 The Montgolfier brothers inventors of the balloon 1783. How do you do? I am Paul Gorber, historian emeritus and Ramsey associate of the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum. There are two kinds of aircraft, lighter than air and heavier than air. Lighter than aircraft float. When they have engines, they're called manageable airships. Heavier than aircraft fly with a dynamic lift of their wings or they thrust downward of their rotors. Today we are concerned with lighter than air. I'd like to begin with that marvelous statement by the third secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Samuel Pierpont Langley, who said, knowledge begins with wonder. Back in 1783, Joseph and Stephen Montgolfier wondered why smoke rose. Now smoke had been rising from fire since the dawn of time. But the Montgolfier brothers did more than wonder about it. They added four other words, functions of the human mind and body that a good God has given us, along with a head full of brains that we ought to use more vigorously. In addition to wonder, the Montgolfier's added imagination, reasoning, experimenting, and development. WIRED, we'd say today that the Montgolfier's were wired for action. They earned a place in history. This monument was erected to their memory in their hometown of Annané, France. They reasoned that smoke rose because of some essential force pushing it up. And they decided to experiment by putting some smoke in a bag. In this statue, the bag, the ball, the balloon is symbolic. Actually, in their first experiments, the bag was probably larger because it has to be big enough to hold sufficient essential force to overcome the weight of the paper bag. I would say that their bag was about this size, probably made of paper because their father was a paper manufacturer. It has to be about this big to hold enough air. But early in their experiments, the Montgolfier brothers learned that it was not smoke that had some magic force. It was the air when heated would rise and push smoke up. So their experiment was to put heat into the paper bag. I have here a stove that works with alcohol. And I'm going to push it under here and light it. And the heat will go up that stack and fill up this bag. Now, we have here the two elements of the first balloon. That is, a paper bag and heat. Well, heat had existed since the dawn of time. And the Romans had paper, the Egyptians had paper. This thing could have been invented years and years ago. But it waited for these two men, these two geniuses, who developed this idea of utilizing heat to produce lift. I can feel it running out. You can see that the air inside is expanding. That's getting hotter and hotter and hotter and up. She goes. We've repeated the experiment that the Montgolfier brothers made nearly 200 years ago, 1783. They were so elated that they wanted to give a public demonstration of their discovery. For that occasion, they made a much larger balloon, about 35 feet in diameter, and decorated it with a monogram of the king, King Louis. When that balloon was inflated with hot air in an open field near their home, it rose more than a mile and was wafted by the wind for a distance of about a mile and a half, and then descended gently to earth. This astounded the people and was reported to the French Academy of Sciences, which invited the Montgolfiers to come to Paris. It had been suggested that a large balloon might be used to carry a man into the air, thus realizing the ambition of mankind for countless ages. But being fearful that man, an earth-born being, might not survive when lifted away from the earth, the Montgolfiers substituted three creatures, a rooster, a sheep, and a duck. This is a cartoon of the time. The actual scene is shown in this engraving. On September 19, 1783, with a king and queen and members of the court and thousands of persons assembled, this balloon was released, rising about a quarter-mile high and traveling about two miles, descending in a wood. There, the persons who had chased it found that the basket had turned over, the sheep was grazing, the duck was pecking at the grass, but the rooster, poor thing, was apparently quite ill. This caused some persons to conclude that the upper air was not suitable for roosters, so someone discovered the sheep had stepped on it. Thus reassured, it was decided that human beings might try going up in the balloon. The king suggested that there were two prisoners who were under sentence of death. Let them try it. They should be the passengers. But a brave young man, Francois Pilatres de Rosier, asked that he have the honor. His friend, the Marquis d'Arlandis, persuaded the king to agree. And together, these companions became the first persons ever to rise into the air. Trial assents were tethered with lines, but on November 21, 1783, these brave men rose in free assent for the first air voyage by mankind. We can imagine the thrill that these two men felt as they looked down at the city beneath and the feeling of awe as persons on the ground gazed upward at the huge ball in the sky with flames swirling beneath it, heating the air inside to keep the balloon aloft. The balloon was carried by the wind across Paris for a distance of about five miles, remaining in the air about 20 minutes. Then as the aeronauts let the fire diminish, they slowly settled to earth. One of the tens of thousands of persons who saw this event was Benjamin Franklin who was then our commissioner to France. He wrote enthusiastic accounts of it to scientific societies in England and America. From such an account, an American, Peter Carnes of Bladensburg, Maryland in 1784, constructed the balloon, inflated it with hot air, tied a line to it, and released it, this being the first assent of a balloon in the western hemisphere. He did not let it go free. He kept it tethered with that long line. That summer in Baltimore, he repeated the experiment, and there a young lad, Edward Warren, rose with the balloon to an altitude of about 200 feet and then was pulled down. At about that time in France, the first assent by a woman occurred at Lyon, she being Madame Thiebel, with the aeronauts traurant. While these experiments with hot air balloons were taking place, another method of inflating balloons was being developed using the light gas hydrogen. Hydrogen was discovered by the English chemist Henry Cavendish