 Man tried to fly for 5,000 years before he finally hit on the idea of the balloon. And it took him only a short time after that to discover that ballooning presents four primary problems. First, the problem of keeping the balloon itself in the air, which involves the question of fabric and something lighter than air with which to fill it. Second, the problem of lifting something besides the balloon into the air. This led to developing the net, load ring, and basket. Third, the problem of navigating vertically, of getting up and down. This has been done by using a valve, appendix, and ballast. And fourth, the problem of landing and emptying the balloon. Rip panel, drag rope, and in bygone days, anchor. Now in taking up those problems, let's consider how they relate to present-day ballooning. Here is a modern Navy balloon being prepared for inflation. Hydrogen gas is most often used in balloons because it is released after each flight. Helium is generally reserved for airships where it can be used over and over again. However, in the early days... The world's first balloon, the hot air marvel. Amazing invention of two Frenchmen, the great Montgolfier brothers. The world's first passenger flight from Paris, France, November 11th, 1783. Hey, something's wrong, look out! Ah, more hot air. Thought they'd forgot about that. Sensational, sensational! Or is it? Professor Charles, famous French scientist, would attempt an ascension using a newly discovered gas called inflammable air. The world's first hydrogen balloon, 1783. And now the stupendous feat of combining the two types of balloon will be attempted. We invite your attention to Pilatres de Rocier, France. Strange name. And this 40-foot hydrogen balloon with a 10-foot hot air balloon beneath it. Too bad, I could have warned him. He rises quickly, however, to about 3,000 feet and... The world's first matter to aircraft experiment. De Rocier, unfortunately, didn't know enough about hydrogen. Professor Charles could have shown him this. First, that pure hydrogen burns with an almost invisible flame. And second, when mixed with oxygen or air, hydrogen is highly explosive. In the early days, hydrogen was prepared by pouring sulfuric acid over scraps of iron. Here's a simplified, modern method of doing the same thing. Caustic soda and water are used instead of sulfuric acid. And ferrocylricon, a kind of ore, is used instead of scrap wire. The bubbles you see are hydrogen. The Navy today uses methanol, another name for wood alcohol, and water instead of sulfuric acid, and copper-zinc oxide instead of scrap wire. Now then, just exactly why does hydrogen lift a balloon? The answer is that it doesn't. Hydrogen is used merely to hold the sides of the balloon apart, using as little weight as possible. Here's the way it works. Consider an extended balloon with air inside and out. Naturally, it doesn't go up because the air inside is just as heavy as that outside. But as we take the air out of it, the lifting force of the air outside increases. Archimedes put it this way. The loss in weight of a body immersed in a fluid is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced. So the total lifting force on our balloon is exactly equal to the weight of the air displaced. No more, no less. Obviously, if we left it a vacuum, we'd get the most possible lift. But any container light enough to serve the purpose collapses from the outside pressure. It seems to be necessary to have more pressure on the inside than you have on the outside. That's why hydrogen fills the bill so well. You can release enough hydrogen into a balloon to overcome that outside pressure, keep the sides of the balloon apart, and still not add very much weight. Hydrogen is only about one-fourteenth as heavy as air. Now if the balloon is tied off so the gas can't escape, it expands as it rises. Simply because the air thins out as the altitude increases, thus lowering the outside pressure. Another factor is sunlight. Direct rays of the sun heat the gas and cause it to expand. A balloonist must be on the most intimate terms with both Charles Law and Boyle's Law. Charles Law. The volume of a gas is directly proportional to its absolute temperature. Boyle's Law. The pressure exerted by a gas is inversely proportional to its volume. If these laws are ignored, the balloon may explode. Warning. Watch the pressure inside your balloon. That goes for ordinary coal gas too, just like out of the stove. First tested and proved by Charles Green, famous English scientist in 1821. It's cheaper, it's handier, but heavier than hydrogen. First portable hydrogen plant invented during the Civil War by Abraham Leight. Oh, pardon me, invented by Professor Lowell, L-O-W-E Lowell, the first official air and aunt of the U.S. government. Note the small boxes, boys, washing machines to get rid of the self-fueling acid. Here's