The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-11-13

in the fog there is nothing to warn
 you of such danger except the roaring of the wind in the tree tops, and a
 quick casting out of ballast may be
 necessary to save you from balloon
 wreck on the crags.
 It may interest the reader to hear
 something about the construction of a
 big modern balloon and its equipments. IL is made of what is known as balloon cloth, which sometimes is of silk and is sewn in small sections of about a yard square, so that if one of the sec tions should burst the whole balloon would not collapse and destroy the aeronaut.
 At the top of the bag is the valve to let the gas out when one wishes to de- scend. A rope for opening it runs from the valve through the centre of the balloon to the operator in the basket. The balloon is filled through the neck, and this is left always open, so that when the gas expands from the heat of the sun or the lesser pressure of high attitudes, the gas may escape and not burst the envelope.
 AS soon as the balloon is sewn to- gether it is blown full of air and given three coats of varnish. Each coat must be allowed to dry thoroughly before the next is applied, or else they would never become perfectly dry and the balloon would be likely to be destroyed at any minute from spontaneous con- bustion.
 This spontaneous combustion is not bursting into flame, but kind of exceedingly quick dry rot I myself have lost three balloons through it. Once, in my factory we were looking at beauty when some one sniffed the air and remarked: "Thomass balloon is gone, and so it proved to be. Five minutes saw it destroyed-rotten so that you could poke your finger through 1t.
 Sometimes the balloon is so affected in only a few sections, and a man may make an ascension thinking his balloon is all right. Protected by the fine net ting which enveIops the balloon itself he may even get up to some height before discovering his danger. In for nder times there were many fatal acci- dents from this cause.
 When a balloon is packed talcum or some other powder is sprinkled over the folds to keep them from adhering to each other, If this is neglected the balloon will be ruined. especially in hot weather.
 As l said, fine netting covers the balloon proper, both to strengthen it and to carry the weight of the basket and it's contents. All the strands of the netting come together in the concen- trating ring, just above the basket in which the aeronaut stands. The anchor and guide rope, as well as the basket, are fastened to this concentrating ring.
 All modern balloons, besides the valve, have a rip cord, fastened to a long patch sewn in the envelope by means of which the balloon can be cut open and brought to earth instantly. This irs never used except in cases of extreme emergency and when the basket is within ten or fifteen fet of the ground.
 The most humorous side of balloon ing comes from the fellows with schemes. One man declared that there is an opposite to everything. Heat has cold; hardness has softness; light has darkness-and that of gravitation alone the opposite has not been found When he discovers the opposite of gravitation he feels that he will have solved the problem of aerial navaga- tion he feels that he will have solved the problem of aeral navigation-as doubtless he will.
 Another man has plan for rising to the surface of the atmosphere and then skimming along the top as a boat floats on water. He would carry along some oxygen for breathing purposes.
 A lady over in Jersey has heard that certain flowers generate hydrogen gas. She wishes to combine the ornamental with the aeronautic by taking a lot of these flowers into an airship, suitably built, and rising from their gas.
 The name of my balloon is Niryana, that best expressing the state into which it transports it's devotees.