TRIUMPH OF THE BALLOON

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 12199, 10 March 1934, Page 9

TRIUMPH OF THE BALLOON

PROGRESS DURING CENTURIES

ASCENTS: SPECTACULAR. AND OTHERWISE.'

The speedy development of the aeroplane and the airrynp m the last; t'wo decades, and the increasing employment pf power aircraft for commercial'and show purposes, pushed into obsc-ni-ity the. practically unmanageable balloon, an : air-vchic:c .that has made comparatively slow progress since the closing years of the. 19-th century. But after having been despised and negleptcd- tor a number of rears-, this pioneer of -air 'travel has '-.recently been used for exploration in the upper atmosphere, notably by Professor Pic.cartl and hr scientists; ot .Soviet Russia. Subjected to -v----volutionarV changes bv se’entists,. the . balloon has : been impio* ved vastly. A greater measure.ofconitrol- has been assured, eplaced by an air-tight- gondola.

ll>e cumbersome basket has 'been

The spectacular a soon f of Professor Piccard and Hax. Cosyns to j a 'height of <53,672ft. a bo-v*.’sea-level in their specially-built, bsi 1 loon Mi August, ]93'2, created world-wide inter# ost. Man had reached an‘altitude never before attained —10 miles above tjhe earth’s ‘surface. This accent exceeded the'previous height record made on Alav 27. 1031, when Pro 1 - lessor r'eeard and M. Kipfer managed to roach just on £2,000ft., The conquest - -of • Mount Everest hy< aeroplane was one of the acclaimed aeronautical feats of 1933, yet the tout flic,vs had but to rise some 30,003 feet to clear i ho- highest land point in the world by almost hall a mile. It "will lie many years before tho aeroplane can hope to ascend t° the thin-air levels reached by the balloon. Such heights, may he reached ultimately by rocket-planes equipped for travel in the upper regions, where the air is extremely iVUrefied temperatures, siro. -fay below zero. Propellers could not ‘‘grip’’ in tho thin atmosphere some fjevon or eight miles a hot e the earth, and oxygen masks have to be worn by aviators in much lower level?. "Until a new method of propulsion is adopted the balloon will retain the altitude record.

THE FIRST WALLOONS

'.History first records the appearsilbe of* balloons in the late years of the eighth century, during tho reign of Charlemagne. Legend has it "that :j?vera 1 people■ ridmg in 11 balloon descended into the : city "A Lyons, France. Tho ciazens who much amazed ’at the appearance -o* this vessel from the skies, and dne unfortunate aeronauts wero seized euicl condemned to death as screer- 1 ers lor having violated the laws « r Nurture. History is silent on tho ,«nh;det 'until 'the 11th oen©u/i’y, vdieh, to commemorate the coronation of the Emperor Fo-Kien, a balloon was sent up at Canton, China, lb i- not mentioned whether or not passengers were carried. Again for a long time there is absence of historical data about balloons until the Ifith century, when -riie Montgolfier brothers— Stephen and Joseph, made numerous, experiments. In 1783 one of their large paper balloons, filled with boated air, ascended to more than IOOOiL above An non av, in France. The'first authenticated ascent nit ° the skies by a human being waa made, bv two Frenchmen, Pilatre do Hosier and the Marquis d’Arlancles,. on November 21, 1783. Their balloon. rendered buoyant b'y -heater air. travelled five miles, mi 23 minutes.- *A’ l’ew mouths later three erthor daring Frenchmen, employing ihe newlv-discovoted gas, hydrogen, made the first flight in a gas-filled balloon, which was named the Charliero after M. Charier,' one of its inventors. Likewise the mime Montgolfier became attached to ba.loons of the hot-air type. FIE ST ASCENT IN ENGLAND. . The first ascent- in England was made by Tyler and Lunardi in 3_7?4, and in the• following year fish Channel was crossed, Irnm >ot l bbe -English and French Then' came a long period extensive experimentation, and many improvements were made. F>y tho end .of the eighteenth century balloon had become cstablisheu. During 1830 occurred a remarkable use of balloons to carry messages.. Five years earlier Sir John Franklin had started on Ids ill-fated expedition to search for the presumed North-West passage—and he ha<! disappeared from, human ken.- Two years passed, and. nothing having been heard of the explorer, the first ..relief expedition was sent to lools:for him. Tim was followed by other expeditions from both Eng--11?, tid and America, and ships °f the •British Navy were ordered t-o search in likely areas. One suggestion, was that balloons .should be vised in an attempt to establish communications. With .the Shepherd rescue party went :a. large number of specially prepared balloons. These were released •at various points, and : each carried rilips of. paper addressed t ft Sir John Franklin. Upon these were prill tod the date of the despatch of the balloon and the latitude and longitude of the place of departure. ■On the other side information was •gfiven of tlio situation of food dc-‘ ip 0 K s and the intended movements pF •the rescue party. Unhappily. a* far sis'is known, none of these. balloons, its destination, and it was until many. years later that th© Terrains >of the expcdWon were discovered.

