BALLOON, a bag of impermeable material which, when in flated with gas lighter than air, rises from the ground.
The news of the experiment at Annonay attracted so much attention at Paris that Barthelemi Faujas de Saint-Fond (1741 1819), afterwards professor of geology at the Musee d'Histoire Naturelle, set on foot a subscription for paying the expense of repeating the experiment. The balloon was constructed by two brothers of the name of Robert, under the superintendence of the physicist, J. A. C. Charles. The first suggestion was to copy the process of Montgolfier, but Charles proposed the application of hydrogen gas, which was adopted. The filling of the balloon, which was made of thin silk varnished with a solution of elastic gum, and was about I 3 f t. in diameter, was begun on Aug. 23, 1783, in the Place des Victoires.
Bulletins were issued daily of the progress of the inflation; and the crowd was so great that on the 26th the balloon was moved se cretly by night to the Champ de Mars, a distance of two miles.
On the next day an immense con course of people covered the Champ de Mars, and every spot from which a view could be ob tained was crowded. About five o'clock a cannon was discharged as the signal for the ascent, and the balloon when liberated rose to the height of about 3,000f t.
with great rapidity. A shower of rain which began to fall directly after it had left the earth in no way checked its progress ; and the excitement was so great, that thousands of well-dressed spectators, many of them ladies, stood exposed, watching it intently the whole time it was in sight, and were drenched to the skin. The balloon, after remaining in the air for about three-quarters of an hour, fell in a field near Gonesse, about 15m. off, and terrified the peasantry so much that it was torn into shreds by them.
On Sept. 19, 1783, Joseph Montgolfier repeated the Annonay experiment at Versailles, in the presence of the king, the queen, the court and an immense number of spectators. The inflation was begun at one o'clock and completed in eleven minutes, when the balloon rose to the height of about i,5ooft., and descended after eight minutes, at a distance of about 2m., in the wood of Vaucresson. Suspended below the balloon, in a cage, had been placed a sheep, a cock and a duck, which were thus the first aerial travellers. They were quite uninjured, except the cock, which had its right wing hurt in consequence of a kick it had received from the sheep; but this took place before the ascent. The balloon, which was painted with ornaments in oil colours, had a very showy appearance (fig. 2) .
Only ten days later, Dec. 1, 1783, J. A. C. Charles ascended from Paris in a balloon inflated with hydrogen gas. The balloon, as in the case of the small one of the same kind previously launched from the Champ de Mars, was constructed by the brothers Robert, one of whom took part in the ascent. It was 2 7f t. in diameter, and the car was suspended from a hoop sur rounding the middle of the balloon, and fastened to a net, which covered the upper hemisphere. The balloon ascended very gently from the Tuileries at a quarter to two o'clock, and, after remain ing for some time at an elevation of about 2,000f t., it descended in about two hours at Nesle, a small town about 27m. from Paris, when Robert left the car, and Charles made a second ascent by himself.
All the features of the modern balloon as now used are more or less due to Charles, who invented the valve at the top, sus pended the car from a hoop, which was itself attached to the balloon by netting, etc. With regard to his use of hydrogen gas, there are anticipations that must be noticed. As early as 1766 Henry Cavendish showed that this gas was at least seven times lighter than ordinary air, and it immediately occurred to Dr. Joseph Black, of Edinburgh, that a thin bag filled with hydrogen gas would rise to the ceiling of a room. He provided, accordingly, the allantois of a calf, with a view of showing at a public lecture such a curious experiment ; but for some reason it seems to have failed, and Black did not repeat it, thus allowing a great discovery, almost within his reach, to escape him. Several years afterwards a similar idea occurred to Tiberius Cavallo, who found that blad ders, even when carefully scraped, are too heavy, and that China paper is permeable to the gas. But in 1782, the year before the invention of the Montgolfiers, he succeeded in elevating soap bubbles by inflating them with hydrogen gas.
