THE SUSPENDING OF THE LINES OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS IN THE AIR BY MEANS OF GAS BALLOONS ACROSS WATER AND LAND, OR THE ATMOSPHERIC TELE- GRAPH
Year: 1857

page_text: pucation for Letters Latent was not given within the ume prescrwea
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Reinhold Goedicke at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th
November 1857.
I, REINHOLD GOEDICKE, Operative and Analytical Chemist, 29, John Street,
Bedford Row, London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "THE SUSPENDING OF THE LINES OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS IN THE AIR BY
MEANS OF GAS BALLOONS ACROSS WATER AND LAND, OR THE ATMOSPHERIC TELE-
GRAPH," to be as follows:-
In order to prove the possibility and probability of putting my Invention
into practice it will be necessary to define the following points, basing on the.
modern physical and chemical experiences:-
1: By what means can balloons be kept continually suspended in the higher.
regions of the air?
2. How and in what manner can they be fixed?
8. At what heights are the balloons to be suspended ?
4. How is such a telegraphic line to be constructed?
5. Is it possible to repair such telegraphic line above the ocean in case one
or several of such balloons should get damaged?
I.
It having long been proved that any balloon filled with a gas that is lighter
than the air will ascend so long into the common atmosphere till a space equal

page_text: to that which is occupied by the balloon in the stratum of the air which it has
attained is equal in weight to the absolute weight of the filled balloon, we
have only to shew the means by which the balloons, once ascended, can con-
tinually be kept suspended at a certain height. The balloons must therefore
be firstly closed air-proof on all sides, and furthermore, bo made of such stuff
which will prevent a communication & consequently an equalizing of the gas
enclosed in the balloon with the surrounding air, and thus make a detrimental
sinking of the balloons impossible.
If this end will be best obtained by oiled silk, gumi elasticum, gutta
percha, silk, waterproof taffeta, or by a thin layer of water enclosing the whole
balloon, is only a question of practical experiments, as all these objects might
servo for this purpose: as to the size of the balloon it will solely depend,
firstly, on the stuff of which they are made and the kind of gas they are filled
with; secondly, ou what number of such balloons will be required for a certain
length for the suspension of the conducting wires, or on what weight each
balloon has to carry or rather to hold. The equal height of the balloons which
is to be desired will be obtained by filling them all with the same kind of gas
of a fixed specific density

page_text: In order to construct such a telegraph we must first fill as many balloons with
the same kind of gas of the same specific density as we think necessary for the
required distance; we then fix one end of the conducting wire, take such a
length of it as has been calculated how high the balloon must ascend, fix the
balloon at this place and let it ascend; we then turn with the other end of
the conducting wire towards the direction in which the telegraph is intended
to be laid, and attach at a distance which is thought necessary, considering
the height we have determined on and the size of the balloons, perhaps from
1-6 miles a second balloon, and continue this till we have arrived at
the end.
Here we must draw the conducting wire tightly by means of a pully, in
order to prevent too strong a vaccilation, and also to prevent the different
balloons from the approach to much. It is also possible that practical experi-
ments will prove it to be better to fix at each telegraphic line only one very
large balloon, in which the gas (hydrogen) can be renewed from time to times
by means of a gutta percha tube, which lifts up a partition in the middle, goes
up to the balloon from the one end of the conducting wire, and through which
fresh gas can be introduced into the balloon while the old gas is being ejected
by diffusion with other gases.
Telegraphs of this kind laid over seas and oceans would, however, be in so
far disadvantageous as they could not be restored if one or other of the
balloons should get damaged; altho' this is not probable if the balloons are
carefully made and filled, still, it is possible, and precautions must be taken
which will enable us to repair then, altho' at the first sight such a thing
might seem to be impossible.
The most simple and perhaps the best means will be to attach to each
balloon, suspended above the sea, a small lifeboat, which, if the balloon should
sink down to the level of the sea, will at least keep the conducting wire so
long above the water till the damaged balloon has been replaced by a new one.
On land this replacing will be much more easy, and it will not be necessary
to encumber the balloon with such a boat.