ARCTIC BALLOON VOYAGE.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 42, 18 July 1874, Page 3

ARCTIC BALLOON VOYAGE.

The failure of the North Polo expeditions to discover the secret of the Arctic regions has (says an American exchange) stimulated the Aeronautic Society of Paris to attempt an Arctic balloon voyage. Extravagant as the notion may appear, it is not more extravagant than Professor Wise’s project of crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a balloon. One advantage of the aerial North Pole voyage is the temperature of the Arctic regions, which prevents the escape of gas from the balloon to such a degree that it is supposed to he quite feasible to construct a balloon which will last a throe months’ voyage. Another advantage is the absence of darkness in the Northern regions. If the balloon leaves in the summer time the sun will illumine the heavens during the whole trip. Then, again,

the permanency in the direct ion of the winds around the regions of the North Pole would be another point in favor of the trip to the North Pole over that across the Atlantic. The size of the proposed balloon is fixed at about 18,000 cubic metres. It is calculated to carry ten men, three months’ provisions, apart from the ballast; a, number of instruments, an anchor and a dragging rope, which will touch the ground should the balloon sink too near the earth. An ingeniona arrangement has also been made to prevent the balloon from rising higher than 800 me l res, or about 2.100 feet. The boat of the balloon is *o be lined with sheepskins and heated with lamps, so that, even if the temperature should fall to 31 deg. below zero outside, it will be fnleg. above zero inside. A vessel is to carry the men, the balloon, and the ingredients for manufacture of the necessary amount of gas to about the seventeenth degree of latitude. This will leave a trip of about 300 miles to the North Polo for the balloon fo accomplish ; and the voyage, there and back could be made in ‘2O days. PI very thing, however is to bo prepared for a full three months’ trip. The enterprise is exciting unusual interest among the scientific men of Europe, and is indeed one of the most wonderful schemes ever conceived by the human mind. —“ Democrat.”