Part 8 (1/2)

It seemed as if the travellers would have to face the chance of crossing the Channel, and while, already in the car, they were actually discussing this point, their restraining rope broke, and they were launched unceremoniously into the skies This occasioned an unexpected lurch to the car, which threw Mr Glaisher a his instruments, to the immediate destruction of some of them

Another result of this abrupt departure was a very rapid rise, which took the balloon a height of 3,000 feet in three her in six minutes more Seven thousand feet vertically in nine her speed yet that day when the verticaldirection At the height now reached they were in cloud, and while thus enveloped the temperature, as often happens, rerees, while that of the dew point increased several degrees But, on passing out of the cloud, the two te rapidly under a deep blue upper sky that was noithout a cloud

Shortly after this the te the next 12,000 feet, crept slowly down by s hly, four , the ther alternately till an altitude of 24,000 feet was recorded, at which point other and more serious matters intruded themselves

The earth had been for a considerable tiress had beco place in these obscured and lofty regions? It would be as well to discover So the valve was opened rather freely, with the result that the balloon dropped a mile in three minutes Then another mile slower, by a shade Then at 12,000 feet a cloud layer was reached, and shortly after the voyagers broke through into the clear below

At that moment Mr Glaisher, as busy with his instruments, heard Mr coxwell make an exclamation which caused him to look over the car, and he writes, ”The sea seeain exclaimed, 'There's not a moment to spare: we must save the land at all risks Leave the instru to the valve line, and toldthe valve in this way, and it was boldly carried out” As may be supposed, the bold decision ended with a crash

The whole ti the four and a quarterfour minutes only For all that, there was no penalty beyond a few bruises and the wrecking of the instruments, and when land was reached there was no rebound; the balloon siin of the sea This terrific experience in its salient details is strangely similar to that already recorded by Albert S the su facts stand out pro a voluminous mass of observations In an ascent in an east wind from the Crystal Palace in early July it was found that the upper limit of that as reached at 2,400 feet, at which level an air-streaher the wind again changed to a current froht, then, of littleleisurely; but as reatly increased with altitude, and a fact which may often be noted here obtruded itself, namely, when the aeronauts were at the upperlimits of the east wind, flat-botto at their level These clouds were entirely within the influence of the upper or north wind, so that their under sides were in contact with the east wind, ie with a much drier air, which at once dissipated all vapour in contact with it, and thus presented the appearance of flat-bottomed clouds It is a common experience to find the lower surface of a cloudbeneath it

At the end of June a voyage from Wolverton was accomplished, which yielded remarkable results of ht had been perfectly cal the sun shone in a clear blue sky, without a sye Shortly before noon, however, clouds appeared aloft, and the sky assued

Wind currents reached the earth blowing strongly, and the half-filled balloon began to lurch to such an extent that the inflation could only with difficulty be proceeded with Fifty men were unable to hold it in sufficient restraint to prevent rude buee of ballast alone saved collision with neighbouring buildings

It was now that the disturbance overhead ca the short period it had been in progress, proved most remarkable, the ed into the cloud canopy, through which as it was painfully cold, they, sought to penetrate into the clear above, feeling confident of finding theht blue sky, with the sun brilliantly shi+ning On the contrary, however, the region they now entered was further obscured with another canopy of cloud far up It hile they were traversing this clear interval that a sound unwonted in balloon travel assailed their ears This was the ”sighing, or ratherof the silk within the cordage is often heard aloft, being due to expansion of gas or similar cause; but the aeronauts soon convinced the else than the actual conflict of air currents beneath Then they reached fog--a dry fog--and, passing through it, entered a further fog, but wetting this ti that was dry; and then, reaching threesunbeams, they looked around and saw cloud everywhere, below, above, and far clouds on their own level The whole sky had filled in most completely since the hours but recently passed, when they had been expatiating on the perfect serenity of the empty heavens

Still they climbed upwards, and in the next 2,000 feet had entered further fog, dry at first, but turning wetter as they rose At four h they found theed edges proved the theain and shut out the view, and by the time they had surher than the loftiest of the Andes Even here, with cloud er observer, bent on further quests, was for pursuing the voyage; but Mr coxwell interposed with an emphatic, ”Too short of sand!” and the doard journey had to be commenced Then phenoain--fog banks (sometimes wet, so cold Presently, too, a neonder for a midsummer afternoon--a snow scene all around, and spicules of ice settling and re to earth helplessly through the last 5,000 feet, with all ballast spent, Ely Cathedral was passed at close quarters; yet even that vast pile was hidden in the gloom that now lay over all the land

It was just a hly dirty weather, a heavy sky, and falling showers This was the day of all others that Mr Glaisher aiting for, having deter the for been noticed that, in an ordinary way, if there be two rain gauges placed, one near the surface of the ground, and another at a soe will collect most water Does, then, rain condense in soain, during rain, is the air saturated coulates the quality of rainfall, for rain soe drops and sometimes in minute particles?

