Part 4 (2/2)
He passed through mist into upper sunshi+ne, where he experienced extre the natural escape from such trouble, he found to his dismay that the valve rope was out of reach
Thus he was coher, at its oill; and then a terrible event happened
By mischance the neck of his balloon, which should have been open, was out of reach and folded inwards in such a way as to prevent the free escape of the gas, which, at this great altitude, struggled for egress with a loud hu him apprehensions of an accident which very shortly occurred, na of the lower part of his balloon with a loud report It happened, however, that no extre with a speed which, though considerable, was not very excessive Still, he was eager to alight in safety, until a chance occurrence uilty of an act of boyish i a salute in his honour as he neared the ground, he instantly flung out papers, ballast, anything he could lay his hands on, and once again soared to a great height with his daed balloon He could then do no ain, he acquired the welcoe that even in such precarious circu fall with safety to its freight
Mr Wise's zeal and indomitable spirit of enterprise led to speedy developments of the art which he had espoused; the road to success being frequently pointed out by failure or mishap He quickly discarded the linen balloon for one of silk on which he tried a new varnish co several gores with this, he rolled the loft, with the result that the next day they were disintegrated and on the point of bursting into flame by spontaneous combustion Fresh silk and other varnish were then tried, but with indifferent success Next he endeavoured to dispense with sewing, and united the gores of yet another balloon by the mere adhesiveness of the varnish and application of a hot iron This led to a gaping sea at the moment of an ascent, and then there followed a hasty and hazardous descent on a house-top and an exciting rescue by a gentleman who appeared opportunely at a third storeyFurther, another balloon had been destroyed, and Wise badly burned, at a descent, owing to a naked light having been brought near the escaping gas It is then without wonder that we find hi to his skill in instru to recover his fortunes Only, however, for a few months, after which he is before the public once as for inflation, and incidents of an i important facts upon him The special characteristics of his own country present peculiar difficulties; broad rivers and vast forests becoht in the e into a forest fire; he is precipitated, but har other experi's parachute, and drops it to earth with a cat as passenger, proving thereby that that unfortunate gentleman's principle was really less in fault than the actual slenderness of the material used in his machine
We now approach one of Wise's boldest, and at the same time most valuable, experiain the old trouble of spontaneous combustion had destroyed a silk balloon which was to have ascended at Easton, Pa Undeterred, however, Wise resolutely advertised a fresh attee up a ca the best exhibition that this improvised experiment could afford It was intended to become a memorable one, inasmuch as, should heless than that of bursting this balloon at a great height, having firmly convinced himself that the machine in these circu him to earth with every chance in favour of safety In his oords, ”Scientific calculations were on his side with a certainty as great and principles as comprehensive as that a pocket-handkerchief will not fall as rapidly to the ground when thrown out of a third storey ill a brick”
His balloon was specially contrived for the experi cords sewn to the upper parts of its seah the neck, where they were secured within reach, their office being that of rending the whole head of the balloon should this be desired On this occasion a cat and a dog were taken up, one of these being let fall fro's parachute, and landing in safety, the other being similarly dismissed at an altitude of 4,000 feet in an oiled silk balloona little distance, expanded sufficiently to allow of its descending with a safe though somewhat vibratory motion Its behaviour, at any rate, fully deter constructed entirely for thein the neck beyond an orifice of about an inch, and by the tias was strea expanded nearly to bursting point, and the cords designed for rending the balloon very tense At this critical period Wise owns to having experienced considerable nervous excitean to waver in histhe balloon of its strain, and so abandoning his experi out his watch to make a note of the hour, and, while thus occupied, the straining cords, growing tenser every e of the experias now rushed froe rent above tumultuously and in so the balloon to descend rapidly, until the lower part of thein upwards, formed a species of parachute after thedescent, and finally the car, striking the earth obliquely, tossed its occupant out into a field unharmed Shortly after this Wise experimented with further success with an exploded balloon
It is not a little remarkable that this pioneer of aeronautics in Aland, but working and investigating single-handed on perfectly independent lines--should have arrived at the same conclusions as did Green himself as to the possibility, which, in his opinion, a able to cross the Atlantic by balloon if only adequate funds were forth-co So intent was he on his bold scheme that, in the suencer a proclaht be conveyed to all publishers of newspapers on the globe
It contained, a fro experience in aeronautics been convinced that a constant and regular current of air is blowing at all times from west to east, with a velocity of fro to its height fro discovered a coen gas, so that a balloon may be kept afloat for es that a trip across the Atlantic will not be attended with as er as by the common mode of transition The balloon is to be 100 feet in dia power of 25,000 lbs” It was further stated that the creould consist of three persons, including a sea navigator, and a scientific landsman
