The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-16
BALLOON NETWORK
 DONE AWAY WITH Basket Is Now Attached
 Directly to Gas Bag CROWDED DWELLINGS
600, ,000 Persons Live in Berlin Apart ment Houses With Five People to Room To Study
 American Architecture

Berlin March 15-A balloon with the
 basket attached directly to the gas bag, without the use of the customary net
 work, which recently made successful | ascent here, marks the first intrinsic im- provement in the construction of balloons,
 If the rlpcord and the dragline be except
 ed, since the days of Montgolfier. Dirigble makers found some time ago that they could attach the car. machinery and all directly to the envelope. Only two thicknesses of silk are used in con structing ordinary balloons against three for dirigibles. but the lighter weight of the basket encouraged pr. Elias, Ger man aegonaut, to order a netless balloon of 1900 cubic meters capacity with the car suspended from cloth girdle sewed about the lower part of the gas bag. In this he, his wife and two passengers made a highly successful ascent. Owing to the sparing of the weight of the net, more ballast could be carried and the bag re- tained it's shape at all heights, ordinary balloons sometimes tending to hatten out of shape at high elevations from the weight of the net.
 Others advantages were quickness of de- hation on landing and ease of packing the balloon for transportation. but it's greatest recommendation, in the eyes of the timid, will be it's superiority in para chuting," or the automatic conversion Of the envelope into sort of parachute in case of it's bursting high in air, as hap pened to an American balloon carrying Messrs. Forbes and Post in a competition at Berlin few years ago. The ability of 1. I.aI1 I.nIl { and consequently to traverse longer dis tances without landing will be d factor to be reckoned with in future balloon races.
 Tales of idyllic conditions in German as compared with American cities which often form the subject of articles in American magazines and newspapers. were not altogether borne out by facts shown at a meeting held in the reichstag building to discuss the overcrowding of the tenement population in Germany. At this meeting the surprising statement was made that fully 900 of the 3,0000cS inhabitants of Greater Berlin live in apart mentS with five or more persons in each room. A high proportion of the working families in Berlin live in one room aparr- ments, letting out. too, a portion of the floor space for sleeping accommodations to single men to eke out their income. It was also mentioned that 353,OO0 school chil- dren in Greater Berlin have no play ground. Dr. Kirschner the venerable senior mayor of Berlin. attempted to dis pute these figures, but was confoundcd by the official statistics. Two ex-min- isters, Count Posadowsky and Bernard Dernburg, are taking the lead in the agi- | tation for a reform of the overcrowdng
 evil. Herr Dernburg presiding at the | meeting Much is hoped for in Berlin | from the formation of the new Greater ! Berlin organization.
 | While the municipalities and not Berlin
 alone are having their difficulties in cop | ing with the housing problem for the l working classes, the central government | has put a damper on their enthusiasm ! for saddling the expense of social and | municipal reform upon future generations
 by piling Up heavy bonded debts for mu- | nicipal improvements. The Prussian min | istry of the interior has just issued an | edct to the provincial authorities calling | attention to the tendency of the munich | palities, from those of 10000 population ] upward, to reckless contraction of debts
 and directing them to refuse their sane | ton to the issue of bonds for purposes
 not urgent and well justified and in which adequate provision was not made for rapid | redemption
 | The projected visit to Germany next | August of the German-American Teach | CTS association is already being looked | forward to with great interest in the cities | that will be visited. The city authorities | of Berlin have already worked out some | of the details for the reception Of the American visitors here part of the programme provides for an offiical re- l ception in the new city hall. A mass chorus of children from the citys com
 mon schools will sing for the occasion | A pleasing recognition of the progress | of architecture in the United States may be inferred from the fact that the Ger
 man Museum for Natural Science and | Technic at Munich will send three repre- | sentatives to America at the end of
 March to study American museum and | library buildings. These three men Will
 be Government Consul Oskar Von Miller
 and Dr. Rudolf Diesel, both doctors of en- gineering. and Privy Counselor Walther Won Dyck. The Munich institution is
 about to erect library building and de-
 sires to study the manner in which these | buildings are planned in the United States. | The museums representatives intend not
 only to study Americas museum and li-
 brary buildings, but also to get into touch
 generally with university and other edu-
 cational circles.
 The German museum at Munich, ai- | though less than nine years old, has ai-
 ready taken a prominent place among the country's museums. Historic original
 apparatus and machines of every kind, | with the successive steps Tn their devel- opment. famous ideas ana sKercnes which eventually became realities and other
 things connected with great discoveries and inventions fill the museum to which
 1t Is now proposed to add library for
 technical. mathematical and scientific sub iects The men who are shortly to visit
 America have been prominently identified
 with the founding and entire development of the museum.