The Portland daily press., 1895-06-19
OVER THE ICY SEAS.
Prof. Hazen FayOrs the Idea Of Bal
looming to the Pole.
The Only Practicable Scheme.-PropelIed
after the Manner of Bicycle and Rud-
der Steered,

der Steered,
Creme Bache in Washington Star.)
The plan for reaching the north pole
by balloon is, in my opinion, the only
practicable one,'' said Prof H. A.
Hazen of the weather bureau yesterday.
81 see that King Oscar of Sweden has
contributed 80, 600 kroners to help out the
project of M. Andree, who proposes to
start on his aerial journey from the is
lands to the northwest of Spitzbergen.
For certain reasons which l will presently
mention, think that his choice of a
point of departure is a bad one To begin
with. however, 1 would like to state why
regard other methods of attaining this
object as not feasible.
sit has been quite generally assumed
that there is in all likelihood an open sea
around the pole. This notion has no
foundation save in the imagination of
theorists. In modern map of that part
of the world you will find that Lockwood
of Greely's party is credited justly with
having reached the farthest north, at
Cape Britannia He got there by skirt
ingSthe land An exploit of even greater
hardihood was that of Markham, a Brit
ish naval officer, who, having arrived at
the shore of the palaeocrystic 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 stupendous in fact,
that he was compelled to turn back before
getting quite SO far as the latitude OF
Cape Britannia.
6" Lockwood, in 1882, was only 341 miles
from the pole but though this distance
seems so trifling, a journey over it would
hardly be practicable in all probability
for men starting fresh and with plenty of
provisions. For my own part l do not
believe that it will ever be accomplished.
1t my 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 an aspect OF
extreme deSolation. In ATTITUDES so far
north as those reached by Markham and
Lockwood there is no animal life what
ever, save few flying waterfowl in sum-
mer. That extremity of the earth's axis
is interesting from the scientific point of
view, but not otherwise presumabl y.
THE STARTING POINT IMPORTANT.
CHOW, where is Andree to come out
on his balloon journey? In the neighbor-
hood of Iceland there is permanent low
pressure area, and the tendency of the
winds is to blow around that area in a
direction opposite to that of the hands of
clock. The circuit of these wind reach
es 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 ylcln-
ity of Boring sea, with corresponding
r-current circulating about it. Obvi-
ously, then, the start by balloon ought
not to be made from either of these re-
gions. This question of starting point
is extremely important. [ 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
81 am not attempting to speak with au-
thority, because these matters have not
been studied to any extent. Recently the
explorer Narsen started to reach the
pole by launching a staunch vessel from
the Siberian coast and deliberately get
ting himself entargled in the arctic pack,
with view to taking advantage of an
ocean current, which he expected to carry
his ship northward to the pole, and even
tually across to Greenland The finding
of drifting wood and various other things
Enthusiastically of siberian origin on the
shores of Greenland has given rise to
belief that there is such a transpolar
stream from Siberia to Greenland. If
this idea is correct, Nansen has an excel
lent chance of attaining the longsought
goal. His vessel is constructed mainly
for the purpose of resisting the pressure
of the ice, and he has plenty of provis-
ions. The drift referred to may be due
in part to air currents. If so, the islands
off the Siberian shore would certainly be
a good point of departure for Andree.
These islands were made famous by the
tragic fate of De Long and his expedition
"Our problem is to reach the pole by
balloon. 1t is proposition wholly differ
emit from what it would have been few
years ago. What would have been a sui
cidal project 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 tightness as to lose only one
half of one per cent of their contents per
day. Until recently a silken gas bag for
aerial navigation was considered to be
well made if it lost only five per cent
per diem. The improvement has been
brought about by employing gold beaters'
skin, which is obtained from the intes-
tines of the OK, as material for the envel-
ope.
THE PROPER STYLE OF: BAL
LOON
"Let some rich man furnish $780, 900 for
the purpose and 1 will guarantee to reach
the pole. l should take four balloons But
$40, 900 would be sufficient for carrying
out such plan as that of NJ. Andree,
with good prospects of success. We're 1 in
his place should procure balloon that
would hold 200, 600 cubic feet of pure
hydrogen gas. 1t would have lifting
power of 1900 pounds-that is, would
carry that much weight The gas bag
would be seventy four feet in diameter
and as nearly spherical as possible A
spherical balloon can be made more uni
form in shape than one that is like a
pear SO that it has a less tendency to ro-
tate. These airships generally tend to
spin in the air. probably because there is
a greater bulge on one side than on the
other.