in 1766. Experiments revealed that it weighs about one-fourteenth as much as air. The Italian physicist Tiberio Cavallo demonstrated this lightness by inflating soap bubbles with hydrogen. The French professor Jacques Charros reasoned that a balloon inflated with this light gas would be a more efficient aircraft than a hot air balloon. Accordingly, using the process of pouring diluted sulfuric acid on granulated iron in a series of kegs, the hydrogen bubbled up and flowed into a balloon about 12 feet in diameter, which gradually filled with the gas. As I look at this picture, I think of the tragedy that would have occurred if a spark from one of those torches had reached the hydrogen, which is very explosive and mixed with air. Every one of this crab would have been badly burned or even killed by the blast. But they reached the Champ de Mars safely. There it was necessary to replenish some of the gas, but the next day, June 26, about five in the afternoon, when this unmanned balloon was released, it rose much faster and went much higher and farther than the hot air type and finally disappeared in the clouds. Not until the following day did persons in Paris learn what had become of it. After being in the air about an hour and traveling about 15 miles, it started to descend near the village of Zernes. As it appeared in the sky, villagers there were astounded and frightened. What was it? Had the moon come adrift? Was this some creature from another world? Slowly it descended, came to Earth, rolled over, let out a peculiar sigh and a terrible tinge. Finally, someone was brave enough to throw a pitchfork into it. Somebody else shot it. Others threw stones. That made it writhe about. Then the villagers really beat it to pieces and the fragments were tied to a horse which galloped off in terror. Professor Charles now took the next step, which was to order from the Robert Brothers of Paris a balloon that would be man carrying in size. The Robert Brothers were skilled in the handling of fabrics and had developed a varnish that would make a balloon airtight. This varnish contained rubber. It's remarkable how farsighted Charles and the Robert Brothers were in the design and construction of the balloon that they made. It had practically all of the elements of the modern balloon including the bag which was very nearly hydrogen tight, the net over the top that distributed the load, the load ring or equator as it is sometimes called, the shrouds that carried the load down to the car, the appendix which was an open vent at the bottom of the balloon so that if it should get into the sun and the sun should expand the gas the gas could flow out here instead of bursting the balloon. This is the valve line by which the amount of gas in the bag was controlled. Here's an enlargement of the valve itself. Here's the valve and here's the enlargement. You see this trap door that could be pulled open by yanking on this line. The car contained the aeronauts, bags of sand for ballast, a barometer for measuring the height, thermometer, temperature, maps notebook, trumpet and so forth. To go up, the aeronauts would throw out ballast, sometime just a handful and the balloon would start rising. To make it come down they would pull on this valve line, open the valve and the balloon would come down. The balloon was 22 and a half feet in diameter. Three days and nights were required to inflate it. On December 1, 1783, Charles and one of the Robert Brothers rose in this balloon from the garden of the Tuileries in the presence of a vast multitude. The balloon drifted northwestward, crossed the St. River, passed over several towns for the astonishment of the inhabitants and after a voyage of two hours for the distance of about 30 miles, they came down near the town of Nela. Charles decided to re-ascend, but there was not enough gas left for his companion to go with him, so the professor took off alone. He rose in 20 minutes to an altitude of about 9,000 feet, where the temperature was 20 degrees below freezing. He was not dressed for such cold and suffered severe head pains. He vowed gas to descend, landing about three miles from his take-off point. The first balloonist to ascend in England was Vincent Lunardi of Italy, who rose from near London, September 15, 1784. His exploits made him a popular hero and his good looks swayed many female admirers. The first of all professional aeronauts was the Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard. He came to England to give demonstrations and was engaged by the American physician John Jeffries of Boston to make an assent over London in November 1784. Jeffries, much interested in many phases of science, carried instruments for measuring altitude, temperature, humidity, and other conditions of the air above the earth. Two of his original instruments are in the National Air and Space Museum. During the aerial voyage, he wrote four cards addressed to friends and tossed these messages out of the basket, learning later that three of them had been delivered. Thus, with this American, we have pioneer instances of scientific aeronautics and air mail. The same two aeronauts, Blanchard and Jeffries, were the first to make an air voyage from one nation to another. Taking off from Dover, England, January 7, 1785, they were blown toward France, but encountered a down current over the English Channel, requiring them to throw overboard not only all their ballast, but also books, a package of air mail, their lunch, even some of their clothing. But at last, their descent was checked and an upcurrent raised them to clear the coast and carry them inland to a light in the forest of Gaines. They had been aloft for two hours. Later, at their landing place, a monument was erected to commemorate this first international air voyage. The Rosier, whom you will remember as the first person to rise into the air in a balloon, became the first to lose his life as the result of an accident in the air. He had hoped to be the first to cross the English Channel from France to England, a balloon that he prepared was designed to use both hot air and hydrogen, the gas being in the spherical portion at the top, and the hot air in the cylindrical neck below. His theory was that by heating the air in the cylinder or letting it cool, the balloon's ascent and descent could be controlled, thus rising or coming down