Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-06-03

10 think that that gas cost SEQ. Amateur
hallooning is a most expensive sport.
When the Aero Club enters into possess
sion OF its own grounds, sheds and genera
tor, by June 10. there will be less veXation
coupled with its members excursions. Its
great balloon race, about which there has
been so much said and written, is put down
for June Is, when fifteen big balloons will
start at the signal from the Plaine de Ia
! Baga teRe. Unlike other races not speed
but distance will determine the winner
| The winner viii be he who stays UP longest
| Apart from the airshtp Of San tos,Damont,
| the experiments OF the Count be I.aVauN
and NJ. Emanuel Anne, the savant OF theo-
retical ballooning, are expected TO attract
I the most attention in this novel race. NJ
| De LaNauX has been for long time work.
| ing out the fascinating question OF balloon
| equilibrium. His present project consists
| OF one great balloon and four satellites to
| reinforce it as It loses gas. The thermo-
| scope of NJ Emanuel Anne is known, but
this is &c be its first trial large scale.
VIII Ii workt
As is well known, ordinary balloons must
be open at the bottom to permit the ex-
pending gas, as the balloon rises into rarer
air, to escape instead Of exploding the YES
sell After the balloon has gone up a GER
tain distance 1t has thus lost a certain
amount of gas. Then 1t goes down again,
having lost part of its lifting power Bal
last is thrown out. and It rises again Ii
| loses more gas, and more ballast Is thrown
out, and 50 IL keeps on going up and down.
The therrdosphere. to master this unstable
| equilibrium, includes small steam-gen-
! eraung coll In the balloon basket. Bv
means of II the gas in the faccid balloon
may be heated az once-expanded-and also
reinforced by the steam's volume I'D goes
the partially exhausted balloon into a rarer
atmosphere of less pressure, without the ex-
| pense of precious ballast. In this rarer at
mosphere the gas expands as usual but
| with the thermosphere II does not need to
/ Id,
| with the gas has been condensing into drops
of water all along the inside edge OF the
] balloon. to he conducted by a drain pipe to
the water reservoir and reheated When
| the balloon begins to fall again another
dose Of steam will lift II. and so on. with
out q loss of gas. VIII 1t work practically2
NJ Adme told me Yesterday there was no
doubt about IT. Wait until June Is" he
said, and you will see"
Something Quite New.
All the members of the Aero Club and
Automobile Club are looking forward "a
this date, which is to mark a real inaup7,,,a-
uon OF an entirely new sport Undoubtedly
the mind of the great public is most inter
ested IN the Santos-Dumont airship. Its
photographs are familiar to the readers OF
me Illustrated weeklies and monthlIes. and
the novel bet of the roof garden landing
mas mas Just that touch of the picturesque cana
! p pe on aIlectlng the crowd. To the average
IL
! gence His mind pictures to him only the
| faFlslan roof, nine stories in the air a bor
| rld danger spot from which burglars chased
Dy me police fall periodically IN he me-
gied in the abyss, as described with eranbio
Illustrations in the weekly literary s,,nniao
ment Of the Petit Journal '"NP'e
NO photograph has yet been taken NJ tho
sdiueH, Whlch is not completed Rut Tho
s!lppery slopes, the dangerous chimney Dnts
ana spiked iron fences of the neigh 5,,-i,,s
houses speak for themselves In reality the
the most delicate part of Santos DIinnoptIs
PpIopleIi. Let me get TO the Place de la
IonGorde, heard him say recently. and
Nm tdnd an right, even If l have to be
! puHed TO 1t with ropes"
Where the Dangers Lie.
Inc real danger OF this attempt. which.
AFTER ALL cannot he called foolhardv since
'He hlach1ne many times has been proved
practicable lies in all sorts of mere func-
'lohal accidents. When such accidents hap
pen to a bicycle or an automobile Won
simply wait for repairs Tn in The air nv
happily, there is no waiting for repafrs
The cigar-shaped balloon losing gas IoseS
lis rigid form and doubles up as in ala On
ipumontS accident, described Iasr Tapuar,-
i In Ihdt case MS air pump, which was to
keep the balloon taut, refused to work or
course, he ought to have looked 10 his air
pump before mounting. but one canncr
thlnk OF everything. The petroleum motor
"AtA~AA N1ANS the propeller of the
always may explode, although this is not
at all likely. Or the balloon may shov, a
leak OF course il should not
me Santos-DumOnt airship has been so
oljen described that it is only necessary to
can 10 mind here that it is a closed bal
loon, cigar shaped. pushed through the air
as steamship is pushed through the
water by stern propeller attached to the
basket underneath Ii.
Obstacles I'm the way,
Now, the dilemma of a c'osed cigar
shaped balloon is either that II will ha
too full of gas and will explode in a rarer
atmosphere, or that il will not be fun
enough Of gas and lose its Rightly. Punu-
ing air into the too-fiaccid cigar ought TO
do away with this latter danger NJ. Du-
mont believes a hickory rod will hold 81
rigid he is anxious TO find wood at once
light and tough enough to serve Bamboo
Will not do. Meanwhile he is booked sue
cessfully or unsuccessfully to startIe Paris
before July l. Those who have seen him
navigating his airShip over the meadows
of the Bots de Boulogne, as he goes prac-
ucng in these days, think he will be sue
cessful.
Meanwhile the automobilists and Aero
Club members jest of many another ex-
plot to be performed by them in the no
distant future. A flying machine on which
its inventor and the French government
have been spending money for the past
htteen years has just collapsed Never
was more beautiful mechanical work seen.
Shaped like a bat, it was made so per-
fectly that it could fold its wings up tight
like a real bat But why should it need
to fold its wings?" inquired the Count de
LIE Valette so that 1t can be transported
easily" was the answer. For my part
replied the count, Il would prefer a flying
machine that could transport itself" Then
everybody went to lunch
STERLING HELLO.