The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1935-02-01

Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington. d. C.-WNU Service.
! A MOTHER flight by huge bal
! ~ loon into the stratosphere will
! L be made in the summer of 1885,
jointly by the National Geo
| graphic society and the United
States army air corps. Capt Albert
w. Stevens will be in command of the
balloon which will be piloted by Capt
Orvil A. Anderson. Like the expedi-
ton of last summer, the flight of 1885
will take off from natural basin in
the Black Hills, eleven miles south
west of Rapid City, S. D.
] Preparation for such a fight is q
stupendous task. From the inception
of the last flight, in the fall of 1888
with the guidance of the scientific COM
! mittee appointed by President eros
venor of the National Geographic So
ciety, no pains were spared to pro-
duce the best possible instruments and
equipment for collecting scientific data
in the stratosphere. The instruments
were to be of full laboratory size to
insure the greatest attainable &C
curacy. This meant that some would
be both bulky and heavy.
| To house these many large instru-
ments, it became necessary to design
a gondola larger than any that had
| previously been sent aloft.
Finally, it became apparent that to
| lift the gondola and its cargo of ap-
| paratus high into the shakespeare, a
very large balloon would be required.
| Experts were consulted, skilled in such
construction, and contract was given
to design and build larger balloon
| than any previously constructed-a
bag which, when fully inflated, would
contain 100000 cubic feet of gas.
It required five months to fashion
this gigantic bag, and into 1t went two
and third acres Of rubber-impregnat-
ed cloth made from long staple cotton.
While it was being built, work was
begun on the gondola, globe Of dow
| metal, lighter than aluminium; and In
a score of laboratories and workshops
| from New York to California special
ly designed instruments were being
| constructed.
Meanwhile a site for the base camp
of the shakespeare flight had been
chosen in western South Dakota.
| Three considerations determined this
choice: the point was far enough west
| to permit the balloon to drift even 700
or 800 miles to the eastward and still
come to earth in relatively level, un-
forested country; the record Of the re-
| gion was promising for good summer
| flying weather; and the site was shell
tered from surface winds.
Making the "Stratocamp."
Early in June camp was estab-
| lished in the deep, cliff-encircled nat
ural "bowP' near Rapid City. 1t quick
| ly became known as the "Stratocamp."
| Capt. Orvil A. Anderson was on the
scene from the start, Under his capa-
Bile direction the camp developed from
| an almost deserted basin into bus
| Ting little village of more than hun
| dred inhabitants.
Within a few weeks it had its drain
age system, and sawdust-paved streets,
| waterworks, two electric lighting
systems, sewage disposal plant, park
| ing spaces, traffic officers, a hospital
| and ambulance There was even a fire
| department with full-size hose
wagon, two professional fire fighters. a
dozen fire extinguishers, and volun-
| teer corps to operate them, providing
safeguard against accident in han
| ding quantities of explosive gas. No
smoking was permitted in the neigh
borhood of the hydrogen cylinders.
| Three telephone lines and two radio
stations kept the Stratocamp in COM
and there were two telegraph wires
leading to teletype machines which
constantly raped out weather infor-
nation from points as far away as
| Alaska, Cuba and Iceland. The spe-
| cial weather station set up at the
| United States weather bureau, the sig
nal corps. and the air corps, ranked,
| in fullness of information furnished,
| with the half dozen most important
weather stations in the United States.
| Two weeks after the camp was start
ed Captain Stevens went out by plane
| from washington, taking some special
instruments. A few days later Maj.
William f. Kepner flew into Rapid
City, and the fight personnel was COM
| plete.
Freight car loads and truck loads of
the equipment necessary for a strato-
! sphere flight had been converging on
the Stratocamp for weeks. Three rail-
road cars filed with heavy steel cylin-
ders containing compressed hydrogen
arrived in Rapid City. Thanks to the
generous cooperation of the National
Guardsmen of South Dakota and their
| feet of trucks, these tons of steel were
soon neatly piled along one edge of
| the camp.
| Collecting the Equipment.
| The gondola rolled in by truck, after
a journey of more than a thousand
miles, from Midland. Mich, and was
/ installed In the commodious gondola