DYNAMITE BALLOON.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XXII, 30 May 1896, Page 617

DYNAMITE BALLOON.

A correspondent of the Chicago Inter Ocean submits to it what is claimed to be a practical method of carrying dynamite steel pointed shells to high altitudes and dropping the same on the decks of invading ironclads, etc. The apparatus consists of a dirigible balloon combined with a parachute. The parachute is inverted and attached underneath the balloon for the purpose of preventing the upward jerk when the weight of dynamite is suddenly dropped, giving time to let off gas so as to prevent the balloon ascending to bursting altitudes. The parachute is closed at all times except just at the moment of dropping the dynamite shell. The form of dirigible balloon has been in actual use for several years. This style of balloon will make headway against headwind of from five to fifteen miles velocity. It is worked by one-man power, similarly to the bicycle, and, in fact, is called a ‘sky cycle.' It can be made

to carry several hundreds of pounds of dynamite. The addition of a parachute to it constitutes a machine by which dynamite shells can be carried to great heights and safely dropped. A parachute of twenty feet diameter will neutralize the jerk of zoo pounds suddenly detached. The shock will be greater than a fall of two or three feet. Thousands of people have seen the ' parachute jump,’ where the fall commenced with a closed parachute. In the dynamite balloon, says the inventor of this combination balloon, the parachute is allowed to open itself before the dynamite shell is let go. This combination makes of it a model war-like engine, just the thing for coast defence, and can be built with little cost comnaratively. One complete apparatus capable of carrying from 300 to 500 pounds of dynamite a mile or more high will not cost over <soo—not half the cost of one single shell shot from one of the big Krupp guns. One shell falling a mile or more from the balloon would destroy the strongest iron clad battleship. If the balloon is painted a cloud gray it would look like a cloud, even in the path of the strongest electric searchlight.