590 CIRCLING EIFFEL TOWER IN AIR SHIP. 



similar balloons he made a numrier of interesting ascensions, lait 

 soon began the study of dirigible balloons. His "No. 1" is the 

 first of the series, and started from the Jardin d'Aeclimatation on 

 the ISth of September, 1898. It was torn at the start on account 

 of a false maneuver by the aids, but was soon repaired, and on 

 the 20th he made a number of evolutions. But the small interior 

 air balloon, designed to keep the envelope always swelled out, 

 was only insufficicnth^ supplied by the ventilator, and thus the bal- 

 loon, which was cigar-shaped, became more or less collapsed and 

 folded upon itself under the tension of the weight. On this occasion 

 the aeronaut had a fall of 1,200 feet at the rate of 12 or 15 feet a 

 secopd, which, as M. Enunanuel Aime says, is a record in itself. He 

 came down on the , Bagatelle training ground, however, without 

 damage. 



The Sanfos-Dumotit Wo. '3 was launched on the 11th of May, 1899, 

 but during a rainstorm the balloon folded upon itself and could not be 

 further maneuvered. An instructive test of the motor (gasoline type) 

 and the helice was, however, made on this occasion. With this expe- 

 rience to guide him, he next built the "'No. 3." It gauged (120 cubic 

 yards, and was the first of the series to pass around the Eiffel Tower, 

 starting from the Aerostatic Park of Vaugirard on the 13th of Novem- 

 ber. The "No. l'' is an improvement of this type, and gauged .525 

 cubic yards. It was finished on the 1st of August, 1900. He went 

 through a number of evolutions with this air ship, notal)ly on the 

 occasion of the Aeronautic Congress, on the 19tli of September, at 

 the Aerostatic Park of the Aero Club. At the beginning of this year 

 he finished the Sa/ifos-Dia/io/it JVo. 5, which made .such a brilliant 

 l)erformance. It will ))e remembered that he started from the Aero- 

 static Park, crossed the Seine to the Lonchamps race track, and then 

 took the air ship ten times aroimd the track. He then came to the 

 Trocadero, and after an accident to the rudder he started again, went 

 around the Eiffel Tower, came back to Longchamps, and thence 

 recrossed the Seine to the Aerostatic Park. 



It was the Henri Deutsch prize that made the tower the goal of the 

 aeronauts, as the conditions of the prize of $20,000 were that the start 

 should be made from the park or vicinity, the aeronaut to pass around 

 the tower and return to the starting point within half an hour. 

 Accordingly, Santos-Dumont, the day after the above experiments, 

 started from the park and passed the tower, coming back in forty 

 minutes. But owing to a strong wind and an accident to the motor 

 he could not land in the park, but came down in the trees of M. de 

 Rothschild's garden. It was after this that he had his famous acci- 

 dent, where, after passing around the tower (8th of August) the motor 

 stopped and the balloon was broken almost to pieces against the roofs 

 of the Trocadero Hotel. Only twenty-two days after this catastrophe 