AN AMERICAN FAILURE

John Wise, the masff famous ' A™I erieau balloonist of Ins time, startffd pcienilists in 1843 by claiming that tiie wind at an altitnde of two to three miles was blowing., eon-; stantly from .west, to east, and that coniscquenfly it would he possible, by ascending in c balloon to this air current. to be wafted aerorw the Atlantic from the United .• States to I Europe in a shorter lime than was possible bv any other method of transport. For sonic years Wise tried to have bis plan financed, but he was vjiTSUCicenrfnli nnfil 3858, when there was reawakened interest in the possibilities' of tgans-ocean balloon flights. The Trans-Atlantic Balloon Company was formed i n 1859; and the larged’) balloon yet made was built by a. manufacturer appropriately named 'Mountain. Before the ’ initial ocean flight was made it was decided To test the balloon by a long overland voyage by air from St. Loin's.to New York. The proposed, flight attracted t-re-mendonis interest, and the United States Express Company arranged to have a bag. of mail carried by Wire. The date of . ascension was July 1. 1859, and, besides Wise, there wa s a crow of three. Tho. start wa s made in fine weather, but n s the aeronauts approached New York tho balloon was caught in, n. terrific hurricane, and, to prevent its falling into a lake, it was nece'yary to throw almost everything, including the mail, overboard. Finely,' torn and battered. The balloon came, to rest in Jefferson County, New York State. Tho aeronauts had ni'ode a distance record of 809 miles, ■.which was nob surpassed until .41 years later in 1900. The mailbag was found on the shores' of the lake, and the letters wore forwarded to their destination. Tliig i.s indeed a very • early instance of a longdistance and almost successful airmail flight. John AVi'ie subsequentJv gave up all thought or crossing the Atlantic by balloon. BALLOONS TN WAP. The greatest use of "to balloon for the transmission of mail, occurred during the dark days of the Fanco-Priissian war. when -Baris'was rvrroundedby enemy troops. The investment had .boon completed by September 18, 1870,. and. lie one could leave or enter. Paris. Mn this extremity was born the ba-iloou post service, and soon , dpzoiis of balloons were .licug manufactured. The first successful aneoiit was made on .Sept-. 23, the fifth day of the s'cge. and the balloon crossed aboye the..'German lines and. landed at OraconviHe, a distance of 104 kilometres (6-5 miles) some three hours later. This auspicious beginning marked the establishment of a remarkably successful balloon service, and between thi s date and January 28, 1871, 68 balloons left Paris. Three only' were lost. Ono was: captured by the 'Germans, and two. fell into the sea. The French town of Metz- was also invested by the Gormans during this campaign, and on' August 1.0. a month earlier limn tbo citizens ,° r Parin, The citizens 'of Metz ' were faced by the same problem of being mraWo To send or receive nnessages. In this instance small balloons made of paper or silk were inflated with ordinary illuminating ga», and to each of »bese. "'as attached n packet of raa.il. Several of the balloons were -tc. eased, but owing .to their comparatively small size they were often blown long distances, and many were found in Germany, in Luxemburg, and -even jn Switzerland. In. spite of those looses many dropped info French territory, and. when found were - taker-' to. The nea r-, esc post-office..• The letters, written on thin paper, were.limn placed m official, envelopes, and were forwarded to the addresses, the envelopes usually being further endorsed with the word's; “Pos.te aerostnti.queP (aerostatic post).

In August, 1930, the world was startled by the announcement that the remains of The. Andree expedition. hack been discovered by a Norwegian scientific . party on TV Jiite Island, 100 miles south-west of Franz. Jonopb Land. After he bad madeno me "ov. (,■ suC/CcssTul balloon flights Major Andree concei-: ved the project of drifting in a balloon over the • North Pole andf studying scientifically Arctic phenomena- With two companions and a* large quantity of stores he left Dane’s Inland. Spitzbergen, ,;'on .Tulv 11 1897. Andree also took with him a ’number of carrier pigeons', and during the early part of the flight many were released. Of these only a few 1 to turned with notes from the aeronauts. Then the messages ■ cea-.

sed,- and- for 33 year s the fate ofthe intrepid Andree, and hio companions was unknown. . ' ,-■ The halipon has played ■an imports ant - part in aeronautical history, although in. recent years it-has . beenlargoly_ supplanted by aeroplanes and; dirigibles. Yet it is still necosrtiry to science, for so far, as it ,i s ~,jtfie only craft that can reach high into, The abmospbefe, ; . '