The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-11-13
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
IN 20 M ALTON
Blu RE AU
FREDERIC ]. HASKIN, Director.
Washington, D. C
THE RISE OF THE BALLOON.
Washington. D. C
lit Now Rivals the AirpIane.

cloud masses hanging low in the sky.
An American battery is going into ac-
ton. While the artillery men are
working over their guns in hidden en-
placements. 4 caterpillar tractor is
run up behind the lines bearing a
strange burden of canvas and rope,
which is a debated balloon, and fol-
lowed by a load of great metal con-
ta.ners, which are hydrogen tanks.
In a remarkably short time the great
gas bag has taken form, and rises to
an elevation of several thousand fec~.
1t is connected with it's ground crew
of fifty or sixty men by a steel cable
operated from winch, and withs the
battery by a telephone line. This bal
loon looks nothing like the spherical
gas bags that you have seen at couD-
ty fairs. 1t is oblong, and at one end
it has blunt jutting wings on either
side, and a long protuberance curling
under it's belly.\ 1t looks somewhat
like an elephant with exaggerated ears
and trunk, but no legs. and elephant"
is what the men call it. The ears and
trunk are air sacks, which are in
flated by the wind, and keep the bal
loon headed in one direction, waVerlng
slightly like a fish in a current, but
leaving the basket almost motionless.
That is the great advantage wn1ch
the captive balloon has over the air.
plane. The two officers who occupy
the basket can study the enemy posi-
lions at leisure, and from a 1lxed
point, while an airplane observer must
always move at high speed. Further
more, the balloon observer is in con-
slant communication with his battery
by telephone. while the airman must
come back to report, or send a mes
sage by pigeon or wireless.
These two observers are especially
competent. One rests his glass on the
edge of the basket, which is firm as
rock, and studies out the enemy posi-
tions in a sure, leisurely fashion. The
other telephones the observations to
the officer in charge of the battery
Now and then an airplane rises from
behind the lines and shoots out over
enemy territory. This means that the
balloon observer has suggested MAX
ing a photograph of some detail of the
hostile position which he cannot quite
make out.
1t soon becomes evident that the fire
of this battery Is having deadly effect;
for a squad of enemy airplanes is
seen approaching. There is no doubt
above the gas bag and put a shot thru
it, There are two parachutes fastened
to the bottom of the basket for just
this emergency. If the life of the bal
loon is threatened suddenly, the two
observers must desert their balloon
anu uEOp THREE luOuSduQ Ie0t.
One of the boche planes makes a
rush at the big placid-looking gas bag,
like a wasp attacking a caterpillar. 1t
is met by two American planes. There
is rattle of machine gun fire high
in the air. The boche plane comes
tumbling earthward, a burning wreck.
Another makes the attempt, and
meets like fate. And yet another.
The enemy is determined to destroy
that dangerous balloon at any cost.
The observers would be justified in
abandoning their perilous position, but
they refuse to do SO. Leaving their
defense to the airplanes, they continue
quietly their study of the distant
trenches
There is not a boche plane in sight
now. Apparently the enemy has
given up the attempt to destroy the
balloon. But unnoticed. a great mass
of gray cloud. big with rain, has moved
across the sky until it hangs almost
directly over the balloon.
Out of this cloud there suddenly
pitches downward, straight at the ra IS
bag, a small swift airplane of the
enemy. 1t has been lowering out OF
sight above the cloud for hours, wait
ing until this moving ambush Of the
heavens should be in just the right DO
sltlon. 1t falls nose first, like a shot
p1rd, at two hundred miles an hour:
then suddenly checks in midair and
circles about the balloon, pouring a
stream of bullets thru the great vul-
nerab BILE bubble of gas and fabric
The balloon bursts into flame and
careens groundward. The two OBJ
servers, already fastened to their par
achutes, leap overheard. One of them
becomes entangled in the ropes that
support the basket. The other be-
fore letting go, stops to aid his com
CUri NO f,.no 1a-
ering slowly earthward under their
outspread bits of canvas. But the bal
loon is now a mass of flaming deris
and a piece of this strikes the para
chute of the man who aided his friend.
In an instant the frail parachute Ia
consumed, and the officer falls q thou
sand feet to earth.
This is an account of the death of
Lieutenant Ross of the air service, the
first American balloon observer to lose
his life on the western front, as it was
described by some of his fellow Off
! GERS. The incident is given here in de-
tail because it illustrates so well the
i uses and limitations of the captive
kballoon in modern warfare. A field
| for the study and development of ball
looming has been esta blished in Cali
| fornia and named Ross field, after
the brave lieutenant, who lost his life
in order to save that of his companion.
| The balloon is the latest and per-
| haps the last of the devices which the
great war has developed. When this
| war broke out, the balloon had been
abandoned by the American army and
| navy, and our balloon field de-
serted. In Europe little more progress
was being made in the use of either
| free or captive balloons. Germany
| for a time startled the world with her
success in the use of zeppelins. but
| the English airplanes got the best of
them, and the engine-driven gas bas
seemed also to be out of the war
game.
French officers were first to see that
! in the balloon the allies were over
| looking a potentially valuable asset.
The type of captive balloon now in use
is named the Cacquot, for the French
officer who invented it.
| The development of the balloon in
this country did not begin until 1915.
and Only within the past few month 9