Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1909-12-30
DiriqibIe Balloon Hard to Manage
at NIght-No Landmarks.
Count Zeppelin Said to Have Lost
Five Hours on His Celebrated
Flight to Berlin for Lack of
Means of Navigation.

Means of Navigation.
London.-"No one who has not been
at great height In a balloon can have
! any idea of the difficulty of steering
dirigible toward any given point"
So said an experienced pilot of air.
ships with special reference to the APP
preaching Paris-LonaCn voyage of the
monster ClementBayard now almost
ready for her trials In France.
THE most obvious way of navigat.
ing is to hold a map in hand and to
keep track of ones position from mo-
ment to moment This is, you can IN.
derstand, very firing. But If for any
reason you lose your position you are
in bad case. You see below you a
network of roads and houses, limit
less expanse of fields, looking almost
exactly alike Unless you happen to
know the country well or come across
some big place which can be reeog-
ni2ed, you really have little chance of
fixing your position again.
You can't think how different a
landscape looks from above. The OBJ
jects which were prominent so long as
you were on the ground seem to have
disappeared You sail over high
tower and fail to see it at all AS you
look down on il, it appears merely a
dot in the ground, You can only see
the top Of it, of course
In the darkness the difficulty is in
creased. Count Zeppelin. during the
voyage which ended up in a pear tree
at Bitterfeld, when he was desperately
anxious to reach Berlin at the appoint
ed time. is credibly reputed to have
spent five hours OF the night circling
round and round He had lost his po-
sition. He did not know where he
was.
III he had stopped his engine, he
would either have come down or else
the balloon would have risen and he
would have lost gas. He was afraid
to steer any course lest it should be
the wrong one He was obliged. there
fore, to mark time until daylight lie
/ lost five hours for lack of good
means OF navigation"
Naturally It occurred to CORE
spondent 20 make inquiries as to
whether there was any chance of such
delay Detailing the ClementBayard.
She is to start from Paris at night
with view to reaching the garage at
Wormwood Scrubs next morning.
What II she lost her position and had
70 circle about In the north of France
awaiting the late winter dawn?
Let 1t be said az once that there is
no fear Of the occurrence Of any such
mishap II will be guarded against by
the use Of special compasses, made by
Mesrs. Kelvin and White. who make
all the compasses for the British navy.
With these very accurate bearings can
be taken and, in addition. the angle OF
any object below the horizontal can be
noted,
suppose that the pilot OF the Glenn
entBayarG should lose his position. 1t
may be assured that he would know
il within ten miles Very we'll. he
would choose some conspicuous light,
take a bearing Of It, and fix its dis
lance by knowing the angle OF depres-
sion and the height OF the airship
After steering an accurately known
course for a few minutes he would re-
peat bis observations with the same
Zig, The line joining these two POI
sitions which he has just fixed would
give him his right course and his
speed. Then he would go ahead in
the direction Of his destination, He
might b. any distance up TO ten miles
OF his true route, bur this margin of
doubt would rot be increased
The object OF the alrship when 1t
leaves Paris viii be to strike the
French coast II il does that within
twenty mites either side OF Treport.
all viii be plain sailing At what dis
lance inland the coast lights will be
useful has not yet been ascertained.
Inquiries are now being made. But as
soon as the coast il reached the lights
will enable the channel TO be crossed
without difficulty.
Il Il when the channel lights come
tn fun view that the navigation will BE-
taken over from NJ Clement by Lieut..
Osborne. r. N. the officer who is su.
perinteodlng the construction at Bar