Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-11-01
MILITARY BALLoONINc
American Signal Service Studies
 and Experiments.
TESTS MADE FOR GENERATING GAS

OMcsrs Participated, ef Much Inter-
 est-Divergsnt Views on valus sl
 DaIloens h AsAsra Warfare - Bas
 Military Dallosn Ordered h Fyanes
 For Use of signal Corps.
 l The recent endurance contest be- tween balloons, starting from Pitts
 Held, Mass. when one of the balloons carried two American army officers.
 has proved of much interest to the
 members of the signal corps and to sci
 entific men in the government depart
 ments, writes . Washington core
 spondent of the New York Post. The
 army has never heretofore devoted any
 great amount of time to special work
 In aeronautlcs, but a number of the of
 icers have studied the subject slight ly. In past years experiments have
 been carried on mainly at Fort Riley,
 Kan., but more recently, since Fort
 Omaha, Neb., has become the field
 headquarters for the signal corps, such
 experiments as have been made have , been undertaken from the latter post. l In the trip starting from Pittsneld
 the other day the balloon Le Centaure
 carried Major Samuel Reber and Cap
 tain Charles De Forest Chandler of the signal corps. U. g. A., and travelled thir- { ty miles before making landing in
 Bennington, Vt. The competing bal { loon L'Orient made record of ffty-
 seven miles before descending at Ja- 1 maica, Vt. The first named car reach
 ed height of 6,200 feet, while the pilot
 of the other one claimed to have as-
 cended 5000 feet The passengers in
 Le Centaure considered the object of
 their trip accomplished and highly sue
 cessful from scientific standpoint and
 will make full report to the chief signal officer of the army, Brigadier
 General James Allen.
 That army officials, while holding di- vergent views as to the practical value
 of balloons under actual service condi-
 tions in warfare, are determined not to permit the French army to hold all the honors in military aeronautics was shown by the success of Lieutenant Francis P. Lahm, U. s. A., in the re- cent international balloon race from Paris across the channel and a consid- erable distance into the interior of Eng land. Army officers have been taking an active interest in the possibilities of using balloons In warfare since 1903, when captive balloon was installed as part of the war departments ex- hlbit at the Chicago worlds fair. In the following year Major Reber under took some investigations along these lines at Fort Riley. and other officers of the signal corps undertook limited amount of similar work. In 1898 the army had military balloon in use at Santiago h charge of Colonel Joseph E. Maxfieil, now retired.
 This experiment in Cuba gave the army officers opportunity to judge of the real possibilities of ballooning un- der actual service conditions. Tn gen. eral their verdict was that the infor- nation thus obtained was very small compared to the inconvenience expense and worrlment occasioned by Juggling hlong all the baggage and materials necessary to operate . balloon. The greatest difficulty is found, of course, In providing gas in just the quantity needed at the place desired and at the time required. To meet this demand the signal corps keep an ample supply of tubes for storing compressed gas, and during the past year the equip ment board of the signal corps has been considering many methods of generating hydrogen in large quantities for use in military ascensions.
 Details of this work have been laid before Secretary Taft and will soon be made public. In reviewing the work the chief of the signal corps has report cd to the secretary that experiments have also been conducted In the meth od of refrigerating Illuminating gas as . means of separating hydrogen from other constituents. These experiments have not yet been fully concluded. but are being carried on in conjunction with civilians who have been making | ! special study of such matters. Plans and specifications have been received from a commercial company for q hy- drogen generating plant. using the re- generative steam and Iron method. By this process 1t Is claimed that hydrogen can be produced at a cost of lees than 70 cents per thousand cubic feet Fly frozen obtained by the electrolysis of water. or the sulphuric acid and iron method. has also been used in balloon experiments.
 For emergency use In ballooning and 'or experimental purposes the signal 'orps Is now arranging for the pur- .hase of two chemical substances which will produce hydrogen merely ,y the addition of water. Samples lave been already submitted by chem cal concerns and have occasioned . sood desl of interest One of these. Inown as ''hydrpne.- produces thres eet of gas per pound. while the other. 'hydrollthe." produces as much as fif- zen feet psr pound Untii experi- nents have been completed under . 'ariety of conditions army officers are unwilling to express any definite opin- on as to the dependable value of thess lew chemical substances when used