Identifier: popularsciencemo27newyuoft (find matches)
Title: Popular science monthly
Year: 1872 (1870s)
Authors:
Subjects: Science
Publisher: New York : D. Appleton
Contributing Library: Gerstein - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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descending it was necessary to move backward andforward several times in succession, alternately reversing the directionof rotation of the propeller. The return to the ground was at thevery spot from which the departure had been made. This remarkablefeat was thus accomplished almost exactly one hundred and one yearsafter the ascent of the first hydrogen balloon, sent up by Charlesfrom a point but a few miles distant, A second ascent was made by Renard and Krebs on the 12th ofSeptember, but with only partial success, in consequence of an acci-dent to the motor. On the 8th of November two successive journeys VOL. XXTII.—20 3o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. were taken, the balloon returning each time to its point of departure,and attaining a speed of nearly fifteen miles an hour, independentlyof the wind, which was blowing at the rate of five miles an hour. In their communication to the French Academy of Sciences, on the18th of August, Renard and Krebs accord to Tissandier the credit of
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priority in successfully applying electricity to the propulsion of bal-loons. Tissandier, on the other hand, equally freely accords to themthe credit of making a pronounced success of what had been developedto only a limited extent in his hands on account of the want of funds.To each of the group the world must now give praise for the solutionof a problem which was theoretically solved long ago, but involvedpractical difficulties that seemed almost if not quite insurmountable. RECENT PROGRESS IN AERIAL NAVIGATION. 307 At best, however, the balloon as a means of locomotion is of moreinterest from a scientific than commercial standpoint. Increasing ex-perience will determine the best disposition to be made in relation toa variety of points that are still open to discussion, such as the bestmethods of reducing resistances and increasing the efficiency of themotor. On the basis of the success already attained, calculations havebeen made which indicate that it may be quite possible in the

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