The Ordnance Survey is a British company producing maps of the British isles. The original work was carried out by the Royal Engineers under the direction of the Board of Ordnance and the survey was begun in 1747 for military purposes. The first map of Great Britain was ordered in 1797 and was published on a scale of 1 inch to the mile. In 1855 with the abolition of the Board of Ordnance the responsibility passed to the War Office and in 1870 was transferred to the Board of Works before in 1890 passing to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries where the work was still none-the-less carried on by officers and men of the corps of Royal Engineers, before becoming a separate commercial organisation in the later 20th century.
The survey of Ireland, on a scale of 6 inches to the mile was ordered in 1824. In 1840 the survey of Scotland and of the six northern counties of England was begun on the same scale. In 1855 the surveys were ordered to be on the following scales: 1 inch to the mile or 6 inches to the mile for the whole U.K., with other scales for cultivated districts and towns of over 4,000 inhabitants. There were also surveys of the U.K. produced on scales of 2, 4, and 10 miles to the inch.
The department also had the duty of preparing maps for all military purposes, and of copying those
prepared by the intelligence division of the War Office. During the Great War it issued 32,872,000 maps, plans, and diagrams to the Army and Navy. Research Ordnance Survey
Sir Francis Bond Head was a British soldier and writer. He was born in 1793 and died in 1875. He was present at the Battle of Waterloo, being in the royal engineers; in 1825 undertook the working of gold and silver mines in Rio de la Plata; in 1835 became governor of Upper Canada, and in 1838 suppressed the Canadian insurrection, and was made a baronet. He was the author of Bubbles from the Brunnen of Nassau, Rough Notes of Rapid Journeys across the Pampas, A Faggot of French Sticks, The Horse and his Rider, etc. Research Francis Head
General Charles George Gordon (known as Chinese Gordon and Gordon Pasha) was an English military leader. He was born in 1833 at Woolwich and died in 1885 following his capture during the siege of Khartoum. He entered the Royal Engineers in 1852, and served in the Crimea from 1854 to 1856. During the Taeping rebellion in China Charles Gordon succeeded in completely crushing the revolt by means of a specially-trained corps of Chinese, exhibiting marvellous feats of skilful soldiership. On his return to England with the rank of colonel he was appointed chief engineer officer at Gravesend, where his military talents and philanthropy were conspicuously displayed.
From 1874 to 1879 he was governor of the Sudan under the Khedive. For a few months in 1882 he held an appointment at the Cape, and he had just accepted a mission to the Congo from the king of the Belgians, when he was sent to withdraw the garrisons shut up in the Sudan by the insurgent Mahdi. He was shut up in Khartoum by the rebels, and gallantly held that town for a whole year. A British expeditionary force under Lord Wolseley was despatched for his relief; an advance corps of which sighted Khartoum on the 24th of January, 1885, to find that the town had been treacherously betrayed into the hands of the Mahdi two days before, and Charles Gordon killed. Charles Gordon's character was marked by strong religious feelings, which latterly became so intensified as to make him somewhat of a religious enthusiast and fatalist. Research General Charles Gordon
John Burgoyne was an English soldier, politician and writer. He was born in 1722 and died in 1792. Entering parliament in 1768, he criticised the War Office and foreign policy, and by his political career won favour at court. He led an American expedition, in 1774 and in 1777 was entrusted with the command of a large force which was to pierce the American centre - an operation known as the Burgoyne Campaign -, but which failed through the incapacity of others, and he was obliged to surrender with 6000 men at Saratoga in October 1777, returning to England in 1778, where he was deprived of his command of the 76th Light Dragoons and the governorship of Fort William, but Fox and Sheridan took his part and received his parliamentary support. The failure of his campaign during the American War of Independence made him unpopular back home, and he spent his later years writing comedy plays.
Sir John Fox Burgoyne was an English soldier. The son of John Burgoyne, he was born in 1782 and died in 1871. He entered the Royal Engineers and served in Malta, Sicily, Egypt, and, with Sir John Moore and the Duke of Wellington, in the Peninsula from 1809 to 1814, and was present at all the sieges generally as first or second in command of the engineers. In 1851 he was made a lieutenant-general, and was chief of the engineering department at Sebastopol until he was recalled in 1855. In the following year he was created a baronet, and in 1868 a field-marshal. Research John Burgoyne
An army is a collection or body of men and or women armed for war, and organized in companies, battalions, regiments, brigades, or similar divisions, under proper officers.
