Andree and his Balloon 



the winds to blow him to his desired goal. The 

 drag-ropes were more or less of an experiment, 

 although he had previously made a voyage in a 

 balloon over the sea using a similar arrangement. 

 He had provided himself with two sets of these 

 drag -ropes. They were about the size of a 

 steamer's hawser, made of specially twisted coir, 

 or cocoa-nut fibre, and had been boiled in vaseline 

 to make them stand the probable rough usage 

 that they would be subjected to. Each set 

 weighed about a ton, and was made up of three 

 of these ropes, and the total length was in the 

 neighbourhood of 150 metres. One set was 

 stowed away above the car, and was for an 

 emergency ; the other was spread out on the 

 ground before his start from the shed. The idea 

 was to keep the balloon at or about one hundred 

 metres high in the air. The drag-ropes would be 

 all useful in this connexion, for every yard the 

 balloon rose in the air after this height the 

 greater the load she would be compelled to lift. 

 On the other hand, the nearer the balloon was to 

 the surface of the land, ice, or sea, the more rope 

 she would have to drag, and she would be 

 relieved of a corresponding amount of weight. 

 There was an arrangement on the edge of the car 

 beneath the balloon that permitted Andree to 

 shift the position of these ropes from one side to 

 the other, a distance of about eighteen inches ; 

 this was effected by a ratchet. He could also, 



M 161 



