The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-10-06
WAR SHIPS IN THE AIR.
The Experiments of European Govern
ments in Military Acronautics.
fFrop, the Washington Post,


yene in Boston early next month, ane
an expeotant public will read will
avidity both the discussions and tn,
stories of experiments made by balloon
ists and inventors Of flying machines. Ii
the latter realm all that has been don,
from Chanute to Lilienthal has beer
very thoroughly exploited. Suffice it te
say that we are still perhaps a century
behind the perfect flying apparatus.
But in the field of ballooning the last
decade of the century can claim the dis.
tinction Of being the epoch making
period. While the eyes of the lay obsery-
ers have been fixed upon flying ma
chimes, the aeronaut has quietly devoted
himself to his task, and What was but
experimental work during the Franco.
Prussian war has changed suddenly into
an exact science. Eurtpe has. made
serostatios supplemental the study OF
war and the Russian, Fpnch, German,
and English armies are tday fitted out
completely with perfectly adjusted bal
loon machinery.
1t was my good forum. to visit the
camp just outside of Bsrlil few weeks
ago, and to observe not aloe the. testing
OF balloons, but the actual making Of
them. Germany's first nsrable expert
ments were with the Humboldt q bal
loon for the making of whih the present
Emperor gave the sum of D,UOO marks.
The explosion and complete destruo-
ton of this air flyer taught. aer onauts of
n cnl mr. nj val hi
have changed not alone the material out
| of which war balloons ale made, but
even the method OF making them.
The first problem that sonfronts the
military aeronaut in the mkinR of his
balloon is to estimate to fraction its
area, conforming this to th height in
| tended to be reached. Thu fixed, the
problem of weight Ia next solved. By
this the aeronaut means no; alone the
cal instruments anchors, &c, are CON
| cerned, but the possibility of bearing
aloft at least one light gun aid bonn
or two. The gun foreshadons a midair
battle. such as has thus far f1gured only
In the imaginations OF writes of lurid
fiction. Today, should war We declared
by one European nation against another,
1t would prove fact, and wemight pos
sibly have q thrilling story q the two
minute battle between he Kaiser
Wilhelm II. and the President Faurs over
Metz and Strasburg.
Military aeronauts, as q matter of fact
believe that battle of this nature might
last an hour. Only recently peculiar
experiment was tried by the French
army. which tends to streDgthen the
aer0nauts in the above view. A baloo n
was sent up mile and q halt distant
from an imaginary army. and the rapid
fire guns were aimed at it the moment
it hove in sight. Two of the Shots struck
the outer covering, but did not impair
the inner coat in the lenst, and the bal
loon reached height of something over
4, 600 feet.
The material used In the German army
for the making of balloons ls the costli-
est pongee silk obtainable. For cheaper
balloons percale..is used, but this Is I'M
desirable where great distances are to pe
reached and where the observations will
consume considerable time. Germans
still have on exhibition, however, pait s
OF tho famous Delcourt balloon, mad 9
in 1882, OF something like 10000 pieces
of very thin kid, all pasted together
Another material used IN the expert
ments two years ago was q thin plate
made OF an alloy Of tin and copper, hut
this proved as unsatisfactory as did an
minimum balloon test.
The pongee silk having been selected,
every inch of its surface is tested and
this proving successful the actions are
girls, who sew it together by hand, 10
| machines being used.
The finest OF silk thread Is given the
workers, and every portion of Their
work undergoes the most careful soru-
tiny. Sewing machines are not used for
the reason that 1t 10 almost Impossible
to work them on Ehe seams near the
end. Some of the French aeronAuts H.
sist on having the balloon cloth sew Cd
In what are called Zones, - from side to
side. Germans prefer sewing Longitude
ualy, claiming that it strengthens tie
balloon greatly and adds to the power Of
expansion.
After tho sewing is completed varpisb,s
are applied along the seams, and the wok
OF adjusting the net and the basket be-
gins. The ventilating apparatus Is a.
piled TO the bottom Of the balloon, ard
this takes up fully. two weeks of tie
practical aeronaut's timet. The dead
| weight carried by this famous Humboldt
| balloon, not including ballast. was /, $50
pounds. Those now being made carry
dead weight of over ton, and includ-
ing ballast, aeronauts, &c, over double
The fitting out Ut balloon basket is
a. task requiring great ingenuity. In
addition to meteorological Instruments
there is complete supply of instrumerlts
for the inhalation Of oxygen. This d.
however, only necessary when balloons
are intended 60 be carried into an atmog-
pherio zone .of very rarefed air. Tie
military Aeronaut watches and carefully
supsrvises every phase of balloon MAX
ing. Even while the monster is being
filed he will take his place inside 1T. a nd
by the deft touch of his hands test the
strength Of the inner surfa ce.
At present there are four of these bal
looms in use in the German army. All
of them are made on the general plan Of
the Humboldt. excepting the material
used, which ia, as stated above, the best
pongee silk obtainable. The apparatus
for emitting gas is altogether much i'm
proved, and no difficulty whatever is az
perienced in reaching the ground.
The tt tanning of the military aeron a nj
is not complete until he knows how to
roll up an empty balloon. This ia a work
requiring weeks of practice, and when il
is thoroughly understood the compass Of
the collapsed and folded balloon is inst
about the arsa Of the basket in Which
1t Ia placed and oarted to the nearest mil
tary station. &.t
uha balloon mnnoeuvres in the English
and Russian armies have been oondncted
much more secretly than those of Gar.
many and Tranoe md thara aro 81.