World War I, no gas generator in sight. The hydrogen is forced under high pressure into cylinders, which can then be stored or carried almost anywhere. The same system is used today. Now we come to the second half of the first problem, the question of fabric to hold the gas. Curiously enough, the best balloon material is a kind of animal tissue. It's called gold beater skin, found in cattle just after the appendix. Gold beater skin is cemented to balloon cloth as a lining. It's very light, thin, tough, and almost completely impermeable to hydrogen. But it's hard to get in sufficient quantity and expensive. So it's not surprising that the next best fabric, namely silt, took an early lead and remained a favorite up through civil war times. One of the most colorful incidents in the war was the use of a so-called petticoat balloon made of the beautiful silt gowns of southern balance. However, through a fortunate combination of economics and science, cotton forged into the lead during the 80s and has stayed there ever since. Cotton is even stronger than silk when treated with rubber, real or synthetic. It wears better, it's almost as light, and it won't generate a spark the way silk will when rubbed. What's more, it's far cheaper. New materials are constantly being tested and developed. Cellophane, for example, holds gas very well, and it's light and flexible. However, it doesn't last, and it tears too easily. Maybe these difficulties will be overcome. In any case, it appears certain that synthetic materials will become increasingly important in the preparation of balloon fabrics. The second problem, that of lifting something besides the balloon itself into the air, involves the development of the net, the load ring, and the basket. The famous Charles Balloon of 1783. Kindly note the load ring at the equator, and the net strung only over the top half of the balloon. 1793. The net now covers the entire balloon. The load ring has dropped below the balloon. This magnificent craft made the first flight in America, an ascension in Philadelphia by Jean Pierre Blanchard. Better known as Jean Pierre Blanchard, the prominent French erinard. 1830. Back to the half-net, but the load ring remains below the balloon. Charles F. Durand, owner and pilot, was the first native-born American erinard, scientist, a philosopher, and a dead devil. In 1859, this balloon set a world's distance record that stood for 40 years. Missouri to New York, 809 air miles in about 20 hours. John Wise was the owner and pilot, famous in early American aviation. Hmm, looks like he's got a boat there. That's something new. Professor Low in the Civil War used a double ring. A load ring and a basket ring. One on his finger for luck. And the basket itself is fairly small. Well, he didn't need to carry supplies and navigating instruments. He wasn't going any place, just sitting and looking. World War I brought a balloon of radically different shape. A captive balloon called the kite balloon. This was developed to overcome the balloon's tendency to swing in a circle when held captive. Tail cups were used as stabilizers. Air-filled lobes served the same purpose on a later type. Note the lack of a net. Lines were secured by so-called finger patches and the load ring was a horizontal bar. One of the great American balloonists of the 20s was Ward Van Orman. He improved on Wise's precautions against water landing by using pontoons and carrying a rubber life raft. This was the forerunner of the rubber boats carried in today's combat planes. Wise is a net better than finger patches. Well, stick around the boys and you'll see. John Wise went up one day. His balloon was hit the lightning. And the fabric parachuted into the net. To make sure it wasn't just luck, he would have often did it again. Worked exactly the same and has ever since. The next problem, the third, deals with the navigation of the balloon vertically. This is taken care of by means of the valve, appendix, and ballast. That first hydrogen balloon way back in 1783 had all three of these elements. In the first place, an open appendix allowed gas to escape naturally as pressure increased. Then when Professor Charles wanted to release more to descend, he opened a valve at the top and let more of it out. Of course, when the balloon came down, some air came in at the open appendix, and you couldn't call that good. But we'll consider that in a moment. Professor Charles learned about ballast the hard way. When he landed after his very first trip, he politely helped his passenger out. Silly boy. Moral, release ballast in small quantities. The balloon appendix started out as little more than a hole in the bottom of the balloon. But that was unhandy to deal with, and so gradually a tube was extended from the opening. Until in 1793, it was long enough to drape over the side of the basket. Possibly