The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1897-04-17
BALLOONS IN A RACE.
European Governments Test tn
Power of Their War Balloons.

EurODean Governments Test the
Power of Their Wal Balloons.
The ministers of war of the great
powers of continental Europe arranged
an interesting international balloon
race recently to ascertain, if possible,
the reliability of these adjuncts of war
fare ON a larger scale than ever before
attempted The result, as now Off
cially announced, was not altogether
satisfactory. 1t proved that, despite
the efficiency of the balloon divisions
of the various armies, wind and weather
and other elementary contingencies are
still playing IN important part in de-
Gliding the fate of aeronautic enter
prises, whether the balloon be manned
or not.
The Russian minister of war sent up
two balloons, the one that assembled at
st. Petersburg being of the register
ing Variety This went up to an alti-
tude of 4,7OO feet, and there exploded.
Another military balloon, carrying an
officer and five men, assembled to a
height of 10000 feet, where the Their
mometer was found to stand at ~ de
grcesAs4 voyage of eigRtShoura
this balloon landed near Pikow, about
$50 miles southwest of st. Petersburg.
The Russian authorities also sent uu
a balloon at Warsaw, which encountered
northwest winds that drove it into
Galicia.
The French minister of war loaned
the well-known registering balloon
L'Aerophile III. for the experiment; it
vanished behind the clouds within afew
seconds. Although the authorities
throughout France and the adjacent
countries were advised to look out for
the balloon, nothing was heard of it for
several days, and the war department
surmised that it had fallen into the
North sea and was lost. Finally word
came from Grade, a little place in Bel
glum, $50 miles northeast of Paris, that
"Aerophile" had landed there safely.
The balloon had travelled to an alti-
tude of $4,000 feet, where it registered
SO degrees Celsius. 1t arrived at Grade
5h hours after starting from Paris.
The German balloon division sent up
its crack registering airship, the Cirrus,
at Schoeneberg, near Berlin, this bal
Icon having a record for swift and en-
ergetic work. During it's first trip it
travelled 600 miles in ten hours; rising
to an altitude of 47,O0O feet. On other
occasions it rose to $4,000 feet, and on a
trip to the Danish islands of Holland,
to $1,000 feet. The race was the last
trip the Cirrus was destined to under
take. After two or three days it was
found stranded on several of the high
est trees in Grunewald forest, near Ber-
lin. The apparatus showed that it had
attained an altitude of 10000 feet, and
then dropped, its pear-shaped silk bag
becoming defective.
The military balloon Bussard, which
has a capacity of 1900 cubic metres and
which was filed for this occasion with
1000 cubic metres Of hydrogen gas,
assembled at the same time as the unf0F-
tunate Cirrus, with five men in its bas-
ket. The observers noticed an increase
of temperature in the lower strata of
the air. During the night the balloon
remained at am altitude of 1890 feet,
but began to rise rapidly in the morn
ing. The navigators tried to fly over the
Baltic, but, IN account of the contrary
winds, were obliged to land at Ribnitz.
Mecklenburg, after being out 11h
hours.-N. Y. Journal,