without the need to throw out ballast or valve of hydrogen. On June 15th, 1785, the Rosier and his companion, Romain, rose from Belan near the coast and at first ascended smoothly, but at an altitude of 3,000 feet, a spark from the fire that heated the air penetrated the upper container, igniting the hydrogen and destroying the balloon. The loss of these two brave men emphasized that every new science requires extreme caution and precise knowledge to avoid tragedy. Their monument reminds us of such milestones on the paths of progress. The first free ascent in America was made by the Frenchman, Blanchard, January 9, 1793. You'll recall that the ascent by Peter Carnes had been tethered. Blanchard had come to this country hoping to advance his fortune by making a sense. At that time, Philadelphia was the capital of our nation. Our first president was much interested in science and was also concerned for the welfare of Blanchard because the Frenchman could not speak English. So Washington gave him a note, requesting that wherever he might alight, he be given assistance. Blanchard took off from the prison yard, a location chosen because it had a high wall which would keep out not only the wind, but also those persons who hadn't paid admission. Those who did have tickets, as well as those who were outside and didn't, saw the balloon rise and be waffled off over the city and across the Delaware River. It came down in New Jersey near the town of Woodbury. Upon showing the note from the president, Blanchard was given every assistance in deflating the bag, packing it into the basket, putting it into a cart, and taking it back to Philadelphia. The next year, 1794, occurred the first use of a balloon in warfare. That was at the Battle of Flores in Belgium between the French and the Austrians. The French, aided by the aerial observer and his signals and his messages to the commanders below, the French won this battle. A very well-organized balloon corps was developed in the French Army. But, peculiarly, that great military genius, Napoleon, failed to make proper use of it in his military campaigns. He could certainly have used it at Waterloo. As our story advances into the 19th century, ballooning was advancing in technology and in popular loose. The altitude and length of air voyages increased. Aeronauts were eager to learn more about the science and practice of ballooning. The farthest air journey in the first half of that century was made by three English aeronauts, Robert Holland, Monk Mason, and Charles Green, in a huge balloon which became known as the Great Nassau. Green advanced ballooning not only through his more than 500 successful ascents, but also by his discovery that ordinary co-gas, such as we use in our homes, is lighter than air, and although not as light as hydrogen, can be used to inflate balloons and costs much less than hydrogen. Reduction of cost made ballooning more popular. Green also originated the use of the guide rope. This was a long piece of line that could be lowered from the car to trail on the ground. It maintained the balloon at a near constant altitude because when the balloon tended to rise, it lifted more of the line, thus increasing the overall weight. And when the balloon started downward, the overall weight was decreased because the ground were part of the weight of the line. Green was the first aeronaut to foresee the eventuality of transatlantic air travel. He was the maker of the Great Nassau. Rising from near London early in the afternoon of November 7, 1836, the huge balloon drifted in a south-easterly direction, crossing the English Channel by early evening. The three aeronauts enjoyed dinner above the clouds in the mysterious stillness of night, occasionally seeing the lights of distant towns and factories. With dawn, the rays of the rising sun heated the gas in the balloon, causing it to rise rapidly to about 12,000 feet. Chilled and hungry, the aeronauts decided to return to Earth. They had passed over France and were above the German duchy of Nassau. They descended at Weilberg, having been in the air 18 hours and traveled 500 miles. An ascent that was remarkable for the high altitude reached and the privations experienced by the balloonists was that of the scientist James Glacier and the aeronaut Henry Coxwell. Both English, starting from Wolverhampton in early afternoon with a temperature at 59 degrees, they were in three-quarters of an hour five miles aloft with a thermometer at two below zero. Here their scientific observations were increasingly interesting, but also more difficult to obtain because of their own physical impairment due to cold and lack of oxygen. Glacier felt his arms and legs becoming weaker and for a while lost consciousness. The line that extended upward through the balloon to the valve was pulled out of reach by the distending bag. Coxwell climbed into the load ring to get it, but his hands were so cold that he could not grasp the line. He caught it in his teeth and by lowering his head opened that valve high above. The balloon started to descend. Gradually, as the balloon came downward, the men regained the use of their muscles. They thought they had been about seven miles high. That's almost 40,000 feet. Their nearly tragic experience proves that mankind just cannot live so high above the earth. Man must have oxygen for his lungs and he must have air pressure on his body so that it will retain its functions. That's why airliners are pressurized. Airliners going across country fly at about 35,000 feet. But without such pressurization, a few persons could exist, or at least, well, say 10,000 feet. You get very uncomfortable. 