96 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



been made for the use of Janssen in his travels in the Hima- 

 laya mountains. They had also a bimetallic thermometer, 

 constructed by Jobert, with extreme stability, and yet suffi- 

 ciently sensitive to indicate very rapid changes in tempera- 

 ture. An instrument of peculiar design, intended to be held in 

 the hand, was also carried, by means of which it was expected 

 to determine the direction and the velocity of the motion of 

 the balloon. Several hundred printed cards were also car- 

 ried, which were thrown, as occasion demanded, from the 

 balloon, and bore upon their face the request that they should 

 be returned by mail by the finders, who should note upon 

 them the time, the barometric pressure, the wind, etc., etc. 

 Twenty-three of these cards were returned to the voyagers 

 shortly after their landing, and have afforded Messrs. Jobert 

 and Spinelli the means of tracing with great accuracy the 

 profile of the path pursued by the balloon through the air. 

 The balloon voyage began at about eleven o'clock in the 

 morning. The greatest height attained seems to have been 

 about 15,000 feet, and the descent took place about two 

 o'clock in the afternoon, at a point seventy-five miles soutli- 

 east of the starting place. 6 B, 1873, 1473. 



A SCIENTIFIC BxVLLOON VOYAGE. 



Professor A. King, the well-known aeronaut of Boston, 

 who last summer constructed one of the largest balloons 

 ever seen in America, for the express purj30se of making very 

 high and very long voyages as a means of studying the me- 

 teorology of the upper portion of the atmosphere, has lately 

 made an ascension from the city of Buff*alo, which promises 

 to be of the greatest interest. Ascending at about three 

 o'clock in the afternoon, the party, consisting of Mr. King, 

 Mr. Holden, of Boston, and four other persons, rose rapidly 

 to a height of about 6000 feet in the course of twenty min- 

 utes. The balloon at first moved eastward, and then some- 

 what south of east. Very severe local storms were apparent- 

 ly prevailing in A'arious directions, and the Weather Bureau 

 had announced that the storm-centre was at that time mov- 

 ing eastward over the upper lake region. The clouds be- 

 tween the balloon and the sun caused such a cooling in the 

 gas of the balloon that the aerial ship was soon found to be 

 rapidly falling, and at a quarter of four the altitude above 



