Year: 1873

: Sup In a Balloon


Under the title of Balloon Probt
bilities," the New York Daily GrapE
. ic publishes the following account c
a conversation with Prof. Donaldso
regarding his proposed balloon voy
age across the Atlantic:
Mr.. Washington H. Donaldson


who, with Professor Wise, will hav


charge of the transatlantic air-ship
the 'Daily Graphic" was in our ofic


to day; and we asked him to give US
forecast of the incidents of the voyage


as he expected them to arise. HI


said that he thought. that if the,
started from New York at six o'clocl
in the evening, they would see lant
the second morning out.


"What time do you expect to start?


asked the writer.


"We now think that we shall star


about the 25th of August, at Sly


o'clock in the evening. We chose
that hour for two reasons--frst, the
gas at that time will be rapidly con


densing; and the second is, that the
laboring people will then have left of
work, and will be able to witness the
ascension"


GLOW high do you expect to rise
first of all?"


eff the surface current is blowing
eastward, there will not be the least
necessity to go above 200 or 300 feet
from the surface of the water. But
if the surface current is not easterly,
we shall rise up to the great, ever
flowing eastward current, which is
from 1000 to 1000 feet above. IF
we rise to 5000 feet, we shall have
to discharge about twenty-five pounds
of ballast per hour up to nine o'clock;
after that the condensation of gas
will be stopped, and we shall have to
discharge perhaps not more than six
pounds per hour.


"What sort of observations do you
expect to make by the Instruments"


eve shall probably divide the time
up by watches, according to the num-
Der of persons who make the ascen-
sion. Probably we will have three
hour OF four-hour watches. Whoever
is on duty during the watches of the
night will have to make and record
all the observations. / intend to
keep book myself all the time except
when I'm asleep. Ofcourse the most
important instrument is the barome-
ter This must be watched incess-
antly. Then we must pay q good
deal of attention to the thermometer.
But, I think, an observation every
quarter of an hour would be enough.
This may be said ofother instruments
the hygrometer, the wet and dry
bulb thermometers, the spectroscope,
and so on"


81 don't see that you can use the
spectroscope except for the water-lines
in the atmosphere You could not
under the circumstances, observe the
solar or stellar spectra."


'ENo, I suppose moi"


'1t seems to me that if you make
observations every quarter ofan hour,
you have so many instruments, be-
fore you have finished one observa-
ton you will have to begin the next.


perhaps so. We shall be able to
see better about that when we have
got into the upper air"


"You expect to be able to throw
out signals during the night to ascer-
tain your course?"


eyes. We will have the illuminat-
ing explosive bombs, which, when
dropped into the water, burn for four
or five minutes. As we drift away
from the burning light we can tell by
our compass what point we are max
ing for"


''You read your instruments by
Grisslers tubes, don't you?"


''Yes, we shall have them along
with us. But then, it is quite safe
for us to take Davy lamp"


CAT what rate do you expect to
travel?"


"About eighty miles an hour"


"Where do you expect to be at
sunrise the first morning out?"


"Just over the coast of Newfound |
land. We shall be then l,S00 miles
from the nearest point in Europe.
AS soon as the sun rises, the gas will
begin to expand again, and we shall
rise very rapidly, and be saved from
discharging ballast for several hours.
By II o'clock the second day we shall
be in mid ocean, spinning along, very
likely, at the rate of eighty miles an
hour"


'You will not be able to speak with
ships if you are SO very high above
the ocean,"


''No; but as I have already stated,
[ believe we shall not be obliged to
remain SO high. I believe that we
shall be able to go near the ocean,
very low; indeed, quite low enough
to speak with ships. You know we
have a drag rope 1000 feet long; we
shall let that out all the time"


'You will be occupied in making
observations most of the second day"


eyes; we shall take observations
very carefully. We shall also expert
ment with the smaller balloon. AL
though we would prefer to keep the