TISSANDIER'S ELECTRIC BALLOON. 87 



the experiment repeated. The construction of a second balloon was undertaken 

 by two brothers of the name of Roberts, assisted by a prominent Professor of 

 Paris. It was made of silk, varnished with a solution of elastic gum. It was 

 thirteen feet in diameter, and filled with hydrogen gas. As it took some time to 

 inflate it, bulletins were issued daily regarding the progress. Near the time for 

 ascension so many people had gathered that a detachment of soldiers had to be 

 called to keep them back. August 27, 1783, at 5 P. M. a cannon was fiired as a 

 signal for the ascent. Upon being liberated it rose very rapidly about three thou- 

 sand feet. At this time it began to rain quite hard, but the rain had no effect, 

 neither on the balloon nor the spectators. Thousands of well dressed people, 

 many of them ladies, stood exposed watching it. It remained in the air about 45 

 miautes and came down fifteen miles distant. 



About this time the Montgolfier brothers repeated their experiment in the pres- 

 ence of theKing and Queen, as well as many other spectators. Suspended below this 

 balloon was a cage containing a sheep, a chicken and a goose, which are the first 

 of the animal kingdom recorded as having ascended in this manner. The balloon, 

 cage and contents descended safely in eight minutes, having reached a height of 

 1,500 feet. 



The largest balloon on record was 100 feet in diameter and 130 feet high. 

 It ascended in 1784, having been inflatec over a straw fire in seventeen minutes. 

 Seven persons were in the car. It rose 3,000 feet, and descended in fifteen min- 

 utes. 



Hundreds of balloons have ascended since the Montgolfier brothers sent up 

 their linen sack filled with smake, and as many have been the devices employed 

 for their improvement or to render them controllable. Tissandier's electric bal- 

 loon seems to reach nearest the desired end. Tissandier claims that we should 

 look upon the atmosphere as a vast ocean and a balloon as a boat so constructed 

 that when launched far above all obstructions it can be propelled and guided 

 through the air by a screw propeller and by a rudder in a manner similar to the 

 way our screw propellers are moved and guided in the water. In accordance 

 with their views they constructed (October of last year) their celebrated electric bal- 

 loon. It consists of three distinct apartments; the air balloon, properly so called, 

 a gas apartment for inflating, and the electric motor to give motion, that is, hori- 

 zontally, by means of a screw propeller. This balloon is much greater in length 

 than in thickness, having a length of twenty-eight metres and a thickness of nine 

 and two-tenths metres through the middle, thus being almost cigar shaped. Its 

 capacity is 1060 cubic metres. The netting over the balloon is made of ribbons, 

 woven with longitudinal spindles which keep them in their proper geometrical 

 positions. These make the outside surface much smoother than when cords are 

 used. It is connected on the sides of the balloon with two flexible shafts, which 

 perfectly conform to its shape when inflated. The car is in the shape of a cage 

 made of bamboo rods strengthened by cords or threads of copper covered with 

 gutta percha. It is attached to the ribbon net-work by ropes. The arrangement 

 for guiding is a rudder a broad surface of unvarnished silk supported by bamboo 



