Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1875 — The Longest Air Journey on Record. [ARTICLE]

The Longest Air Journey on Record.

M. de Fonvielle contributes to Nature an account of a magnificent ascension and air journey made on the 23d of March last wf>ich lasted twenty-three hours —the longest upon record. He says: “The balloon waß the Zenith. 2[t ascended from Paris on Thursday, Mj*tch 23, at half-past six in the afternopAand landed at Mont Plaisir, near 700 miles from Paris, on the following evening at half-past five. The aeronaut W 8,9 BL Sivel and the passengers MM. Gaston Tissandier, the editor of La Nature, M. Albert Tissandier, his brother, an artist, mid two other gentlemen. The batten drifted southward from La Villette gas-works for a few miles, when, crossing Paris, it deviated in a westerly direction before reaching -the fortifications. It then traveled southwest during the whole at the night, crossing Meudon,

Chcvreusc, Tours, Saintes.etc., up to the mouth of the Gironde, which was crossed at ten o’clock, in the morning, 900 miles having been run in fifteen and a half hours. The wind, which was not strong, having gradually diminished, the crossing of the Gironde occupied not less than thirty-fivc minutes. As the sun became bright and the, weather hot a brisk wind blew from the sea toward the land, hut only up to an altitude of 900 feet. The aeronauts took advantage of this current to escape the upper current drifting toward the sea, and followed the margin of the Gulf of Gascony by alternate deviations obtained by changes of level. Landing was accomplished without any difficulty by throwing a grapnel, and all the instruments were taken back to Paris. Most interesting observations have been taken, and will be described to the Academy of Sciences at an early sitting. But we are enabled to give a summary of these through the courtesy of our friend, M.Tissandier. A quantity of air was sent by an aspirator through a tube filled with pumice saturated with sulphuric acid, in order to stop the carbonic acid and ascertain how many hundreds of grains are contained in each cubic foot. A series of experiments were made at different levels from 2,700 to 5,000 feet, the utmost height reacned. The analysis will be made by a new method invented by MM. Tissandier and Herve Mangon, a member of the French Institute. "The electricity of the air, TCsted with copper wires GOO feet long, was found nil, except at sunrise. It is known that at that very moment an ascenuing cold current is almost always felt. The minimum of temperature was about twenty-five degrees Fahrenheit; at Paris, on the same night, it was about twenty-eight degrees at the Observatory. The moon was shining brilliantly, with a few cirrus clouds that manifested their presence by a magnificent lunar halo, which was observed from five o’clock to six in the morning.”