The Fort Omaha Plant
The Signal Corps post at Fort Omaha has a plant comprising a steel balloon house of size sufficient to house one of the largest dirigibles built, an electrolytic plant for generating hydrogen gas, having a capacity of 3000 cubic feet per hour, a 50,000 cubic foot gas storage tank, and the compressing and carrying equipment involved in preparing gas for shipment at high pressure in steel cylinders.
United States Signal Corps Balloon Plant at Fort Omaha, Neb.
(From the Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers)
Balloon Progress
The “Caroline” of Robert Brothers, 1784
The ascent terminated tragically
The first aerial buoy of Montgolfier brothers, in 1783, led to the suggestion of Meussier that two envelopes be used; the inner of an impervious material to prevent gas leakage, and the outer for strength. There was perhaps a foreshadowing of the Zeppelin idea. Captive and drifting balloons were used during the wars of the French Revolution: they became a part of standard equipment in our own War of Secession and in the Franco-Prussian conflict. The years 1906 to 1908 recorded rapid progress in the development of the dirigible: the record-breaking Zeppelin trip was in 1909 and Wellman’s America exploit in October, 1910. Unfortunately, dirigibles have had a a bad record for stanchness: the Patrie, République, Zeppelin (I and II), Deutschland, Clément-Bayard—all have gone to that bourne whence no balloon returns.