What is the current name of the ballon which cost 30,000 kronor?
The audience was convinced by these arguments, so disconnected were they from the realities of the Arctic summer storms, fogs, high humidity, and the ever-present threat of ice formation. The academy approved Andrée's expense calculation of 130,800 kronor in all, corresponding in today's money to just under a million U.S. dollars, of which the single largest sum, 36,000 kronor, was for the balloon. With this endorsement, there was a rush to support his project, headed by King Oscar II, who personally contributed 30,000 kronor, and Alfred Nobel, the dynamite magnate and founder of the Nobel Prize.There was also considerable international interest, and the European and American newspaper-reading public was curious about a project that seemed as modern and scientific as the books of the contemporary author Jules Verne. The press fanned the interest with a wide range of predictions, from certain death for the explorers to a safe and comfortable "guidance" of the balloon (upgraded by the reporter to an "airship") to the North Pole in a manner planned by Parisian experts and Swedish scientists.
"In these days, the construction and guidance of airships have been improved greatly", wrote The Providence Journal, "and it is supposed, both by the Parisian experts and by the Swedish scientists who have been assisting M. Andree, that the question of a sustained flight, in this case, will be very satisfactorily answered by the character of the balloon, by its careful guidance and, providing it gets into a Polar current of air, by the elements themselves."
Faith in the experts and in science was common in the popular press, but with international attention came also for the first time informed criticism. Andrée being Sweden's first balloonist, no one had the requisite knowledge to second-guess him about buoyancy or drag ropes; but both Germany and France had long ballooning traditions and several of their more experienced balloonists expressed skepticism about Andrée's methods and inventions.However, just as with the Svea mishaps, all objections failed to dampen Andrée's optimism. Eagerly followed by national and international media, he began negotiations with the well-known aeronaut and balloon builder Henri Lachambre in Paris, the world capital of ballooning, and ordered a varnished three-layer silk balloon, 20.5 metres (67 ft) in diameter, from his workshop. The balloon, originally called Le Pôle Nord, was to be renamed Örnen (The Eagle).
Örnen