Lighter Than Air

by Guy Warner

  ‘The envelope of the balloon is enclosed in a network of very strong cord, which is fastened below the nozzle of the balloon to a stout hoop that supports the car. The cord is manufactured by a justly-celebrated firm of rope makers in the North of England, from hemp specially grown in sunny Italy; and although it is so light that a section 100ft long does not weigh a pound, and it is only about ¼in. in diameter, it will stand a strain of 500lb. without breaking. I have myself seen this cord practically tested by Sergeant-Major Greener on a dynamometer. The car of the war balloon accommodates a couple of men, and it is made of very strong wicker work. It is 2ft 3in. deep, the same in width, and 3ft 6in long. This car is fastened to the hoop above by very strong ropes; and of course for reconnoitring purposes, it is supplied with a grapnel, a captive rope, a photographic outfit, and many other articles that are carried in the common or Crystal Palace variety of balloon.

  ‘In the next illustration is seen the most direct and valuable mode of communication between the officers in the car of the war balloon and the forces below. I refer to telephonic communication. In the picture it will be seen that a light wagon carries the necessary electrical plant. On the occasion of my own visit to the scene of operations, I watched an orderly gallop up to this wonderful piece of portable mechanism, and he roared into the cart as it were, “Any fresh information?”

  ‘The officer, with a truly astonishing quickness, gained most important news, receiving a reply which ran as follows: “There is a large body of cavalry on your right flank, behind the hill, deployed ready to charge the supports.” This message came in an amazingly sharp and articulate voice – a veritable viva-voce message from the clouds.

  ‘The accompanying reproduction shows the Aldershot war balloon “Talisman” reconnoitring at such an altitude as to command the entire radius of country over which the manoeuvres are being conducted. It will be noticed that on the windward side the balloon is rather flat, instead of convex; this indicates that there is a vacuum, so it is coming down to be refilled. The body of cavalry seen is being wholly guided by instructions received from the “Talisman”.

  A portable receiving station of the aerial telephone. (The Strand Magazine – Charles Knight)

  War balloon directing cavalry. (The Strand Magazine – Charles Knight)

  ‘The system of reconnaissance by pencil-coloured maps dropped from the balloon at present holds the field against photography; but it must not be assumed that the camera is a wholly futile ally on the battlefield. As a matter of fact, most successful and valuable pictures are constantly obtained, showing in most beautiful detail the nature of the surrounding country and the obstacles to be encountered. You must remember, though, it takes at least half an hour to photograph, develop and dry the negative, and print a proof; from which it is obvious that information given to the commanding officer by this means is a little stale, as it conveys to him rather where his opponent was, than where he is at the moment.

  ‘When the officers in the balloon have procured all the information possible regarding the movements of the enemy, the war balloon is brought down, and is towed into some sheltered valley by the men of the balloon section, as is seen in the last photograph reproduced here; then, of course, the balloon is placed under sentry protection. Not that much protection is needed, save, perhaps, from the derision of the small boy genus before referred to. I distinctly remember seeing a balloon towing party followed by a troop of gamins, who, far from being impressed by the huge machine, gave tongue from time to time and implored the men to, “tike it ‘ome”.

  The towing party at work. (The Strand Magazine – Charles Knight)

  ‘Such is the work of the captive balloon. There are times, however, when Sergeant-Major Greener and other officers release the captive and travel to different parts of the surrounding country at a speed of perhaps forty miles an hour. As one might imagine, however, this speed is hardly noticed by the occupants of the balloon.