20,000 you're passing out, 30,000 you're dead. So the modern airliner is a proof of the experience that was that of Glacier and Coxwell. Balloons were now increasing in popularity. In fact, there were some fantastic designs. The Robertson idea, as you see, had just about everything attached to it. Some of the balloons were highly decorated, both the gas bags and the cars. And there were some sensational stunts, such as equestrian assents. Ballooning has often happened with any new thing, even affected fashions, resulting in skirts with hoop-like distenders and grotesque bustles. At the other extreme, ladies who rode balloons at carnivals wore a minimum of clothing. In America, the first professional aeronaut was Charles Ferson Durant of Jersey City, who made his first ascent from Castle Garden, New York City, in 1830. He distributed posters advertising his availability for aerial demonstrations. It was his custom to write poetry, describing the pleasures of ballooning. And as he ascended, he would toss out these poems to the throngs who gathered to see him take off. He was a man of many talents and cultivated silkworms, among other things. The flag that he carried on his balloon was of silk woven on his own looms. Some of his poems and his flag are now in the Smithsonian. Another famous American aeronaut was John Wise of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He made his first ascent in a balloon of his own construction at Philadelphia in 1835. He made 440 air voyages in all. In 1848, he ascended from the courthouse square in Washington, D.C. The longest of his air voyages established a record. Rising from St. Louis, July 2, 1859, with three companions, they ballooned northeastward for 20 hours and 1,100 miles, crossing Lake Erie in a violent storm and ending their hazardous ride when the balloon wedged into a tree on the shore near Henderson, New York. In mid-August of the same year, at Lafayette, Indiana, Wise advertised that he intended to carry mail to New York. A number of persons entrusted their letters to him and this air mail. But as he rose, the wind was nearly calm and he remained in sight for a long time. Finally, he descended near Crawford'sville in the same state, only about 25 miles from his takeoff. The mail was sent on by train. A hundred years later, the Post Office Department issued a commemorative mail mail stamp in honor of John Wise and that early Postal Balloon event. In addition to arousing widespread interest in aeronautics by his many ascents and describing the beauties of ballooning in two excellent books, John Wise originated a very useful accessory to ballooning, the ripping panel, which, extending from the top of the bag to nearly its equator, could be opened by pulling a line so that, after landing, all of the gas could be emptied rapidly. This is particularly useful when the wind is blowing, which would otherwise drag balloon and passengers across country. He also found that the fabric of a bursted balloon would often fold upward into the net, forming a parachute and enabling the balloonist to descend safely. During his ascents at higher altitudes, John Wise had noted that he would often encounter an eastward current and he reasoned that if he could make a balloon large enough and tight enough, he would be able to cross the Atlantic. This is his proposed design. The boat was for use in event of a forced descended sea, and the smaller balloon was to hold gas for replenishing the supply in the large one and also for making repairs on the big bag if needed. A similar scheme was proposed by Thaddeus Low of New Hampshire. His balloon, first named the city of New York, later the Great Western, had a gas capacity of 725,000 cubic feet, which gave it a lifting capacity when inflated with coal gas of 11 tons. It was actually built as shown in this photograph where Thaddeus Low is the person in the foreground wearing the stovepipe hat. This balloon was inflated for a short trial ascent near Philadelphia on June 28, 1860. All seemed ready for the transatlantic voyage. Some of the equipment is shown here. The citizens of Philadelphia who had helped to finance this scheme wished to have the best advice regarding the prospects and urged that Professor Low consult the eminent scientist, Joseph Henry, First Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Professor Henry suggested that Low first make a trial ascent from some inland city, choosing a day when the wind was blowing westward. Then, if the eastward current was constant at higher altitudes, Low could ascend into it, travel eastward, and prove the existence of that current. Low chose Cincinnati for the takeoff. Such a condition did develop the evening of April 19, 1861. Although at first, Low was blown toward the west. He threw out sand and to his great satisfaction found his eastward current at 7,000 feet and higher. The temperature dropped to zero. With a rising sun, the gas expanded, and he went up to 18,000 feet, but continued eastward at high speed. Over the Alleghenies, he climbed at 22,000 feet and then began his descent because he was approaching the coast. He made a landing at a South Carolina settlement named P. Ridge. South Carolina had ceaseless from the Union the previous December, and Fort Sumter had been fired on the previous week before Low appeared. The state was in affirmative war fever, and Low was thought to be a damn Yankee spy. The persons in the crowd clamored that he be shot. Only the intercession of a young lady protected him, but even so he was taken to Unionville and was to have been put in jail. But there he was recognized by a hotel proprietor who had learned of Low's association with the Smithsonian. Low was freed and permitted to take a train to Columbia and then back to Cincinnati. The train ride took four days, quite a contrast to his nine-hour balloon trip eastward. He then hurried to Washington where he offered his services as a balloonist to the Army, but General Winfield Scott was not interested. So again, Low went to see his friend, Joseph Henry, at the Smithsonian. That secretary helped to arrange a dramatic demonstration to prove the value of aerial observations. Low made a tethered ascent from the Smithsonian grounds, and because Professor Henry was much interested in electricity, a telegraph instrument was carried aloft in the basket, and wires were run from the balloon to the ground and over to the White House. There on June 18, 1861, President Lincoln heard the message, Dear sir, from this point of observation we command an extent of country nearly 50 miles in diameter. I have the pleasure of sending you this first telegram ever dispatched from an aerial station and acknowledging indebtedness to your encouragement for the opportunity of demonstrating the availability of a science of aeronautics in the service of the country. This demonstration convinced the President of the United States that balloons would indeed be useful in warfare. Many generals wanted to have balloons to help them in their campaigns. Balloons became a very important part of Civil War