Show Kj c x V I FLYING TO THE POLEI t > > OO < v < f I Explorer Andree Will Start in HU plcled May Reach His Destina 1 rics Provisions for Two Years About July 15 the much heralded effort f ef-fort to reach the north pole in a balloon f 0 bal-loon will be made by S A Andree the Swedish aeronaut scientist and civil engineer For more than two years the plans for this trip have been making mak-ing and there are many maple well versed In the matter who are confident of Its success Andree is one of them r 1 and the two men who will accompany him share in the belief i The big balloon which has been chistened Pole < Nord is now on its c way to the faroff island of Spitzfoer 1 > gen in the Arctic ocean whose north r ermost point is within a trifle over 500 l miles of the pole If Andree succeeds it may be when he reaches the point Oij > wMrOv flvnlnrprs linYft striven for r ages that j hewill find that he is too late The fate of the daring explorer t Fridtjof Nansen who sailed with a picked crew from Christiania June 24 1S93 in the schooner Pram with the Intention of drifting to the north pole is still unknown He may have perished per-ished but It is possible that he succeeded suc-ceeded In February last it was reported re-ported from Irkutsk Siberia that he had reached the pole and that the t Fram was drifting on its way homeS home-S Nothing corroborative or this has since been heard It was the intention of Dr Nansen to drift along with the current which carried some of the wreckage of the ill fated Jeannette expedition ex-pedition from one side of the polar region i re-gion to the other Since August 23 I 1893 nothing definite has been heard i from Nansen and it is presumed that he has met the fate of many other Arctic explorers t A house has been built on the northwestern north-western point of Spitzbergen especially for the Andree balloon There it will be inflated with gas and the final arrangements ar-rangements for the journey made ANDREES COMPANIONS Numerically it will be the smallest expedition that ever tried to reach the pole Andrees companions will be Prof Gustav Ekholm the scientific observer ob-server and Nils Strin berg a physician and photographer Ekholm is a man t of fortyeight years a scientist by natural inclination and by subsequent development For the last twenty years he has been devoting his undivided undi-vided attentionand his unlimited energy ener-gy to the study of meteorology In 1882 hf acted as chief for the Swedish expedition to Spitzbergen which was working in concert with similar expeditions i ex-peditions from this country and ten European countries It is assorted I as-sorted that the results achieved by the Swedish expedition surpassed those I gained by any one of the other expeditions expedi-tions and that this was chiefly brought about by the excellentwork done by Ekholm I At the present time Ekholm is by all European students considered an au t thority oil the branch of natural I science to which he has devoted himself him-self it may be added that he is a clever inventor who has given to the scientific world a number of highly ingenious in-genious instruments whereby the study of meteorological phenomena has been T greatly simplified I The third member of the trio of explorers ex-plorers is a very young man only twentyfour years of age Yet Nile Strinberg has already succeeded in making a name for himself as a physi ca student cf high standing having paid jspeciaJattention to electric phenomena phe-nomena He is also an expert photographer photo-grapher and as such will ba of great i use to the expedition bone of these men are reckless ad verilurers jndre is one of the most 5 careful a M cautious men that ever D a IJ fi j 4 Balloon July 15 His Plans Cpm ion iu ortyElglit Hours But Car tried to reach that imaginary spot which has played such an important part in the dreams of hundreds of am bkfous scientists But he has the courage of his convictions and he believes be-lieves that the undertaking planned by him is not by any means as dangerous and is more feasible than the trip upon I which Nansen entered some two years ago For a long time Andree has been I figuring and experimenting and planning plan-ning until he has reached a point where no detail of the pending journey I has been left untried He has chiefly T 4 7NL I 1 5 vt N 2 rLS2 V 0 M ° 4 VY Y I s c J c 1 t I 1 1 cr1 4 4 < I i I p J S 7 p I I I THE DOTTED lAXiE SHOWS THE PROPOSED ROUTE OF THE DAffUNGr EXPLORER conducted his researches along two lines trying to master the science of aeronautics and to become perfectly acquainted with the meteorological conditions of the Arctic regions The aeronautic exploits of Mr An dree have become known all over the world and he has made a name for himself as one of the most audacious men that ever ascended in a balloon Yet with him this work is never a matter of chance Every one of his daring trips has been carefully planned plan-ned as If it had been the crowning journey northward and it has been