Andree and his Balloon 



accompanied him with pleasure. The man was 

 so splendid, his enthusiasm so intense, and his 

 preparations were and had been so completely 

 thought out, that I agreed with him he had, with 

 luck, a very great chance of success. As the 

 account of the two months I spent with Andree 

 seemed to interest a number of men before whom 

 I gave a long lecture soon after my return to 

 England, at the Royal Societies Club, I shall 

 venture to write a rather full description of it, 

 for I do not know of any book or periodical 

 that has hitherto referred to it. 



Andree based his theories on his ability to 

 reach the North Pole on the assumption that he 

 could keep his balloon inflated with hydrogen 

 gas for at least one week ; that the winds in the 

 spring-time in these latitudes blow more or less 

 steadily towards the Pole, namely, from the 

 south ; and that he could, by allowing a series of 

 ropes to drag on the ice, use these as a fulcrum, 

 and so far steer his balloon as to allow him to 

 set a small square sail with which he had pro- 

 vided himself. Now, hydrogen gas is extremely 

 hard to contain in any vessel ; how much more 

 so would this be the case in a balloon that was 

 made of silk. This silk was fairly dense and 

 thick, but we found that when the balloon was 

 filled with gas she leaked badly. To overcome 

 this, many gallons of copal varnish were used 

 to dress the outer covering. Then there was 



'59 



