Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-09-30
NON.EXPLOSIVE GAS
Helium Promises to Add to Safety o.
BdllOOning.
GREAT DISCOVERY OF RECENT ORIGIN
HeIium Has Disadvantage Compared
With Hydrogen in That it is Much
Heavier-But Cannot be Exploded
With Bullet as Hydrogen Can.


Navy dirigible, the ZR2 over Hull,
England. with it's heavy loss of life,
emphasizes anew the danger in The
use of an infiammable gas like ny
drogcn in balloons and the advantages
in substituting the harmless hellum
when the supply makes its use pracu.
cable, according to a bulletin ISSUED
10y the National Geographic Society.
Quoting from Il communication to
The Society by the late &. Sherhurne
Rogers the bulletin says:
The qualities Of hclium that make
il so valuable for use in balloons are
It's lightness and it's incombustibility.
lIelim is the lightest of the so-called
inert gases. which do not combine
with oxygen or any other substance
and therefore cannot explode or burn.
One Bullet Can "Get" Hydrogen Bal
loon
"IIydIogen. the gas commonly used
in filling balloons, is, or the other hand,
highly inflammable. Many great
balloon. or rigid airship. costing hun
dreds of thousands OF dollars to con-
strrct. has been destroyed by fire in
few minutes-sOme by lightning
some by sparks from the motor, and
others by any one Of the numerous ne
Cidents that may happen even when
the craft is in it's hangar.
I'm military balloons or airships the
fire hazard is. of course, greatly in
creased. a single well placed inccndi-
airy bullet being sufficient to transform
the whole costly structure into n mass
of flames: and in this event the fate
of the crew is practically sealed. This
weakness, inherent in all hydrogen
, flied balloons, was not only potent
factor in the practical failure OF the
German Zeppelin programme. but has
ALWAYS been a drawback to the dev"l-
Opmcnt of thc lighter -than-air craft.
With the fire hazard completely eli.
minated by the use of helium, how
ever. the risks of ballooning are great
" decreased and many new possible
ties open up. The power plant OF tha
airship may be placed as close as de-
sired to the great gas bag without
fear of sparks, ard 10y thus making
the design more compact, and 50 re-
ducing the wind resistance, the speed
and cruising radius of the craft may
be materially increased.
Sharks Harmless With Helium.
an military airshipS machine gun"
may be mounted directly on the en-
velope instead of being tucked away
i'm the gordolas, as far as possible
from the dangerous gas; and, on th2
other hand, all danger of attack with
incendiary bullets disappears. This
is not simply theory, tests have been
conducted on model balloons filled
with hclium. and all efforts to explode
them or bring them down with incen-
diary bullets failed.
There is always chance in n
thousand that an anti-aircraft shell
might explode directly within the en-
rcIope, and it might also be possible to
bring down helium- filled balloon b.
driving an airplane through it bodily
.'Thc only apparent disadvantage Of
hclum is the fact that il il about
twice as heavy as hydrogen, 100 cubic
feet of helum weighing us OunC eS
ou,l the same volume of hydrogen only
ounces. Both gases however, are so
exceedingly light in comparison with
ai. (Which weighs pounds per 100
cflfc rcct) that this is of little prac-
t!ral Importance the bouyancy, or liit-
ing power. of hclium being 90 per cent
that Of hydrogen. Moreover, this
greater weight has its compensation,
for hydrogen is so light that it passes
throu;h the walls of the gas bag and
..capcs at Il far more rapid rate than
hclium."
Discovered 80 Million Miles Away
nv means of the SpectrOsCop", the
I,lIctin points out helium was dis
covered on the sun in 1865. 1t was not
,u.til 1895. however, that it VAS knCwn
to exist on the earth, and ii was thea
bcIicvcd TO bc Il very rare element. Ii
WAS when helium WAS discovered IN
1gO3 to constitute between ono and
two ncr cent Of the millions OF cuhi"
feet Of natural gas going to waste in
Kansas, that its use for intiatinS
balloons first became q possibility; bul
II, one seems to have thought Of such
9, usc for the newly founG gas until
:,rrcr the beginning of the World war
Hcrorc the war the worlds total
sunuly Of hclium was probably less
liam 100 cubic feet and its valu" was
about $I.7OO per cubic foot. EXper-
imcnts conducted 10y the United States
du,ins the war showed that the "lc-
mont could be recovered from natural
o.,, at a cost of less than ten cents a
cubic foot.
U. S. Has World Supply.
Since the almistice huge plant Iol
ieolatinS hclium has been constructed
.t IF. Worth where the supply oi
natural gas for both 1T. Worth ana
D,llas is used as raw material The
rI,nt is turning out 10000 to 15Oo'
rpIic feet of hclium daily, and viii
.o,,, reach it's maximum output Of 81