These were questions which Mr Glaisher sought to solve, and there was another

Charles Green had stated as his conviction that whenever rain was falling froher canopy of cloud over-hanging the lower stratu, Mr Glaisher wished to put this his theory to the test; and, if correct, then he desired to e their thickness, and to see if above the second stratu The main details of the ascent read thus:--

In ten seconds they were in mist, and in ten seconds more were level with the cloud At 1,200 feet they were out of the rain, though not yet out of the cloud E from the lower cloud at 2,300 feet, they sahat Green would have foretold, an upper stratum of dark cloud above

Then they h and low to verify these conditions, and passing through fogs both wet and dry, at last drifting earthward, through squalls of wind and rain with drops as large as fourpenny pieces, to find that on the ground heavy wet had been ceaselessly falling

A day trip over the eastern suburbs of London in the sareatly to have impressed Mr Glaisher The noise of London streets as heard fro the last fifteen years'

probably owing to the introduction of wood paving But, forty years ago, Mr Glaisher describes the deep sound of London as resereater elevations it was heard at athan the hearing, for in one direction the white cliffs frohton and the sea beyond were sighted, and again all the coast line up to Yarht, should have been in turmoil, by reason of a conflict of aircurrents; for, within two miles of the earth, the as froh it was exactly opposite, being froher, it was again directly opposite, or SW

During his researches so far Mr Glaisher had found much that was anomalous in the way of the winds, and in other elements of weather He was destined to find much more It had been commonly accepted that the terees for every 300 feet of elevation, and various computations, as, for example, those which relate to the co-efficient of refraction, have been founded on this basis; but Mr Glaisher soon established that the above generalisation had to be athered from his notes is a typical example of such surprises as the aeronaut with due instrumental equipment may not unfrequently meet with

It was the 12th of January, 1864, with an air-current on the ground frorees,, which very slowly decreased up to 1,600 feet when a warm SW current was rees higher than on the earth Above the SW

stream the air became dry, and here the temperature decreased reasonably and consistently with altitude; while fine snoas found falling out of this upper space into the warmer stream below Mr Glaisher discusses the peculiarity and formation of this strea with this SW current is of the highest iland possesses a winter teher than is due to her northern latitude Our high winter temperature has hitherto been mostly referred to the influence of the Gulf Streaent, it is necessary to add the effect of a parallel at froetic currentto us, or to Norway, but passes over the level Atlantic without interruption fro Spain and the lofty range of the Pyrenees, and the effect of these cold reat that the former country derives but little wared as near the equinox of that year as could be ed, supplied some further rein with, at 47 pm, crept down fairly steadily till 4,000 feet altitude was registered, when, in a region of war abruptly, and at 7,500 feet, in blue sky, stood at the sa as when the balloon had risen only 1,500 feet Then, amid many anomalous vicissitudes, the most curious, perhaps, was that recorded late in the afternoon, when, at 10,000 feet, the air was actually waran

That the temperature of the upper air cohtfall as the warh day hours off the earth collects aloft, is a fact well known to the balloonist, and Mr Glaisher carried out with considerable success a well-arranged progra froed matters that his departure from earth took place about an hour and three quarters before sunset, his intention being to rise to a definite height, and with as uniform a speed as possible to time his descent so as to reach earth at the ainan hour and three-quarters after sunset, taking observations all the way Ascending for the first flight, he left a terees at 1,200 feet, then 43 degrees at 3,600 feet, and 29 1/2 degrees at the cul the descent, the teh not unifor the tops of the trees, where it was so

It was now that the balloon, showing a little ardness, slightly upset a portion of the experihbourhood of earth just at the moment of sunset, the travellers found theround, and over the ridge of a hill, on passing which the balloon beca a liberal discharge of sand to prevent contact with the ground This circuht in itself, caused the lowest point of the descent to be reached some minutes late, and, still more unfortunate, occasioned the ascent which immediately followed to be a rapid one, too rapid, doubtless, to give the registering instruments a fair chance; but one principal record aimed at was obtained at least with sufficient truth, naain was 6,200 feet, the terees warmer than when the balloon was at the same altitude a little more than an hour before This comparatively warm temperature was practically maintained for a considerable portion of the descent

We eneralisations thus, using as nearly as possible his oords:--

”The decrease of tee, and depends upon the hour of the day, the changes being the greatest atto about sunset, when, with a clear sky, there is little or no change of temperature for several hundred feet froe decreases from the mid-day hours at a less rapid rate to about sunset, when the decrease is nearly uniforree in 2,000 feet