The record-union., 1895-07-10
HAzES WANTS TO TRY TT


"Our problem is to reach the pole by
balloon. Ii Is proposition wholly dill
ferent from what IL would have been a few
years ago. What would have been Il sui
cidai project then may be considered prac-
ticable 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 10
absolute tightness as to lose only one half
OF per cent. OF their contents per day.
Until recently silk gas bag tor aerial
navigation was considered 10 be well
made If it lost only per cent per diem
The improvement has been brought
about by employing gold beaters' skin
which is obtained from the iutestines OF
the OK, as material fer the envelope.
'Let some rich man furnish $3.50. 900 for
the purpose, and l will guarantee TO
reach the pole. l should take four bal
looms. But $1,000 would be sufficient for
carrying out such plan as that of NJ
Andree, with good prospects OF success.
Were in his place | should procure a
balloon that would hold 100000 cubic feet
of pure hydrogen gas. 1t would have a
lifting power of l4,0OJ pounds-that is it
would carry that much weight. The gas
bag would be seyenty-tour feet in diam
eter and as nearly spherical as possible.
\ spherical balloon can be made more
uniform in shape than one that is like O
pear, SO that it has a less tendency to ro-
tate. These airships generally tend TO
spin in the ar, probably because there is
a greater bulge on one side than on the
other.
"Our balloon oughtto have soma sort OF
propeller. The dirigible air ship is no
no Longer hope OF the Imaginative iu-
ventor; it is an accomplished fact. At
Meudun, in France, successful experI-
ments were made recently with balloon
equipped with a steam engine, which
travelled at a moderate rate OF speed into
the teeth OF a wind that was blowing
twenty miles an hour.
STEERING Is NOW EASY
THE tremendous strides recently made
in the science OF aeronautics are not gem
orally realized. We have learned for the
first time now to mako gaS-tighr bal
loon-obviously prime requisite for sue
cess in nayigatin. the atmosphere Next
we have demonstrated the practicabiIlty
of propelling the air-ship. Propulsion
once accomplished, there Is no difficulty
about steering. You cannot steer a bal
loon that is merely drifting with the air
currents. For the same reason YOU can
not exercise with a rudder any control
over a boat that is drifting with the cur
rent OF stream.
"But give TO the boat even little power
of propulsion and you can steer. The
piOpOoitiOh "ppIiCo VI al diE-SHlD.
For want OF better means, | would equip
my pole-bound balloon with propellers,
which could be worked with the feet like
u bicycle. 70 go straight against the
wind would be too laborlous, bat could
tack. If l could so only TWO miles an
hour my rudder would act.
The distance 10 be traversed from the
islands OFF the Lena delta 10 the pole is
only a few hundred miles. Going at tie
rate OF only two miles an hour, it would
be practicable TO reach the destination
and return within thirty days. But, with
a strong and 1avoring wind, we might get
there i'll couple OF days or even less.
Having attained the goal. any wind
would carry US southwark, for we should
be Obliged to go back to our original point
of departure.
1.-The party | conceive ought 10 consist
of six men. / would take with me q sec
ond and smaller balloon, the neck of
which could be attached TO the neck Of
the larger gas-bsg. This secondary bal
loon might have capacity OF 10000 cubic
feet. but it would be empty at.the start.
cit Is very Important for tue aerOnaut.
when he finds the wind against him, to
be able to rise above the unfavOrable cur
rent. In g higher level OF the atmos-
phere lie may strike q favoring breeze,
which al an elevation OF mile and a half
is likely to blow at q tremendous rate
perhaps forty or UftV miles all nOur.
Hitherto tho trouble has been that, owing
10 tho greater tenuity Of the atmosphere
above, the gas would ex pand as the bal
loon rose and escape out of the neck.
This loss o. precious gas is prevented by
the sinallet bag, which receives the gas
that escapes from the bigger one. On
descending to T. lower level the gas thus
saved ~ returned to the large balloon
simply by pulling down tho little one,
when tho hydrogen which it contains
obeys the law Of nature and ascends into
the great bag.
''I have said that our big balloon would
lift 1900 pounds. Let US suppose that
the trip TO the pole would require thirty
days, during which we would lose l per