Airships past and present, together with chapters on the use of balloons in connection with meteorology, photography and the carrier pigeon . er starting from Milan. It was won by anItalian aeronaut named Usuelli, who succeeded in crossing overMont Blanc. This can only be done in suitable weather, andit is very important to find out the direction of the currents atthe higher levels by means of a pilot balloon before making astart. Anyhow it is necessary to rise to such a height as to beoutside the range of the lower breezes, and to mount to altitudesof more than 20,000 ft. straight away. Steel


Airships past and present, together with chapters on the use of balloons in connection with meteorology, photography and the carrier pigeon . er starting from Milan. It was won by anItalian aeronaut named Usuelli, who succeeded in crossing overMont Blanc. This can only be done in suitable weather, andit is very important to find out the direction of the currents atthe higher levels by means of a pilot balloon before making astart. Anyhow it is necessary to rise to such a height as to beoutside the range of the lower breezes, and to mount to altitudesof more than 20,000 ft. straight away. Steel cylinders containingoxygen must therefore form part of the outfit, which means aserious addition to the deadweight. There must be at least two, BALLOONING AS A SPOKT. 227 if not three, passengers ; consequently this would require aballoon of 70,000 cubic feet capacity, which must be filled withhydrogen. The first attempt was made by Spelterini on October 3rd, Heim and Dr. Maurer went with him in a balloonof a capacity of 115,000 cubic feet, named the Vega. Hestated from Sitten, and in 5f hours he reached Kiviere, in the. Fig. 140.—The Lake of Lucerne.(Photograph by Spelterini.) department of the Haute-Marne, having covered a distance of140 miles. His idea had been to reach the Bodensee aftercrossing the Finsteraarhorn and the Urner and Glarner August 1st, 1900, Spelterini started from the Bigifirst andcrossed over Todi and Glarnisch. In 1903 he made an expeditionfrom Zermatt and crossed the Dom in the Mischabel Chain,then turned towards the south-east over Lake Maggiore, andthen after several turns to the Chinti, above Bignasco, wherethe descent was made. The most interesting expedition was in Q 2 228 AIRSHIPS PAST AND PEE SENT. 1904, over the Jungfrau, the Breithorn, the Bliimli-Alp, and theWildstrudel. The photographs which were taken on theseoccasions give a good impression of the pleasure which can bederived from journeyings in the Alps. It is diff


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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpubl, booksubjectaeronautics