ARCTIC BALLOONING.

West Coast Times, Issue 10344, 5 August 1896, Page 4

ARCTIC BALLOONING.

To-day's cables inform us of the setting out of the three adventurous Swedes — M Andree,, Dr. Ackholra, and Herr Nils Strindberg — on their daring balloon expedition to the North Pole. The steamer with all their paraphernalia arrived at Spitzbergen at the end of June, and they expected to put off from the northernmost point of that island about the 20th and 21st July. M. Andre"e is (says the Post) the leader or the expedition, and his balloon, which has been specially constructed for the voyage, is described as being composed of three thicknesses of silk firmly glned together, and having five coatings of varnish on ihe outside. Outside this is the vetting which supp >rts the suspension ring from which depends the car. The apparatus connected with this car is said to be a nerfect wonder of ingenuity and contri" vuiue for the storage of pro .-isions, instruments, ammunition, &c. It is about sft deep, quite round, with a wirker

cover. In it is a bedstead for one person, the arrangement being that one person shall sleep while two watch and make observations. These observations will be made from the top of the basket. The travellers will stand on the lid of it, and will have around them, in a ring breasthigh, all the instruments which they will require for their observations. For cooking, an apparatus will be dropped down 15 feet below the basket by means of a rope. It will be lighted by pulling a string. Then the food will be brought up to the basket and eaten. These precautions are taken to obviate the danger of having a fire too near the gas of the balloon. This cooking apparatus is the invention of a Swedish engineer, devised purposely to meet M. Andree's requirements. The total weight of the balloon and all it will carry is 5200 kilogrammes. Whatever doubt the outside world may hate as to the success of the expedition is not shared by the three persons who are undertaking it, and, furthermore,: they desire that whatever honor may come of it shall fall to Sweden, all requests for a passage in the balloon having been declined, inclining an offer from the proorietor of the > T ew York Herald of 100,000 francs if one of his staff were allo7«ed a place. In his preparations M. Andree, says a writer in the Westminster Budget, has left nothing to chance, and in one respect he calculates upon havin» an advantage that no other balloonist ever had before, and that is his invention for steering the balloon. The principle is that of the rudder, and the inventor says he is certain of it up to 30deg., for he has tested it. It is manageu in this way :— Diagonally across the balloon, above the .suspension ring, ho carries a, large sail. This, in the ordinary courso, would simply help to carry the balloon before the wind. But if the steering rope, instead of Using ,»t ,i yjl t angles to this sail, is put at a smaller angle, and the balloow (as it will) swing round enough to bring it again in a line with the direction of the wind, the tail i* by that means brought bhghtly ou one side of the balloon, and the wind acts on it in such a way as to carry the balloon some degrees aside from the direction of the wind. It is calculated that the balloon will travel at the rate of about twelve miles an hour and the balloonists expect to traverse the A'olar regions in about six weeks A number of pigeons will ho [Unrated from time to time to carry m^v., of the progress of the trip to iiin i . v ,u. The darin* character of the <)XfK.d.u<m will lead everyone to hope for tlio * J!o luturn of the party, even it they hiil to accomplish their end. c