Remarks on Airostation. 39% 
That it is. physically possible to raise horses, and even re- 
‘ays of horses, into the atmosphere, with sufficient provender 
to give them subsistence for a few days, is certain. Bat how 
far the agitations of tempests, may render the swing of the 
eerial deck too violent, and the slope too steep, to admit of 
the efficient exertion of animal strength, remains to be seen. 
Sufficient ballast will, undoubtedly, prevent the calamity of 
being overset, or of being thrown upon beam ends; but bal- 
last will not prevent vibration, and vibration may become 
inconvenient, if not dangerous. 
Supposing that the force in question can be applied, in a suf 
ficient degree, and that the proposed modification in the direc- 
tion of a balloon can be produced, another difficulty must be en- 
countered. It arises from the frail materials of which a balloon is 
composed. No one probably supposes, that it willever be possi-~ 
ble to urge a balloon against the wind, or in nautical language; 
in the wind’s eye. It is not probable, that sufficient power 
can be produced by any impulse upon the atmosphere, to ef- 
fect this object. All that will probably ever be attempted, 
in which the navigator of the air, as well as of the ocean, may 
»e occasionally involved ? ould not there be great da 
ger that a rupture, in the gas-container, would let out the hy- 
drogen, and let in the atmosphere, as the sea rushes into a 
wounded ship, and in both cases sinking wonld be inevita- 
ble. This difficulty, in the case of the balloon, would indeed 
be much diminished, by using stout matcrials, even canvass ;* 
but if the balloon were large, (and no other would answer,)}. 
uestion 
the weight would become enormous, Still, the qt is 
not, what is the absolute weight of a balleon, but what is the 
relative weight of the whole machine, when inflated, compared 
with an equal volume of the atmosphere ; and consequently,. 
the heavier the envelope, the larger must be the size, in order 
to produce a given buoyancy. 
* Say for the outside for strength, and a more delicate lining, to retainthe — 
fr 
gas within, 
* 
