Part 5 (1/2)
Wise, by his expedient of tying ribbons at different points to his trail rope, would obtain eneral strea A sienious aeronaut is worthy of i laterally from the car These forht of the balloon, for should they be fluttering upwards the sky sailor at once knows that his craft is descending, and that he ly
The material, pure silk, which was universally adopted up to and after the period we are now regarding, is not on every account to be reckoned the most desirable In the first place, its cost alone is prohibitive, and next, although lighter than any kind of linen, strength for strength, it requires a greater weight of varnish, which, moreover, it does not take so kindly as does fabric etable tissue
Further, paradoxical as it e There are occasions which must come into the experience of every zealous aeronaut when his balloon has descended in a rough wind, and in aard country This may, indeed, happen even when the ascent has beenup at short notice, or after traversing only two or three counties a strong gale h such was absent in the starting ground This ischances to be on high ground in the neighbourhood of the sea In these circuenerally be forewarned by the ruffle on any water heof trees, or by their very rustling or ”singing” wafted upwards to hi place the lee of a wood or some other sheltered spot But, even with all his care, he will soed violently across country on a mad course which the anchor cannot check Now, the country through which he issteeplechase erous
Rivers, railway cuttings, or other undesirable obstacles may lie ahead, or, worse yet, such a death trap as in such circumstances almost any part of Derbyshi+re affords, with its stone walls, its precipitous cliffs, and deep rocky dells To be dragged at the speed of an express train through territory of this description will presently raph poles, to roofs, or crops, and if not, then to the balloon itself So to it must be victimised, and it is in all ways best that this should be the fabric of the balloon itself If made of some form, or at least so, and, allowing the gas to escape, will soon bring itself to rest On the other hand, if the balloon proper is a silk one, with sound net and in good condition, it is probable that so ers
And here be it laid down as one first and all-important principle, that in any such aard predicament as that just described, if there be et out In the first place, he , inas cut readily; or, when actually on the ground, hebehind But, worse than all, he may, in any case, jeopardise the lives of his coht and help that the car contains up to theto final rest
We have already touched on the early notions as to thea balloon Oars had been tested without satisfactory result, and the conception of a rotary screw found favour a actually tried with success in working models, which, by mechanical means, could be made to flit about in the still air of the lecture room; but the only feasible method advocated was that already alluded to, which depended on the undesirable action of a trail rope dragging over the ground or through water The idea was, of course, perfectly practical, and was sious to thewith the streae way” While siuide their vessel in any way, and this, in practice, is co the vessel faster than the stream, in which case the rudder at once becomes available But the sa the vessel, and this is easily accoht attached, dragging below the vessel This cable is essentially the sauide-rope of the older aeronauts
It is e come to consider the ione times that we find them curiously at variance with our own As an instance, weballoon, used to be ale basin, and ingenious attempts were made to prove mathematically that this ht in to prove the fact; or, again, the case is stated thus: Supposing the extreme horizon to be seen when the balloon is little e of view on all sides will then be, roughly, sohty miles If, then, a line were drawn from the aerial observer to this remote distance, that line would be almost horizontal; so nearly so that he cannot persuade himself that his horizon is otherwise than still on a level with his eye; yet the earth below hiulf Thus the whole visible earth appears as a vast bowl or basin This is extrearded; but the fact remains that in the experience of the writer and of many others whom he has consulted, there is no such optical illusion as I have just discussed, and to their vision it is i but uniformly flat
Another impression invariably insisted on by early balloonists is that the earth, on quitting it, appears to drop away into an abyss, leaving the voyagers motionless, and this illusion must, indeed, be probably universal It is the sa backwards of objects to a traveller in a railway carriage; only in this latter case the rattling and shaking of the carriage helps the s to the train itself; whereas it is otherith a balloon, whose motion is so perfectly smooth as to be quite imperceptible
Old ideas, formed upon insufficient observations, even if erroneous, were slow to die Thus it used to be stated that an upper cloud floor adapted itself to the contour of the land over which it rested, giving what Mr Monck Mason has called a ”phrenological estimate” of the character of the earth below; the clouds, ”even when under the influence of rapidto accommodate themselves to all variations of for with its pro with its depressions” Probably few aeronauts of the present time will accept the statement
It used commonly to be asserted, and is so often to this day, that a feeling as of sea-sickness is experienced in balloon travel, and the notion has undoubtedly arisen fro an ascent in a captive balloon It ell, now that ballooning bids fair to become popular, to disabuse the public mind of such a wholly false idea
The truth is that a balloon let up with a lengthy rope and held captive will, with a fitful breeze, pitch and sway in aa rough passage at sea It may do worse, and even be borne to earth with a puff of hich may come unexpectedly, and considerably unsettle the nerves of any holiday passenger I could tell of a ”captive” that had been behaving itself creditably on a not very settled day suddenly swooping over a roadway and down into public gardens, where it lay incontinently along the ground, and then, before the astonished passengers could atte once again majestically skyward, subrace and ease It is owing to their vagaries and want of eability that, as will be shown, ”captives” are of uncertain use in war On the other hand, a free balloon is exehts not the s of nausea is ever experienced