this was an effort to keep the gas from seeping down onto the head of the balloonist. But, of course, hydrogen drifts up, not down. So there was a gradual retreat until many experiments finally fixed the appendix at its present-day length. As we've already seen, a balloon that's descending always has a tendency to parachute. And if the appendix is open, air goes into it. But air mixing with hydrogen creates a highly explosive combination. So air is kept out nowadays by twisting the appendix's clothes during descent. And parachuting is prevented by securing the appendix to the load ring. From the very beginning, most balloon valves have worked in a trapdoor fashion. The valve is pulled down against a spring, which on release snaps the valve back into position. About 1880, the double trapdoor type came into use. It proved so efficient that it's still being used to this day. Various instruments have been devised to help in the navigation of balloons. For ordinary flights, an altimeter, rate of climb indicator, and a pocket compass are usually all the instruments that are needed. All on altigraph, or barograph, is also used if an accurate record of the flight is wanted. The earliest instrument used in a balloon was a plain mercury barometer. This was replaced by the aneroid barometer about 1880. It was handier. Calibrated in feet, it becomes an altimeter. The barograph, sometimes called altigraph, appeared about 1912. In any attempt at a record, an officially sealed barograph is always carried. The barometer didn't work quickly enough, so the status scope was developed to show change of altitude and rate of change. These are indicated by the position of the bubble in the tube. The instrument on the left is American and the one on the right, British. A further development is the rate of climb indicator, or vertometer. This device also stems from the First World War. Today, it is used either in the liquid type, as shown here, or a mechanical type. In addition to these instruments, balloonists have also usually carried a compass and watch a clock. We take up the fourth major problem in ballooning now, this involves the rip panel, drag rope, and anchor. The drag rope was invented in 1836 by Charles Green, the coal gas man, remember? Very useful in navigating at low altitudes and to prevent a rough landing. A sort of automatic ballast, you might say. Weight of the rope on the ground lightens the balloon. She rises and lifts more rope. Down she comes. Up, down. Up, down. My notness, isn't it? Look out for fences, houses, and high tension wires. Add medicine. In the old days, before the invention of four-wheel brakes and the rip panel, a balloonist had to throw out the anchor and pray. A landing was a cross between a commando fight and a rodeo. The balloonist didn't always win. Poor fellow. Since John Wise invented the rip panel in 1850, various styles have developed of which these three are typical. The peeling type, cemented in place. This can be difficult to pull if it's left in place too long. A variation, the V-peeling type, sometimes used on stratosphere and racing balloons. And three, the cheese cutter type. The fabric is torn, either the envelope itself or a fabric strip. The Navy today uses the first mentioned method. The panel is lightly cemented, not too long before use. This affords a gas-tight closure that can be handily ripped out and easily replaced. Now let's have a look at some of the uses of balloons. First, balloon racing. Probably the greatest single factor in creating public interest in lighter-than-air flight has been the balloon race, notably the big national and international events. Every year from 1906 to 1935, except during World War I, an international race was held for the James Gordon Bennett Trophy. American entrants were selected by a national race for the PW Litchfield Trophy and the contests were opened to all Army, Navy, or civilian pilots. The first international race, starting from Paris in 1906, was won by an American pilot, F. P. Lomb. He covered 402 miles to the northern part of York County, England. Probably the most spectacular of the big races was the 1910 event. Starting from St. Louis, Missouri, the winner, A. R. Hawley representing the United States, sailed 1,171 miles to St. John's, Quebec. He was lost for almost two weeks in the Canadian wilderness. Two years later, starting from Stuttgart, Germany, the French pilot, A. Bienemé, won the race with a record-smashing 1,298-mile flight to Moscow. But balloon racing did more than prove the great distances that could be covered in sustained lighter-than-air flight. One of America's leading balloonists, Ralph Upson, in preparation for the 1922 national race, organized the first system of aviation radio weather reports, an invaluable contribution to the progress of aviation. The fact is that many of the men interested