This shape was given it, according to Mr. Bonflon,
that it might offer the least possible resistance to the element in
which it was intended to move. In structure it was composed of a strong
flexible frame of whalebone and steel, covered with silk, strengthened
and rendered air-tight and water-proof by a coating of India-rubber.
Its size, of course, would depend on the proposed tonnage of a
particular ship. That of the working-model, as nearly as I remember,
was about six hundred feet long, by some seventy or eighty in breadth
in the middle, which was calculated to be amply sufficient to sustain
the immense car beneath, with its engine, and fuel for a week, and
three hundred passengers with their baggage; leaving still a
considerable margin for freight.
Mr. Bonflon here pointed out, with great minuteness, the simple, but
ingenious method devised for the inflation of this enormous machine,
and the regulation of the gas; which I pass over, from an inability to
render it intelligible by mere description.
The car or vessel suspended below, and to which the balloon part bore
the relation of masts and sails, was fashioned after the best model of
a clipper ship, but still farther elongated. Below deck, it was divided
into sitting and dining cabins, state-rooms, kitchen, engine-room, and
so forth; and above was a long, railed, promenade deck.
Pages:
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153