278 
AMERICAN AGKIOULTURIST 
[July, 
TOYS 4 dms ? TOOTHm 
I'lie WoetorN Talks. 
Some boys have asked me to tell them how to make a 
Balloon. I wish they had reminded me of it sooner, as I 
might have talked about it last month, and you could 
have had your balloons ready for the Fourth of July 
Celebration. I believe in balloons for the 4th. 
BALLOONS AND CHINESE LANTERNS 
are a great deal better than crackers and fire-works to 
celebrate with. They do not cost so much to begin with, 
the lanterns will last from year to year, though I must 
admit that balloons are not very lasting; to be sure they 
are not dangerous, and do not make a had smell, but we 
shall by and by learn to show our patriotism without 
Fig. 1.— STARTING THE BALLOON. 
either burnt powder or burnt fingers. In former times 
people used to always speak of them as Air-Balloons. I 
recollect that when I was a mere youngster, I heard some 
old people talking about an o.baloon that was to go up at 
some place, and I was in great mental distress to know 
what the wonderful thing might be, until T could reach 
home and have it explained that it was an Air-bal¬ 
loon that was discussed. You may think that these 
“Talks,” where we have been trying to look into the 
why and wherefore of various things, is not the proper 
place for 4th of July and balloon talks. 
WHY DOES A BALLOON GO DP? 
we might answer this by saying that ail balloons do not 
go up, and none will do so unless certain law's that we 
have been talking about are observed. We may look 
upon a balloon as a mere toy, to afford amusement, or as 
a piece of apparatus for illustrating some of the facts of 
science. I do not know why we can not regard it as 
both. If you wish a body to rise through the water you 
know that it must weigh less, i. e., contain less matter 
than the same bulk of water. For a body to rise in the 
air it must weigh less than the same bulk of air. We 
have not yet had much to say in our Talks about Air and 
other gases, but I suppose you all know that air has 
weight. If a vessel holding 100 cubic inches with the air 
thoroughly taken out of it, is weighed, and then the air 
is let into it, and the vessel is again weighed, it will be 
found to be heavier than before by 30graius. That is the 
average weight of 
the air—100 cubic 
inches weigh 30 
grains. If we 
imagine a column 
of air one inch 
square at the 
earth, and reach- 
w o „ ing, of that size, 
Fig. 2. —SHAPE op pieces. ,, .. 
a all the w'ay, as 
far up as the air extends, which is supposed to be about 
100 miles, that column would weigh 15 pounds. A bal¬ 
loon then must in the first place be of very light mate¬ 
rial, and then must be filled with 
SOMETHING LIGHTER THAN AIR. 
The lightest gas known is Hydrogen—that is about 14 
times lighter than air, and is on some accounts the best 
for filling balloons, and has been used a great deal for 
that purpose. But there is another law that prevents it 
being the best material for balloons, and that is the law 
of diffusion of gases—sometime I may talk to you about 
this; suffice it to say that gases of unlike weights, when 
•separated by a porous partition, tend to mix; the heavy 
gas passes through the partition into the lighter one, and 
the lighter gas passing into the heavier one—and the 
lighter gas will pass through as much quicker than the 
heavy one, ns it is lighter than that. So it is very diffi¬ 
cult to hold hydrogen in a balloon. For this reason, and 
for its greater cheapness, illuminating or street gas is 
generally used, and as this is several times heavier than 
hydrogen, the balloon is made larger. But 
IN THE FIRST BALLOON, 
neither of these gases were used. The first balloon that 
was made did not go very far. It was of silk, had square 
sides, and went only up to the top of the room. When 
hydrogen gas was first discovered, it was tried in paper 
balloons, but they would not hold it. Two Frenchmen, 
brothers, named Montgolfier, were paper-makers. They 
tried hydrogen, and it would not work; then they tried 
to invent another gas by burning wool and straw, and 
that did answer. But it was not the gas from the straw 
and wool that made the balloon ascend. In burning 
these, the air was heated, and as a given bulk of hot air 
is lighter than the same of cold air, the first that went 
up was a hot air-balloon, though it was then thought to 
be due to the gas from burning wool. In making a bal¬ 
loon for our purposes, we use paper and hotair. We 
will not give any more of the early history of balloons, 
but go on 
WITH MAKING THE BALLOON. 
