Space balloon: journey 1862 2 Jul 2019

5 Sep 1862 James Glaisher filled the bowl with gas and began to rise slowly into the sky. His goal was to go beyond the limits of the atmosphere – Glaser first ever defied the sky. Of course, of any special devices and suits the speech was not.

The role the laboratory played 6 birds, which the scientist took in the objects of observation, compass and thermometer. First Glaser planned to conquer the sky, surveying the mountain peaks of Ireland. Clouds often hide the mountains and the scientist interested in how they are formed, what it consists of and what are the reasons for such rapid formation of clouds. Interest was greatly increased when James first came to the Observatory. Aeronautics at that time was in a rather embryonic stage.

Scientists have only just began to consider balloons as a way to study the sky. Unlike modern structures, the cylinders of that time was filled with a light gas such hydrogen. To rise above the balloonists were thrown from the basket, ballast-bags, to down — opened the valve, allowing gas to escape from the cylinder. Get close enough to the ground, the balloonists dropped anchor. Glaser, however, was a little ordinary travel. He wanted to get as high as possible, to explore the "air ocean".

Journey to the sky cost a lot of money. Glaser, together with the expert balloonist Henry Coxwell, managed to convince the British Association for the advancement of science to Fund an expedition into the unknown.

Their quest become the quintessential Imperial snobbery as scientists not for a moment doubt that will be able to unravel the effects of atmospheric forces on all the weather of the globe.

So, the momentous flight of the fifth of September, balloonists began with beautiful music. Bright sunlight flooded the sky, under the basket floated clouds, dissolving all the sorrows of earthly life. But the temperature was falling quickly.

At -20, the researchers could not see the devices, whose glasses fogged up. Coxwell several times out of the tackle to the outside and knocked the frost is more than dangerous.

The first bird Glaser thrown to the height of three miles. The wind tore off a dove wings like they were made of paper. At four miles the Explorer has released another pigeon that was in the air stream and circled around the basket, until he exhausted himself. Five-mile milestone was marked last a dove, the bird dropped down like a stone.

Not having recorded these observations, James felt the first signs of exhaustion. Refused hands, James tried to ask for help to his companion, Henry Coxwell, but lost consciousness. Glaser knew that the end was near.

Surprisingly, thanks to blind luck and the instant reaction of Coxwell, the ball is not carried to the upper limit of the earth's atmosphere. The journey of these scientists was one of the most crazy enterprises of the Victorian time and, possibly, marked the beginning of the future of space travel.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»