It was intended that an English gentleman named Biggin should accompany Lunardi; but the crowd becoming impatient, the latter judged it prudent to ascend with the balloon only partially full rather than risk a longer delay, and accordingly Mr. Biggin was obliged to leave the car. Lunardi therefore ascended alone, in presence of the prince of Wales and an enormous crowd of spec tators. He took up with him a pigeon, a dog and a cat, and the balloon was provided with oars, by means of which he hoped to raise or lower it at pleasure. Shortly after starting the pigeon escaped, and one of the oars became broken and fell to the ground. In about an hour and a half he descended at South Mimms, in Hertfordshire, and landed the cat, which had suffered from the cold; he then ascended again, and descended, after the lapse of about three-quarters of an hour, at Standon, near Ware, where he had great difficulty in inducing the peasants to come t IG. 4.-THE BALLOON OF BLANCHARD AND JEFFRIES. 1785 Structure of the balloon in which Blanchard and Jeffries made the first flight across the English channel to his assistance ; but at length a young woman, taking hold of one of the cords, urged the men to follow her example, which they then did. The excitement caused by this ascent was immense, and Lunardi became famous. In the following year Lunardi made several successful ascents from Kelso, Edinburgh and Glasgow (in one of which he traversed a distance of ' Tom.) ; these he described in a second series of letters.
On June 15, 1785, Pilatre de Rozier made an attempt to repeat the exploit of Blanchard and Jeffries in the reverse direction, and cross from Boulogne to England. For this purpose he contrived a double balloon, which he expected would combine the advantages of both kinds—a fire-balloon, 'oft. in diameter, being placed underneath a gas-balloon of 3 7f t. in diameter, so that by increas ing or diminishing the fire in the former it might be possible to ascend or descend without waste of gas. Rozier was accompanied by P. A. Romain, and for rather less than half an hour after the aerostat ascended all seemed to be going on well, when suddenly the whole apparatus was seen in flames, and the unfortunate ad venturers came to the ground from the supposed height of more than 3,000f t. Rozier was killed on the spot and Romain only sur vived about ten minutes. A monument was erected on the place where they fell, which was near the sea-shore, about 4m. from the starting point.
Another large fire-balloon, 68f t. in diameter, was constructed by the chevalier Paul Andreani, of Milan, and on Feb. 25 he ascended in it from Milan, remaining in the air for about 20 min utes. This is usually regarded as the first ascent in Italy (but see Monck Mason's Aeronautics, p. 247).
On Nov. 7, 1836, at half-past one o'clock, a large balloon con taining about 85,000 cu.ft. of gas ascended from Vauxhall Gar dens, London, carrying Robert Holland, M.P., Monck Mason and Charles Green, and descended about two leagues from Weilburg, in the duchy of Nassau, at half-past seven the next morning, hav ing thus traversed a distance of about 5oom. in 18 hours; Liege was passed in the course of the night, and Coblentz in the early morning. In consequence of this journey the balloon became famous as the "Nassau Balloon" (fig. 5) . Charles Green (1785– 1870), who constructed it and subsequently became its owner, was the most celebrated of English aeronauts, and made an ex traordinary number of ascents. His first, made from the Green Park, London, on July 19, 1821, at the coronation of George IV., was distinguished for the fact that for the first time coal-gas was used instead of hydrogen for inflating the balloon. In 1828 he made an equestrian ascent from the Eagle Tavern, City Road, London, seated on his favourite pony. Such ascents have since been repeated; in 1852 Mme. Poitevin made one from morne Gardens, but was vented from giving a second formance by police interference, on account of certain public criticism. It was in descending from the "Nassau Balloon" in a parachute that Robert Cocking was killed in 1837. Green was the inventor of the guide rope, which consists of a long rope trailing below the car. Its tion is to reduce the waste of gas and ballast required to keep the balloon at a proper altitude. When a balloon sinks so low that a good deal of the guide rope rests on the ground, it is relieved of so much weight and therefore tends to rise ; if on the other hand it rises so that most of the rope is lifted off the ground, it has to bear a greater weight and tends Co sink.
