he expected to carry his
ship northward to the pole, and eventually
across to Greenland. The finding of drift
weed and various other things unmistaka-
bly, of Siberian origin on the shores Of
Greenland has given rise to a belief that
there is such transpolar stream from
Siberia to Greenland If this idea is cor
rect Nansen has an excellent chance of
attaining the long-sought goal. His vessel
Is constructed mainly for the purpose of re-
sisting the pressure of the ice, and he has
plenty of provisions. The drift referred to
may be due in part to air currents. If so,
the Islands off the Siberian shore would
certainly be good point of departure for
Andree. These Islands were made famous
by the tragic fate of De Long and his eX-
petition
Our problem is to reach the pole by bal
loon. 1t is a proposition wholly different
from what it would have been a few years
ago. What would have been a suicidal pro-
ject then may be considered practicable
noW-simply because we have learned how
to make gas bags which will not leak. To
speak more accurately we know how to
make balloons so near to absolute tghtness
as to lose only one-half of one per cent
of their contents per day. Until recently
silken gas bag for aerial. navigation was
considered TO be we'll made if it lost only
FIVE per cent per diem. The Improvement
las been brought about by employing
goidbeaters' skin, which is obtained from
the intestines of the OK, as material for the
envelope.
The Proper Style of Balloon.
Let some rich man furnish 100000 for
the purpose and 1 will guarantee to reach
the pole. 1 should take four balloons. But
$4,000 would be sufficient for carrying out
such plan as that of NJ. Andree, with
good prospects of success. Were 1 in his
place should procure balloon that would
hold 100000 cubic feet of pure hydrogen
gas. 1t would have lifting power of H.
900 pounds-that is, it would carry that
much weight The gas bag would be sew
enty-four feet in diameter and as nearly
spherical as possible. A spherical balloon
can be made more uniform in shape than
one that is like pear, so that it has less
tendency to rotate. These airships gener-
ally teEd to spin in the air, probably be-
cause there is greater bulge on one side
than on the other
"Our balloon ought to have some sort of
propeller. The dirigible airship is no
longer hope Of the imaginative inventor;
1t is an accomplished fact. At Meudon, in
France, successful experiments were made
recently with a balloon equipped with
steam engine, which Travelled at a moder-
ate rate of speed into the teeth of wind
that was blowing twenty miles an hour.
Before long airships run by steam will
have become familiar and will excite no
more astonishment than the telephone and
the phonograph, which would have been
regarded 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.
"The tremendous strides recently made
in fha oil Of