Part 1 (1/2)
The Romance of Aircraft.
by Lawrence Yard Smith.
PART I
THE ROMANCE OF AIRCRAFT
CHAPTER I
THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR
On a beautiful afternoon in the latter part of the eighteenth century--June 5, 1793--a distinguished company of Frenchmen were gathered in the public square of the little village of Annonay, not far from Lyons. They had come there by special invitation of the brothers Stephen and Joseph Montgolfier, respected owners of a paper manufactory in the little town. It was whispered that the brothers had a great surprise in store for them, a remarkable discovery. Yet all their curious gaze could make out was a great linen bag, that swung, like a huge limp sail, from a rope that was suspended between two high poles.
By means of this seemingly helpless piece of fabric the brothers Montgolfier proposed to accomplish the conquest of the air.
Those who ventured near to this strange object perceived at its base a wide circular opening, sewed fast to a wooden ring. The ring hung directly over a deep pit, in which had been heaped fuel for a bonfire,--straw and wood and chopped wool. At a given signal one of the brothers applied a torch to the ma.s.s and in an instant the flames shot up. A dense column of smoke arose through the neck of the bag. The latter gradually began to fill, spreading out in all directions, until, before the astonished gaze of the spectators, it a.s.sumed the shape of an enormous ball, that overshadowed the square, and that pulled and wrestled feverishly at the restraining ropes.
From the ranks of the onlookers a great shout of applause went up. The keepers let go the ropes, and the globe, like a live creature, freed from its bonds, rose triumphantly before their eyes. Up, up, higher and higher it went, so fast that they could scarcely follow it. For a moment it was hidden behind a patch of cloud, then it reappeared again, still ascending, until it rode majestically in the heavens, seven thousand feet above their heads!
The shouts and cries of the onlookers were deafening. Like wildfire the news spread from house to house of the little French village. Grave old legislators who had witnessed the surprising spectacle forgot their dignity and tossed their hats in air. Women, seeing the unusual object from a distance, fell on their knees to pray, thinking it a sign in the heavens, that portended, who knew what?
Man's age-old dream of conquering the air was now, for the first time, an accomplished fact. Those who stood in the little public square of Annonay on that auspicious afternoon long ago, watching the first Montgolfier globe on its victorious ascent, knew that it could be but a very short time indeed until men would be able to explore at will the dim regions of the upper air.
Meanwhile picture the consternation and terror among a group of humble peasants, who were tilling the fields a short distance from the spot where the famous Montgolfier balloon was launched. Suddenly in the sky there appeared a great black moon, which slowly and ominously descended toward the earth. The village priest himself led forth a little band of his stout-hearted followers to attack this dread instrument of the Evil One. With pitchforks and scythes they rushed upon the unfortunate balloon as it lighted gently on the ground, heaving this way and that with every puff of breeze that blew against it. With courage born of fear they prodded and beat the unfortunate monster. When the gas had finally escaped through the great gashes in its sides, and nothing remained but a disordered heap of tatters and shreds, the proud ”conqueror of the skies” was tied fast to a horse's tail, and the terrified creature galloped off with it into the open country.
But the news of the Montgolfier brothers' discovery spread throughout the length and breadth of France and the civilized world. The French king ordered a special demonstration at Versailles, before himself and the Royal family. On this occasion a wicker basket was swung from the richly ornamented balloon. In order to test the safety of travel in the skies there were placed in it a sheep, a c.o.c.k and a duck. A fire was lit beneath the base of the balloon and it was filled with heated air.
It rose with its strange cargo to a height of 1500 feet, traveled along peacefully two miles with the breeze and descended slowly into a near-by wood. There two gamekeepers, hurrying to the scene, were amazed to find its occupants calmly feeding, apparently unaffected by their voyage.
This incident gave the experimenters renewed courage and enthusiasm. A gallant Frenchman, Pilatre de Rozier, volunteered to be the first man to make the ascent into the skies. A new and stronger machine was constructed, this time oval in shape instead of round, 74 feet high and 48 feet in diameter. At the bottom was a huge circular opening, 15 feet across. Just beneath this there was swung from iron chains an open grate, on which the fire was built by means of which the balloon was inflated. This grate hung down into a wicker basket or ”gallery,” in which the occupant stood, heaping fuel upon the fire. For of course, as soon as the fire died down, the heated air in the balloon commenced slowly to escape, and the whole thing sank to earth.