In 1863 A. Nadar, a Paris photographer, constructed "Le Geant," which was the largest gas-balloon made up to that time and contained over 200,000 cu.ft. of gas. Underneath it was placed a smaller balloon, called a compensator, the object of which was to prevent loss of gas during the voyage. The car had two stories, and was, in fact, a model of a cottage in wicker work, 8f t. in height by 13f t. in length, containing a small printing office, a photographic department, a refreshment room, a lavatory, etc. The first ascent took place at five o'clock on Sunday, Oct. 4, 1863, from the Champ de Mars. There were 13 persons in the car, including one lady, the princess de la Tour D'Auvergne, and the two aeronauts Louis and Jules Godard. In spite of the elabo rate preparations that had been made and the stores and pro visions that were taken up, the balloon descended at nine o'clock at Meaux, the early descent being rendered necessary, it was said, by an accident to the valve-line. At a second ascent, made a fort night later, there were nine passengers, including Mme. Nadar.
Directly after Nadar's two ascents, Eugene Godard constructed a fire-balloon of nearly 500,000 cu.ft. capacity—more than double that of Nadar's and only slightly less than that attributed to the "Flesselles" of 1783. The air was heated by an i 8f t. stove, weighing, with the chimney, 98o lb. This furnace was fed by straw ; and the "car" consisted of a gallery surrounding it. Two ascents of this balloon, the first fire-balloon seen in London, were made from Cremorne Gardens in July 1864. After the first jour ney the balloon descended at Greenwich, and after the second at Walthamstow, where it was injured by being blown against a tree.
In the summer of 1873 the proprietors of the New York Daily Graphic, reviving a project discussed by Green in 1840, deter mined to construct a very large balloon, and enable the American aeronaut, John Wise, to realize his favourite scheme of crossing the Atlantic ocean to Europe, by taking advantage of the current from west to east which was believed by many to exist constantly at heights above io,000 feet. The project came to nothing owing to the quality of the material of which the balloon was made. When it was being inflated in Sept. 1873 a rent was observed after 325,000 cu.ft. of gas had been put in, and the whole rapidly col lapsed. The size was said to be such as to contain 400,00o cu.ft. so that it would lift a weight of 14,000 pounds. Only two voyages exceeding 1,000m. are on record—that of John Wise from St. Louis to Henderson (N.Y.), 1,12om., in 1859, and that of Count Henry de la Vaulx from Paris to Korosticheff in Russia, 1,193m., in 1900. On July 11, 1897, Salomon Andree, with two compan ions, Strendberg and Frankel, ascended from Spitsbergen in a daring attempt to reach the North Pole, about boom. distant. One carrier pigeon, apparently liberated 48 hours after the start, was shot, and two floating buoys with messages were found, but nothing more was heard of the explorers.
Scientific Work.—At an early date the balloon was applied to scientific purposes. So far back as 1784, Dr. Jeffries made an ascent from London in which he carried out barometric, ther mometric and hygrometric observations, also collecting samples of the air at different heights. In 1803 the St. Petersburg [Len ingrad] Academy of Sciences, entertaining the opinion that the experiments made on mountain-sides by J. A. Deluc, H. B. de Saussure, A. von Humboldt and others must give results different from those made in free air at the same heights, resolved to arrange a balloon ascent. Accordingly, on Jan. 3o, 1804, Sacharof, a member of the academy, ascended in a gas-balloon, in company with a French aeronaut, n. G. Robertson, who at one time gave conjuring entertainments in Paris. The ascent was made at a quarter-past seven, and the descent effected at a quarter to eleven. The height reached was less than II. miles. The experiments were not very systematically made, and the chief results were the filling and bringing down of several flasks of air collected at different elevations, and the supposed observation that the magnetic dip was altered. A telescope fixed in the bottom of the car and pointing vertically downwards enabled the travellers to ascertain exactly the spot over which they were floating at any moment. Sacharof found that, on shouting downwards through his speaking trumpet, the echo from the earth was quite distinct, and at his height was audible after an interval of about ten seconds.