Ancient armies from the time of Rameses II (Sesostris) of Egypt downwards, underwent a series of progressive improvements under the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and Carthaginians, until they reached a high degree of perfection under the Romans. In Rome every citizen from the age of seventeen to forty-six was bound to serve in the army. Under the republic a levy took place every year soon after the election of the Consuls. It was superintended by the military tribunes, who at once formed the new levies into legions. Under the empire a standing army was required for maintenance of order in the interior and the defence of the frontiers. In the reign of Augustus the strength of this army reached 450,000 men.
The earliest military system of the Teutonic races consisted of the armed freemen, ruled by elected leaders, but even then there was a personal following or bodyguard of the king or leader. Among the countries of modern Europe the foundation of a standing army was first laid in France. Charles VII of France issued an ordinance for the creation of a number of troops of horse, and a corresponding body of infantry, the whole force amounting to 25,000 men. The superiority of such a body over an assemblage of feudal troops was soon proved, and other states imitated the example of France. By the beginning of the sixteenth century France, Germany, and Spain were all in possession of considerable standing armies. From the middle of the eighteenth century a great change took place in the composition of armies through the reintroduction of the principle of the universal liability of all men capable of bearing arms to military service, or, in other words, through the raising of armies by a general conscription, which was done in every European country except Britain during the 19th century.
Before the Norman conquest the armed force of England consisted essentially of a national militia (called fyrd), in which every landholder was bound to serve when called upon; but the king and some of the great earls maintained bodies of troops out of their private means. Under William The Conqueror and his immediate successors the whole kingdom was divided into upwards of 60,000 knights' fees, every tenant of a fee being bound to attend his lord with horse and arms (or provide a substitute) at his own cost for forty days in each year. When one man held many fees he was bound to furnish the king with one fully equipped horseman for every knight's fee. In course of time it became customary for the king, when the holder of a fee was unable or unwilling to render the service required by his tenure, to accept instead a pecuniary fine (scutage); and these fines enabled the king either to maintain additional troops or to pay the feudal troops to prolong their service. The feudal army thus created almost entirely superseded the national levies of the Anglo-Saxon period, yet these were not altogether given up, and survived to the end of the 19th century in two institutions, the posse comitatus and the militia. The armies with which the English carried on their early wars with France were mostly made up of paid troops, the king usually contracting with some of his most wealthy subjects to levy the number required. At first foreign mercenaries were sometimes included in the troops so raised, but in later times the armies of England were always national. The chief strength of the feudal armies lay in the men-at-arms, who were all mounted, heavily armed, and protected by shields and defensive armour. On the other hand, the paid levies usually consisted of men educated from infancy in the use of the long-bow. The introduction of firearms closed the career of the man-at-arms, and caused the long-bow to be laid aside.
From the accession of Charles I until the reign of William III the army was a constant cause of dispute between the king and the Parliament, the latter fearing that a standing army would be used, as it was elsewhere, as an instrument of tyranny. Under the Commonwealth the first standing army was maintained, but after the Restoration it was reduced to the royal guards, besides what was necessary for two or three garrisons. During the reign of Charles II the forces of England were increased by the addition of a few other regiments, among which was the 1st or Royal Scots, originally the Scottish guard of the kings of France, transferred to England shortly after the Restoration. After Monmouth's rebellion in the reign of James II there was maintained in England a force of 20,000 men, but at the Revolution this army was to a great extent disbanded. The Bill of Bights declared the keeping of a standing army within the kingdom except with the consent of Parliament to be unlawful; but it was found necessary to grant that consent in order to subdue the adherents of James in Ireland, and in the first year of William's reign the army was formally recognized on the basis on which it still exists, that its pay, and hence its strength, remain entirely under the control of the House of Commons. By the so-called Mutiny Act, passed annually from 1689 to 1879, the Parliament formally retained control over the army, as it still does, though the old act is no longer passed. For a long time regiments were raised by contract, the government making an arrangement with some gentleman to raise the men on terms of receiving a certain amount of bounty-money per man, or of being paid by the sale of the regimental commissions, he having the right of nominating the officers. The colonel used to receive a certain sum of money annually for the men's pay and clothing, the expenses of recruiting, etc; and the men might agree to serve for life, for a term of years, or for the duration of the war.
dinary enlistment was for life. During the 18th century the strength of the army fluctuated greatly; then came the long struggle with France, which brought into existence a large army continually under arms, besides an immense body of volunteers and local militia. After the Peninsular war the army was cut down, and was long greatly neglected, while the volunteer force ceased to exist. Only after the Crimean War was reform taken up, the Indian army being taken over, a fresh body of volunteers created, reserves established, etc.
