422 The Wreck of " Santos Dumont No. 6 " 



of equilibrium of an air-bell. M. Santos Dumont's balloon is 

 an ellipsoid of revolution, having six diameters in its length. 

 It is stable only when blown up tight. When it loses gas the 

 tension of the envelope disappears, and it is only the tension 

 of the envelope which forces the enclosed hydrogen to take the 

 unnatural and therefore unstable form of an ellipsoid with its 

 minor axis vertical. So soon as coercion is relaxed, nature 

 resumes her rights, and the gas strives to shape its envelope 

 into one or more spherical shells. No conviction is more 

 firmly rooted in my mind by what I saw on the I4th than that 

 all forms of balloon are false except the sphere. 



Postscript. The importance of M. Santos Dumont's un- 

 successful flight, described in the article, was even greater 

 than I estimated. The accidents during flight showed the 

 imperfections of the balloon ; the details of the wreck, as they 

 developed from minute to minute, showed the remedy to be 

 applied. It was demonstrated before the representative crowd 

 who witnessed the experiment that the only stable form which 

 can be given to a body of gas is the spherical. The conviction 

 took root, and from that date the dirigible balloon, though 

 retaining externally the "cigar-shape," was composed of 

 spherical units. It is therefore unquestionable that the practical 

 usefulness of the dirigible balloon dates from the wreck of 

 " Santos Dumont No. 6" on I4th February, 1902, just as Flying, 

 properly so-called, dates, as an achievement, from M. Bleriot's 

 successful flight across the channel on 25th July, 1909. 



As a coincidence, let it be recorded that, while the historic 

 flight and fall of M. Santos Dumont's balloon was taking place in 

 the bay, a function of the highest artistic importance was being 

 celebrated on the Mount, namely, the Repetition Generale of 

 the first representation of Massenet's Jongleur de Notre Dame, 

 under the direction of the Master and in presence of His Highness 

 the Prince. 



