Every-day Science: Volume 7. The Conquest of Time and Space

by Henry Smith Williams; Edward Huntington Williams

THE DIRIGIBLE BALLOON ACHIEVED

By this war, France, the home of the balloon, was brought keenly to realize the advantages and the limitations of such flying-machines; and it was but natural, under the circumstances, that as soon as peace was restored, efforts should be made there to produce a dirigible balloon, or some other form of dirigible flying-machine. Giffard, as we have seen, had been fairly successful; and now M. Dupuy de Lome, chief naval constructor of France, took up the problem. He constructed a balloon with a cigar-shaped envelope one hundred and twenty feet long and fifty feet in diameter. Beneath this was a rudder placed in the same position as that of a ship; and suspended still further below was a large car fitted with a two-bladed screw-propeller, thirty feet in diameter. Manual labor was to be used for turning this screw, two relays of four men each relieving each other at the work. An ascent was made in February, 1872, with fourteen persons in the car, who, by working in relays, demonstrated that a speed of about seven miles an hour could be maintained in any direction in still air. As the wind was blowing about thirty miles an hour at the time, however, the course of the balloon could only be deflected, and the main object of the ascent—the return to Paris—could not be accomplished. In short, De Lome's balloon demonstrated little more than had been accomplished by Giffard with his steam-driven balloon. Both had shown that with sufficient power the balloon could be made to travel in any direction in still air, but neither had been able to make headway against a strong wind.

It was estimated at the time of Dupuy de Lome's ascent, that had a steam-engine of a weight corresponding to that of the eight workmen been used, at least twice the power could have been obtained. But steam was considered too dangerous, and some other motive power which combined lightness with power seemed absolutely essential. The electric motor gave promise of success in this direction, and in 1883 the two Tissandier brothers in France applied such a motor to a balloon that was able to make headway against a seven-mile breeze, but was still far from fulfilling the requirements of an entirely dirigible balloon. Two years later the motor-driven balloon La France, of Renard and Krebs, attained a speed of fourteen miles an hour, and showed a distinct advance over all preceding models.

Meanwhile motors were being reduced in weight and increased in power, and the hearts of aviators and balloonists were cheered by the fact that the light metal, aluminum, was steadily growing cheaper. Visions of an all-aluminum balloon were constantly before the minds of the inventors, and in 1894 such dreams took practical form in a balloon whose construction was begun by Herr Schwartz, under the auspices of the German Government. This balloon was of most complicated construction, depending for its lifting power upon the gas-filled aluminum tank, but utilizing for its steering-gear many of the features of the aeroplane. It was essentially a balloon, not a flying-machine, however, with a ten to twelve horse-power benzine-engine actuating four propelling screws.

TWO FAMOUS FRENCH WAR BALLOONS.

The lower figure the dirigible war balloon "La Patrie," which manœuvered on the Eastern boundary of France, and which was blown away and lost taking a northwesterly direction which probably landed it ultimately in the Arctic Sea—in 1908. The upper figure represents M. Deutsch's dirigible balloon "Ville de Paris" which was sent to the frontier to take the place of the lost "Patrie."

Before the balloon was completed Herr Schwartz died, but his plans were known to his wife, and, although considerably altered, were carried to completion. When all was finished, Herr Jaegels, an engineer who had had no experience as an aeronaut, volunteered to make an ascent and this metal ship-of-promise was launched. At first it rose rapidly and appeared to be making good progress against a strong wind; but suddenly it stopped, descended rapidly, and was smashed to pieces, the aeronaut saving himself by jumping just before it touched the ground. It developed later that he had lost control of the machine, simply because the machinery was too complicated for a single operator to handle. On discovering this, Herr Jaegels, confused for the moment, threw open the valve, causing the balloon to descend too rapidly. Thus the fruit of years of study and labor and the expenditure of fifty thousand dollars in money resulted in only about six minutes of actual flight.

To most persons this experiment of the aluminum balloon would seem to have been a dismal failure, but it was not so regarded by the advocates of the dirigible balloon. The flight of the balloon, to be sure, was far from a success; but this was attributed to improper management rather than to any inherent defect in the balloon itself, or in the principle upon which it was constructed. Instead of being discouraged, therefore, the school of balloonists, who had lost some of their prestige of late by the performances of the flying-machines of Maxim and Langley, undertook, through their enthusiastic representative, Count Zeppelin, the construction of the largest, most expensive, and most carefully built dirigible balloon heretofore constructed. This balloon was of proportions warranting the name of "air-ship." The great cigar-shaped body was almost four hundred feet in length, and thirty feet in diameter—the proportions of a fair-sized ocean liner—and like the hull of its ocean prototype, was divided into compartments—seventeen in number, and gas-tight. Its frame-work was of aluminum rods and wires, and the skin of the envelope was made of silk, coated with india-rubber. It was equipped with four aluminum screws, and two aluminum cars were placed below the body at a considerable distance apart. The motive power was supplied by benzine motors, selected because of their lightness.

The company for constructing this balloon was capitalized at about two hundred thousand dollars, the cost of the shed alone, which rested on ninety-five pontoons on the surface of the lake of Constance, near the town of Manzell, being fifty thousand dollars. July 2nd, 1910, the count and four assistants in the cars, started on the maiden voyage. The balloon rose and made headway at the rate of eighteen miles an hour, responding readily to the rudder, but soon broke or deranged some of the steering-gear so that it became unmanageable and descended at Immerstaad, a little over three miles from the starting-point. Considering the amount of thought, care, and money that had been expended upon it, its performance could hardly be looked upon as a startling success. By the advocates of the aeroplane principle it was considered an utter failure.