  ‘At the Aldershot School of Ballooning, selected officers go through a course of instruction at appointed seasons; and altogether, we may feel assured that we are well to the fore, as a nation, in the science of belligerent aeronautics.’30

  On 1 April 1897, Lieutenant Colonel Templer became the first superintendent of the Balloon Factory, directly responsible to the War Office, at a salary of £700 per annum, as it was now recognised officially for the first time. His own title had, until then, been Instructor in Ballooning, which failed to do full justice to his position and duties. This period also brought about the publication of the first comprehensive service guide, the Manual of Military Ballooning, which was compiled by Captain B.R. Ward, RE. Free run ballooning became a popular part of the courses which were held for officers, not only in the Royal Engineers, but also from other arms and a selected few from Staff College. By this means aeronauts could learn to control and land a captive observation balloon in the event of it breaking away from its cable. It was also looked on as a skill which might come in useful in providing transport out of a besieged location. The normal drill on a free run was to plot the course taken by means of Ordnance Survey or Bradshaw railway maps. On landing, the balloon would be deflated and packed into its basket, a telegram would be sent to Aldershot and the aeronauts would return by train with the basket travelling in the guard’s van.

  In October 1897, The Times featured a column titled Military Ballooning, which described at some length the recent activities of Captain G.M. Heath, RE, and his balloon section supporting the Horse and Field artillery as they exercised on the gunnery ranges at Oakhampton and Lydd. The writer commented that the large size of contemporary armies and the extensive areas of country which they occupied rendered reconnaissance from the air ever more useful. He added that most observational flights were crewed by two aeronauts, one mounted in the netting to manage the equipment and the other in the wicker car, therefore able to devote his entire attention to observing, recording and sketching. The potential vulnerability of balloons to enemy fire was discussed and dismissed as being not as great a problem as might be supposed. The question of the dirigible balloon was also raised, but the problem of a suitable means of steering in all but the lightest of winds was regarded as admitting that there was no easy solution.31

  Surveying the enemy’s country. (The Strand Magazine – Charles Knight)

  In 1899 an international declaration was made, operative for a period of five years, following the First Hague Peace Conference, the Hague Convention. One of its provisions was to prohibit the launching of projectiles or explosives from balloons or any other kind of aerial vessel.

  The Army used balloons for observation, field sketching of enemy positions, artillery spotting purposes and also as communications relay stations by heliograph in the Boer War between 1899 and 1900, with 1st Balloon Section, Major H.B. Jones, RE, providing notable service at Magersfontein, Kimberley, Paardeberg and Pretoria; 2nd Balloon Section, Major G.M. Heath, RE (later Major General Sir Gerard), at the siege and relief of Ladysmith and 3rd Balloon Section, Brevet Major R.D.B. Blakeney, RE, (later Brigadier General) at the relief of Mafeking. Some thirty balloons were sent to South Africa, including the Duchess of Connaught and the Bristol. Such was the requirement that the existing balloon establishment had to be reinforced at short notice by the recall of personnel with previous experience.32 The Commander of the British Forces, Field Marshal Lord Roberts, VC, appreciated the efforts of the Balloon Sections, ‘the captive balloon gave great assistance by keeping us informed of the disposition and movements of the enemy.’33 The Boers were rather less impressed, though it could have been worse. They feared that balloons would be used for the aerial bombardment of the Boer capital, Pretoria. The Balloon Factory had indeed worked out a general scheme for bombing from the air, but this was not taken any further. The Boer leader, General Cronje, commented tersely; ‘The British were greatly assisted by balloons.’ A more detailed survey was made by Colonel Arthur Lynch, who was Australian-born of an Irish father and a Scottish mot
her, and who was serving with the Boer army. On 27 March 1902, he gave a lecture in Paris entitled, Du rôle des ballons militaires anglais dans la guerre de l’Afrique du Sud. He paid tribute to the expertise of the Balloon Sections; ‘I take this occasion to say that the English take pride in themselves, and perhaps not without reason, that they possess the best balloon service of all the armies of the world.’ Then he added, ‘the balloons have been of great value to the English on several occasions. Observations made by balloon often enabled the English to note exactly the position of a battery, a laager, an encampment, or some fortifications; or even troop movements made in preparing for a major attack.’ He noted that aerial observation greatly increased the accuracy and effectiveness of artillery fire, much to the annoyance of the enemy, who saw the balloons as, ‘a symbol of the scientific superiority of the English’.34

  A contemporary artist’s impression of the 1st Balloon Section being deployed in the Boer War in 1900.

