FLIGHT 150 YEARS AGO

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 December 1933, Page 9

FLIGHT 150 YEARS AGO

AN INTREPID BALLOONIST In this year fell an anniversary in the annals of aeronautics. On October 15, 1783, in Paris, the yoruig Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier climbed into the wicker basket ot a Montgolfier paper balloon and ascended to a height of 84 feet. The balloon was tethered for the occasion and the young aeronaut, the first human being to leave the ground—and stay aloft in any sort of a flying contrivance, set the world’s first duration record for balloons; four and a half minutes. “It is impossible to estimate the bravery of de Rozier,” writes Magoun and Hodgins in their very thorough “History of Aircraft,” “in offering himself as the first aerial traveller.” The Montgolfier brothers had been experimenting with hot-air balloons for several years. They either knew nothing of contemporary experiments with hydrogen or had no faith in them. Their first observations, leading directly to their first balloon, came through watching the smoke rise in a chimney and speculating as to its cause. Like countless millions before and since the two brothers had sat before an open fire watching sparks, bits of paper, and occasionally a large fragment go roaring up the chimney, cariied by some unseen —and to them —unknown force.

'They knew nothing of the principle of the reaction and expansion qualities, of the gas we call “air” to heat. They apparently knew that the smoke they could see did not have these qualities, but they did not know that it was simply hot air on which the smoke rose aloft. They were generally i ecognised as having discovered means of utilising and creating a new gas which was called by their associates and contemporaries “Montgolfier’s Gas." 'I hey experimented first with a silk balioon indoors, and when it rose mi< cessfully they built out of doors a. larger one of paper held in a loose outei covering of linen. Thus the first balloon was constructed on much the same, principle as the modern Zeppelin, save tor the lack of the rigid structure; with two envelopes, a. light, gas-tight inner ballonet and the outer covering made up of segments buttoned and laced together. Others at this time were experimenting with materials made gas-tight by a treatment of rubber varnish. The gas containers of our modern airships loi years were made of gold beaters skin, <•. fabric taken from the viscera c cattle. Goodyear worked on the li- idem and finally came around to Hi-' nresent- material,- a rubberised .al-i'o. So we are back again where ”• ere j5(l i ears ago. '■ in n it y; remembered that the tii.L balloon of this materia! vac inflated ith hydrogen only a few months after the Montgolfiers’ first : cl lie demonstrations and that, with (he exception of American airships, all those built, in recent years have had hydrogen lift gas, including the Graf Zeppelin, then the argument that lighter-than-air flying is still very much in its infancy appears reasonable. It is this claim that is advanced

by the supporters of our lighter-than-air programme when they seek .to point out the foolishness of scrapping what has been done because airships arc not yet perfect.

KEPT FIRE GOING It was proposed to let two criminals sentenced to die by torture make the first flight rather than allow one of some value to the community to risk his life. De Rozier appealed to King Louis himself, ’who gave in. The weight of a man as against the lift power of the “Montgolfier Gas” created another problem which was solved, but not without increasing the risks of the flight many fold. It was. decided that to insure a sufficient gas supply the aeronaut must carry along with him his own retort. A grate was suspended beneath the bag of varnished linen and paper, and in the grate were a few large bundles of straw. The whole apparatus weighed close to 15001 b, including de Rozier as pay load. The world’s premier aeronaut had the nice task of keeping up a roaring Lire directly under the open mouth of the bag. which he calmly set about doing the moment his airship left the ground. By the most active stoking, de Rozier pushed up to 84ft and stayed there close to five minuses. With his fuel exhausted, like many a modern flyer, he was forced to land. The air cooled rapidly. The airship contracted and at the same time descended gently and safely to the ground. A little more than a month later he made the find, cross-country flight, in the v erld’s history when, vzith his friend, the Maruuie d’Arlandcs, as aetcciate pilot and associate fireman, the two stoked away in a fair wind, stopping only to put out fires that were, burning boles in their paper balloon, while they flew from a point in the Bois do Boulogne across the Seine for a meandering trip over the city.

Many of the early balloonists used the emptied balloon as a parachute and made safe landings time after time.