in balloon racing have proved to be leaders in aeronautical development. Ward Van Orman is one of the outstanding figures. Three times an international race winner, Van Orman has pioneered in several important ballooning improvements. It was Commander Rosendahl when this was taken at a national balloon race in 1927. Today, Admiral Rosendahl, as Chief of the Navy Airship Training and Experimental Command, directs the entire field of military lighter-than-air development for the United States. The winner of the national race from Pittsburgh in 1929 was Lieutenant Settle, an ardent balloon race pilot and a scientist as well. But the name Settle became much better known for a considerably different aspect of ballooning, the stratosphere flight. In 1933, Settle went aloft almost 12 miles. Yet, sensational as that record was, it stood only two years. The reason was that stratosphere flights during the 1930s became almost an international passion. In 1934, three Army men, Stevens, Kepner and Anderson, tried unsuccessfully for a record. And then a year later, two of them, Anderson and Stevens, brilliantly succeeded with an ascension of almost 14 miles. What did they hope to find? Why did they go up? Well, the main purpose was to study cosmic rays, mysterious shafts of energy that constantly rain down on the earth. Also, to collect samples of air, dust, bacteria, and make other scientific studies. Their findings were valuable and could have been obtained in no other way. Such flights date back to 1862, when two English scientists, Coxwell and Glacier, ascended 37,000 feet. The outstanding modern flights have been those of Mr. and Mrs. Picard, 1934, 57,579 feet. Settle and Fordney, 1933, 61,237 feet. And Stevens and Anderson, 1935, 72,395 feet. This is the greatest altitude ever reached by man. But balloons carrying only equipment have reached even higher. Radio sand balloons, equipped to send constant reports back to earth by radio, have climbed as high as 86,000 feet. And at this point should be mentioned the fact that airologists constantly use small balloons to determine wind direction and velocity. Here's the operation of sounding, as it's called, being performed aboard a carrier, which serves to remind us of still another use of balloons. Balloons in war. The first war balloon was used by the French at the Battle of Floris in 1794. The Austrians might have shot it down, but didn't. Figuring the balloonists were taking enough risk, just going up in such a fool contraption. The Civil War balloon telegraph. For this, they used to shout, wig-wag, or throw rocks at each other, to which messages were sometimes tied. This was the first step on the road to radio. Recognize this? It's the grand par of all aircraft carriers. The first one in history. The G.W. Park Custis, used by the federal troops on the old Potomac. It had no motors, was pulled by a tug. Sometimes the boys had to help out by rowing. You may not believe this. During the siege of Paris, French not only established the first air mail service, but even published a newspaper that was sent by balloon posts to the provinces. Over three million letters were carried air mail. The world's first air battle. An attempt to hijack the French air mail. Both fire... Both miss, thank heavens. But a lot of future trouble was touched on, then and there. During World War I, both observation and barrage balloons were widely used. Observers did artillery spotting, map making, photography, and tracking of enemy troop movements. The AEF contained 23 balloon companies, each with two balloons. One for service, one for reserve. We lost 48 balloons during the war, 47 due to enemy action, and one blown away. The present war shows an advancement in barrage balloon protection. The armed cable. Here's the way one such lethal device works. Instead of the cable remaining taut and possibly breaking or slipping off the wing of the plane, it pulls free. And a parachute system pulls a bomb right onto the plane. With interesting results. The barrage balloon today is important and effective in helping to protect shore installations, cities, ships, and personnel from low altitude bombing and strafing attacks. Observation balloons are no longer used. Planes can do the work much better and faster. But the free balloon is far from being a hasby. No experience is more valuable to a lighter-than-air pilot than his training and handling of free balloon. After all, an airship is basically a powered, steerable balloon. It reacts to the same laws of gases. When its power plants stop or are stopped, the airship becomes a free balloon. The airship pilot must first be a competent balloon pilot. And the balloonist can look back on over 150 years of proud tradition shared by many great and courageous men. He can look forward to a challenging future in the airship, lusty child of the free balloon.