A NIGHT ASCENT IN A MILITARY BALLOON.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3070, 19 March 1892, Page 6 (Supplement)

A NIGHT ASCENT IN A MILITARY BALLOON.

The Neue Militarists Batter contains an acconnt of a highly interesting and perilous night balloon ascent from Vienna, made recently by Lieutenants Hoernes and Eekert, of the Railway and Telegraph Regiment. The orders given to these officers were that they should leave about 9 p. m., and should remain up as long as gas and ballast could be made to lust. The balloon in which the ascent was made had a capacity of 1100 cubic metres and carried sacks of ballast, each weighing 441b. The gas, which was put in at a tcmperatureof 46 deg,to r>4 deg. warmed up to that of the outer air 75 de«. and it was this fact which eventually rendered the ascent so full of peri!. Shortly after starting, the balloon was caught in a terrific thunderstorm, which caused it to travel between Vienna and Mahrisch-Ostrua—a distance of 140 miles —in two hours ; that is to say, at a mean speed of a.boutlOS feet a second. At times the hurricane blew with such force that the speed of the balloon could nothave been less than from 14S to 1(54 feet a second. Within an hour and a half the temperature fell 351 deg., and the sudden cold and wet acting on the gas made it necessary to throw out SJ sacks of ballast. Two whole sacks had "to be sacrificed to clear the Carpathians when the storm was at height,and 'lad it but lasted ashort time longer the ballast would have been completely exhausted. As soon as the storm lulled the balloon became enveloped in a thick fog and dense clouds, and for seven long hours but one short glimpse of the earth, or rather of the sea, was caught. At this time the balloon was steering north and appeared to be over the Baltic, near the Island of Bornholm, rising higher and higher. It had now attained a height offIO.OOO feet without a glimpse of the sun having been seen and it became clear that if the sun managed to break through the clouds an instant descent would have to be made in order to avoid a catastrophe. Fortunately a fresh current of air was met with, which blew tbe balloon due south. About eight a. m. the sun phone out in full splendour and the expansion of the gas was so rapid there was imminent danger of the balloon bursting. When at last the escape of gas began to make itself felt, so much had been expended that the balloon, on re-entering a dense stratum of clouds at a height, of 9840 feet, fell in ten minutes within 4200 feet of the earth, and another precious back of ballast had to be sacrificed before its fall could be checked at 1600 feet from the ground. The small stock of ballast now remaining made it necessary to prepare for an immediate descent ■which was safely affected at Wojciechowo m Posen (273 miles from Vienna), after a journey of eleven and a half Lieutenant Hoernes estimates the total distance travelled was equal to the famous journey from Paris to Sweden made by two French sailors in 1870.