Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1871 — Locomotion in the Air. [ARTICLE]

Locomotion in the Air.

All the ballooning experiments tried on the recent Fourth of July were, so far as we have heard, successfttl. An aeronaut at Milwaukee crossed Lake Michigan in safety, and sailed—or flew—a good distance into the State of Michigan. Another at Troy, N. Y., floated through the empyrean for two hours, and lighted in an astonished community, 4 hundred miles from where he started. Another, at Oswego, who evidently did not understand his business, crossed Lake Ontario aud came down safe, but spoilt his balloon in landing. Other similar excursions, in all parts of the country, resulted alike successfully. Indeed, we need hardly call those excursions “experiments,” as we have done, since the aeronaut who mounts Ihto the clouds with a good balloon now-a-days, and knows how to handle it, is very nearly as sure of landing safe as be who embarks on a train of Cars pr a lake steampoaf. And not only this, but he ctyi shape his course almost as well as they, to say nothing of his advantage in point of speed. The air-ship which Is to propel itself through the sky independent of the currents is not yet perfected, though a San hrancisco genius is still at work at it hopefully; but see what the aeronaut can already do by availing himself of the counter currents which are all the time speeding athwart each other’s pathway above terra firma. We take the account of Mr. Steiner, who went up from Milwaukee, on the 4th inst., because that account is the one nearest at hand at the moment of writing. On letting go the ropes, the balloonist kept his upward direction until he had reached an altitude of about 10,000 feet, as ascertained by the barometer. The wind being from the west, he was borne along by the current until, as he judged, he was about fifty miles east of his starting place, or somewhat beyond the middle of Lake Michigan. Here he found himself becalmed ; then rose (by throwing out ballast) until he reached, some 2,000 feet higher, a Southerly current. This-not suiting his ’purpose, which was to get across the lake as directly as possible, he let out gas and sank some 7,000 feet, when he found’ himself in a current which bore him southeastwardly toward St. Joseph. Approach, iug the shore he dropped into a due west current, which bore him inland fifty miles or more, where, encountering very cold weather, he decided to bring his voyage to a close, and accordingly sank gently into a clover field, where, with the assistance which readily came to his hand, he rolled up his aerial ship and started with it in a wagon for the nearest railroad station. Similar to this are the experiences of nearly or quite all the intelligent aeronauts who make balloon voyages of late. Of all who went up on the late Fourth, as a means of gratifying the holiday spirit of the occasion, not one is known to have come down injured in any way by his descent ; thus proving, in connection with the thousands of accidents from firearms, runaways, etc, that, on Fourth of Julys at least, the “blue vault of heaven is fully as safe a place to sojourn in as terra firms itself. These voyages, together with the very useful purposes to which ballooning was put during the recent campaign in defense of Paris, prompt the in vestigator to inquire whether the navigation of the air is not practicable for more substantial purpos es than the amusement of a holiday crowd. The question is by no means a new one, but it will never become an obsolete one —at least until it is answered in the affirmative. Especially in America, which has so many miles of space to annihilate, and so many inventive minds to study new devices, will this question of aerial navigation be agitated until solved. The problem is to find one of two t bines: a law governing winds, so that their direction and force may be approximated or a machine which will propel itself through the air, comparatively independent of currents, just as a steamer navigates against the current of a river. The near approach of the California experimenter, in his ship Avitor, to the latter disideratum furnishes much encouragement for the hope that his experiments, which are still going on, may sometime succeed, in bis hands, or those of some other investigator. The former desideratum is for the meteorologists to find, and toward it the War Department is already making commendable efforts, in the series ot observations and calculations which are being made at the numerous points throughout tho country. The general subject of ballooning receives much attention from the British Aeronautical Association, of which tho Duke of Argyll is President, and by which a great many practi cal experiments have be n made, and a great deal of information disseminated. It is not very encouraging, however, to find the last repoit of this society almost ignoring the proposition to utilize the balloon, and devoting itself largely to the va 'rious pr< jccts for flying, all, or nearly all,' of which are palpably absurd; and that they have fallen back upon “manual flight” as the method of aerial locomotion, “in Which nature is almost disposed to help us." “ Manual flight ’’ is a trick which will strike the practical mind as being quite as impracticable now as it was in the days of Icarus; nevertheless, we, as aspiring mortals, do not rest content with an element about us which we cannot penetrate as we please. Whether we shall ever navigate the air or not, we shall never, probably, be quite satisfied that we cesn'l.—Chicago Tribune. In 1870, it is stated, there were 10,000,COO dozen corsets, or 120,000,000 pair, imported into the United States—a quantity, it is calculated, sufficient to supply three pair to every adult female in the country. In addition, the annual domestic product of sewed corsets amounted to 1,500,(TOO pairs, manufactured by about twelve establishments,. Near Strasburg, a city in Germany, there are 1,500 hand looms employed in weaving corsets for the , consumption of the United States. One man as a weaver, and two women as finisht rs, arc required for each loom, which produces three corsets daily. The sale of corsets, it is estimated, increas s 5 per cent, every year. Corsets,, for males are also made, and about 2CO dozen of this article of masculine apparel are imported intothe United States every year. The First Greenback.—C. B. Nelson, Eeq., of this cits (q( the firm of WilHam Blair & Co.), has a valuable curiosity,; 1 beingithc first greenback ever issued by the United States Government. It is a s oue dollar bill, No. lofA of the first se'ries, dated August 1, 1862. Mr. Nelson came into posstssiunof it accidentally the other day, it being paid in tho store by a customer, who probably was not aware of the peculiarity of the biller its value as ; a rt lie. He contemplates presenting it i-.to the Historical Society.— Ckicago JourI ncl.