The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-21
nALLoONs IN WARFARE.
Bullets Make Little Impression Upon
Them, But shrnpncI Is More Eff
fectivc.
From Journal des Debate.


From Journal des Debate.
The aerial spy has for some time been
closely studied by French, German, Aus
trian and Russian officers. and the re-
suits of some experiments are note
worthy. 1t appears that it is not easy
to shoot down a captive balloon. The
balls of the modern rifles don't harm
it much. The holes which they make IN
it are 50 small that the escape OF gas
IS Insignificant This has been clearly
proved by the result of infantry fire
at a balloon held a. an elevation Of 800
metres. The only possible enemy Of a
balloon is the shrapnel shell. Expert
ments with these shells have been made
with balloons at elevations ranging from
200 to 800 metres and at a distance of
from 5000 TO 800 metres from the firing
ground. out of thirty shrapnel shells
the Russian artillerymen put twenty-five
balls through a balloon 900 metres high
and 1920 metres from the firing ground.
Al 5000 metres from the firing ground
the Germans made twenty holes in a
balloon 200 metres high out Of twenty
six shrapnel shells. But when the air
ship was 500 metres In the air and the FIR
ing distance 5000 metres, only two balls
struck il out Of slxty-fiVe shells ana
three balls out of eighty shells during the
experiments last year In Austria.
Wounds that the balloon receives are
not generally mortal. luQeeQ, II often
happens that the shTapnel and the broken
fragments OF the shells produce no more
effect upon the balloon than the bullets
of the small bore rifles With eight holes
in the envelope the balloon still reserves
its ascending power, and those thai
are brought down fall very slowly, like
parachutes But, on the other hama.
when a huge rent happens to be made
in 1t, the balloon drops rapidly.
From all these experiments the con-
clusion is that, in order to keep the bal
H..
jectiles it must be kept 5000 metres
from the enemy and Il an attitude OF
800 metres. These conditions are Sc
we're, especially as in the experiments
culated at twenty metres only, whereas
in reality they are greater
The trials were then recommended with
the balloon rolling and with frequent
changes in its position. The Budapest
which was the target, Is a balloon ten me-
tiers In diameter and fourteen IN hight
A battery Of eight guns was placed at
500 meters from the Windlass. Firing
was begun, but the balloon constantly
changed its position. Men in shelter NOV
ed the windlass by means OF cable. This
Obliged the gunners to alter their point
ing constantly. They fired eighty shells at
it, that is to say, all that were allowed
loon was hauled down 1t was found that
there were only three insignificant holes
in it, which had little or no effect upon its
Ascending power. Now IL should be re-
membered that the eighty shrapnel shells
represented 10000 balls and pieces of
broken shells So the Austrian officers
came to the conclusion that balloon at
that elevation and moved in the manner
described had very many chances to es-
cape all danger from the fire of an enemy,
and that the efforts of the artillerymen
should be directed against the windlass
and the servants of the balloon.
An altitude Of 800 meters Is considered
the maximum. Beyond that observations
are uncertain. The distance from the en-
envy should be from eight to ten kilome-
tiers. Maj. Renard who has charge of the
department of military aerostatiop at
MeudOn-Chalais. who compiled the docu-
ments that we have here condensed, says
that, in order to foil the fire of an enemy s
artillery, il Is not sucient to move a
balloon in a straight line, because II is
clear that, instead of following it in It's
backward and forward movements, the
enemy would confine his attention to the
extreme points Of its reach and FIRE upon
II only when it came within the line of
range. 1t Is necessary TO vary the direc-
tion of Its movements and even its alti-
tude. In this way the enemy would be
compelled to alter the pointing of his
guns constantly, and while this operation
went on the aeronaut could quietly attend
to his business in the line of observations
To put the thing in a nutshell, the cap
tive balloon Is able to defend itself with
considerable facility.