The only unpleasant sensation, and that not of any gravity, ever complained of, is a peculiar tension in the ears experienced in a rapid ascent, or more often, perhaps, in a descent The cause, which is trivial and easily reiven in clearer language than that used by Professor Tyndall:--”Behind the tympanic membrane exists a cavity--the drum of the ear--in part crossed by a series of bones, and in part occupied by air This cavity communicates with the mouth by enerally closed, the air space behind the ty thus cut off from the external air If, under these circumstances, the external air becomes denser, it will press the tympanic membrane inwards; if, on the other hand, the air on the other side becomes rarer, while the Eustachian tube becomes closed, the membrane will be pressed outwards Pain is felt in both cases, and partial deafness is experienced By the act of sing the Eustachian tube is opened, and thus equilibrium is established between the external and internal pressure”
Founded on physical facts more or less correct in themselves, come a number of tales of olden days, which are at leastas an exa the story is the well-known expedient of placing a shrivelled apple under the receiver of an air pump As the air becomes rarefied the apple swells, smooths itself out, and presently becomes round and rosy as it was in the summer time It is recorded that on one occasion a man of mature yearsso his father was looking They still continued to ascend, and the sa now reached attenuated regions, the son cried in astonishht to be at school!” The cause of this remark was that in the rarefied air all the wrinkles had come out of the old man's face, and his cheeks were as chubby as his son's
This discussion of old ideas should not be closed without mention of a plausible plea for the balloon made by Wise and others on the score of its value to health Lofty ascents have proved a strain on even robust constitutions--the heart in to suffer, or ills akin to ht equal to that of our loftiest mountain is reached But many have spoken of an exhilaration of spirits not inferior to that of the ue, in sky voyages reasonably indulged in--of a light-heartedness, a glow of health, a sharpened appetite, and the keen enjoyment of mere existence Nay, it has been seriously affirot by the invalid in an hour or thile two ained in an entire voyage from New York to Madeira by sea”
CHAPTER X THE COMMENCEMENT OF A NEW ERA
Resuland whose labours were devoted to the practical conquest of the air, and whose methods and mechanical achievements mark the road of advance by which the successes of to-day have been obtained, there stand out prominently two individuals, of whoes
The period of a single life is seldom sufficient to alloithin its span the full development of any new departure in art or science, and it cannot, therefore, be wondered at if Charles Green, though reviving and re- in our own country, even after an exceptionally long and successful career, left that pursuit to which he had given new birth virtually still in its infancy
The year following that in which Green conducted the fa in the saue, Edward Spencer, solicitor, of Barnsbury, who, only nine years later, compiles memoranda of thirty-four ascents,of a highly enterprising nature We find hi enthusiastically of the raptures he experienced when sailing over London in night hours, of lofty ascents and extreht , and of a cross-country race of four es Such was Mr Spencer the elder, and if further evidence were needed of his practical acquaintance with, as well as personal devotion to, his adopted profession of aeronautics, we have it in the store of working calculations and other minutiae of the craft, most carefully co to this day constantly consulted by his grandsons, the present e a manual of reliable data for the execution of much of the most important parts of their work
In the terrific ordeal and risk entailed by the daring and fatal parachute descent of cocking, Green required an assistant of exceptional nerve and reliability, and, as has been recorded, his choice at once fell on Edward Spencer In this choice it has already been shown that he ell justified, and in the trying circumstances that ensued Green frankly owns that it was his competent companion as the first to recover hi ere Albert Smith and shi+rley Brooks, made a memorable ascent from Cremorne, Edward Spencer is one of the select party
Soiven, and it need not be said that no iven by the facile pen of Albert Smith himself His personal narrative also forms an instructive contrast to another which he had occasion to give to the world shortly afterwards, and which shall be duly noticed The enthusiastic writer first describes, with apparent pride, the company that ascended with him Besides Mr shi+rley Brooks, there were Messrs
Davidson, of the Garrick Club; Mr John Lee, well known in theatrical circles; Mr P Tho Charles Green as skipper, and Edward Spencer, who, sitting in the rigging, was entrusted with the all-iement of the valve rope
”The first sensation experienced,” Albert S, but that the balloon re ahile the cheers hich they greeted our departure grew fainter, and the cheerers thean to look like the inrouped upon a billiard table Our hats would have held e is the roar of the city as it coh the whole metropolis cheered you with one voice Yet none beyond the ordinary passengers are to be seen The noise is as inexplicable as the nificance of this last remark will be insisted on when the writer has to tell his own experiences aloft over London, as also a note to the effect that there were seen ”large enclosed fields and gardens and pleasure grounds where none were supposed to exist by ordinary passengers” Another interesting note, having reference to a once fa, related to the paddle boats of those days, the steas of foahly suggestive, too, of the experiences of railway travellers in the year 1847 is the account of the alighting, which, by the as obviously of no very rude nature ”Every tiround the balloon is pulled up suddenly with a shock that would soon send anybody froes are brought up to a railway train” But the concluding paragraph in this rosy narrative affords another and a very notable contrast to the story which that same writer had occasion to put on record before that sao up in a balloon In spite of the apparent frightful fragility of cane and network nothing can in reality be more secure The stories of pressure on the ears, intense cold, and the danger of co down are all fictions Indeed, we alive a little excite up the next ti away all the ballast, fastening down the valve, and seeing where the ill send us”
The fireworks, the thunderstor away of ballast, all ca October, when Albert Smith made his second ascent, this tiuidance of Mr Gypson, and accoers Fireworks, which were to be displayed when aloft, were suspended on a fra around as they cast off The description which Albert Sht as seen from an estimated elevation of 4,000 feet, should be coes:--
”In the obscurity all traces of houses and enclosures are lost sight of I can co over dark blue and boundless sea spangled with hundreds of thousands of stars These stars were the laes, edging its banks, forht in the streets and solitary parks Further and further apart until they were altogether lost in the suburbs The effect was bewildering”