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Aviation History
1912
1912 - 0122.PDF
REVIVAL OF By A. E. THE year 1911 has proved a record year for balloon ascents in France. At the Paris Aero Club ground, St. Cloud, all previous records have been beaten in the number of ascents made during 1911, which reached a total of 412. This does not include ascents made by other clubs and by private persons in other parts of France, and we may conjecture that nearly 1,000 ascents in all have taken place. This revival we may partly attribute to the aviation boom, as many recruits to aviation have also embraced aerostation ; and in one notable instance a well-known aviator, Emile Dubonnet, recently beat the record for long-distance balloon voyage held by Count de la Vaulx for the past eleven years. This record was beaten on January 7th of this year, when Emile Dubonnet travelled from Motte-Breuil, near Paris, to Sokolowska, in the province of Kieff, Russia, covering a distance of 1,233 miles,'or 40 miles more than that of Count de la Vaulx's journey in 1900. The greatest distance accomplished by balloon from this country is 1,117 miles, when, in 1908, I had the pleasure of bringing this record to England by piloting a balloon from London to Russia. The time has surely come to revive the sport of aeronautics in England. We should not be left behind, but use every endeavour to bring the world's record to this country. The spherical balloon of the present day is not so very greatly changed since its intro duction in 1783, although it appears to me there is no reason why it should not be altered and improved upon. One has only to turn to the dirigible to see how it differs from the ordinary balloon in construction, and after all the dirigible is an aerostat. It possesses no netting to cover it, it is entirely closed by automatic valves, and the whole weight of its gear, amounting in some cases to tons, is entirely suspended from the envelope containing the gas with which it is inflated. This method of suspension does not, of course, include the Zeppelin-type of dirigible, but I see that the German military authorities have now discarded the rigid for the non-rigid type- it was only a matter of time to arrive at this conclusion, as the rigid type of airship was always looked upon by experts as •unpractical. There is a great field opening for aerostation in the (future. Day by day we see hydrogen gas coming more into use, and in a few years hydrogen will be as cheap as coal gas is to-day. Coal gas is deteriorating in quality for aerostation owing to the introduction of carburated water gas making its way for lighting and cooking purposes. Hydrogen will raise, as we know, 70 lbs. per 1,000 (cubic) ft. and coal gas 40 lbs., but as most of the large towns now produce a mixture of coal gas and carburated water gas, the lift cannot be relied upon to be more than 30 lbs. per 1,000 (cubic) ft., so that we may welcome the introduction of hydrogen on the market, which will undoubtedly open up a new field for the balloon, but it is not only in this direction the aeronaut has to look. A new and improved aerostat itself will shortly be created. The present balloon is very much at the mercy of the various changes in the atmosphere, and its power of remaining in the air very much depends on the amount of ballast the aeronaut has at his disposal, and also to the extent o( the variation of temperature during the twenty-four hours. This variation acts on the gas, and in the case of an ordinary balloon filled with coal gas it has been found that the temperature of the gas was 260 centigrade above the temperature of the atmosphere. This was partly caused by the warm rays of the sun passing through the transparent envelope of the balloon. This is a well-known fact, as I myself can certify. On one occasion, in my youth, I had a new varnished silk balloon partly filled with air in the open, and through the heat of a powerful sun, and the help of a gust of wind, it escaped and rose to a considerable height, travelled away, and landed on the roof of a six-storey house nearly a mile distant. The balloon had acted as a Montgolfier. I do not see why we should not put our minds to remedy this great drawback in aerostation, and find a means of con trolling the temperature of the gas and travel at a more uniform and constant altitude, and if we can accomplish this, there is no reason why we should not remain in the air for several days at a time. The present duration record for a balloon remaining in the air is fifty-two hours, and this record was attained ® ® The Future of the Flight Industry. IN an interesting article under the above title, Dr. E. Valentin gives his impressions of the Paris Show (Allgemeine Automobil Zeitung, Berlin Edition, January 12th), and traces the analogy between the development stages of the aeroplane and the motor car, pointing out how in both instances the motor has wandered about the FEBRUARY 10, 1912. BALLOONING. GAUDRON. only through having a very