A GIGANTIC BALLOON-NEW AERONAUTICAL EXPERIMENT IN ENGLAND.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXIV, Issue 2782, 9 January 1869, Page 6

A GIGANTIC BALLOON-NEW AERONAUTICAL EXPERIMENT IN ENGLAND.

A London paper says -. — Over the Ashburnharn grounds, immediately to the west of Crt'tnorne Gardens, now floats a balloon of unparalleled dimensions, and which, from thepeculiarity of itsaccompanyiugmachinery seems likely to acquire a remarkable place iv the history of aeronautical science. Ifc is nearly spherical in shape ; it is 90 feet diameter ; it is capable of receiving 363,000 cubic feet of gas ; and ifc has a lifting power of 11 tons. Its maguitudo will perhaps be brought more distinctly home to the imaginations of our readers by the statement that the receptive capacity of the balloon in which Mr Glaisher made his important experiments, and which was, we believe, the largest one hitherto constructed in England, held only 93,000 cubic feet of gas, or about one-fourth of the quantity for which the new aerial monster can afford space. But the use to which this immense power may •be applied is perhaps more remarkable and more likely to lead to valuable as well us interesting results than the power itself. Balloons, from their erratic and uumanageablepropensities, have hitherto been little better than huge and costly toys. The " Captive" balloon is placed, in one

important respect, under human control, through its connection with the solid earth by means of a cable, just as a boy's kite is held by a string ; and to this circumstance, as will be easily understood,' it owes its name. This cable is worked by steam from a-drum 21 feet long and 7 feet in diameter, and passes underground to the balloon. Its weight is 2 £- tons, and its length 2,000 feet. . The weight of the balloon, with its car, ropes, and netting, is B_ tons, and this, with a cable, gives to total dead weight of 6 tons, so that the available carrying power is 5 tons, which is about 2 tons more than would usually be required to lift 30 persons, the number the car is constructed to accomodate. The gas which is to inflate the vast machine, and which is pure hydrogen, is worked by a steam engine of 200 horse power, and for its manufacture some 300,000 pounds of sulphuric acid, and 110,000 pounds of iron filings have to be consumed. So costly and so delicate a work necessarily required "some external protection, and an immense circular screen, formed of boards and canvas, shuts out the public , from the spape in which, the balloon rests. The balloon, with all its machinery is French property, and has been entirely devised and is almost exclusively worked by Frenchmen. It offers a proof, too, of the enterprise as well as the skill of our brilliant and ingenious neighbors It has we have been informed, involved from first to last an outlay of £2tf,000, and ifc is now proposed that some' return should be obtained for this investment by charging Is to each visitor within the enclosure, and £1 to the aeronauts who ascend in the apparently . safe and commodious car. Some experimental trips were made with the balloon on Thursday afternoon. In the first of these the ascent took place with mere ballast ; in the second, Mr Godard, son of the celebrated French aeronaut, and M. Yon, who seems to have a large share in the, management of the whole undertaking, were the sole occupants of the car ; in the third, 30 persons, including two French ladies, and a boy, filled the ascending vehicle, and after having attained in it to an elevation of nearly 2,000 feet — the total length of .the cable — returned from their aerial voyage with perfect ease and safety, and evidently much gratified with the novel and striking glimpse of London and its environs , which in spite of the warm haze obscuring the atmosphere, ' they were thus enabled to obtain.