The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-09-11
STILL HOPE FOR ANDREE.


Secretary B. Baden Powell, of the
British Aeronautical society, has the
latest say III the current number of The
Saturday Review on Herr Andree's bal
loon trip to the North Pole. He clears
I'D two rather bewildering statements,
as follows:
at is said that the balloon soon after
starting rose steadily to height of fif-
teen thousand feet. But, on the other
hand. even overlooking the difficulty of
estimating such height, simple cal
culation will show that balloon the
size of Andree's 10000 cubic feet
could not lift to height Of 1900 feet
greater weight than COCO pounds, and
as the balloon with its car and fittings
weighs more than this, such an ascent
could only be possible if the whole of
the ballast. provisions, boat and sledges
If not men, were thrown out In winch
case 1t Is not likely that the journey
would have lasted more than few
hours However, the whole affair Is
most improbable, and NJ. Machuron.
probably the only practical balloonist
who witnessed the departure, says that
the balloon pursued its way at an even
height OF few hundred feet above the
water Another rather alarming state
ment was 10 the effect mat the guide
l., 1aft z
however. that 1t was only a portion, and
that plenty of spare rope was taken In
the car. The action Of the guide ropes,
on which the aeronaut lays so much
stress. may beshortly explained. A bal
loon. the lift of which is entirely de-
pendent on the specific gravity Of the
gas contained within it, Is necessarily a
very delicately balanced instrument. a
ray of sunshine a puff Of warm wind,
4 tonch OF damp mist, all cause the bal
loon to rise or fall Every rise above
certain height means an inevitable loss
of gas, since the rarity Of the air at a
height causes il TO increase its volume.
1t is therefore most essential in a long
prOtracted voyage TO keep the balloon !
at an even height above the ground. |
This the guide rope does A long and
he.yy rope (Andree uses several ropes !
trailing along the ground keeps the bal |
loon down, since, when the latter has Il |
tendency to rise, it has to lift more /
weight of rope off the ground. On the |
other hand. as il sinks II is relieved of |
the weight Of the rope. But there is an
other use for the guide rope which is |
familiar 10 Andree. A balloon floating /
in mid-air is bound to go exactly with /
the wind, and is thus differently situated |
to a ship which can said against the wind
by utilizing the water as Il fulcrum. But
with a heavy rope trailing along the |
ground a fulcrum can be obtained for
steering the balloon, and In this way
Andree hopes to be able to guide his
aerostat some thirty degrees or more ON
either side Of the wind course. He may
thus not only avoid distractions, but di-
rect his way exactly 10 the Pole, even
though the wind be blowing several
points off it,"
Mr.. Baden-Powell contends therefore.
that a good start was made with a
steady fresh wind, and he believes An
dree really accomplished without mis-
hap the 7o0-mile journey in mid-air 10
the Pole 1T is the return Journey" he
asserts wherein the great difficulty
and doubt lie" He thinks however,
that the balloon ought TO have travelled
at least 6,000 miles in the three weeks,
which Andree estimated as the duration
of time that his airship would remain
atioat All Of which is reassuring to the
interested thousands who would rejoice
10 hear of Andree's safety.