  [Author’s note: Lynch (1861–1934) had a remarkable career, gaining engineering, philosophy, science and medical degrees during his education in Melbourne, Berlin, Paris and London. He first went to South Africa as a war correspondent and then persuaded President Kruger to appoint him to the rank of colonel in the Boer Army. He served with distinction with the 2nd Irish Brigade, which, if truth be told, was rather a motley band of diverse nationalities. In late 1900, he visited the USA to plead the Boer cause and befriended the future president, Theodore Roosevelt. On his return to the United Kingdom he was elected as the MP for Galway (from where his family had originated). On presenting himself at the Houses of Parliament he was arrested, tried for high treason, and condemned to death on 23 January 1903. After the intercession of President Roosevelt, the King granted him a free pardon. He continued with his eclectic range of studies and also became the MP for West Clare in 1909. In 1918, following useful war work, he was appointed to the rank of colonel in the British Army. After the war he returned to medicine and authorship.]

  The Boers did make attempts to shoot down the balloons, but they did not succeed, despite perforating envelopes on occasion and wounding an aeronaut once. A balloon could sustain a number of bullet holes while retaining much of its effectiveness and was easy to repair. This experience no doubt contributed to the later debate as to whether or not airships could survive on the battlefield. The goldbeater’s skin envelopes also stood up well to hard use and retained their gas well. Teams of oxen or mules towed the balloon wagons in this campaign, which was often a slow and frustrating process, even though Templer was in South Africa as the Director of Steam Road Transport in 1900, where his traction engines did much other useful work.

  While Colonel Templer was engaged in South Africa, his duties at the Balloon Factory were carried out by Acting-Superintendent Brevet Lieutenant Colonel J.P.L. Macdonald, RE (later Major General Sir James), who had prior experience of the role when he was left in charge at Chatham in 1884–5, when Templer and Elsdale were serving in the Sudan and Bechuanaland respectively. When Macdonald was selected to lead the expedition to China in 1900, his successor as Acting-Superintendent was Major F.C. Trollope, RE, who had been second-in-command in Bechuanaland.

  Another section was sent to China, with the balloons Tugela and Teviot, commanded by Captain A.H.B. Hume, RE, to support the International Relief Force for the siege of the Legations in Peking (On the conclusion of activities in China it became the Experimental Balloon section at Rawalpindi in India.)35 and yet another to Australia under 2nd Lieutenant T.H.L. Spaight, RE, for the Commonwealth inauguration in January 1901. Two balloons were supplied to Captain Scott for his Antarctic expedition in the Discovery. The third mate, Lieutenant Ernest Shackleton, RNR, was sent to Aldershot for a short ballooning course. In February 1902, at what would later be named Balloon Bight in the Bay of Whales, on the Ross Ice Shelf, a balloon was inflated and anchored by a wire pegged into the ice. Shackleton assumed that he would be the first Antarctic aeronaut; however, Scott pulled rank and insisted on going up before him. Shackleton went next and ascended to 650 feet (198 metres), from which height he took a number of photographs. Dr Edward Wilson declined the offer of a flight, as he thought it was far too risky an enterprise:

  ‘Some twenty or thirty hydrogen cylinders were laid near, the fixings attached and the balloon filled. The captain, knowing nothing whatever about the business, insisted on going up first and, through no fault of his own, came back safely. The whole ballooning business seems an exceedingly dangerous amusement. There is one man who is supposed to know all about it, who has had a week’s instruction.’36

  A balloon being deployed in Antarctica by members of Captain Scott’s expedition in 1902.