The largest permanent divisions into which modern armies are organized are the army corps. According to the system of localization commenced in 1872, the United Kingdom was divided into regimental districts, in each of which an officer has command of all the forces, including the militia and volunteers. These districts were regarded as the special recruiting areas of the corresponding territorial regiments. The terms of enlistment were for nine years' army service and three years' reserve service. After twelve years service a soldier may be permitted to re-engage for other nine years, and after the completion of twenty-one years' service was entitled to be discharged with a pension. The old system of conferring commissions by purchase was abolished by royal warrant of July the 20th, 1871. First commissions were then given to successful candidates at the Civil Service Commissioners' open examinations, candidates being selected by competition, and entering the cavalry and infantry through the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, the artillery and engineers through the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; to university students who pass certain examinations; to non-commissioned officers specially recommended ; etc; while promotion was regulated by seniority principally, but partly by selection.
The most important division of the British forces consists of the regular army, which around 1900 numbered about 200,000 men-more or less-exclusive of the British troops serving in India (about 74,000) and paid by the Indian government. Of the component parts of the regular army the infantry of the line was the most numerous. In 1900 it comprised 69 regiments, each with its own special designation, and each attached to some particular district. A few of the regiments had more than four battalions of regulars (apart from militia and volunteers attached), but the majority had only two, each representing one of the old regiments that used to be commonly known by a special number. The regimental titles are generally territorial: BedfordshireRegiment, City of London Regiment, etc, but some are not, such as the Gordon Highlanders, etc. One of the regular battalions was always in garrison or serving outside the kingdom, the other within it. The latter trained the recruits and made good the losses suffered by the battalion serving abroad. In 1900 the full complement of private soldiers in a battalion at home was 760, in the colonies 880, in India 900; the sergeants numbering from 24 to 32, the officers from 24 to 29. In war the full complement of a battalion (904 men armed with rifles) was rather greater than in peace, drivers and others being required in connection with the baggage, ammunition, etc. The battalions in war were not linked together in regiments, but were under the direct orders of the officer commanding the brigade to which they were attached. Mounted infantry were a force embodied and employed only as occasion required, suitable men for the purpose being selected from different infantry regiments. Besides the line regiments, the infantry forces also comprised three regiments of guards: the Grenadier Guards, the Coldstream Guards, and the Scots Guards, each of three battalions, with the Irish Guards of one. The guards, or household troops, had various
leges, and served outside the United Kingdom only in time of war; otherwise being usually stationed in barracks at London, Aldershot, and Windsor.
The cavalry also consisted of guards and of troops of the line. The former comprised three regiments of cuirassiers, the 1st and 2nd Life Guards and the Royal Horse Guards (or Blues), permanently garrisoned in London and Windsor. The cavalry of the line consisted of 28 regiments, designated as dragoons, dragoon guards, hussars, and lancers; the 12 regiments of hussars being also known as light cavalry, the others as heavy. On the war footing a cavalry regiment consisted of three squadrons, and numbers a total of 531 officers and men. The cavalry generally were armed with carbines and sabres, the lancers carried lances in addition. While service in the infantry was for nine years with the colours and three in the reserve, men were enlisted in the cavalry of the line for eight years with the colours and four in the reserve.
The artillery was not divided into regiments like the cavalry and infantry, but the field, horse, and garrison artillery formed together a single body (about 55,000 strong), called the Royal Regiment of Artillery, the field and horseartillery being divided into a large number of 'batteries', the garrison artillery into companies. Of these batteries a certain number were mountain-batteries (for special service). On the war footing, a battery of horseartillery had 165 men, a battery of field artillery 157, the great majority consisting of gunners and drivers. Every battery had 6 guns, those of the field artillery being heavier than those of the horseartillery. The field artillery acted with the infantry, and the gunners were not mounted but carried on the gun-carriages; the horseartillery went with the cavalry, the gunners being mounted for rapid movement. The garrison artillery was distributed over the various fortresses and garrisons.
