A RECORD IN AERONAUTICS

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 292, 8 December 1900, Page 3 (Supplement)

A RECORD IN AERONAUTICS

PARIS TO RUSSIA BY BALLOON,

The French are leaving us far be-, hind in aeronautics. Last week the papers were full of the exploits of Count Zeppelin's airship—which, by the way, has'just made another successful ascent—and now the epochmaking balloon passage of Comte Henri de la Vaux and Comte de Castillon de Saint Victor to the interior of Russia is the talk of Paris. The balloon which achieved this record is the Centaure. which has established in the hands of these two able air navigators a series of wonderful voyages. Last, year, fresh from the maker's hands, this balloon, whose future celebrity was unsuspected, woif the aeronautic cup of the Aero Club, _Tiree months later, in August, M. Maurice Farmau and M. Hermitte won the cup by a still better performance. On September 30 the Centaure, mounted by Comte de Castillon de Saint^Victor, the maker, sailed into Sweden, alighting at a point on the mainland not far from the island of Gothland. They covered a distance of 830 miles in 25 hours, and won the' cup outright. Exactly a year later, viz., on September 30th last, the Centaure, after a series of minor victories, left the Exhibition grounds at Vincennes, sailed over the whole length of Germany, and landed at WloclaSvek, in Poland. For this splendid performance Comte Henri de la Vaux was awarded a commemorative gold medal by the Aero Club. Lastly, on October 7-th, the Centaure started on a second trip into Russia, landing well beyond Kieff. The Centaure is nothing unusual in size, its capacity being about 42,000 cubic feet. The success of its latest trips is probably due to the use of ': pure hydrogen gas, weighing fourteen I times less than air, instead of coal gas, which is generally used, although i its density is as much as one-half that ;of the atmosphere. The log-book of the Centaure is published in to-day's "Auto Velo," an excellent sporting paper, which came out last week. The lowest thermometer reading is 12 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. The highest altitude reached was 16,600 feet. The aeronauts purposely kept below that maximum level, as it were. Towards the end the trip became a trying experience—24 hours after leaving the log-book stops, because, we are told, the two men on board were exhausted, by cold and lack of sleep. They had a good supply of, pure oxygen, in bags, as the thin air of the upper regions does not give sustenance enough for life. At length, after 35 hours of constant watching, interrupted only by short turns of rest not exceeding half an hour, the passengers agreed to descend, having still two-and-a-half sticks of ballast, a quantity of provisions, ropes and a lot of other gear, by jettisoning which they might have considerably lengthened their journey. In fact, the end seems to have been brought about by sheer inability to keep awake. The landing was effected with the greatest ease two miles from the little town of Korosty-sheff, beyond Kieff. A remarkable feature of this wonderful trip is that the Centaure cannot be called anything but a balloon, it having been patched up in many places

and haudicappetl by several coating_ of varnish. The latest experience of the two French aeronauts confirms the precept that no long-distance journeys are to be attempted without oxygen for breathing, and that_ a moderate-sized balloon, inflated with pure hydrogen, is preferable to a large one inflated with coal gas, even if in the latter case the same lifting power is obtained at the start. Lastly, the repeated successes of the same men show that skill and knowledge of ballooning count for a great deal.