executed ex-ecuted in strict accordance to the plans r made Once he went up from Stockholm Stock-holm and crossed the gulf of Bottola I landing on the shores of Finland a deed never before tried Another time he sailed in his balloon from the city of Gothenburg on the western coast of Sweden to the island of Gothland in the Baltic traversing the distance of 230 miles in five hours The noticeable notice-able feature of his doings on these and other similar occasions was not that with the help of chance he performed feats never before accomplished but that inrevery instance theaim to be reached stood clear before him and that aim alpng the roads mapped out inadvance CONFIDENCE IN THE BALLOON While the great balloon hiwhichthe 1 journey will be made has never been tested its ability to make a long fight has been demonstrated The Pole Nord was built at Vaugirard a suburb of Parts under the direction of Andre and his companions A smaller edition of the Pole Nord was constructed at the sametime In this balloon called the Brennus repeated flights have been made arid its usefulness proven Dr Strindberg in speaking of the first flight of the Brennus said We have made use of the Brennus for this expedition ex-pedition a balloon constructed directly under the supervision of Mr Maehuron who js also constructing our Pole Nord This balloon holds 1700 cubic meters of gas I took my place in the car with M Machuron and N de Fonvielle M Gailleto of the institute watched our departure from terra firma At 1238 the Brennus raises slowly and drifts to the southsoutheast having started from the factory at Vaugirard We leave Paris above the Cha > tillon gate at an altitude of 600 meters pass Villejuif then VilleneuveSt Georges There we let our guide ropes trail we are above the forest of Senart we arrange ar-range the sails the balloon shows itself it-self at once obedient to the direction we visibly deviate from the direction of the wind and succeed in passing beyond I be-yond the forest I was getting ready to measure the deviation thus obtained when the rays of the sun which had I been pouring for a moment on the balloon bal-loon make the gas in it expand and 1 send the balloon up abruptly which I interferes with the observation We try the experiments again after passing pass-ing Meltin and Fonitainebleau By means of an instrument devised by M Ekholm a member of the coming expedition I was then able to meas 1 p f N 1 I L I 1 F 1 I i I ve2A 1 r i t r ft f t 7 r > 1 TILE POIE XORD ure the angle of deviation from the direction di-rection of the wind which varied between be-tween eight and ten degrees We kept up the experiment during nearly an hour obtaining at will deviations to the right and to the left making thus a zizzag line At last after a journey of five hours we come to land near the i little town of Egreville between Ne hours and Montargis delighted I assure as-sure you with the results of our days work j CONSTRUCTION OF THE BALLOON The Pole Nord has been built on lines which Andree says will allowthe party to maintain a height of COO feet in the air for three weeks He does not believe that it will take anything like this time to reach the pole Under favorable conditions he expects to make the journey in less than forty eight hours Enough provisions will be taken along however to last the three men two years The balloon is S20 feet in circumference circumfer-ence at the widest part and eighty feet in height The car hangs forty feet below the bottom of theballoon making mak-ing the total height 120 feet The weight which the Pole Nord must sustain is 4500 pounds This Includes the hempen net covering the ballooi the rones connecting with the car the car and its equipment of men provisions pro-visions instruments weapons ammunition ammu-nition and water The car is asmall affair of wicker covered with canvas Itis only four and a half feet in height and six feet seven inches in diameter There are two windows and a platform on top where one of the three men will be stationed night and day Hammocks will be swung in the car Canned foods will supply the table which will be very modestly conducted The balloon will be inflated with 6000 cubc yards of pure hydrogen ait Spitz bergen This has a lifting force of 11000 rounds Silk made especially at Lyons was used in constructing the balloon It wasmade in sections the top being of four thicknesses of silk the middle of three and the lower section sec-tion of two peculiar kind of varnish made by Andree was placed in the silk This makes the balloon gas proof Even if any gas did escape there is a contrivance in the car for reinflating the immense mass of silk Carrier pigeons will be taken along and released at certain intervals Notices No-tices have been sent to whaling captains cap-tains and to every settlement and village vil-lage bordering on the Arctic region to look out for the balloon and Uhe pigeons pig-eons In this way it is hoped that the world at large will be kept informed of the progress made |