The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-11-05
HARD TO HIT.

f1AfSD lO Lll1s
 Surprising Results of Experiments
 Modern Rifles Can't Harm Air Ships,
 and Shrapnel Shells Can Rarely Bring
 One Down.
 The aerial spy has for some time been closely studied by French, German, Austrian and Russian officers, and the results of recent experiments are note worthy. It appears that 1t Is not easy to shoot down captive balloon. The balls of the modern rifles don't harm it much. The holes which they make in it are so small that the escape of gas is Insignificant. This has been clearly proved by the results of infantry fire at a balloon held at an elevation of three hundred metres. The only possible en- erny of a balloon Is the shrapnel shell. Experiments with these shells have been made with balloons at elevations ranging from two hundred to eight hundred metres and at a distance of from three to five thousand metres from the firing ground. Out of thirty shraprel shells the Russian artillery men put twenty-five balls through a balloon two hundred metres high and twenty three hundred metres from the firing ground. At five thousand metres from the firing ground the Germans made twenty holes in a balloon two hundred and fifty metres high out of tWenty-six shrapnel shells. But when the air ship was eight hundred metres in the air and the firing distance five thousand metres, only two balls struck it out of sixty five shells and three balls out of eighty shells, during the experi- 1nents last year in Austria.
 wounds that the balloon receives are not generally mortal Indeed it of ten happens that the shrapnel and the broken fragments of the shells produce no more effect upon the balloon than the bullets of the small-b bore rifles. With eight holes in the envelope the balloon still preserves its ascending power, and those that are brought down fall very slowly, like parachutes. But, on the other hand, when a huge rent happens to be made in it, the ball. loon drops rapidly.
 From all these experiments the con- clusion is that, in order to keep the bal loon beyond the reach of dangerous projectiles, it must be kept five thou sand metres from the enemy and at an altitude of eight hundred metres. These conditions are severe. especially es in the experiments the oscillations of the air ship were calculated at twenty metres only, whereas in reality they are greater.
 The trials were then recommended with the balloon rolling and with ire quent changes in its position. The Budapest" which was the target, is a balloon ten metres in diameter and fourteen in height They let it up to a height of eight hundred metres. A bat tery of eight guns was placed at 5,25C metres from the windlass. Firing was begun, but the balloon constantly changed it's position. Men in shelter moved the windlass by means of a ca ble. This obliged the gunners to alter their pointing constantly. They fired eighty shells at it, that is to say, all that were allowed for the experiment and when the balloon was hauled down it was found that there were only three insignificant holes in 1t, which had little or no effect upon its ascending power. Now it should be remembered that the eighty shrapnel shells represented ten thousand balls and pieces of broken shells. So the Austrian officers came to the conclusion that a. balloon at that elevation and moved in the manner de- scribed had very many chances to es- cape all danger from the fire of an enc my, and that the efforts of the artil- 1erymen should be directed against the windlass and the servants of the bal loon.
 An altitude of eight hundred metres is considered the maximum. Beyond that observations are uncertain. The distance from the enemy should bt from eight to ten kilometres Majol Renard who has charge of the depart. ment of military aerostation at Meu. don-Chalais, who compiled the docu, ments that we have here condensed says that in order to foil the fire of al enemy's artillery it is not sufficient tC move a balloon in a straight line, be cause it is clear that instead of follow ing it in it's backward and forward movements the enemy would contin' his attention to the extreme points O its reach, and fire upon it only when 1 came within the line of range. It l: necessary to vary the direction Of 1t: movements and even its altitude II this way the enemy would be compelled to alter the pointing of his guns con stantly; and while this operation wen on the aeronaut could quietly attend t' his business in the line of observations
 To put the thing In a nutshell, th'
 7ntive balloon is able to defend itsel
 th considerable facility.-Journal de;
 ats. '-'-