The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-09-11

balloon. communication with the com
manding general being maintained by
telegraph or telephone with the requis
tie relays.
The most important prerequisite lie
that there shal be an abundant num-
Der of balloons, and a great reserve OF
hydrogen tubes, so that injured cap
ives may be replaced at once. The
wind is the great enemy of balloons.
and II is rare that one Of them can be
sheltered over night in the feld so as
to ascend the next day without refill
ing. Singularly enough. n of the best
proposals thus far TO shelter a balloon
in the field. originated with an officer
of the Spanish balloon corps. who pro-
posed some years that when the
wind was too strong to resort to an
choring the balloon (partly emptied)
will a number Of guy lines passing
over il, and when the ground per-
mitted, the captive should be sheltered
in a conical pit of appropriate diam
eter and depth. bordered by al EN-
bankment composed of the materials
e~xcavated, and surmounted with a
stockade or tight board fence reaching
to the top OF the balloon. He worked
out the details. both of construction
and military maneuvers, and estimated
the cost at 1868 per shelter, but it is
not known whether the proposal was
ever reduced to practice.
All this refers to captive balloons,
the usefulness of which. although linn
tied, has now been we'll established,
but one duty which our future balloon
corps will need to undertake will be to
investigate the possibilities of dirig-
bile military balloons, which promise
to be a great deal more useful in sur
yeying the whole field Of operations.
When the war first broke out there
was a perfect deluge of proposals to
the wal department to test various
forms of air ships, more or less dimly
conceived. The time was too short and
the war necessities TOO, pressing to
make any such tests. but there may
have been some good suggestions
among these proposals. The theory of
dirigible balloons is now SO well
evolved that there will be no great diff
fculty for experts to determine
whether any of these proposals are
worthy of being tested by experiment.
1t seems to be understood hat the
French, the Germans and possibly the
Russians. are even now in possession
of useful dirigible balloons. Their eff
ficiency is altogether a question of pos
sible speed; they must go faster than
the wins blows on the day they are to
be used. The French succeeded as
early as 1885 in obtaining speed Of IA
miles per hour, n have doubtless
greatly improved upon this during the
13 years that have elapsed. They have
spent $780, 900 some years upon their
aeronautical department, and keep
their progress secret, but statements
have been made by those who ought to
know that French ~dirigibles can now
attain a speed of 25 miles an hour, and
which would permit them to make a re-
connaissance and to get back whenever
a hurricane did not blow. So that, al
though the speed of a balloon is limit
ed, its load is small, and its envelope
is frail, it may render important SER
vice in war.
1t does not seem impossible that
Americans will accomplish as good
results in his direction as the Euro-
peans. We now need an organization
for investigation, study n expert
ment, and with these it may safely
be expected hat some of our army Of
dcers can develop Within two years,
n at a cost Of about 500, 900, a mill
tary navigable balloon which shall
prove efficient in winds blowing from
10 to 20 miles an hour.