To a special corps, the Royal Engineers, belong the construction and maintenance of military works and fortifications, military telegraphs and railways, pontoons, military balloons, etc. Another branch of the regular army was the Army Service Corps, which had to attend to transport, the purchase and issue of provisions, forage, light, fuel, the appointments of barracks, etc. It was organized in companies, which were allotted to the several brigades or other units of the army, and it comprised bakers, butchers, saddlers, farriers, clerks, etc.
The medical services called for by the army are rendered by the Royal Army Medical Corps, under the director-general and staff of the army medical service. The officers are divided into ranks corresponding to those of the rest of the army, from surgeon - generals, surgeon - colonels, etc, downwards. The privates largely consist of men that have to attend to the ambulances and other means of conveyance. Other departments of the regular army are the ordnance corps, army pay department, veterinary department, military police, etc. What were generally designated as the auxiliary forces consisted of the army reserves, militia and militia reserve, imperial yeomanry, and volunteers. The army reserve of infantry consisted of men who had served with the colours during the period for which they enlisted for active service, and were liable in case of war to be again called up for service with the particular branch of the army to which they still belonged (receiving meanwhile a small pension). The militia was a force of old standing that had repeatedly rendered valuable services to the country. The force was intended to provide a number of trained men by which, on important emergencies, the regular troops might be supplemented or relieved. It consisted chiefly of a large number of battalions of infantry of the line, linked with those belonging to the territorial regiments, the men being enlisted for a period of six years, and being called up annually for a short period of drill and training. During the 19th century measures were taken for increasing the efficiency of the militia, and a militia reserve was formed. The volunteer force was formed in 1859, and was largely self-supporting, though it also received certain grants from government. Like the militia, it formed a number of battalions attached to the line regiments in their respective districts. The force proved very popular, but some authorities maintained that its efficiency was not equal to its numbers, and
e changes were proposed early on. The Imperial Yeomanry, or Yeomanry Cavalry, were a force that came into existence as a volunteer force in the beginning of the 19th century, being intended to furnish mounted troops for home defence. The force was reorganized at the end of the 19th century, and formed a body of more than fifty regiments, in which were absorbed certain volunteer companies of light horse and mounted infantry. The members provided themselves with horses, and receive a certain sum as daily pay during their period of training, with an allowance also for a horse.
Army administration and reorganization underwent major changes during the 20th century. The strength of the British army by the scheme of March, 1905, was: regulars, 192,697; reserve, 80,000; militia, 148,000; yeomanry, 28,000; volunteers, 250,000; besides over 78,000 men for India and the colonies.
Before the Second World War and the upheavals that followed, a large number of men raised in the United Kingdom were always serving abroad, in India and the colonies, but some of the British colonies had bodies of troops raised and maintained by themselves. The Indian army alone constantly absorbed drafts of men from the home countries, since there were always about 74,000 British regulars in it, besides native troops raised in India more than twice that number. The Indian army as a whole stood quite apart from the British army proper. This army had its own commander-in-chief and its own organization, and was paid from the revenues raised in India itself. Under the commander-in-chief were three great commands, those of the northern (Punjab), the western (Bombay), and the eastern (Bengal) army corps, besides the commands or districts of Madras and Burma. Both the British and the Indian regular forces comprised infantry, cavalry, and artillery; and there were volunteers, army reserves, and a body known as 'imperial service troops', kept up by native states, besides a frontier militia for the north-west frontier, and a military police, also serving on frontier duty. The native regiments were partly under British officers.
After the Great War the British Regular Army was a reproduction of the pre-war army and its reserves, established mainly on the basis of reforms instituted during the War Secretaryship of Haldane, with the improvements suggested by the Great War. The previous reforms had established a spirit of co-ordination and professional dignity. The militia had been replaced by a Special Reserve; the efficient Territorial Force replaced the old Volunteers; the General Staff was brought into being, and later the Imperial General Staff. The O.T.C. system began in 1909, and the creation of a small expeditionary force, to serve in emergency, was an innovation that splendidly proved its utility. The establishment of the pre-war regular army in the financial year 1914-15 was as follows: British troops - regimental establishments, 168,500 all ranks; British army in India, 75,896 all ranks; total, 244,396. The immense armies raised during the Great War having in the course of 1919 been almost entirely demobilized, Parliament was asked in the opening session of 1920 to sanction an establishment of approximately 220,000 men, exclusive of the army in India, which then consisted of 68,000 British troops and 164,000 Indian troops.
