The following articles were made at Stockholm; viz., the “load ring” connecting the balloon with the car, the provision basket, the guide-ropes, sails, etc., as well as the plant for making pure hydrogen gas, a description of which will be found later on. Only the gas conducting pipes, which are of silk, and the ballast bags, were manufactured at Paris, being supplied from the Vaugirard factory.
Exhibition of the Equipment and Plant at the Champ de Mars (Old Buildings of the 1889 Exhibition).—The order for the articles described above was given by Andrée to M. H. Lachambre at the end of December, 1895, and delivery was to be effected between the 15th and 20th of May, 1896, failing which the contractor made himself liable to an enormous progressive fine, in proportion to the number of days of delay, and if delivery was not made before the 3rd of June the order could be cancelled. But the work was executed within the stipulated time, and towards the end of April the whole plant was conveyed to the Champ de Mars, into the 30 m. gallery, in order to be examined there by the Commission.
According to a clause of the agreement the envelope was to be inflated with air, and before the last varnishing to be submitted to an internal pressure equal to 3 inches water-column.
This trial took place on the 3rd of May, in the presence of Messrs. de Nordenfeld, engineer of the Nordenfeld Company, Gaston Tissandier, Colonel Renard and Commander Renard, managers of the Central Establishment of Military Aerostation of Chalais-Meudon. The openings of the balloon were provisionally closed; the valve in the appendage was replaced by a wooden hoop covered by a disc of material containing a glazed window, 7⅘ inches in diameter, thus permitting inspection of the interior of the balloon. The latter was inflated by means of a ventilator supplying about 70,633 cubic feet of air per hour.
Andrée’s experts, who had followed up the manufacture step by step, then examined minutely all the parts, and declared the material to be faultless, and quite in accordance with the desires expressed by Andrée.
After this examination, which showed that the envelope inflated with air did not lose its contents to any appreciable extent, the balloon was emptied, and was then given the last coat of varnish. This having been done, it was again inflated for the purpose of drying.
The net suspended by the crown, in the centre of the central dome, and with the suspending ropes attached to the balustrade of the first gallery, presented the appearance of a vast tent, the summit of which was 131 to 164 feet above the ground.