operations for both North and South. Soon after the beginning of the Civil War, this balloon was sent by Thaddeus Low near the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, convinced President Lincoln and military leaders of the advantages of aerial observations in wartime. These binoculars belonged to Thaddeus Low, the chief aeronaut of the Northern armies in the Civil War. They were given to the museum by his daughter. Looking through these, he and the observers who accompanied him observed the operations of the Confederate armies and then telegraphed their reports to the commanding officers. Here is Professor Low about to leave camp and go to his balloon which was located several hundred yards away so that the sparks through soldiers' campfires would not ignite the flammable hydrogen gas in the balloon bag. Note that the binoculars that I showed you are hanging from his right side. On his left hand, he holds his barometer in another case. Thaddeus Low was not the first aeronaut to serve in the Northern army. Prior to the Civil War, balloon ascent had been a popular attraction at carnivals and other events, and there were a number of brave and enterprising men, both North and South, who were professional aeronauts. With the outbreak of war, several of them offered their services to their respective armies. The distinction of being the first aeronaut in the military belongs to James Allen of Rhode Island, who left Providence for the first Rhode Island regiment and his two balloons, four days after President Lincoln issued his first call for troops. On June 9, 1861, one of Allen's balloons was inflated with coal gas in Washington, and he made a demonstration ascent from the camp of his regiment north of the city. The second aeronaut with the Northern army was John Wise, whom you met in the previous film. He was asked by the chief of the topographical corps of the army to serve as an aeronaut and to submit a design and estimate for making a military balloon. Following careful consideration of requirements, Wise submitted a price of $850, and volunteered his personal services. The contract was awarded to him. He completed the balloon on July 16, 1861, and delivered it to Washington three days later. Thus, this became the first military aircraft ever designed for and purchased by the United States Army. John Wise included a feature that we continue to use in military aircraft of today, armor. Here you see Professor Wise supervising the placing of a plate of sheet iron in the bottom of the basket as protection from anti-aircraft fire. With the Confederate armies threatening Washington, both Wise and Allen were ordered to have their balloons inflated so that the gas works in Washington and take them across the Potomac to the Federal Army's outposts. The balloons were towed by ground troops, but en route, both balloons were so badly torn by the branches of trees that the gas escaped and they became useless. When criticized by an army officer for failure to deliver his balloon for use at the Battle of Bull Run, Wise commented that the balloon part was just about as good as the freighten part. You'll recall that the North lost that battle, at July 21, 1861. Three days later, Dadeus Low made his first military ascent when he reported with his inflated balloon enterprise at the camp of General Irvin McDowell near Arlington, Virginia. There, Low made a free ascent, that is, without any tethering lines attached. He rose about three and a half miles, quite out of range of Confederate fire, and observed that although there were large, mass operations of the Confederate infantry and cavalry about 30 miles distant from Washington, there was no concentrated movement toward the nation's capital. Valding gas and descending, he found an air current that carried him back toward the Union lines, but there he was fired at by Northern troops who thought he was a Confederate balloonist. Writing again, he came down in an open field behind the Confederate lines, being slightly injured in the landing. Mrs. Low, who had been anxiously standing the sky, saw his returning balloon and the direction of his descent. With the assistance of some men from the 31st New York Volunteer Regiment, he was located. Mrs. Low, who had obtained a horse and wagon, helped him put the deflated balloon and basket in the wagon. Covering him with the balloon cloth and evading Confederate tickets, she drove to federal headquarters where Low's reports allayed the fears in the capital city. At Fortress Monroe in Virginia, the Union troops were surrounded by Confederate units. General Benjamin Butler, in command, needed to know where the enemy forces were, how large they were, and what they were doing. Butler wrote to the aeronaut John LeMountain in Troy, New York, emphasizing the need for aerial observation. LeMountain came promptly and made several assents, being able to observe enemy operations within a radius of 30 miles. His reports and sketches gave General Butler an accurate knowledge of the location and strength of troops in the vicinity. On August 3, 1861, for the first time in the history of the world, a man carrying aircraft was launched from the deck of a vessel for a military operation. This was when LeMountain's balloon was carried on board of the Federal Armed Transport FANI, which then steamed out into Hampton Roads, Virginia. With the aeronaut in the basket, the balloon was let out from the stern, rising about 2,000 feet, and LeMountain observed the construction of a formidable Confederate battery from which the guns could be aimed at Fortress Monroe or at shipping. This is a copy of a sketch made from his balloon for General Butler. The FANI then steamed to several other points of vantage, demonstrating the versatility of the combination of watercraft with aircraft. We realize this today with our Navy's aircraft carriers. Five factors limited the use of balloons with the armies. First was the weather. Second was the inexperience of the ground crews, which were assigned from whatever unit happened to be in the area, but seldom were permitted to remain long enough to acquire the necessary experience for handling the balloons properly. Third was the failure of commanding officers to use the balloons efficiently. Fourth was the difficulty of transporting the inflated balloons over the narrow roads. And fifth was the need to