Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-11-15

WASHINGTON d. c., Nov. 11.-Today the
w balloon is of the most reliable machines
of modern warfare and promises to have
useful and interesting peaeetme career as well.
But longer than two years ago it was curiosity
and an experiment which often yielded results more
surprising than satisfactory.
There is quite bit of romance in this rise OF
the balloon from the condition of a sort of bucking
bronco of the air to that of staid and valuable
performer The story was told for the first time
by Colonel j. Prentiss, of the Balloon corps who is
the only officer in that branch of the service who
has followed the fortunes of the balloon through
out the two years of it's vital development and Mr..
A. Leo Stevens, who has been for many years a
civilian balloonst, following the sport for love OF
it, and is chief instructor for the Army Balloon
corps.
Many years ago it occurred to army men that
the balloon might be made a useful military ma
chine, and field for experimental work was estao-
lished at Fort Omaha. But after little tentative
work, the balloon was officially abandoned by the
army in 1910, and the field deserted.
Nothing done or thought about the
balloon until 1916. The event that initiated It's
present development was the arrival at Norfolk OF
the German super U-bOat Deutschland. That
amazing craft appeared in American waters sud
denly and unexpectedly 1t came on a peacetpl
errand. But it brought to American military and
naval minds the reflection that if dozen Deutch-
lands instead of had thus appeared, and II they
had been bent upon destruction instead of COM
merce, the United States of America would nave
been in a bad way. fleet of such giant U-boats
could have wrecked shipping and tied up our
ports before any one knew they we're here. 1t may
possibility to thoughtful Americans, and that the
conveying of such suggestion, intended to Welgh
strongly against a declaration of war on Germany,
the purpose of the Deutschlands visit than
the exchange of nickel for rubber which 1T actually
affected.
At any rate the Deutschland made the military
thinkers realize that they needed some means of
guarding against the unexpected and unwelcome
arrival of such craft Plainly the necessary thing
was some means of patrOlling the coastal waters
from high elevation. so that even so inconspcuous
hi -hno nOt
unobserved. The airplane did not answer the need
fully because it remain in the air only at high
speed and high expense. Plainly the balloon was
the thing. 49,
At the same time that the American military
and naval experts realizing the need for bal
looms in coast patrol work, the Frenchmen were
working out it's possibilities an aid to artillery
and infantry work on the western front. These two
lines development have brought the gas bag to It's
present state of usefulness. both as dirigibe and
as a captive operated and controlled from the
ground.
The first thing which our department did
was to send five officers, one of whom was Colonel
Prentiss to the deserted field at Fort Omaha These
men had only forty thousand dollars with which to
work and their instructions were Of the vaguest
character They anticipated the Machine Gun corps
by naming themselves the Suicide club.
They began by having several gas bags built
with air sacks at end, and TAIL like that OF
kite at the other. These bags were similar in pr1n-
ciple to the ones now in use on the western 'front.'
The trouble with them was that the air-sacs, de-
signed to catch the wind, filled and empued TOO
easily with the result that these first captive bal
looms behaved in a most unreliable manner. one
would plunge M and down on the end of its tether
like hooked and fighting trout on long line. TO
ride in one was a sckenng and terrifying expert
ence 1t had all the qualities of an ocean voyage IN
a storm except that the rise and fall was multiplied
about five hundred times. Sometimes in high
wind balloon would drop clear to earth and re-
bound again to an elevation of a thousand feet or
more That the balloonists survived this period
was due entirely to luck One balloon which began
to perform in this way fortunately got hung on the