Pilatre de Rozier was not at first permitted to set himself free and go voyaging unguarded into the upper air. Who knew whether this air above the clouds was fit to breathe?--who, for that matter, knew whether there actually _was_ air at any distance above the surface of the earth? It was considered the better part of valor to try the experiment the first few times with the balloon tied firmly to the ground, with strong cables which only permitted it to rise some eighty or ninety feet. Even with these precautions a good deal of apprehension was felt regarding the healthfulness of the sport. But a sigh of relief was breathed by those who had the undertaking in charge when the bold de Rozier insisted that never in his life before had he known any experience so pleasurable as this of rising far above the housetops and of feeling himself floating, gently and peacefully, in a region of noiseless calm.
Impatient of this mild variety of aerial adventure, de Rozier finally won permission to make a ”free” ascent, and he and his friend, the Marquis d'Arlandes, made a number of daring voyages in the Montgolfier fire balloon. a.s.suring their friends that no harmful results could come to them from ascending into the clouds, they loosed the ropes and went merrily sailing away until far out of sight. So long as they kept the fire in the grate burning the balloon remained aloft, and floated along in the direction in which the wind bore it. When they wished to descend they had merely to put out the fire, and as the heated air gradually escaped, the balloon sank gently to earth.
But the dangers of this sort of aerial adventure were very great indeed, and it required the most remarkable heroism on the part of de Rozier to undertake them. A chance spark from the grate might at any moment set fire to the body of the balloon, and bring it, a flaming firebrand, to earth. De Rozier understood this, and on his very first voyage carried along in the gallery of the balloon a bucket of water and a sponge. It was late in November of 1893 that he and d'Arlandes floated over Paris,--de Rozier heaping fuel upon the grate and tending the fire which kept the balloon afloat. Suddenly d'Arlandes heard a slight crackling noise high in the balloon. Looking up he caught a sight which turned him cold with horror,--a tiny licking flame far above his head. He seized the wet sponge and reached up to extinguish it. But another and yet another appeared, little tongues of fire, eating away at the body of the balloon. As each showed its face water was dashed upon it. From below the balloon could be seen peacefully journeying across the city. But far above, in its basket, de Rozier and d'Arlandes were coolly beating off the danger that hung over them like a Sword of Damocles. Not until they had been in the air twenty-five minutes, however, did they put out the fire in the grate and allow themselves to sink to earth.
These early experiments of the Montgolfiers and de Rozier fired the imaginations of scientific men in every part of the world, and it was only a very short time before a safer and more reliable type of balloon than the fire balloon was developed. Stephen Montgolfier's invention was based on the idea that smoke and clouds rise in the atmosphere. ”If,”
said he to himself, ”it were possible to surround a cloud with a bag which did not permit it to escape, then both would ascend.” Of course this was a rather childish explanation of the cause of a balloon ascension, but it was the best that the Montgolfiers or any of their learned friends knew at that early day.
Now it was only a little while before this that an Englishman had discovered the gas which is now known as hydrogen, but which was then called ”inflammable air.” This gas, of which the Montgolfiers apparently knew nothing, is exceedingly light, and therefore rises very quickly in the air. The year before the Montgolfier balloon was invented, this Englishman, Cavallo, tried to fill small bags with hydrogen gas, on the theory that they would rise in the atmosphere. He failed merely because he did not hit upon the proper material of which to construct his bags.
The fabric he chose was porous, and the gas escaped through it before the balloon could rise. Cavallo did, however, succeed in blowing hydrogen into ordinary soap bubbles, which arose with great velocity and burst as they struck the ceiling.
The problem of the material to be used in balloon construction had been fairly well solved by the Montgolfiers. Their balloons were of linen fabric, varnished and lined with paper, to render them as nearly as possible air-tight. This set the philosophers of Paris thinking how they might construct a globe which could be successfully inflated with hydrogen.
The brothers Roberts and M. Charles made the first hydrogen balloon. It was fas.h.i.+oned of very fine silk, varnished with a solution of gum elastic. This made it impossible for the hydrogen to leak through. The balloon was filled through an opening in the neck, which was fitted with a stopc.o.c.k, so that the gas could be poured in or allowed to escape at will.
The funds for constructing this first hydrogen balloon had been raised by popular subscription, and the whole French people were alive with enthusiasm over the success of the experiment. Even at that early day France was the ardent champion of aerial conquest.