Balloons, Airships, and Flying Machines

by Gertrude Bacon

This system of balloon and pigeon post went on during the whole siege. Between sixty and seventy balloons left the city, carrying altogether nearly 200 people, and two and a half million letters, weighing in all about ten tons. The greater number of these arrived in safety, while the return journeys, accomplished by the birds, were scarcely less successful. The weather was very unfavourable during most of the time, and cold and fogs prevented many pigeons from making their way back to Paris. Of 360 birds brought safely out of the city by balloon only about 60 returned, but these had carried between them some 100,000 messages.

Of the balloons themselves two, each with its luckless aeronaut, were blown out to sea and never heard of more. Two sailed into Germany and were captured by the enemy, three more came down too soon and fell into the hands of the besieging army near Paris, and one did not even get as far as the Prussian lines. Others experienced accidents and rough landings in which their passengers were more or less injured. Moreover, each balloon which sailed by day from the city became at once a mark for the enemy’s fire; so much so that before long it became necessary to make all the ascents by night, under cover of darkness.

They were brave men indeed who dared face the perils of a night voyage in an untried balloon, manned by an unskilled pilot, and exposed to the fire of the enemy, into whose hands they ran the greatest risk of falling. It is small wonder there was much excitement in Paris when it became known that the first of the new balloons made during the siege was to take away no less a personage than M. Gambetta, the great statesman, who was at the time, and for long after, the leading man in France. He made his escape by balloon on the 7th of October, accompanied by his secretary and an aeronaut, and managed to reach a safe haven, though not before they had been vigorously fired at by shot and shell, and M. Gambetta himself had actually been grazed on the hand by a bullet.

Another distinguished man who hazarded the same perilous feat, though for a very different reason, was M. Janssen, a famous astronomer. On the 22nd of December of that year there was to take place an important total eclipse of the sun, which would be visible in Spain and Algeria. It had long been M. Janssen’s intention to observe this eclipse, and for this purpose he had prepared a special telescope and apparatus; but when the time drew near he found himself and his instruments shut up in besieged Paris, with no possible means of escape except the dangerous and desperate hazard of a voyage by sky.

But so great was the astronomer’s enthusiasm for his work, that he resolved to brave even this risk. Taking the essential parts of his telescope with him, and, as aeronaut, an active young sailor, he set sail in the darkness of a winter’s morning, long before dawn, passed safely over the enemy’s lines, and continued the voyage till nearly mid-day, when they sighted the sea, and came down near the mouth of the river Loire, having travelled 300 miles in little more than five hours. Neither Janssen or his telescope were injured in the descent, though the wind was high at the time; and both reached Algeria in time for the eclipse. It must have been a most bitter disappointment to the ardent astronomer, after all his exertions, that when the great day arrived the sun was hidden by clouds, and he was unable to observe the sight for which he had risked so much.

Since the Franco-Prussian war, military ballooning has been largely developed, and now all great armies possess their properly equipped and trained balloon corps. The balloons in use in the British Army at the present day are made, not of silk, but of gold-beater’s skin, a very thin, but extremely tough membrane prepared from the insides of oxen. This is, of course, much stronger and more durable than ordinary balloon fabric, but much more expensive. The balloons are comparatively small ones, of 10,000 feet capacity, and are inflated with hydrogen. The hydrogen is now no longer made upon the field, but is manufactured in special factories, and carried compressed in large steel cylinders. By this means the time occupied in filling the balloon is much reduced, but the weight of the cylinders is very great. As will be remembered, balloons were made of considerable use during the late Boer War. At the siege of Ladysmith they were thought of much value in directing the fire of the British Artillery, and again at Spion Kop and Magersfontein are said to have done good service.

So far we have shown of what use balloons may be in times of peace and war. Every year sees fresh improvements and developments in balloons for military purposes and in those employed for making meteorological and other similar observations; and there is no doubt that great advances may shortly be expected in both these directions. But there is yet another and totally different science to which the balloon may lend its aid, and help greatly to add to our knowledge; and this is the science of geography, or the study of the earth’s surface.

One of the earliest ideas suggested by Montgolfier’s invention was that the balloon might be turned to practical account in the exploring of unknown and inaccessible tracts of the world. It was suggested that in a balloon men might sail over and survey country that they were not able to reach in any other way. Deserts could be crossed in this fashion, forests and mountain ranges, and even the desolate ice-tracts of the North and South Poles.

All this is, in truth, perfectly possible, and another day may be accomplished; but at present great difficulties and dangers stand in the way of exploring by balloon, and up to the present time, with one great exception, no special attempt has been made. It has already been mentioned that both Wise and Green wished to cross the Atlantic by sky, and indeed at the present moment plans are actually being made on the Continent for a similar voyage. This, however, can scarcely be called exploring. Other suggestions which may presently be put to the test are the crossing of the Sahara, and also of another great desert in Central Arabia, into which no white man has ever succeeded in penetrating. Recent expeditions both to the North and South Poles have also taken with them balloons to be used captive for the observation of the state of the ice ahead, and for obtaining wide views around.

The one great attempt at exploring by balloon which has so far been made has, unfortunately, met with hopeless and terrible disaster—this was the ill-fated voyage to the North Pole of Andrée and his companions. The idea of reaching the Pole by balloon was first proposed many years ago, and both French and English aeronauts at different times have made suggestions as to the best way in which it might be accomplished. Nothing, however, was attempted until about the year 1894, when M. S. A. Andrée, a well-known Swedish balloonist, who had already met with exciting experiences in the air, made up his mind actually to risk the venture.