New-York tribune., 1901-10-16
the most persistent advocate and the most con-
tinuous and eminent victim
LONG DISTANCE BALLoONING.

1t is easy TO understand the temptation to
which the Comte de la Vaulx was subjected by
the idea of crossing the Mediterranean from
TOulon to Algeria. The distance in a straight
line is less than five hundred miles. and several
European aeronauts travelled between seven
hundred and eight hundred a year ago last
summer. Indeed. the COmte himself is said TO
have gone fully twelve hundred miles before
landing thus matching Wise's Famous voyage
in the United States more than forty years ago.
Still, the trip which was begun last Saturday
night unlike those others in several respects.
1t was to be conducted over water, not over a
continent To be sure, on this particular occa-
sion a government cruiser and private yacht
accompanied the airship for the purpose of
extending assistance in case of need. But
were similar service undertaken in time of
war such a convoy could hardly be expected.
If it could the balloon would be useless, since
it would be inferior to the other craft in speed.
In the next place, the Comte de Ia Vaulx at this
time relied on travelling much more slowly
than he did in 1900. He evidently expected to
move at the rate of only five miles an hour and
to maintain his balloon aloft for ninety or one
hundred hours. Now there are no precedents
for such an achievement. Owing to leakage 1t
has hitherto been impossible TO keep gas bag
adequately inflated for more than from twenty
four to thrty-six hours. Hence it is probable
that the Frenchman believed that recent i'm
prOvementS in construction would enable him to
do much better than that.
The most important point of difference be
tween the voyages of 1900 and 1901, though is
that the former were conducted at an elevation
of several miles above the earth, instead or near
it's surface. Under the former set of circum-
stances one gets the benefit of the great upper
current, which blows steadily the year round
from the westward at between thirty and fifty
miles an hour and which sometimes exceeds
that velocity. Surface winds, on the other hand,
rarely blow continuously in any one direction
for more than a day or two consecutlVely.
Moreover, the movement of the air at the sur
face is ordinarily more sluggish than 1t is at
considerable height. Even with an ausplclous
start, therefore, there would he little more rea-
son to hope for success for an attempt TO cross
the Mediterranean from the north than for an
effort to reach the Pole from SpitzberGen by the
same means. The Comte de In Vaulx. however,
enjoyed several advantages over Andree. The
Frenchman undertook to cover n somewhat
smaller distance; he had at his disposal the
daily weather maps. which give some indica-
ton OF the winds TO he expected along the coasts
of Europe and there We're ample means OF res
cue nj hand Thus while the chance of ac-
complishing the main object Of his venture was
exceedingly poor from the very outset, he ex-
posed himself and his companions TO compara-
lively little peril.
The failure of the experiment was due, II
seems. 10 a change in the direction of the wind
when the balloon was about half way across the
Mediterranean. This change threatened 10
carry the party into Spain, and therefore they
abandoned their attempt. The Comte had
hoped 10 correct any slight swervng from his
course with n device called n 'deviator," but
this proved inadequate to steer him at right
angles with the wind. Beyond the fact that the
airship stayed up nearly two full days, 1t does
not appear that anything remarkable has been
done. The result will hardly encourage further
effort in the same direction.