Some of the results reported by Robertson appearing doubtful, Laplace proposed to the members of the French Academy of Sciences that the funds placed by the Government at their dis posal for the prosecution of useful experiments should be utilized in sending up balloons to test their accuracy. The proposition was supported by J. A. C. Chaptal, the chemist, who was then minister of the interior, and accordingly the necessary arrange ments were speedily effected. The principal object of this ascent was to determine whether the magnetic force experienced any appreciable diminution at heights above the earth's surface. On Aug. 24, 1804, Gay-Lussac and Biot ascended from the Con servatoire des Arts at ten o'clock in the morning. Their magnetic experiments were incommoded by the rotation of the balloon, but they found that, up to the height of i 3,000f t., the time of vibration of a magnet was appreciably the same as on the earth's surface. They found also that the air became drier as they as cended. The height reached was about i 3,000f t., and the tempera ture declined from 63° to 51°. The descent was effected at Meriville, 18 leagues from Paris.
In a second experiment, which was made on Sept. 16, 1804, Gay-Lussac ascended alone. The balloon left the Conservatoire des Arts at 9.40 A.M., and descended at 3.45 P.M. between Rouen and Dieppe. The chief result obtained was that the magnetic force, like gravitation, did not experience any sensible variation at heights from the earth's surface to which we can attain. Gay Lussac also brought down air collected at the height of nearly 23,000ft., and on analysis it appeared that its composition was the same as that of air collected at the earth's surface. At the time of leaving the earth the thermometer stood at 82°, and at the highest point reached (23,000f t.) it was Gay-Lussac remarked that at his highest point there were still clouds above him.
From 1804 to 1850 there is no record of any scientific ascents in balloons having been undertaken. In the latter year J. A. Bixio (18o8-65) and J. A. Barral (1819-84) made two ascents of this kind. In the first they ascended from the Paris observatory on June 29, 1850, at 10.27 A.M., the balloon being inflated with hydro gen gas. The day was a rough one, and the ascent took place without any previous attempt having been made to test the ascensional force of the balloon. When liberated it rose with great rapidity, and becoming fully inflated it pressed upon the net work, bulging out at the top and bottom. The ropes by which the car was suspended being too short, the balloon soon covered the travellers like an immense hood. In endeavouring to secure the valve rope they made a rent in the balloon, and the gas escaped so close to their faces as almost to suffocate them. Find ing that they were descending then too rapidly, they threw over board everything available, including their coats and only except ing the instruments. The ground was reached at 10.45 A.M., near Lagny. Of course no observations were made. Their second ascent was made on July 27 and was remarkable on account of the extreme cold met with.
In July 1852 the committee of the Kew Observatory resolved to institute a series of balloon ascents, with the view of investi gating such meteorological and physical phenomena as require the presence of an observer at a great height in the atmosphere. John Welsh (1824-59) of the Kew Observatory was the observer, and the great "Nassau Balloon" was employed, with Green himself as the aeronaut. Four ascents were made in 1852, viz., on Aug. 17 and 26, Oct. 31 and Nov. 1o. The heights attained were 19,510, 19,100, 12,640 and 2 2,936f t., and the lowest temperatures met with in the four ascents were 8.7° (19,38of t.) , 12.4° (18, 370ft.), 16.4° (12,64oft.) and 10.5° (22,37oft.). The decline of temperature was very regular. A siphon barometer, dry and wet bulb thermometers, aspirated and free, and a Regnault hy grometer were taken up. Some air collected at a considerable height was found on analysis not to differ appreciably in its com position from air collected near the ground. For the original ob servations see Phil. Trans. PP. Glaisher's Ascent.—At the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held at Aberdeen in 1859, a com mittee was appointed for the purpose of making observations in the higher strata of the atmosphere by means of the balloon. For two years nothing was effected, owing to the want both of an observer and of a suitable balloon. After its reappointment at the Manchester meeting of 1861, the committee communicated with Henry Tracey Coxwell (1819-1900), an aeronaut who had made a good many ascents, and he agreed to construct a new balloon, of 90,000 cu.ft. capacity, on the condition that the com mittee would undertake to use it, and pay £25 for each high ascent made especially on its behalf, defraying also the cost of gas, etc., so that the expense of each high ascent amounted to nearly f So. An observer being still wanted, James Glaisher, a member of the committee, offered himself to take the observa tions, and accordingly the first ascent was made on July 17, 5862, from the gas-works at Wolverhampton, this town being chosen on account of its central position in the country. Altogether, Glaisher made 28 ascents, the last being on May 26, 1866. Of these only seven were specially high ascents, the greatest height attained being 3 7,000f t. at Wolverhampton (Sept. 5, 5862), but there is some doubt as to this record.
