Identifier: airshipspastpres00hild (find matches)
Title: Airships past and present, together with chapters on the use of balloons in connection with meteorology, photography and the carrier pigeon
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors: Hildebrandt, A. (Alfred), b. 1870 Story, W. H. tr
Subjects: Aeronautics
Publisher: New York, D. Van Nostrand company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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and areall the more strongly impelled to return. They must also learnto regard man with confidence, and it is possible to tell the sortof attention they receive from their behaviour to the keeper.Their cots must be clean and airy, and they will thereforedelight to return home. There are various artifices by which the performances of thebirds can be improved, and it is well to know thoroughly thehabits and peculiarities of all kinds of pigeons. A male pigeonreturns to the nest as quickly as possible, and the same is trueof the female bird. The weight of the messages carried by the CARRIER PIGEONS FOR BALLOONS. 355 bird is not without its effect on its strength, and the mode ofattaching them to the body is a matter to be studied. The usualplan is to write the message on thin paper, and roll it up in arubber covering, fastening it to the feet of the bird. Aluminiumholders or spring cases are also used, which are fastened underthe wing, and a great number of similar devices may usually be
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Fig. 222.—In this photograph the shadow of the balloon is seen on the oldfortifications. (Taken by Count de la Vaulx.) seen at the various shows. Photographs can also be transmittedby their means, and this is useful in time of war for the purposeof sending plans, etc., from a beleaguered town. Experiments ofthis kind were made in St. Petersburg in September, 1889. Thechief of the Balloon Corps, named Kowanko, made an ascent incompany with an officer and two others. They then preparedphotographs on films of collodion according to the wet process.The negatives were developed in a primitive dark room, whichwas arranged in the basket of the balloon ; the collodion films a a 2 356 AIBSHIPS PAST AND PBESENT. were stripped from the glass, and secured to the birds. Theresults were considered successful. But the preparation of thenegative in the car of the balloon is a tedious and awkwardarrangement; and lately newer methods have been proposed bywhich the undeveloped film is entrusted to the

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