The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-06-04

be thrown out from time to time to
COUNTER balance these continuous losses.
Now the balloon proposed by Besan-
con and Hermite was to be thirty me-
tres (about one hundred feeD in hight
or 1000 square metres in diameter and
10, 200 cubic metres in capacity. The
envelope was to be composed Of three
thicknesses of Chinese silk, covered
! with impermeable varnish and glued
together, so as to present resistance
of 10000 kilogrammes per square
metre.
To maintain the aeronaut at an even
level whose maximum hight should not
exceed 500 metres, NJ. Besancon decid-
ed to use a guide rope 1000 metres
long, of which 1,200 metres would be
formed of light silk and the remaining
600 metres would be purposely heavy,
being thick hemp surrounded by steel
wire. in such sort that it could be
used to compensate for inequalities in
atmosphere, etc. To revitalize the
parent balloon when the loss by endos
mosis had become serious a reserve of
sixteen small balloons, arranged around
the equator of the large one, could be
successfully used for the purpose of in
f1ation.
THIS BALLOON STILL IN THE AIR.
This project, which, on paper at least,
appears perfect in all its details, re-
mains, alasi in the air. It's two in
ventors have been unable to raise the
quarter million francs at which they
estimated the probable cost. So Swe-
den and NJ. Andree have stepped into
the breach The King of that country
and the late M. Nobel, the inventor of
dynamite contributed together the sum
of 100000, and M. Andree decided that
this would suffice.
His plan is more economical than the
French one. He reduced the volume
of the proposed polar balloon to 1900
cubic metres. He dispensed with the
air pocket and the subsidiary gas ball
looms The upper part of the envelope
he decided should be made of three
thicknesses of Chinese silk, or ponghee,
and the lower, beginning at two metres
below the equator, of two thicknesses.
A special glue was to be used TO fast
en- these thicknesses together, and then
the whole envelope, without and with
in, was to receive successive layers of
varnish until its impermea bility was
assured.
The basket or car, which depends
from the balloon was to be egg shaped,
about seven feet in diameter and five
feet in depth. The lower edge on one
side was to be cut away, so that if it
struck the ground it would not turn
over. The edge thus shaved away was
to face the direction in which the bal
loon was going. The car was to DE
provided with a strong wickerwork lid.
with a trap door large enough for the
entrance and exit of the traveller, whose
sleeping place was to be inside the car.
Only one person could sleep there at a
time The others were meanwhile to
be at work in the observatory, as the
space Immediately above the basket
was called. The observers were to
stand upon the lid, above which would
be a free space of some eight feet.
Barometers, thermometers sextants
thermometers and other scientific APP
paratus were to be ranged for conve-
nient access in a ring about three and
half feet above the level of the bas-
ket lid. Twenty-Five feet below the
roof of the basket hung the cooking
stove. BY means of a string running
down an india rubber tube a match
could be struck and a spirit lamp light
ed. In half an hour water could be
boiled, soup made or meat cooked, then
by puff down the tube the light could
be extinguished, and the food would
joyed. But the stove could only be |