even temperature during the journey," If the temperature of the gas rises in the envelope of a balloon, the balloon rises to a great altitude, and to prevent bursting through expansion of the gas, one has to allow it to escape through the neck, which is left open for that purpose. It first occurred to Pilate de Rozier, in 1785, to attempt to control the temperature of the gas in a balloon, but unfortunately the ascent he made as an experiment ended fatally, not, as is generally believed, by the system of his aero-Montgolfier, but'by the tearing of the gas balloon, which was no doubt rather worn and probably burnt by sulphuric acid from his somewhat impure hydrogen, which settles in vapour round the valve, and when he put an extra pressure by pulling the valve line, the balloon ripped. This version is partly confirmed by a de scription given by M. de Maisonfort, who was on the spot where the balloon landed at the time ; and he states, in an article describing the event, that the balloon bore no mark of having been burnt by fire, and that the furnace had never been lighted. Since that day no one has had the courage to emulate the idea of Pilate de Rozier; but times have changed. We have many improvements in our favour, and there is no reason why we should not go forward in this direction and open up a new future for aerostation. I have a scheme in my mind for a new aerostat, which I will call an aero Montgolfier, and will here endeavour to explain briefly the outline of it. The aero Montgolfier, with a capacity of 120,000 cubic ft. when inflated with hydrogen gas, will raise 8,<;oo lbs., of which over 5,000 lbs. can be regarded as ballast. The air ballonet has a capacity of 42,000 cubic ft., which, when inflated with hot air will raise an extra 600 or 700 lbs. The bal oon would be constructed with the strongest material obtainab' j and the least porous for hydrogen. The gas balloon would l<e completely closed by an automatic hydraulic valve which outk t would be situated so that no gas would be near the heat generator. The whole balloon would be rendered moisture and rain proof by a smooth surface aluminiumed. The car arrangement would con.ist of a large platform where eight passengers could be accommodated in comfort, with a lower car for provisions, ballast and fuel which could be used as a sleeping compartment for four passengers at a time. The Calorique is a very ingenious heat producer, entirely enclosed in an aluminium funnel, and its aperture is completely surrounded with gauze wire. The gas balloon is 40 ft. away, whilst the only valve or gas outlet is nearly 80 ft. away, and when the Calorique is working there is no discharge of gas anywhere. Inside the air ballonet there is no outlet of gas whatever—the heat producer, which can be worked at will—generates from 5,000 to 500,000 calories per hour, whilst the flame, which is entirely encased, will not be bigger than 14 ins. diameter by 18 ins. high at its greatest power. The fuel to work it is liquid in the shape of heavy oil, not inflammable, only when turned into gas. It is proposed to carry enough fuel to work the Calorique for seventy hours at 500,000 calories or six hundred and fifty hours at 5,000 calories, and as the Calorique will only be in use at most fifteen hours daily, and at all times would only be required to work barely at its medium power, the fuel would last for over two hundred and fifty hours, and as we should only want it for fifteen hours a day, it would give a run of over fourteen days. Therefore, if we had control over the temperature of the gas as well as being able to travel at an even altitude varying not more than 1,000 to 2,000 ft. either way, the only loss of gas would be through the envelope of the balloon, which, if we take at 2\ per cent, in twenty- four hours would mean approximately, less than 3,000 cubic ft. per day. This, in fourteen days would be 42,000 cubic feet—or a loss of 2,940 lbs. lifting power, which would be represented by the use of 2,000 lbs. of fuel and the remainder as ordinary ballast. Such a balloon is able to carry in all 5,000 lbs. of ballast, and the lift of the Montgolfier would be an extra 700 lbs. At all times the balloon is practically a full balloon. This will show at a glance the possibili ties of the system, and I am confident that it will not be long before it will be an accomplished fact. These are the primary outlines of the system, but I propose to publish further and fuller details of interest concerning the working arrangement during a journey with such an aerostat. ® ® chassis until it has found a definite resting-place in the front part; how wood is disappearing from the plane as it did from the car, partly due to the requirements of interchangeability, partly because of the survival of the fittest; how, again, in both cases, the unprotected position of both engine and driver has given way to the enclosure of both with bonnet and car-like seats respectively. T22
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