The primary object of the ascents was to determine the tem perature of the air, and its hygrometrical state at different ele vations to as great a height as could be reached; and the sec ondary objects were: (I) to determine the temperature of the dew-point by Daniell's and Regnault's hygrometers, as well as by the dry and wet bulb thermometers, and to compare the results; (2) to compare the readings of an aneroid barometer with those of a mercurial barometer up to the height of 5m.; (3) to determine the electrical state of the air; (4) the oxygenic condition of the atmosphere, and (5) the time of vibration of a magnet; (6) to collect air at different elevations; (7) to note the height and kind of clouds, their density and thickness; (8) to determine the rate and direction of different currents in the atmosphere; and (9) to make observations on sound. The instru ments used included an electrometer. In one or two of the ascents a camera was taken up.
With regard to physiological observations, Glaisher found that the frequency of his pulse increased with elevation, as also did the number of inspirations. The number of his pulsations was generally 76 per minute before starting, about go at T o,000f t., Too at 2o,0ooft., and 110 at higher elevations. But a good deal depended on the temperament of the individual. This was also the case in respect to colour: at T o,000f t. the faces of some would be a glowing purple, whilst others would be scarcely affected; at 4m. high Glaisher found the pulsations of his heart distinctly audible, and his breathing was very much affected, so that panting was produced by the slightest exertion ; at 29,000f t. he became insensible. In reference to the propagation of sound, it was at all times found that sounds from the earth were more or less audible according to the amount of moisture in the air. When in clouds at 4m. high a railway train was heard ; but when clouds were far below, no sound ever reached the ear at this elevation. The discharge of a gun was heard at io,000 feet. The barking of a dog was heard at the height of am., while the shouting of a multitude of people was not audible at heights exceeding 4,000f t. In his ascent of Sept. 5, 5862, Glaisher considered that he reached a height of 3 7,000f t. But that figure was based, not on actual record, but on the circumstances that at 29,000ft., when he be came insensible, the balloon was rising I,000ft. a minute, and that when he recovered consciousness 13 minutes later it was falling 2,000ft. a minute, and the accuracy of his conclusions has been questioned.
Few scientific men have imitated Glaisher in making high as cents for meteorological observations. In 1867 and 1868 Camille Flammarion made eight or nine ascents from Paris for scientific purposes. The heights attained were not great, but the general result was to confirm the observations of Glaisher (for an account . see Voyages aeriens, Paris, 1870, or Travels in the Air, London, 1871, in which also some ascents by W. de Fonvielle are noticed). On April T 5, 1875, H. T. Sivel, J. E. Croce-Spinelli and Gaston Tissandier ascended from Paris in the balloon "Zenith," and reached a height of 2 7,950f t. ; but only Tissandier came down alive, his two companions being asphyxiated. This put an end to such attempts for a time. But Dr. A. Berson and Lieut. Gross attained 2 5,840f t. on May T T, 5894; Berson, ascending alone from Strassfurt on Dec. 4, 1894, attained about 3 T , 500f t. and recorded a temperature of and Berson and Stanley Spencer are stated by the latter to have attained 2 7, 500f t. on Sept. 15, 1898, when they ascended in a hydrogen balloon from the Crystal Palace, the thermometer registering —29°. On July 31, 1901, Berson and R. J. Suring ascending at Berlin, actually noted a barometric reading corresponding to a height of 34,5ooft., and possibly rose 1,000 or 1,50oft. higher, though in spite of oxygen inhalations they were unconscious during the highest portion of the ascent.
The personal danger attending high ascents led Gustave Her mite and Besancon in Nov. 1892, to inaugurate the. sending up of unmanned balloons (ballons sondes) equipped with automatic recording instruments. Valuable meteorological records have thus been obtained.
For the development of navigable balloons and the construc tion of airships, see AIRSHIP. See also METEOROLOGY.