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Show Dalloons for Warfare. (Special Iller.) I TS UK National Balloon Park which our army 1 building S at Fort Myer, crn the g Potomac, near Washington, U will 1m the most modern kj' pet of the hind In the world. It will concentrate signal corps Instruction to one place, the poetn at Fort lxigan. Col., the Presidio. Hun Francisco, and San Antonio, Tex., having uccn abolished. abol-ished. One of the largest balloon barna In the world haa been erected within the new park. Tills Is a great, rectangular, corrugated Iron building with a slanting slant-ing roof and great doora which throw open the entire front end of the structure. struc-ture. The size of these swinging doora gives aome hint a to the proportlona of the monster which will make It ex-It ex-It and Ita entrances through them. A dragon la to abide within the Iron wall of thla great barn. Thla drngon !t to be employed to help fight Uncle rlam'a future battles. If all things come to pass aa they are now being prophesied prophe-sied by army ofnrera, this war dragon will belch forth fire, like It mythical ancestors; will devour men by tho hundreds; hun-dreds; will wipe formidable fortresses from the face of the earth. Unci Ram'a war dragon I tu twin brother of the flying monster with which th German army lately equipped equip-ped Itself. It I sn airship which combines com-bines all of the virtue of the man-carrying man-carrying kite and captive balloon; which eliminates th evil of both. To tray rather broadly from classical simile, It may be best described a a giant sausage, tilled up on one end and having a smaller sausage curled up over Its lower extremity after th fash-Ion fash-Ion of the squirrel tall. This smaller nvolnp suck up air which presses against a diaphragm or partition within with-in the larger envelope and thus keeps the covering of the latter always snugly snug-ly tight, regardle of how much the ga contained therein may expand or contract: The entire baboon I held by a cable and remains poised at the same angle whUh the kite present to the upper air currents. I.Ike th kite, It file higher and higher th faster the wind blows, where the ordinary cap-tire cap-tire balloon dip lower and lowet as the speed of the breese quicken. Insldo tho great barn Is to be Installed In-stalled every equipment for filling tho monster and his consorts with gas. For Inflation hydrogen will he employed. A complete plant for Its manufacture will be an Interesting adjunct to the big balloon hr.usc. A smaller corrugated Iron building has already been erected. The ge manufacturing and compressing compress-ing pluut will later he Installed within It. The hydrogen will be compreused Into cylinders eight feet long, three or four Indies In dlnmelher, nd with contents con-tents of one cubic foot of Ihe gua, very highly comprcMed. Hundreds of these tubes, after having been charged at the now compressing plant, will be borne to the balloon house In wagons and connected to the main valve of the new klto-bniloon by rubber pipe. The army now has two other new captlvo war balloons. Both of these are of tho pear-ehaped class. The larger I 40 feet In diameter, hue a capacity of H.OtiO cubic feet of gas and will carry four men. The smaller bolus 13.000 ruble ru-ble feel of gns and will carry three men, with all necesanry algnal apparatus. appara-tus. The envelopes of thes two pasr-sbaped pasr-sbaped balloons are made of goldbeater's goldbeat-er's skin, a membrane tahen from the tit rolls of the bullock and subjected to various stages of curing. Ksch animal furnlHhe one piece, about 15 by 21 Inches In diameter. Ultimately, regularly ehedulcd bl-loon bl-loon drill will be held at the new post. Some time ago It wa prophesied In the flobllo prints that Lnilo Ham would bavo lo equip himself with fleet of modem war balloon If he Coele aem's War Drsgo. wished to bo ready to cope with European Euro-pean power, In case of hostllltla. This necessity ws oou reallied by lieuoral Greely, the chief lgnal officer of the army. Borne months ago, whll thut distinguished officer waa traveling abroad, be happened to witness the performance of tho German dragon balloon. He straightway ordered a duplicate du-plicate of the Kulsir'a monster from Ita Inventor, a lieutenant In the German army. Our war balloon fleet I the neweat In the world. It la directly beneath tliu chief signal ofllcer, and Is a part of the Hying lleld-telcgraph train. The new signul corps pout at Fart Myer Is under the rommsnd of Major Joseph K. Maxllehl, II. 8. A. Junt now It haH the double function of a training school for raw signal corps reorults undergoing un-dergoing Instruction for the Philippine orvlce and of a depot for signal corps uppllea of all kinds. A large barrack, with all modern Improvements, haa lately been erected upon th crest of a hill rising In front of th balloon nouue. In thla chery and well-lighted building are full accommodations ac-commodations for 110 men. The most unique employment of captive war baloou like our lately . " ' f" ( . . ' . - ..(... conceived by the world' military' J aeronauts, Is for the ttnnportatlon of bodies of soldiers over rlvr not ;, spanned by bridge. Imagine, for In- , stance, that our army wishes to Invade . . j Mexico and that It Is courent rated on '. this side of the Kin tiinude, many j miles from the nearest brldgs. The ' ; great dragon balloon, together with ' the two pear-shaped vehicles, which make up our aerial fleet, are anchored 6 ' so thnt they overhang tho center of , the stream. Numerous rop lijing S , from each, are fastened on the Amer- ' ' ' Iran side. Rohller after soldier grasps a rop- r -1 BWlngs himself to the Mex-lean Mex-lean bank. All the ropea thus used are r,.i.tencd In Ihe latter sldo until ': . the last has been used. The all rope i . are nifustcticd and the positions nf t . the balloon are shifted until th next I detachment of men selected for erosa- lng can reach the ends nf the great cords. Then the balloons ara moved t over the center of the river again. ' until the second body of soldiers haa ' swung Itself arms, ny urh mean ' regiment can cross not only un- L panned atreama, but preclpltoua can- ' ona and threatening abyases. The now 1 dragon balloon will perhaps be ued by navy. It prototype waa lately Down from a Germnn man-of-war with great access. The object of this experiment wa to test the dragon balloon's value ' 1 aa a floating maritime observatory. ; The drngon balloon will be the yw ' of the commander of our land force In the next war. If flown 1,200 abov the earth, It will command a vhtw ot th horlion fifty rollea away on a clear day and over level country. Althongh '-' It he miles and miles away, the floating craft will communicate directly all that It see. A long electric nerv emanating from the observer In ill basket will descend the controlling cable ca-ble of tho big airship and connect with the field telegraph line reaching th commander' post at the front. Wireless telegraphy will be a feature fea-ture of the new ballooning achool' curriculum. The advantage or im new mode of transmitting thought would be Inllnlte In case of war, and , In connection with aerial fleet of war craft. Drill In tho dropping of eiplolve (. . will be another feature of the new ,. yj work, but such experiments will have to bo made far from populated center. Fifty pounds nf dynamlto dropped by f ! the dragon bnlloon ao aa to explode . ? within 200 feet ot the most powerful ! r battleship would wipe the latter oft ' lb kosom of the deep. . ' '" |