The British army after the Great War was distributed in general accordance with the Cardwellian system i.e., half abroad and half at home. The home units were to supply the units abroad in time of peace with drafts. The units abroad would absorb the reserves, who on mobilization would raise the units at home to full war strength. The home units would be organized so as to form, on mobilization, a force consisting of infantry, artillery, and mechanized units, and this force was the central reserve of the British Empire, available to be sent in time of trouble to any part of the world. Behind each linked battalion of the regular army there was a militia battalion. This militia battalion discharged the function hitherto discharged by the special reserve and the extra special reserve of supplying drafts for the regular battalions which were sent out of the country in time of war. There were 74 militia battalions, and it was assumed that they were capable, when the country was engaged in a war of no more than a few months' probable duration, of taking the field for the extension of the regular army - an assumption proved incorrect when the Second World War broke out a few years later. These forces - the regulars and militia battalions - constituted the first line of the British army, the second line being constituted by the 14 territorial infantry divisions and the cavalry division of the territorial army (yeomanry).
The improvements suggested by experience in the Great War were many and varied, but the rigid economy required in the national life after the armistice reduced the realization of these improvements to the lowest limits.
(1) Tanks. The big surprise of the Great War was the tank, or armoured land cruiser, for breaking through defensive organizations. Since 1919 progress was made in the evolution of this formidable weapon and a separate tank corps was revived, and mechanization of the army further proceeded by the conversion of certain cavalry units.
(2) Education A striking feature of the post-Great War army was the introduction, as a permanent and integral feature of the new army, of a system of compulsory education, both academic and technical, in unit schools, such as will ensure that any soldier on leaving the army would find employment in civil life instead of being, as in past times, shut out through a lack of appropriate skills.
The AVRE (Armoured Vehicle, Royal Engineers) was a British tank designed during the Second World War, following the failure of the 1942 Dieppe raid when engineers were prevented from clearing obstacles by enemy fire, to defeat various types of obstacle. It was based on the Churchill Tank, and was armed with a special short-range mortar firing a heavy demolition charge, for use against pillboxes. The use of various modular attachments allowed it to fill ditches, lay bridges, set demolition charges, or lay tracks for soft vehicles. Research AVRE
The Royal Engineers are a British army regiment intrusted with the construction of all military works, plans, surveys, etc. They had some kind of existence as far back as 1683 but were made part of the ordnance by an Order of Council in 1717. In 1772 the first company of 'sappers and miners' was organized at Gibraltar. In 1783 the engineers were raised to be a royal corps, and in 1812 several companies of artificers were converted into 'sappers and miners.' This name was abolished and that of royal engineers substituted in 1857. The modern Royal Engineers are concerned with mining and building work, but are also called upon to fight as infantry. Research Royal Engineers
Aeronautics is the art of sailing in or navigating the air. The first form in which the idea of aeriallocomotion naturally suggested itself was that of providing men with wings by which they should be enabled to fly. By about 1905, however, it was generally admitted that it is impossible for man by his muscular strength alone to give motion to wings of sufficient extent to keep him suspended in the air. Hence later attempts at aerialnavigation structures of a different kind were generally tried, such as some sort of flying car, elevated and propelled by machinery which eventually gave rise to the modern aircraft, or a vehicle so buoyant as to float in the air, the balloon being the most common. Early pioneers in flight encountered one great difficulty in that of supporting in mid-air a sufficient weight of machinery to provide the necessary power for propelling and steering purposes.