The specifications for the transatlantic vessel were also to include a seaworthy boat in place of the ordinary car The sum requisite for this enterprise was, at the time, not realised; but it should be mentioned that several years later a sufficient sum of money was actually subscribed In the summer of 1873 the proprietors of the New York Daily Graphic provided for the construction of a balloon of no less than 400,000 cubic feet capacity, and calculated to lift 14,000 lbs It was, however,torn in inflation, Wise condemned and declined to use it A few months later, when it had been repaired, one Donaldson and two other adventurers, attee with this ill-formeddown safely, though not without peril, sorand endeavour, Wise continued to follow the career of a professional aeronaut for soer, of which he has left a full record, ter of 1848 His ascents were always e in trying circuard He was, ent observer, and many of his memoranda are of scientific value
His description of an encounter with a storm-cloud in the June of 1843 has an interest of its own, and may not be considered overdrawn It was an ascent from Carlisle, Pa, to celebrate the anniversary of Bunker's Hill, and Wise was anxious to gratify the large concourse of people asseround, to dive up into a huge black cloud of peculiarly forbidding aspect This cloud appeared to re reached its central position, he observed that its under surface was concave towards the earth, and at that moment he beca and swinging violently, while he hi of suffocation
The cold experienced now becalazed with ice, yet this had no effect in checking the uphirling of the balloon Sunshi+ne was beyond the upper limits of the cloud; but this was no sooner reached than the balloon, escaping froed down several hundred feet, only to be whirled up again, and this reciprocalan interval of twenty as or discharge of ballast enabled the aeronaut to regain any control over his vessel
Statee by Wise will compare with other accounts The thunder ”rattled” without any reverberations, and when the stor in the upper currents, the ”surface of the lower stratu cauldron, which was immediately followed by thecoruscations” Green, in his storland, witnessed a thunderstorm below him, as will be remembered, while an upper cloud stratum lay at his own level It was then that Green observed that ”at every discharge of thunder all the detached pillars of clouds within the distance of a mile around became attracted”
The author will have occasion, in due place, to give personal experiences of an encounter with a thunderstor description
CHAPTER IX EARLY METHODS AND IDEAS
Before proceeding to introduce the chief actors and their achievements in the period next before us, it will be instructive to glance at some of the principal ideas and methods in favour with aeronauts up to the date now reached It will be seen that Wise in America, contrary to the practice of Green in our own country, had a strong attachen prepared by the vitriolic process; and his balloons were specially e which he thus bought at the expense ofof cuh, and ood to-day, naen is capable of lifting 7 lbs, the saas of ordinary quality will raise but 35 lbs
The lighter gas came into all Wise's calculations for bolder sche a ures work out as follows: If a balloon of 200 feet dia one pound to the square foot; if, ht of car and fastenings, an available lifting poould re 45 tons to an altitude of two , yet it is not only substantially correct, but Wise entertained no doubt as to the practicability of such aa lobe, and then passing hydrogen gas between the muslin and copper surfaces, which would exclude the inner balloon as the copper one filled up
His en was practically that still adopted in the field, and seems in his hands to have been seldoallon ruas in an hour, using his ele proportions: water, 560 lbs; sulphuric acid (sp g
185), 144 lbs; iron turnings, 125 lbs The gas, as given off, was cooled and purified by being passed through a head of water kept cool and containing lime in solution Contrasted with this, we find it estiood bituminous coal should yield 10,000 cubic feet of carburetted hydrogen fit for lighting purposes, and a further quantity which, though useless as an illuminant, is still of excellent quality for the aeronaut
It would even seem from a statement of Mr Monck Mason that the value of coke in his day largely coas, so that in a large nuas by the companies that supplied him
Some, at least, of the ement of free balloons must in these days be modified Green, as we have seen, was in favour of a trail rope of inordinate length, which he reco of ballast In special circumstances, and more particularly over the sea, this may be reckoned a serviceable adjunct, but over land its use, in this country at least, would be open to serious objection The writer has seen the consternation, not to say havoc, that a trail rope rounds, and the actual daraph or telephone wires, may be very serious indeed Moreover, the statement made by some early practitioners that a trail rope will not catch so as to hold fast in a wood or the like, is not to be relied on, for an instance could be e where such a rope was the source of so h wind that it had to be cut away
The trouble arose in this way The rope dragged harotiate exceedingly well a single tree or a whole plantation, catching and releasing itself with only such ; but, presently, its end, which had been caught and again released by one tree, swung free in air through a considerable gap to another tree, where, striking a horizontal bough, it coiled itself several times around, and thus held the balloon fast, which noith the strength of the wind, was borne to the earth again and again, rebounding high in air after each iained only by the sacrifice of a portion of the rope
Wise reco a strain of 100 lbs, and with characteristic ingenuity suggests a special use which can be ht ribbons tied on at every hundred feet, by means of which the drifts of lower currents reat deal of sound sense; for there is, as will be shown hereafter, very e of those air rivers that are flowing, often wholly unsuspected, at various heights Small parachutes, crumpled paper, and other such-like bodies as are commonly thrown out and relied on to declare the lower drifts, are not wholly trustworthy, for this reason--that air-streams are often very slender, h setting in so away some small body which may co an object as a balloon, which can only partake of soeneral air movement