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New York History, April 1963

flate the balloon, which would be efficient and portable, so that a flight might start from any point desired; and lastly, how to make a basket that was even lighter than the usual wicker kind.

Carl started methodically by developing his own process of making balloon fabric.  He boiled linseed oil in a big iron kettle in his back yard, until it became the consistency of a thick syrup, quite like making maple syrup, and as he was in good maple sugar country, his iron kettle was probably a sap kettle.  But when the oil reached the thick syrup stage, the similarity to maple disappeared.  It became very inflammable, sometimes even bursting into flame by spontaneous combustion.  To avoid this, the fire was withdrawn quickly from under the kettle, and the kettle was cooled rapidly by applying a stream of water from a hose to the outside.  Care had to be taken not to let any water get into the kettle that would cause sever spluttering and explosions.  The gelatinous mass resulting was then mixed, as needed, with turpentine, and the thin cotton fabric was dipped into this liquid mixture.  The fabric was then squeezed through the rollers and subjected to scrapers which removed all the "dope," except that which had soaked in the fibres.  It was then hung in the sunshine on long clotheslines to dry.

When dry, the dipping an scraping process was repeated.  After three or four applications, every pore in the fabric was sealed, yet the fabric was just as thin and flexible as the untreated cloth.  It could be folded without cracking, and its durability was so great that many of Carl's balloons had a useful life of eight or ten years, and made ascensions and rough landings which ran into the hundreds.

Carl patented this process and manufactured this superior product for a period of about thirty years, supplying a substantial percentage of the balloons used in America.  He later applied the process to silk as well as cotton.

During this time, Mary proved to be a valuable assistant.  She became an excellent technician, taking data and keeping records of experimenting, learning the techniques of cutting

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