keep the balloons adequately inflated. During the first part of the war, balloons were usually filled with the gas words in the nearest city where that service was available. When the gas from one balloon had leaked out so much that it could not rise, it could sometimes be made serviceable by nursing it from another balloon that was partly filled. The photograph here was taken during a critical time at the Battle of Seven Pines in Virginia. There was urgent need for some means of filling the balloons and keeping them filled at the places where they were in use. Early in the war, when Secretary Henry of the Smithsonian Institution was asked to give his opinion on the value of balloons in warfare, he recommended the development of a portable hydrogen gas generator. He and Thaddeus Lowe discussed this at length. Here is a sketch made by them in Secretary Henry's office. The generator had a strong wooden tank in which a quantity of iron or zinc granules or shavings were covered with water into which sulfuric acid was then poured, generating hydrogen gas. The gas then flowed into a cooling tank and next into a purifying tank and was then pumped into the balloon. This is the completed equipment as constructed at the Washington Navy Yard. The portable gas generator made possible the first aircraft carrier. Here is a scale model of that first carrier. Let me clarify its identity. The Fanny, used at Hampton Roads, was a transport vessel and the only equipment added for the elevation of the balloon was a winch and line on its stern. But the vessel represented by this scale model was modified extensively from waterline to topside and also below deck for balloon operations. Thaddeus Lowe had requested such a vessel from the Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Wells. The Navy bought a coal barge for $150. Under Lowe's supervision, Washington Navy Yard Carpenters constructed a deck with hatches for going below where equipment was stowed. The vessel was named for the step-grandchild of our first president, the George Washington Park Custis. It had no power of its own, but was towed to each place of use. The vessel was very valuable in the Union Army in the fall of 1861. Here it is at Budsbury on the Potomac. In the spring of 1862, it accompanied the balloon corps during the campaign to the Chesapeake and toward Richmond. The balloon Washington was one of seven that by this time were operating with the Army under Lowe's direction. Eight skilled aeronauts served with him, including Ebenezer Seaver at left and John Starkweather. Others were Lever, Dickinson, Paulin, Steiner, Mason and Frano. As McClellan's Army approached Richmond and particularly at the Battle of Fair Oaks where this photograph was taken showing the portable gas generators in use, observations from the balloons were most valuable. Here that fierce battle is illustrated in a Currier and Ives print, built the balloon in the upper left corner. Major General A. W. Greeley later wrote, the Union Army was saved from destruction at the Battle of Fair Oaks, May 31 to June 1, 1862, by the frequent and accurate reports of Professor Lowe. Balloon observers provided important services. Artillery fire was directed, corrections being made for range and deflection until the shots were hitting the target. On numerous occasions, officers, telegraphers or topographic artists ascended with Lowe to make personal observations and prepare sketches and reports for the commanders. Lowe developed a brilliant calcium light for illuminating night operations. Often he supplemented the telegraph reports by written descriptions and sketches that turned to earth. The Confederates also used balloons, some were of the hot air type. Hydrogen was used occasionally, but the Southern Army was hampered by lack of materials. The most famous Confederate balloon was popularly known as the Silk Dress Balloon, because it was reportedly made from silk dresses donated by the natives of the South. Actually, it was made from pieces of silk of various patterns, probably intended for silk dresses. The constructor was Captain Langdon Cheeves Jr. of Savannah, who served as its aeronaut at the battles of Gaines Mill and Malvern Hill, defending Richmond successfully. On July 4, 1862, while ascensions were being made from the deck of a small Confederate tugboat, the tug-vanagrown and a large federal tug captured both the boat and the balloon. Thaddeus Lowe, whose observation from his balloon had assisted in the capture, designed this piece of the balloon as a souvenir, and it was later given to the Smithsonian by his family. General George McClellan used those balloons frequently and intelligently during his campaigns, but after McClellan was replaced during the interval between the major campaigns of 1862 and 1863, his successors were not as well acquainted with the usefulness of aerial observations and made changes which were just tasteful to Lowe. His pay was reduced from $10 a day to $6, and he was subjected to unnecessary and humiliating discipline. His father, Clovis Lowe, concerned for the welfare of his son and being anxious to do his bit in the war, came to help. Here the aeronaut is showing his father one of his plans for signaling from the balloon. After the battle of Chancellor'sville, when Lowe was stricken with fever, he resigned. For a while, James Allen maintained charge of the balloon corps, but then he, too, gave up this responsibility. The statement by the Confederate general, E.P. Alexander, is particularly pertinent. He wrote, I have never understood why the enemy abandoned the use of military balloons early in 1863 after having used them extensively up to that time. Even if the observers never saw anything, they would have been worth all they caught for the annoyance and delay they caused us in trying to keep our movements out of their sight. The next important use of balloons in warfare occurred during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870-71. But that was principally a postal operation to enable persons in besieged Paris to send mail beyond the Prussian lines. I will therefore describe those events when we come to the subject of air mail later in this series. Another important use of aircraft is in exploration. The attempt by André and his two companions to reach the North Pole by air in 1897 is an outstanding example. Solomon August