The navigation of the air by means of the balloon dates only from nearly the close of the eighteenth century. In 1766 Henry Cavendish showed that hydrogen gas was at least seven times lighter than ordinary air, and it at once occurred to Dr. Black of Edinburgh that a thin bag filled with this gas would rise in the air, but his experiments were for some reason unsuccessful. Some years afterwards Tiberius Cavallo found that a bladder was too heavy and paper too porous, but in 1782 he succeeded in elevating soap-bubbles by inflating them with hydrogen gas. In this and the following year two Frenchmen, the brothers Stephen and Joseph Montgolfier, acting on the observation of the suspension of clouds in the atmosphere and the ascent of smoke, were able to cause several bags to ascend by rarefying the air within them by means of a fire below. These experiments roused much attention at Paris; and soon after a balloon was constructed under the superintendence of Professor Charles, which being inflated with hydrogen gas rose over 3000 feet in two minutes, disappeared in the clouds, and fell after three quarters of an hour about fifteen miles from Paris. These Montgolfier and Charles balloons already represented the two distinct principles in respect to the source of elevating power for balloons, the one being inflated with common air rarefied by heat, requiring a fire to keep up the rarefaction, the other being filled with gas lighter at a common temperature than air, and thus rendered permanently buoyant. Both forms were used for a considerable time, but the greater safety and convenience of the gaseous inflation finally prevailed. After the use of coal-gas had been introduced it superseded hydrogen gas, as being much less expensive, though having a far less elevating power.
The first person who made an ascent in a balloon was Pilatre de Rozier, who ascended 50 feet at Paris in 1783 in one of Montgolfier's. A short time afterwards M. Charles and M. Robert ascended in a balloon inflated with hydrogen gas, and travelled a distance of 27 miles from the Tuileries; M. Charles by himself also ascended to a height of about two miles. Since then a multitude of ascents and aerial voyages were made, with, strange to say, comparatively few disastrous results in the early years. Among the names of the earlier balloonists we may mention Lunardi, who first made an ascent in Great Britain in September 1784, unless we assign this honour to J. Tytler (' Balloon' Tytler), who seems to have made two short ascents from Edinburgh in the preceding month; Blanchard, who, along with the American Dr. Jeffries, first crossed the Channel from Dover to Calais, in January 1785; Garnerin, who first descended by a parachute from a balloon in October 1797; and Gay Lussac, who reached the height of 23,000 feet in September 1804.
In 1836 a balloon carrying Messrs. Green, Holland, and Mason traversed the 500 miles between London and Weilburg in Nassau in eighteen hours. In 1859 Mr. J. Wise, the chief of American aeronauts, accompanied by several others, rose from New York, and landed, after a flight of 1150 miles, in twenty hours. In September 1862, the renowned aeronaut, Mr. Glaisher, accompanied by a Mr. Coxwell, made an ascent from Wolverhampton, and reached the estimated elevation of 37,000 feet, or 7 miles, a height far greater than any other then attained, if it can be depended on as exactly ascertained. But the aeronauts were for a time in great peril, Mr. Glaisher having become insensible, and Mr. Coxwell having his hands so severely frozen that he was unable to pull the valve for descent, and was compelled to use his teeth. Early aeronauts were clearly unaware of the thinning of the atmosphere and dramatic reduction in temperature with altitude. It is claimed that the first greatest really authentic height-35,000 feet-was attained by two German aeronauts at Berlin in 1901. The most daring early attempt at an aerial voyage was that of the Swede, Andree, who, with two companions in 1897 ascended from Spitzbergen in hopes of reaching the North Pole, their fate remaining unknown.
All the features of the ordinary balloon as now used are more or less due to Professor Charles, already mentioned. Early balloons were usually a large pear-shaped bag, made of pliable silk cloth, covered with a varnish of caoutchouc dissolved in oil of turpentine to render it air-tight. The ordinary size ranged from 20 to 30 feet in equatorialdiameter, with a proportionate height, but balloons of far greater dimensions were also constructed. A car, or basket, generally of wicker-work, supported by a network which extends over the balloon, contained the aeronaut; and a valve, usually placed near the top, and to which is attached a string reaching the car, gave him the power of allowing the gas to escape, whereby the balloon lowered at pleasure. A quantity of sand ballast in small bags was usually taken, and when the balloon tended to descend too far sand was thrown out and it rose again. The guide-rope, a long and heavy rope trailing over the ground, was sometimes used when the country was such that no serious damage would result from its trailing. The principle of this device was that as the balloon tended to rise it must lift more of the rope off the ground, while when the balloon sunk it was relieved of so much weight, and thus it tended to float at one level above the ground.
The problem of how to steer or propel a balloon in a desired horizontal direction was an early issue and numerous attempts at producing navigable balloons were made at the start of the 20th century. In a navigable balloon to be propelled through the air by some kind of motor, against the wind if necessary, the familiar balloon shape was departed from as quite unsuitable, and the 'air-ship' usually of an elongated form and more or less cylindrical or cigar-shaped adopted. A design still used a hundred years later.
