The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1897-01-23
TO BRING DOWN A BALLOON.
British Artiiiorists Essay to Cripple THIS
Implement of Warfare.

Next to shooting the moon, taking
pot shots at balloon would probably
be the most exciting kind of sport. AZ
all events, the inhabitants of Shoe
buryness had distant opportunity of
witnessing the successful attempts
made recently by the school of gunnery
to bring down a captive balloon an
chored on the sands ON the sea front OF
the batteries. The authorities at the
school regarded the experiments as
particularly nfidential-though
balloon couple of thousand feet high
over the sands at Shoeburyness is
fairly conspicuous object-and all civil
ians were vigorously excluded from any
approach to the grounds. Special in
structions were issued for the exclusion
of journalists, and possibly If one OF
the inquisitive fraternity were discov-
cred near the firing point Col. Bally
would at once have him sent nloft as q
target for his gunners.
Ever since the siege of Paris military
men have been keenly interested in the
possibilities of ballooping, both as
means of maintaining communication
with beleagured cities or forts, and AZ
a very effectual way of making obser-
vntions. 1t Is in the latter direction
naturally that the greatest develop
ment of the art of ballooning has taken
place. and every modern army now has
properly-equipped train attached to
1t. A captive balloon floating 5000 or
1000 feet above the earth enables the
occupant of the car attached to 1t to ex-
tend his gaze over wide field, while the
telephone and the Developments of pho
Biography furnish him with means by
which he can supply his chief with not
only verbal reports Of the disposition
Of the enemy. but with actual charts
of the country, showing the position
of the larger masses of troops. The
British army is not much behind in this
respect. A very useful and we'll
equipped school Of aeronautics exists
at Aldershot and has proved useful
auxiliary in some Of the maneuvers in
the neiChborhood Of the camp. 1t Is
hardly equal, however, to similar estab-
lishments maintained by France and
Germany. The former power, indeed,
has extended the use of the balloon ID
its navy. and some remarkable expert
ments were recently carried on in the
channel. A captive balloon was sent up
from the war ship Richeleu, the retain
ing cable being attached in such man
ner that the car remained always YER
teal. and some very good results were
obtained. Not the least valuable was
the disclosure of the fact that n vessel
equipped with balloon could explore
q sea area about four times as great rs
could he covered from the masthead.
Having demonstrated the utility Of
balloons, military men set about sec
ing how best to destroy them while in
the air. Specinlly-contrived mountings
we're made so us to enable guns to fire
at very high angles and extensive ex-
periments were made both in France
and Germany It was found that up TO
5000 feet there was fair chance OF
hitting the balloon with shrapnel, but
the small holes made by the bullets
were not sufficiently large to be rapid
" fatal. Common shell, the splinters
Of which tore the covering. was more
effective when il got home. but the per-
centage of hits at anything except
very low elevation was so slight that
it was practically worthless. Modern
rifle bullets appeared to pass through
the balloon in perfectly harmless
manner Altogether the result of the
experiments went to prove that unless
a balloon passed through zone Of fire
Mt an altitude less than 1000 feet it ran
but little risk. A further considera-
ton with regard TO these experiments
was that they were carried out against
captive balloons. 1t is questionable
whether it would be at all possible to
train gun on balloon travelling over
fortress or army in the field at the
rate of IS or 20 miles an hour. while the
difficulty of picking up the range" is
also very great.
The experiments at Shoeburyness
demonstrated nothing more than what
was already known-namely. that 1t is
possible to hit a balloon at compara-
lively low elevation where the range
can be fairly Appropriated. The bal
loon was anchored over the sands in
front of the brick battery at range Of
about 1000 yards. It's height was about
1880 feet. During the practice Their,
was a strong, gusty. southwest wind
blowing across the range. and, taking
this into account. II Is creditable to the
gunnc-s that with the third round of
time shrapnel they managed to dam
age the balloon sufficiently to bring it
to enrth.-Chicago Chronicle.