In 1901. M. Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Bra zilian gentleman resident in Paris, excited wide spread interest through his experiments with a dirigible balloon. This aeronaut built his first balloon in iSOS. It was in the form of a cylinder, terniinatl'd at each cud by a Bone, and was 82 feet lung anti ucacly G feet in dia meter, with a c-a1(acily of G_ltln cubic feet. :\ basket suspended frouc th(' balloon n-ai' ried a ]% ]colie-hloiver gasohille motor. Which operated a screw' propeller. I'o 1(ruy ids the nctl's sary fore amid aft t•iuu for ascent :lid descent when under way. the inventor made nsc of bags of ballast which could be attached or rtnucnecl at will from ropea suspended from the forward ;111(1 after part of the balloon and accessible from the basket or car. \\'itli this balloon \1. Santos Dinnont made an ascent i11 the ant inu of ISOS which nearly resulted fatally to himself: the failure of our air-puucp to work resulted i11 a par tial collapse of the hal loon. which fell ]30o feet to the Found. Aside franc the aii-pmump atci dcnt, the snocesa cif this trip was unusuallv en inn iii ging: the I'allOi ln•oyecl 1( nil ('itiv dirigible in the light winds preyailiug at till' time of time trip. A second hallo0u, built exactly like the first, hut larger, was never used by \I. Samitos 1)uniont, owing to the fact that in some experi ment, made with his first ha 110011 when u-aptiye the conclusion had heemi forced upon him that the model was iuiorreets A third balloon, shorter and very much thicker, was completed in the summer of IS99. This balloon was (3 feet long, 11% feet greatest diaucetcr, and i3,13)10 cubic feet capacity, and into the consUvetion was introduced the novelty of what the inventor termed a keel. This keel was nothing mace o• less than a bamboo pole, 30 fcl't long, fixed lengthwise to suspender cords jest beneath the balloon, supported the basket and other aPparatus. The most notable trip inadI' with this hal loon is thus described by the inventor: "On Noveniber 13, 1890. I started from Laeham bre's atelier in Vaugirard on the most sneeeasfiil trip 1 had yet made. Proun Vaugmrard I went directly to the Champs de Mars, when' I prac ticed describing figure 8's, The airship obeyed the rudder he:iutifully, =\fter i itching around the Kitrel Tower a nuniher of times, 1 made a straight course to the Pare des Princes at Auteuil: then, making a hook, 1 uayigated to the manmuyre groinrds at Bagatelle, where I landed." \i. Santos-Dumont found that this balloon was too clumsy and the motor too weak, and he built a fourth, !15 feet lung :ucd 9 feet i11 dia11netl'r, ellipt lea I in shape, with a capacity of 14,800 cubic feet, In this hallnon the keel was a long framework of bamboo and wire, which (ti • ricd clirect1y—thcre 1wing 110 51151(111(1 ('Ii Car a 7 hose-pond' muter Willi its 1u01(cller and other mechanism. The operator Ilanagill his nia 'Ii ho' seated 011 a hievele saddle attached to the keel. With this balloon 51. Stunt os-Dunn not Made nil nu•roua short trips during the Paris Exhiosition of 1900. Balloon No :i Was nnulc by cutting balloon No. d in half and inserting a eylimiiir•ii'•al piece suflieic•nt to increase its lengths to 109 feet. A 10 horse-power motel• was adoptccl, The keel Was a 00 foot framework of pine and piano wire, and into it, 20 feet from the stern. Was fixed the motel•, while tire operator occupied] a basket 23 feet. from the front one] or stem, On August iS, 1f101, \I, 5aotels-Dunoea navigated this ha 110011 from St. Cloud to and around the Eifrcl Tower, and was 11(1(r0aching the starting point when the balloon collapsed, and the whole structure, with its operator, was precipitated upon the roof of the Trocadero IInlel. where it hung, the keel spanning the s1(ac•e hetveen the two roofs. The sixth I,alloon of \l. \vas like the focyious one, except that it was longer. Ihieker, and more n-;n y ellipsoidal in flu Ilclohl'r 10. 1001, this ha 1101)11 succeeded in ma king a trip from St. 1_'loud to surd auouud the I,itb'l`TOVVCr. and then hack to the Martin,• point, in .3o minutes, seconds.
Jim :i - t part of tin' trip to the lower w•as with the wind, and made ii S miuutcs, 45 seconds, but the return trip w•as against the wind, and required 20 minutes, 3t) second, to complete. The reucaining 1 minute seconds were consumed 111 descending. The trip was uuc dertaken as the result of a prize of 100,0o0 fram•s atfecec'- to the inventor should he smi'l'ed in making the tourney in 3f1 uciuutes, .\ccord ing to the newspaper aci'ocuit', the balloon pitched sonewhit wlmu going against the wind, and uctos- D'imxmt, when lie des('i'u(]C(l, said the motor' suddemily stopped while the halloon was at a little distance franc the tower, lie thought lie might hate to dtstcnd : hut, Luckily, lie sue c•e('dc•d i11 getting the machine started again. Prom that tinge min, the motor worked silt £ac• twiity.