André of Sweden became interested in ballooning early in life. This interest was intensified when he came to the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, 1876, and there met the famous aeronaut John Wise. In 1895, at a meeting of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, André announced his plan for a North Polar Expedition by balloon. The first person to contribute toward the expenses was Alfred Nobel in Better of Dynamite, from whose fortune the Nobel Prize is all awarded. In June of 1896, the André expedition left Gothenburg, Sweden, aboard the freighter Virgo. They put in several ports, as shown by the dotted line on this map. Their destination was Spitzberg, in which is east of northern Greenland. The Virgo anchored on the north side of Dane Island, where the hangar for the balloon was erected, and the hydrogen gas generator was assembled. By the end of July, the balloon, named the Eagle, and of 176,000 cubic feet gas capacity, was inflated and the car packed. But the weather continued unsuitable, with the wind blowing from the wrong directions. Finally, by mid-August, the attempt for that year was canceled, and the expedition returned home. An earlier schedule was followed the next year, and before the end of June, the balloon was again ready. One of André's companions for the voyage was Niels Strindberg, an outstanding student in physics and chemistry, and an expert photographer. The other companion was Newt Frankel, a sportsman, athlete, and civil engineer. Both of them had been preparing themselves for the voyage by making balloon a sense at Paris. On July 11, 1897, with the wind blowing from the south-southwest, the walls of the hangar were dismantled, and the balloon rose with the aeronauts. For a few moments, it lost altitude, and the car dipped into the water. But with the release of ballast, it rose to about 1,600 feet, and later to 2,000 feet. All that afternoon and evening, it headed northeastward, but by midnight, the wind had changed, and the balloon was blown westward. The temperature was just below freezing. During the afternoon of the second day, the weather became foggy. This moisture freezing on the balloon bag. During the night, it moved slowly, bumping occasionally on the ice. The next morning, the sun warmed the gas, and the balloon rose, blown by a northwesterly wind. But by mid-afternoon, the fog was again dense, the ice forcing the balloon down. They jettisoned everything that could be spared, and for a while they rose again. But by midnight, they were once more on the ice, this time to stay. They had been in the balloon for 65 hours, coming down 180 miles from the nearest land, about 500 miles from the North Pole. Now the details of the voyage were known to the world at that time, except for a brief message brought by a carrier pigeon which alighted on the yard of a ship, and some short notes found in two buoys that drifted ashore. The fate of these three men remained a mystery for 33 years. Then in 1930, the vessel brought fog on a combined hunting and scientific voyage, hoped to off White Island. Members of the crew went ashore for a walrus hunt, and there found the remains of Andre's camp. From the diaries, down near the Aeronauts bodies, and from the films which were developed and printed after 33 years, it was possible to learn of the trials experienced by these brave men, and to draw a map of their roots, both in the balloon and afterward, when they were dragging their sledges over the broken and shifting ice for 83 days. From White Island, they could probably have seen, on clear days, Spitzbergen, the island whence they had started. If they could have reached that shore, they might have been able to go overland to civilization, but that was not to be. Examinations indicated that they had succumbed to the effects of contaminated food, probably polar bear meat. From the very start of ballooning, there were numerous instances when Aeronauts wanted to direct the course of their travel, but instead were carried in whichever direction the wind was blowing. This was especially true of the Andre expedition, the distance which his balloon traveled through the air. If it had been proceeding in a straight line, word had extended to the North Pole. During the Franco-Prussian War, there were other instances of balloons being blown away from their intended courses. Two were lost at sea, but as far as Norway. Soon after the invention of the balloon, there were some fanciful ideas as to how they might be propelled and steered. Muscular power and harnessed birds were suggested. Blanchard and Lunaridae had tried to row their balloons with large oars, but without success. As early as 1785, a farsighted concept of a dirigible, this word means steerable, balloon was originated by the French general, Jean-Munier. He planned for an elongated bag that would pass through the air more easily than a round one. The suspension of the car from a wide band, the maintaining of the gas bags, taught shape by use of an inner ballonette, kept pumped up with air. Propulsion was to be by three propellers, which, no mechanical engines being available at that time, were to be rotated by manpower. Although this concept was never constructed, it influenced later designers. Mr. George Kaley of England had several ideas for construction and operation of airships. This is his design of 1817. At the left, in a front view, he proposes the use of scoop-appellers. But in the side view, he pictures what he called flappers, which would have been less efficient. He had a rudder for steering. Another method of steering an aircraft considered by Kaley was to pivot a plane between two balloons, the upper one containing hydrogen, the lower one, a hot air balloon, the fire being in the car below. With the top balloon providing two-thirds of the lift, heating the air in the lower balloon would make the craft rise. Tilting the plane would cause the craft to make a slanting climb. The motion being forward, as well as upward, the rudder at the rear would steer the craft at angles to the wind. By reversing the tilt of the plane and valving out the heated air, the craft would go downward at a forward angle. By alternately heating and releasing the air and continuing the upward and downward slanting of the plane, the craft could be steered on a chosen course, providing adverse winds were