  The growth of the Balloon Sections between 1899 and 1901 was marked; with the provision in the Army Estimates rising from three officers, thirty-one NCOs and men, to eight officers, 173 NCOs and men.37 Templer took up his role of superintendent once more in the middle of 1901. In December of that year he travelled to Paris, where, among other luminaries, he met Alberto Santos-Dumont and Colonel Charles Renard. Perhaps inspired by his fellow pioneers he devoted much time and effort over the next few years to promoting the dirigible balloon. His subsequent report to the War Office, dated 2 January 1902, stated:

  ‘I am of the opinion that we are well ahead of them [the French] in all matters appertaining to captive balloon work. At the same time, the dirigible balloon has now, by the prowess of M. Santos-Dumont, been so advanced that I [shortly] will be in a position to recommend that certain experiments be carried out in dirigible balloon work by this department.’38

  The contemporary historian of British military ballooning, Colonel Watson, agreed, writing in 1902:

  ‘The question of dirigible balloons has to be taken up, as it will never do for England to be left behind in the path of progress. But there is no reason why, if funds can be allotted for the purpose, the Balloon Factory at Aldershot should not produce a dirigible balloon as good, if not better, than that which can be made in any factory on the Continent.’39

  The Army Estimates for 1902 contained an enhanced requirement for six Balloon Sections of twelve balloons each, five operational and one cadre. In 1903, the Balloon Sections had 150 officers and men, and thirty-six horses. The commanding officer from April 1903 was Lieutenant Colonel John Capper, CB, RE. As the first field officer in command in peacetime since 1889, his appointment put, ‘new life into the branch’.40 He soon made his mark by recommending that officers and men going aloft should wear kit that was practical and serviceable, with particular reference to the undesirability of belts, revolvers and spurs.41 In June, he was also appointed as Secretary to the new Committee on Military Ballooning, which had the remit of reporting generally upon, ‘the extent to which it is desirable to attempt to improve and develop military ballooning’, bearing in mind the recent operational experience and also taking account of progress in other countries. One of the members of the committee was Brevet Lieutenant Colonel H.H. Wilson, DSO, (1864–1922) who was born in Co Longford and would later, as Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, be assassinated by the IRA.

  Lieutenant Colonel John Capper.

  The committee interviewed some of the balloon officers who had served in South Africa and representatives of the artillery. Three senior officers spoke warmly of the aeronauts’ contribution, Lieutenant General Lord Methuen, Major General A.H. Paget and Rear Admiral H. Lambton (who had been responsible for the naval gunners at Ladysmith). Progress in the rest of the world was surveyed and it was noted that while there had been ongoing research in France, a dirigible had not been produced at Chalais-Meudon since La France in 1884; the expertise in Germany with regard to kite balloons was considered, though no mention was made of Count Zeppelin.

  The Rise of the Zeppelin

  The first flight of the LZ1 rigid airship, which was 420 feet (128 metres) in length, 38 feet (11.54 metres) in diameter, with a capacity of 400,000 cubic feet (11,320 cubic metres), developed by the now-retired German
army General, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, (based on the original designs of David Schwarz) had taken place on 3 July 1900, from Friedrichshafen near Lake Constance (Bodensee) before a crowd of 12,000 spectators. Construction had begun some two years earlier in June 1898 in a hangar resting on ninety-five floats on the lake. It was a quite revolutionary engineering concept on a massive scale, a rigid structure of vertical rings held in place by longitudinal girders, with bags or cells containing hydrogen suspended within the framework under its fabric outer cover. Over the next few months it made two more flights, only one of which could be said to have been very successful. The LZ1 was a crude, heavy design, which could lift a payload of just 660lbs (299kg), and which was difficult to control and manoeuvre. The sliding weight in its keel for trimming the airship in flight was a particularly ponderous conception. A newspaper reporter commented that all von Zeppelin’s ideas:

  ‘While extremely interesting, have undoubtedly proved conclusively that a dirigible balloon is of practically no value.’42

  LZ1 in its shed on Lake Constance.

  Dr Hugo Eckener (1868–1954), who would later have a huge role to play in the Zeppelin story, was a little more positive in his report for the Frankfurter Zeitung about the second flight on 2 October:

  ‘Amid cheers, it rose calmly and majestically into the air. It hovered over the lake, making small turns about its vertical axis. It also turned slightly about its horizontal axis, remaining steady and calm, always at the same height and above the same place. There was no question of the airship flying for any appreciable distance, or hovering at various altitudes. One had the feeling that they were very happy to balance up there so nicely.’43