Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1895-02-09
The BALLOON IN WARFARE.
a Brief History of This Important Mill
tary Adjunct.

tary Adjunct.
Gce of the latest recruits to the
United States army, around whom
peculiar interest hovers, is Aeronaut
Ivy Baldwin. Probably very few OF
the great mass of American people are
| aware of the existence of the war bal
loon corps, under Capt. Glassford, at
Denver, Col. The fame of the signal
corps of Gen. McCook's old command
is worldwide; but this companion
branch of the army has fingered in
practical obscurity ever since the close
of the civil war. The fact that gov
eminent plant for gas generation has
just been completed, and that captive
balloon ascents will now be made reg
ularly, will awaken public interest in
this romantic and picturesque phase of
military science.
The balloon is not a new thing in
warfare. Its introduction dates back
for more than a century. Gen. Jour-
dan is said to have won the battle of
Fleurus during the French revolution
owing to observations taken from
balloon, which was afterward lowered
by means of a windlass. Napoleon was
aided to an Austrian victory by an as
cension at Solferino. During the Prus
sian seige of Paris seventy ba1lons
were sent adrift, and only three were
lost. The father of aeronauts in
America was a Pennsylvania, John
Wise, who was born in Lancaster in
1903. He made his first ascension
from Philadelphia May 2, 1885, and
had made 230 aerial voyages before
7QEO Ro1d
before Vera Cruz, in the war with Mex
leo, Wise created great public merri-
ment By solemnly proposing to capture
the city by dropping shells into it from
balloons.
Only two years ago, however, Ger
many exasperated Russia by using bal
looms to inspect the Russian forttfca-
tons on the border of Poland. One of
the great airships lowered over the
fortress at Kovno in spite of the firing
! from below. The Russian officers
maintained afterward that the Ger
mans could have dropped explosive
shells into the powerless fort. Even
modern cannons, with their great range,
cannot at present be used againt bal
looms; for there are no gun carriages
that permit perpendicular elevation.
Mr.. Cover of London now proposes to
build torpedo balloons, the success of
which would be notable vindication
of the old Pennsylvania aeronaut. The
plan, indeed, of Gen. Russell Thayer,
of the United States army, contem-
plates the fitting out of balloons in the
style of modern frigate, from which
dynamite shells may be dropped into
hostile garTisons.
The mid-air exploits of Thaddeus
Lowe and John La Mountain during
the civil war have not yet been forgot
ten. Gen. Mcclellan organized bal
loon corps away back in 1862, of which
the present corps is really successor.
So valuable did the balloon observa-
tons of the Federal army prove that
the Confederates attempted to profit by
the Northern example. An ascension
in the Peninsula with balloon made
of oiled cotton cloth, inflated with pine
wood smoke, ended disastrously, how
ever as did also second trial before
Petersburg. The balloon for this test
had been made from 185 silk dresses
periodically sacrificed by Southern wo-
men. The United States have no such
urgent need for a ballon system as
have the nations of Europe; but it is a
i piece of wisdom to keep pace with
them in all the fields of military art
Philadelphia Record