IMPROVEMENTS IN WEDGE-SHAPED BALLOONS
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Georg Wellner, Professor of the imperial and royal
technical academy at Brünn (Austria.) for an Invention of IMPROVEMENTS
IN WEDGE-SHAPED BALLOONS.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Georg Wellner at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 31st May 1883.
GEORG WELLNER, Professor of the imperial and royal technical academy at
Brünn (Austria) IMPROVEMENTS IN WEDGE-SHAPED BALLOONS,
The wedge-shaped air-balloon, called fish-balloon, is a peculiarly constructed and
pointed balloon, which owing to its shape, possesses the quality of ascending and
descending obliquely and moreover with the pointed end foremost.
The peculiar construction of the fish-balloon may be observed in the side, front,
bottom and back views of it represented by Figures 1 to 4.
B indicates the body of the balloon, O U its front edge, E E its back end, G the
car, K the connecting-cone between balloon and car, S the surface of the rudder.
The shape of the body of the balloon is developed from a cylinder, placed
horizontal and open at both sides, the edges of which cylinder are folded together
crossways to each other. The front rim then forms the vertical edge OÜ, the
back rin is flattened horizontally and closed by a rounded cap E E.
In the centre the cross section remains almost circular like that of the original
cylinder. Towards the forward edge the elliptic cross sections become successively
higher and narrower; towards the back they get gradually lower and broader.
The front view Fig. 2 shows the vertical keel-shaped edge. OU of the balloon,
with which it cleaves the air, when in motion. The back view Fig. 4 shows the
end of the balloon. E E flattened elliptically. The top of the balloon. O E. (Fig. 1)
is gently vaulted and forms an apparently three-cornered surface sloped down from
the front to the back; it is sharp at the point. O, then makes a sharp bend; in the
middle it is almost semi-circular and finally runs out flat at the broad end.
The belly or lower surface of the balloon UEE (Fig. 3) rises from front to
bask, with similar gradations of shape as the upper surface. The two side surfaces
ונג.

page_text: (O UE Fig. 1) have likewise a triangular shape, the form of the connecting cone K
between balloon and car may be seen in the drawing.
The rudder surface S serves to keep the balloon in the direction required.
In the car G is a heating stove, which can be attended to in such a manner by
the hand of the aeronaut, that the heating power of the gases of combustion is
greater after certain intervals, and then becomes smaller again. Owing to these
pauses the heat in the connecting cone K and that in the interior of the balloon is
periodically increased and diminished, so as to cause a rise and fall of the balloon.
Neither the construction of the heating appliance, nor the nature of the fuel used
have any reference to the principle of the fish balloon.
The body of the balloon is filled either with warm air or with other light gas.
The space of the connecting cone K is usually filled with air.
When the balloon rises in consequence of the increased temperature, the air
coming from above presses against the upper or back surface of the balloon and
produces a propelling force, so that the balloon is borne upwards not vertically,
but obliquely and with the point O foremost. On sinking, with a lower temperature,
the pressure of air from below against the slanting belly of the balloon produces
again a propelling power, owing to which the balloon does not descend vertically,
but obliquely, with the point U foremost and downwards. A wavelike flight
forward is thus caused by the alternate rising and sinking of the balloon, and the
front edge. O U of the balloon always keeps in front. The top or back and the
.lower or belly surface of the balloon operate like sails with an artificial wind
caused by the rising and falling of the balloon.