The materials needed are Twine, Paper, Flour-paste, 
and a brush to put it on with, a piece of willow or rat¬ 
tan for a hoop, a few feet of fine wire (copper is best, but 
iron will answer), some bits of sponge, and a few ounces 
of alcohol. Besides you will need a lot of old newspa¬ 
pers and some patience and skill. The sheets of tissue 
paper are 30 by 20 inches. As neither of these lengths is 
enough for a good-sized balloon, they should be pasted 
together, two sheets joined by their shorter sides, will 
make strips 00 by 20 inches. Our balloon, fig. 1, if 60 inches 
high, will, if a globe, be 180 inches in circumference, that 
would require 9 strips, but as we do not want it to be 
quite globular, and an even number of strips, as we shall 
presently see, are required, 8 pieces will be better. We 
shall want, then, 16 sheets of tissue paper. It will be 
safer to have a few extra sheets to make repairs in case 
of accident. The balloon may be all of one color, but it 
will look better of two, white and blue, or white and red 
are the most pleasing { or all three.may be used, three 
strips each of red and white, and two of blue, or three 
each of white and blue, and two of red. In procuring 
the paper, see that there are no holes in it, or, should 
any be discovered, they must be stopped by pasting a 
small piece of the same paper over them. Use well-boiled 
smooth flour paste; it is a great deal better than gum, 
which dries hard and will crack when bent. Paste the 
sheets together in pairs, lapping them about half an inch. 
When these are dry you will be ready to cut out to the 
proper shape. If the balloon is to be a globe, the pieces 
will be of the shape of fig. 2, a, each with the end cut off 
to form the mouth. But a pear-shaped balloon is hand¬ 
somer and easier to manage, and I think altogether bet¬ 
ter. For this the pieces have the shape given in fig. 2, b. 
If there is any rule for cutting out the parts or gores, I 
do not know it. In talking about making a balloon, as 
in many other matters. I have to go back a great many 
years, and, as a sailor would say, “ overhaul my mem¬ 
ory.” Indeed I found that there were so many points 
about making the balloon, that I could not recollect 
about, that I went to work and made one, in order to be 
sure I was right. To get the right shape, then, for the 
parts, take a piece of paper, 60 by 20 inches, fold it 
lengthwise, and mark out a pattern. When it is to your 
liking cut it out, and use it to cut the tissue paper by. 
If you have large and sharp shears, all 8 pieces may be 
cut at once; otherwise you must cut fewer at a time. 
Next comes the most difficult part, the pasting. Take it 
easy, and don’t get hurried or fussy over it. Tissue pa¬ 
per, when wet with paste, is very delicate and frail, and 
will tear very readily. Be careful with the paste, and 
should any get upon the paper where it is not needed, 
wdpe it off gently with a cloth, and let the place dry be¬ 
fore another piece of paper is laid upon it. Having ar¬ 
ranged the pieces as you wish the colors to go, you will 
begin to paste. Lay down a piece of the tissue paper, 
then lay another upon it, with its edge half an inch 
within the edge of No. 1. Put paste upon this project¬ 
ing half inch of No. 1, and turn it over and paste it upon 
No. 2, begin at the curved part, the top of the balloon, 
and paste the edge over a few inches at a time. When 
the whole edge has been pasted, lay piece No. 3 upon No. 
2 in the same manner, half an inch back from the edge. 
If the pasted edge of No. 1 was from you, that of No. 2 
will be towards you; this being done, lay No. 3 on No. 
