Improvement in Balloons.
Year: 1891

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvement in Balloons.
I, WILLIAM NELSON HUTCHINSON, General in Her Majesty's Army, Colonel
of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment, of The Lodge Silverdale Eastbourne
County Sussex, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and. in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
Instead of having the gas-tight envelope (the skin) of navigable balloons kept
extended and smooth in the usual manner by the expanding pressure of the gas
within them, I have it constantly smooth by forming it of thin sheets of metal,-or
mixture of metals-preferably aluminium. To give space for the expansion of the
gas within them (preferably hydrogen) I only admit such a carefully calculated
portion as under no circumstances of expansion could exert a dangerously bursting
strain.
The expanding pressure of such a quantity of gas would be insufficient success-
fully to withstand the compressing force of the external air, therefore I obtain
the aid of a system of struts abutting against ribs attached to the interior sides of
the balloons. The more the gas the fewer the struts. There might be no gas
when, the air being extracted, the number of struts to resist compression would
necessarily be greatly increased.
With navigable balloons, as a help to speed, I prefer their being in shape some-
what of the salmon form, though the cylindrical would be simpler, and be the more
easily strengthened by transverse struts to resist external pressure and a bursting
strain.
I attach, at many spots on the mid-horizontal plane of the balloons, an encircling
bar. To this the ropes are fastened that support all the balloons carry.
The navigables from their buoyancy are easily kept at any required altitude by
employing rapidly rotating fans in vertical tubeš.
The cars and propelling apparatus are much the same as is usual.
A. means is
explained in my Patents No. 8051 year 1886, and No. 5644 the following year,
therefore need not be here described.
It is obvious that the spherical balloon could be made gas-tight and be strengthened
to resist pressure, both from within and without, in the manner described for the
navigable.
The method of filling the balloon with hydrogen, or other gas, is founded on the
consideration that if two fluids of different densities be not intermixed the lighter
will lie on the other.
From a metal (aluminium were it not so expensive), gas-tight, cylindrical
navigable the air, without being agitated, is gradually and slowly withdrawn
through numerous holes in the bottom of the balloon, temporarily connected by
means of short pipes to a vulcanized india-rubber exhausting tube the length of
the balloon and in its central vertical plane. While air is being thus abstracted,
hydrogen or other gas, is in a similar manner introduced through numerous holes
in the uppermost surface, temporarily connected by means of short pipes to a
vulcanized india-rubber inflating tube. To prevent the gas and air from inter-
mingling, every inflowing stream of hydrogen is received on a horizontally fixed
disc within the balloon close to the hole, which causes the gas to spread laterally.
Similarly disposed discs, close to the holes on the underneath part of the
balloon, lead to the air being withdrawn from the lowermost stratum without
disturbing the body of air.
As the short pipes are successively removed the holes are hermetically closed.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is
The forming the envelope of gas-tight balloons entirely of metal and preventing
any collapse from external pressure, or injury from bursting pressure, substantially
in the manner described.
Dated this 20÷h dar of Lun 1001
W. N. HUTCHINSON,
General.