not too strong. During the Civil War, an airship utilizing the slanting plane method of climate descent was developed by Dr. Solomon Andrews, a physician in better of numerous devices and three times mayor of Perth Amboy, New Jersey. While serving in the Federal Army as a physician, he saw Thaddeus Lowe's balloons in use and believed that a steerable balloon that could maneuver over the Confederate lines and return would be more useful than one that was attached by lines to the ground. Financing the construction of the aircraft himself at a cost of $10,000, he named it the Aeron. It had three cylindrical gas bags each 80 feet long, and beneath was the car 12 feet long. During the summer of 1863, Andrews made three trips in it over New York City and vicinity. His method of steering was to tilt the whole craft by moving the weight to the rear of the car, slanting the front end upward as he released ballast and steering with a rudder. Then, at altitude, moving the weight forward and releasing gas, the nose would inclined downward as the craft continued on course. According to contemporary accounts in the New York newspaper, the Aeron rose more than a thousand feet and maneuvered against the wind. Andrews' efforts to interest the government in his invention were disappointing. President Lincoln heard of this airship and asked for further information, which Andrews sent to him, but it failed to reach the President. Using an operating scale model, Andrews demonstrated his invention to the Congress, and then, at the Smithsonian Institution, where Secretary Henry prepared a favorable report addressed to the Secretary of War. But by that time, the Civil War was joined to a close and no action was taken. Meanwhile, 20 years earlier, in France, Henry Giffard had developed the first steered airship using mechanical power. The gas bag of his airship was 143 feet long, 39 feet in diameter and held 75,000 cubic feet of gas. Propulsion was by a three-horse power steam engine driving a three-grader propeller at 110 revolutions per minute. To reduce the risk of sparks igniting the hydrogen gas, the car was suspended about 20 feet below the horizontal pole under the bag. Giffard's first trip was on September 24, 1852, at Paris, starting in late afternoon and continuing until nightfall. His speed was about five-and-a-half miles an hour. He was able to steer, to right or left, but could not make headway against an appreciable wind. He had plans for a much larger airship, but his failing eyesight prevented him from competing that project. In 1872, Dupuis de L'Homme of France launched this airship. It was propelled by eight men cranking the shaft of a large propeller. But its speed in a column was only six miles per hour. A decade later, the brothers Gaston and Albert de Sondier, also of France, developed this craft. It was the first airship to use electricity. The motor being of one-and-a-half horsepower supported above the geared propeller shaft. The speed of the airship was about eight miles per hour, too slow for practical use in more than a slight breeze. The first persons to construct an airship that could return to its starting place against the wind were Captains Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs, who developed the airship La France at the French Aeronautical Establishment at Chalet Moudon. The gas bag was 165 feet long and the power was a nine-horsepower electric motor weighing 220-and-a-half pounds. The batteries were devised by Renard. On her first voyage, August 9th, 1884, this airship traveled four-and-a-half miles in 20 minutes, making several turns in the air and returning to her hangar. She returned home in five of seven trips. Twice she was tied down until repairs were made or the wind subsided. On her last trip, she averaged 14-and-a-half miles per hour. In Germany, Heinlein, Wilfred and Schwartz were advancing the art. Heinlein's airship made an 1872 with the most successful of the three. It was powered with a Lenoir gas engine, the fuel being the gas with which the bag was inflated. Wilfred's airship in 1897 was the first aircraft to be powered with a gasoline engine. But in the last of several trials, the fuel ignited and Wilfred died from his injuries. The Schwartz airship, also of 1897, was the first to use the form of construction known as rigid. Its bag having an internal framework form of aluminum tubing and the outside covered with sheets of aluminum. Unfortunately, its trial after four miles through the air ended with a crash landing. In the United States of America, there had been several ideas for manageable airships. Rufus Porter, who founded the Scientific American magazine in 1845, demonstrated his idea with a scale model, which he flew indoors, advertising his plan for an airship to be 800 feet long, which he said could cross the continent in three days. This was during the time of the Gold Rush. This is one of the many shares of stock that he sold. It is dated 1852. The full-scale airship was never built. Frederick Marriott in California, 1869, thought of getting added lift by attaching a delta wing to his gas bag, but gave up the idea after several disappointments. The first American airship that did carry a man was made by CF Richel of Connecticut in 1878. It was powered by the pilot's arms, turning a pair of cranks attached to a sprocket, chain and driveshaft, extending to the propeller, which was steered by his feet, pushing pedals and rods to turn the propeller pivot from side to side. Richel made several steered ascensions indoors, but during an outdoor ascension, the craft was blown several miles away before the pilot could make a landing. There is much more to the story of balloons and dirigible airships. We have brought it in this film close to the end of the 19th century. We have seen the spherical balloon develop to a practical form and applied to a number of uses. We have also seen the dirigible airships of the 19th century were made in a variety of sizes and shapes, but were limited in performance. I plan to continue for you the accounts of letters and aircraft in the 20th century, but for our next film, I want to turn back the calendar to the final years of the 1700s and then through the following 1800s to tell you of mankind's progress with the other form of aircraft, those that are heavier than air. That story is also a very interesting one.