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[[image]] Attaching the basket [[image]] Ascension Made Feb 23. [[image]] Lt. Frank [[?]] ampaigns. Lowe installed a tele ee in the basket of his balloon and ated with officers below through 00 feet or more in length. McClel the possession of an observation great value in the peninsula cam be confederates imitated the fed me extent in this respect. Commo es in August, 1862, introduced the the naval operations in the er. France-German war, which began as French besieged strongholds d free balloons to carry new to their outside. Paris while beleaguered sent tions of letters by balloon, together numbers of carrier pigeons, which return couriers, and thus an almost stl service was maintained. Gam o was later to become dictator, as m Paris in a balloon to establish the l government at Tours. Of sev balloons that were dispatched only one was brought down by the dre. When the French army was d ballooning was included in its d an experimental balloon station were established at Chalais-Meu Captains Renard and Krebs aerostats that could be moderate wind. General ward minister of war, dem rtance of balloon scouting vers of 1891, in which 100,000 to one another in mimic ch derived enormous serv balloons in their war in itish in the Sudan in 1885. er in Cuba. American war a captive eral Shafter, in front of n obtaining a correct idea sition. But owing to im t it also needlessly drew on our lines and was the sualties that could have carefully trained balloon as have the French, and ere used by the former vantage in the boer war. is also provided with bal of the more recent dragon of the Brazilian, Santos the dirigible balloon of the work of Renard and Meudon. Augusto Severo shaped aerostat, broader the Santos-Dumont type, teered upon a somewhat The American public e unsuccessful attempts of Washington to make navigate the air. attained in appara the surface of the from balloons and Caillelet produced alled photographic n a continuous film balloon should pass, e of sixty miles an duce the topography as do the army engi inutely. Of course, f data to a general inestimable. ortant. of the arrangements s that which relates lifting gas. In al upply of compressed bes There are sev [[image]] The "America" at fantry taking up a position on a commanding hilltop, if one can be found. The ordinary height to which the balloon goes is 1,000 feet, but cable enough is attached to it to admit of it going twice that distance. If a change of location is desired one or two men stand up in the base wagon to keep the cable from becoming entangled with anything along the route, and the horses go at a trot across the country, up and down hill, perhaps for miles. When it is desired to lower the balloon for a brief interval a peculiar device is used. A stop [[?]] pole is provided at the middle with a grooved wheel. Half a dozen men seize the pole, three at each end, and press the face of the wheel against the cable, moving steadily in a horizontal direction far enough to bring the balloon down, perhaps quite to the ground. When the balloon is again to be allowed to ascend they retrace their steps, releasing it by degrees. A balloon to serve continuously in a new kind of aerial bomb-throwingtactics must not only be of the dirigible type, but must be of great buoyancy and force. It must carry heavy ammunition and it must be able to move rapidly and accurately in any desired direction. None of the public experiments thus far made shows that any dirigible airship has been developed to this point. Of course, the plan may be pursued of sacrificing a balloon with each lot of explosives sent aloft to be dropped upon the enemy.
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