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Show A HUGE Alll-ailll'. TlicColiigBiia of Balloons TIn-Largcat TIn-Largcat Ever Mado. Samuel A. King, tho celebrated acrouaut of this city, is about completing com-pleting the construction of a monster balloon, which, in point of size, will outstrip anything of its kind ever hmnehfc into nfitiinl iisp in tliia vmn.l try. It is very properly called tho Colossus. Co-lossus. The body of the balloon is a perfect sphere, except that there is the usual elongation on the lower side of the neck. Its circumference is 191 feet, and its capacity is nearly 100,000 cubic feet. Only in the large cities could a sufficient supply of gas be found to fill it. Twelve hundred yards of 40-inch best Lyman mil's, cloth, furnished fur-nished expressly for the purpose, were required in its construction, and Jive months have been devoted to the work notwithstanding the fact that sewing machines materially lessened both the time and labor. Pour barrels of oil-varnish, of the kind generally gener-ally used by Mr. King to ooat his baloons and to make them impervious im-pervious to the gas, were used to cover the surface of the Colossus. The cloth is in single thickness except on the top, where it is doublo to secure groater strength, aod to make the mammoth envelope strong in other parts, there are tweniy-four stays or bands running entirely around it. The name is paiu-ted paiu-ted upon the Bide in letters seven feet high. Suspended to a net-work of strong cords will be two cars. The upper up-per one is intended for scientifio observations, obser-vations, and will be fitted up with scientific instruments and for the accommodation ac-commodation of the observers. Tho lower car will contain the other passengers passen-gers and the ballast, Tho collapsing cord, which is brought into use only when it is desirable to collapse tho balloon bal-loon and let out tlio gas suddenly, as r- rr,ar. a )r.A; ;n 1 ; a gale of wind, is sewed into a scam for the distance of seventy-live feet from tho neck upward. In detaining the balloon upon the ground in alighting, three anchors will be used in place of one which would bo sufficient in the case of balloons of ordinary size. These anchors will be arranged in a peculiar pe-culiar manner, and in several particulars particu-lars Mr. KiDg has introduced improvements improve-ments in connection with the balloon. bal-loon. The gas-envelope, netting and basket will weigh fourteen hundred or fifteen hundred pouuds. Filled with hydrogen gas the Colossus would be able to carry between six thousand and seven thousand pounds into the air, and with carburatcd hydrogen, hy-drogen, or the common illuminating gas, which has much less buoyancy, fifteen or twenty passengers can be taken, together with seicntiGc apparatus, appa-ratus, and a sufficient quantity of ballast bal-last for a long voyage. From the figures fig-ures already given, it will be seen that tho aeronautic craft is indeed a Colossus. Colos-sus. A comparison with tho sizo of somo of the other balloons used in Boston by Mr. King, will assist our readers to form a better idea of its immchsity. While the Colossus has a capacity of nearly one hundred thousand thou-sand cubic feet, the Gen. Grant, with which Mr. King has made many ascensions ascen-sions hero and elsewhere, holds only fifteen thousand cubic feet. The Queen of the Air had a capacity of thirty-three thirty-three thousand feet, tho Star Spangled Span-gled Banner fifty thousand feet, and tho Hyperion, which, on its first trip carried no less than eight persons from Boston, a distance of seventy-live miles, and on the following day made anoth'-r loug voyage, a capacity of sixty-five thousand fVeL The new mons'cr is a veritable giant among Mr. King's numerous nu-merous family of balloons. Boston I Journal. |