2, and paste m the same manner, and go on until all are 
pasted together. When you have pasted the last. No. 8, 
you will have your balloon, folded like a fan, with alter¬ 
nate edges, in and out. Now comes the most difficult 
part, pasting the last edge—pasting the edge of piece 
No. 1 upon that of piece 8. By bending the other folds 
out of the w»ay. you can. without much difficulty, paste 
the edge from the top down to the widest part, about a 
fourth of the way; then stop and let it dry—being sure 
that all the pasting is perfectly dry, yon then unfold the 
balloon, i. e., take out the plaits. Now take a piece of 
cloth of some kind, glazed cambric or calico is best, cut 
out a circular piece about 2 inches across, and put this 
on the inside, where all the pieces come together, when 
that is dry, paste a similar piece of tissue paper on the 
outside. Now having the balloon unfolded, you will find 
but little difficulty in closing up the rest of the last seam. 
Let that dry, and by means of a large needle you can put 
a strong thread or small cord through the piece of cloth 
in the top, and make a loop to hang it up by. When 
hung up you can put in the hoop; this is to be as light 
as possible ; a small willow, split if not small enough, a 
split rattan or whatever is most convenient to make the 
lightest possible hoop. Cut the mouth of the bottom 
even, and put in the hoop, pasting the edges of the 
paper over it. Stretch a very fine wire across the hoop 
in two directions and the balloon is done. 
TO SEND DP THE BALLOON. 
Before starting out, see that there are no parts of the 
balloon that stick together, and that all the folds are 
out. You will need two bits of sponge about the size of 
English walnuts. One of these should be securely at¬ 
tached to a fine wire about 6 inches long. The other 
sponge will need no wire, but an old tin or other plate 
will be well to hold it. Of course you will need your 
small bottle of alcohol. Let one stand on something that 
will allow him to hold the balloon well up from the 
ground. Wet the loose sponge with alcohol, not to drip, 
put in on the plate and set fire to it, holding the balloon 
over the flame so that the hot air will rise into and in¬ 
flate it. As soon as the balloon will support itself the 
one who has held it by the top lets go and leaves it in 
charge of those below. One now w ets the wired sponge 
with alcohol, quickly fastens its wire to the cross wires 
of the balloon, having it well away from the burning 
alcohol while doing it. As soon as secure, light the 
alcohol on the sponge on the balloon—hold on a second 
until you feel sure that it will go—then let her sail. It 
is very easy to do but it takes a long while to tell. In 
sending up a balloon, select a place where there can be 
no danger to barns or other buildings should it fail to go 
up, also a place where the balloon can not be caught by 
trees or otherwise before it gels above them. 
Picture Puzzle. —How many faces are there here 
is a question that many will ask when they see this odd 
looking picture. Our artist sometimes gets a strange 
notion into his head, and don’t you think this is a -head 
of anything in the way of a combination of heads ? The 
clnn of one face is the nose of another, and the nose of 
the other is the forehead of the one, and so on all around 
the picture. What a funny looking person he would be 
that had such a combination head. It might be good for 
a school teacher, as he could then look in all directions 
at once; and again, what a singing school such a head 
man would make 1 
Our I*uzzIe-!8ox. 
DROP-LETTER WORDS. 
1. —b—t—m—o—s. 5. —r—t—r—i—y. 
2. —o—o—r—p—y. 6. — u—m—d—e—n. 
3. —r—g—n—l—i. 7. —e—m—t—e—s. 
4. —n—e—t—e—t. 8. — e—u—e—a—e. 
opposites (Geographical). 
(Example—Keep still. Answer— Home. If you roam 
you don’t keep still.) 
1. Back sea. 5. Brother, you speak truly. 
2. You are indebted to B. 6. Shortcoming. 
3. Wide-awake solid. ", 7. An unhappy vowel. 
4. Johanna’s daughter. 8. No pear. 
Adolph M. Nagel. 
MIXED PROVERBS. 
(In the following sentences are five well-known pro¬ 
verbs, displaced. Transpose the words and make the 
original proverbs : every word must be used.) 
Where’s the mother of brevity ? 
There’s a time for wit and invention. 
The soul is no light necessity. 
Many a man will wait. 
Hands make way! There’s tide of work. 