In Closing this reference to dirigible balloons, it is tin p0rt:int to rememlier that the .suctl'ssfill
trials ,o far made have been with very light winds blowing. Iii f ire such I,a1loons can he eons idereul to have reached a Irneti'a1 basis they must he able to travel at a 51(cl'd wlcicli will overcome at least all o•dIuary wind also have a steering power tvbicli will ])restive their position in variable winds, as well as in winds of velocities wliie•h racllure thl' full power 01 the propelling machinery to ovtI'Cum('. 'rhese are questions regarding which there is couch uncertainty.
high ascents in balloon, have been made liv a numher of aeronaut;. Iln September 5, 140?, two English aerun.iuts. \Iessrs. I'oxwi'll tnd talaisher. starting from \\•cilverhancpton, Eng land. ascended 33,i)0) feet, or fully inilea. AL a height of 5i' miles one if the ai ron:ncts hecanit' insensihlc and the other very In')nly so: at the height of d miles railvvav trains could be heard, hut at a height of 3 miles there was perfect silence. tIn April 15. 1S35, \1. Tissan lier, the inventor of the dirigible balloon pre vionsly desi•rihed. and iw•o others rose from Paris, Prance, a height of S'A miles, \I. Tissan dicr alone survived the tip' Ins companions dyimig in mid-air, and he hiunselI being rcndertd uncousc•ions. These are the two highest hal loon aseeuts ieeo•did in which living beings were pas sengera.
Scientific research by means of balloons has ll'cn uudertaken in a number of instances, the most notable attempt, perhaps, in recent years being that of the arctic explorer Andi''e to reach tIn N it ii Pole in the summer of IS97. As is wall known, the explorer and his companions per ished without ac•eoropli all ing anything. The most, fruitful sc•ientifie results so far obtained by ballooning have cone froin the study of the niagml'tiam. humidity, temperature, and c•hcmieal ('ouposition of the air at high altitudes. The first aatcnsion of any value for thee(' purposes was that of (lay Lussac, in 1304, from Paris. The balloon rose to 23,000 feet, and the fall in t('nl peratnre was P., or 10 in 340 feet. Speci men, of air collected at the highest point showed precisely the same composition as at the earth.
'The magnetic force did not experience any sen sible variation at the different heights. The next ascent of importance was that of Barra] and Bixto in July, 1850. In this ascent, at 19.700 feet, the aeronauts observed a tempera ture in a cloud of 15° F., and at 23,000 feet above the cloud a temperature of —38° F. The ascent of James Glaisher in 1862 has already been noted for its extreme height, and there have been several other ascents of less height from which fruitful scientific results have been ob tained. On March 21, 1893. a balloon 19.7 feet in diameter, carrying a self-registering barometer and thermometer. was sent up from Paris. The records made by these instruments were exam ined when the balloon descended, and appeared to show that the balloon rose to a height of 45,920 feet, when the ink froze at a tempera ture of —:32° C., and the record was discontinued until at a height of 52.490 feet the ink, was thawed by solar radiation and the record was resumed. The accuracy of these figures has been seriously questioned, but if they are accurate the balloon reached a height of nearly 10 miles.
At the Paris Exposition of 1900, competitive long distance balloon trips were undertaken by a number of aeronauts on September 30 and October 9. In the first trial, or race, as it was popularly termed, there were twelve starters, of which only four succeeded in making records of a notable character. Starting from the Vin cennes Field, Paris, Comte de Castillon de Saint Victor. in the Orient, reached Cordof in Schles wig-Holstein. 496 miles, in 14 hours; M. Faure, in the .1 ero-Chtb, reached Ma mlitz, in Posen, eastern Prussia, 733 miles; M. Jacques Balsan, in the Saint Louis, reached Danzig, eastern Prussia, 757 miles, in 22 hours, and the Comte de la Vaulx, in the Centanre. reached Wlocla wek, in Russian Poland, 766 miles, in 21 hours and 30 minutes. In the second trial of October 9, there were six starters, of whom only two de serve particular mention, namely, the Comte de la Vaulx, in the Centaure, and M. Jacques Balsan, in the Saint Louis, both competitors in the first trial. Starting from Paris, M. le Comte de In Vaulx reached Korosti•hev, in Rus sia, 1193 miles, in 36 hours and 45 minutes. The extreme altitude attained was 18,810 feet. M. Jacques Balsan reached Radom, Poland, 843 miles from Paris, in 27 hours and 25 min utes. The maximum. altitude reached was 21,582 feet. The Centaure of the Comte de In Vaulx, which made the best record, was a balloon of 1650 cubic meters capacity, and had made sev eral notable ascents previous to its record-break ing voyage beginning October 9, 1900. The most remarkable of these previous voyages was one from Paris to Sweden, 824 miles. ]n the famous 1192 mile journey to Russia, the Cen.taure was filled with a mixture of hydrogen and of common illuminating gas.