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S. S. WENZELL,
ADVERTISING MANAGER.

THURSDAY EVENING, AUG. 27, 1874.

PERILS OF BALLOONING.

The balloon accident at Smith's Island brings up again the question of the perils of ballooning, and in the general way in which is it viewed, it carries with it the impression that balloon ascensions are intrinsically dangerous. Looking at the thing in its practical light, and taking into consideration the many ascensions made, it seems that, as with many other occupations where accidents happen, as for instance the bursting of steam boilers, the running of railroad trains off the track, the explosion of firearms in careless hards, &c., it may always be traced to incompetency in its broadest meaning. The hundreds of ascensions made by experienced and scientific aeronants, some of them following the business as a profession for a long lifetime, goes to show that it has no more intrinsic peril when in proper hands, than has steam engineering, coach driving or boat-sailing.
When mountebanks essay to teach philosophy, and when acrobats aspire to hang by their heels to a broomstick suspended underneath a balloon high in the air, it reminds one strongly of Chaucer's poem of the "Sergean turned Freer."
The science of ærostatics is well defined. None more clearly. Its mechanical elements are more simple than those of hydrostatics, or those of ship building, and therefore, we cannot see that it is surrounded with greater perils than other modes of transition. True it is, that atmospheric stability, and its adaptation to uses of traveling, are not so generally studied as other ordinary methods of locomotion. When it shall become a more common thing to construct air-sailing machinery, then we shall be better prepared to comprehend its simplicity, and more surely its uses in the elevation of our knowledge of the elements that surround us. It is a noble science, and in its practical applications has much in store for the enlightenment of the human family.
In the hands of proper persons we can see no undue danger in it, and it should be so fostered. The two ascensions made with the HERALD Balloon lately, demonstrates the value of the science, and the beauty and gracefulness with which voyages in the air can be made. When ladies and children can participate without hurt of harm in the delightful experience of cloud sailing, as has been done, the other day, and a veteran air-sailor of 40 year's practice with them,it is a living testimomy that there are no greater perils in balloon sailing than in yacht sailing.

ISN'T it about time that the long-talked of balloon trip across the ocean should come off? Our friend Wise is growing older daily. His whitening locks ought to remind Mr. Barnum that time flies, and centenarians cannot reasonably be expected to take such long voyages.

APRIL 7, 1877.]     THE POLYTECH

The Polytechnic Review:
DEVOTED TO SCIENCE AS APPLIED TO THE USEFUL ARTS.

THE POLAR BASIN PROBLEM, AND HOW IT CAN BE SOLVED.
BY JOHN WISE, AERONAUT.

The problem of the polar basin will be solved by the untiring energy of science. The north polar region invites the exploring faculty of man by all the principles of human progress, and especially so as regards the highest attainments of mathematical knowledge. A region of the globe we inhabit so large as that of the arctic circle, of not less than a million of square miles, upon which the foot of man has never trodden. and towards which the wild-fowl and polar quadrupeds wend their way in the spring-time, to enjoy the comforts of delightful summer quarters, is too tempting a mystery to be left to the frigid theories of those who can devise no better idea out of it than a perpetual ice-dome. Let us for a moment examine the situation inductively. We know that a globe revolving on its axis has a tendency to bulge out at its equator, and to draw in at its poles. It will do so whether solid or hollow—whether igneous or aqueous within its shell. Geography teaches that our globe is an oblate spheroid, and mechanical reasoning finds no difficulty in that it is of necessity indented within its polar circle. The arctic explorers have always found it an up-hill labor from the eighty-second parallel northward. Before I get through my deductions I will point out a way to surmount this obstructive ice barrier.
Now we know that the equatorial is warm, and that the polar water is cold, and know equally well that there is a constant interchange of these waters by what we familiarly know as gulf-streams, by a natural law that has no excefition. An important factor in this problem is the open polar sea (assumed), corroborated in the fact of animal migration that way, as above mentioned, and which we shall, upon positive discovery, find to be an archipelago, in all geographical probability. Now, how can we reasonably expect to find these conditions in the polar circle? The sun shines into this polar basin nearly one half of the year, and it shines round and against the sides of this ice basin, while beyond the ice barrier it shines glidingly over the surface. In this we find the polar basin many degrees warmer than the immediate zone south of it. The half year's sunshine breaks up the surrounding ice-walls and sends down the immense icebergs that make their appearance annually.

In the winter-half of the year, when the sun has no altitude above the horizon, the warm water of the gulf-streams pouring into the polar sea give out vapor that again forms the ice-walls, and at the same time produces a humid atmosphere that renders animal life tolerable in the manner of hibernation. We know the effect of the gulf-stream upon the British Isles—not in the manner of hibernation, but in the humid winter air that renders it less rigorous than our own, which is ten to twelve degrees more south. It is far more desirous to get into the polar basin than to go through a north-west passage. We can get into it if we go the right way about it. If the relay method fails to take us in by groping over the ice mountain range, we can get over and track out a mundane passage in the use of the balloon. Let us see! The polar basin being warmed up under the summer sun, produces rarefaction of air and a consequent up and outflow of air, compensated iu a down and inflow of air from the outside border regions. In this we can surely utilize the air-ship. I have demonstrated this fact of natural law on frequent occasions by balloon ascensions from Boston Common on Fourth of July festivities. The cold air falls from above by virtue of its superior gravity, and is drawn into the warmer land or inland. In the polar basin the condition is the reverse of that of Boston, and thus renders the balloon useful in getting into this coveted region.
I trust that the ideas thrown out in this condensed treatise will serve to draw the attention of those who are pursuing the investigation of the polar problem with a scientific earnestness that knows no halt in the outward movement of human intelligence.