AIR AND WATER AS SERVANTS OF MAN 



107 



balloon as a means of observing the movements of the enemy, 

 the Austrians. In this year Captain Coutelle, at the Battle of 

 Mayence, went up 1,000 feet in a captive balloon which at that 

 time was beyond the range of the Austrian guns. Here he sat 

 and dropped written messages giving the French information 

 regarding the position and movements of the Austrian troops. 

 The Austrians protested this unfair method of waging war but 

 the protests were in vain for the balloon came into universal 

 use in military work. It was used frequently by the northern 

 armies during the 

 American Civil War, 

 again at the Siege of 

 Paris, 1871, and the 

 British made use of it 

 during the Boer War. 

 During the Great War 

 with Germany and 

 her allies, the balloon 

 was in constant use as 

 an observation sta- 

 tion. The old spheri- 

 cal balloon was early 

 abandoned during 

 this war for it was 



too unstable, bobbing around with every shift of wind. The 

 Germans were the first to use the kite balloon, a long, sausage- 

 shaped affair with a bag at the tail end. The mouth of this bag 

 faced the wind so that it was blown full of air and served to steady 

 the balloon as a tail steadies a kite (Fig. 45). The French kite 

 balloon was an improvement on this, having three of these 

 balloonettes at the hind end, one on each side and one below. 

 Now practically all the armies of the world are supplied with 

 observation balloons and the means of transporting them quickly 

 by means of automobile and inflating them on the field wherever 

 they are needed. The observer is in touch with headquarters 



FIG. 45. A military observation balloon 



