Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-03-03

the words spelled out in this manner,
yet the information thus gained would
be totally unintelligible to him, as
everything is sent in cipher.
An exhaustive system of signaling,
by means of flags and heliograph by
day, and at night with rockets, bombs,
flash-lanterns and electric searchlights,
is in vogue. Messages can be sent,
under any and all sorts of conditions,
and in the face of seemingly insur-
mountable obstacles, so that a com.
mander may at all times be kept fully
advised of what is transpiring in any
or all of his commands.
Military ballooning has also ad-
vanced to such state of perfection
during the past few year that it will be
perfectly within the range of possibil
ity, in case Of war, to accurately photo
graph an enemy's position, obtain ac-
curate maps of his fortiication, ETC..
without sending any one within his
lines. There is at Fort Logan, fully
| equipped balloon field train, ready for
| service at any moment.
The balloon train consists of three
wagons, similar in construction to
| those described above, and which
transport the field telegraph parapher,
malta. The balloon itself,a huge affair,
has place in the forward end of the
wagon. At the rear end there is
large reel, upon which are carried sew.
eral thousand feet of stout cable. In
middle compartment to the balloon
wagon, room is reserved for the basket
and netting. In the second wagon are
stored the hydrogen gas tubes needed
for initiating the airship. These tubes
are constructed of steel and are as
light and as strong as it is possible to
make them.
There is a generating plant for gas
at Fort Logan, and it is there that the
tubes are filed. They are shipped, in
such quantities as may be needed. to
various points throughout the country.
A supply sufficient for several infa.
tions can be carried with the field
train, and if larger supplies are needed,
additional wagons are pressed into
service. The balloon itself is cop-
structed of the finest and most costly
material, gold beaters' skin being used
for this purpose. The heavy wagon is
of sufficient weight to hold the balloon
captive, and if change of base is
necessary during an ascension, the
wagon has simply to be moved in the
desired direction, Telephone COM
munication is maintained through the
cable which holds the balloon to the
wagon.
AS the members of the Signal Corps
are also Typographical engineers it is
a simple matter for them to prepare
accurate maps of the country beneath
them, while suspended out of harms
way above an enemy's camp. The
adoption of teleophotographic lenses
also gives them means by which as
accurate photographs can be made as
| if the artist were actually in the
| Notifications.
Statistics show that it is almost i'm
possible to hit captive balloon with
| musketry fire when at an elevation of
1000 feet. The balloon is kept NOV
| ing almost necessarily, and in that
lies great measure of it's safety.
Nearly all the standing armies of the
"oiiN ~io hoW SquApPCu Will Duiioou
corps, and the value of this sort of
aerial surveying in time of war is in
calculable, at least it is so admitted by
the military experts, and they ought
to know.
Whether or not experiments have
been made in the use of explosives
| dropped from balloons, 1 have not
been able to learn, but, from what ono
can see of the use of these aerial
monsters at Fort Logan, it would not
be strange if the widest dreams of
moderns may soon be realized and the
terrible death-dealing airship may soon
evolve, as did the Holland submarine
boat, from Jules Verne's Twenty
Thousand League Under the Sea-"