BALLOONS AS AIR-SHIPS. 



the fluid itself travels that is, it must be as 

 swift as any wind which it is expected to be 

 out in. And to have free and independent 

 motion in any direction at any time it must be 

 swifter through the air than the air itself is 

 over the earth. Allowing that, as ships do, 

 they lie by in safety as far as possible in times 

 of hurricane, they must be a good deal swifter 

 than strong winds, and even storms. To have to 

 wait for days, and even for weeks, as they do 

 now, till the wind has dropped to something 

 like a calm before venturing out, is hardly to 

 have accomplished the " conquest of the air." 

 As well might a mouse boast of its conquest 

 of the cat on the ground that, having waited 

 till she was asleep, it had then crept out of 

 its hole. 



Is there, then, any probability that balloon 

 air-ships will ever be able to travel fast enough 

 not merely to escape destruction by winds, 

 but even to perform their appointed journeys 

 in spite of them ? 



If success is to be attained, air-ship engineers 

 are undoubtedly on the right lines in making 

 the balloon of an elongated cigar-shaped form, 

 so that in moving in the direction of its length 

 it may receive as little resistance as possible 

 from the air in front of it. But there are 

 limits to what can be done with advantage 

 in this direction, and all that can profitably 

 be done has been done. The spherical shape 



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