Balloons of a fish or cigar shape, floated by gas, and propelled by a screw driven by a dynamo-electric machine, and steered by a large rudder, made several ascents in Paris in 1884 and 1885; and being generally able to return to the starting-point, at the time it was claimed for them that they had settled the question of balloon steerage, but it was several years before the matter was settled. The names of CountZeppelin and M. SantosDumont became well known in connection with such balloons. In 1897-1900 the former constructed a huge cylindrical air-ship of great length, with parabolic ends, divided into a number of separate chambers filled with hydrogen gas and these enclosed in an outer air balloon, the whole being braced and made rigid by an aluminium framework, and the means of propulsion being screws driven by Daimler petrol motors and fixed to the longitudinal axis of the air-ship. The success of this great structure, even after various improvements were introduced, appears to have been only partial, and want of sufficient funds brought operations to a stop for a while. M. SantosDumont constructed several navigable balloons, and one of them was so successful at Paris in 1901 as to gain a prize of 100,000 francs. On this occasion his airship made the journey from St. Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back again, a distance of about 9.5 miles, in half an hour. M.M. Lebaudy of Paris also made some very successful trips with a dirigible balloon ; that is, one that can be steered or directed-to some extent at least.
In 1903-4 a large air-ship was constructed by Dr. F. A. Barton at Alexandra Park, London. This structure had a bamboo framework suspended below it, connected with which was the propelling machinery, two engines each of 4.7 ihp, driving a series of fans, there being a large square sail serving as a rudder. In 1905 an improved form of this air-ship was experimented with, the name Barton-Rawson air-ship, 'designed for the War Office', later being given to it. In this form it consisted of a silkballoon 180 feet long and 40 in diameter, with a bamboo car 127 ft. long and 18 ft. high, carrying a 50-horsepower motor at either end driving four propellers 7 ft. in diameter and revolving at a high speed, the total weight being about 14,000 lbs. Ascents made in July 1905 were not very successful, the air-ship driving with the wind and being unable to take a course of its own. The British War Office expressed its readiness to give an order for an air-ship on certain conditions, one being that it must be able to turn in a circle of 100 yards radius.
Besides balloons, which are lighter than a corresponding volume of air, and air-ships depending on the same principle, various apparatus were constructed for aerialnavigation that are heavier than the air at the start of the 20th century at a time when the feasibility of attaining success with such was supported by the flight of birds, many of which are decidedly heavy compared with their expanse of wing. Some of these apparatus were intended more for gliding or soaring through the air than for actual flight, having somewhat the nature of a huge bird with outstretched wings, beneath which a man attached himself, and on springing from a height gradually descends to the bottom - an idea revisited some years later for the hang-glider.
The kite, or structures on the same principle, were much experimented with, and it was found considerable weights can be raised and carried in this way. The kite rises in the air if drawn along by its string, and if instead of drawing it along a propeller is fitted to drive it through the air it ought to ascend in the same manner. Hence the invention of the aeroplane, which shows a large flat surface contrived to float nearly horizontally in the air, but with the front edge very slightly raised, so that in being propelled rapidly along it receives the pressure of the air on the under side, the air thus tending to counteract the force of gravity. Sir H. S. Maxim in 1894 constructed a huge machine with main and several subsidiary aeroplanes, propelled by two large screws driven by steam-engines of 300 hp, and able to rise with a great weight. As a model, at least, Prof. Langley's aerodrome had some success, flying through the air a distance of three-quarters of a mile. It had two rigid pairs of wings about 12 ft. in width, with large screw-propellers between them driven by a small steam-engine. Aviation is the term applied to attempts at flight otherwise than by balloons.
Manned balloons were successfully used for taking meteorological and military observation from the end of the 19th century. The latter class of balloons were usually 'captive' balloons - balloons that are kept by a rope from going farther than is desired, and that can be drawn back at will. Their use was only really suited for fairly calm weather and in certain circumstances. The balloon may have had a telephone connection with the earth below. There was a balloon service in the British army, the duties falling upon the Royal Engineers. Since about 1900 small captive and other balloons have sent up for purely scientific purposes, unaccompanied by any person, but provided with self-recording thermometers, barometers, etc., by which valuable facts have been ascertained. Some of these early balloons reached heights of 60,000 or 70,000 feet. During the siege of Paris in 1870-71 over sixty persons (including Gambetta) and innumerable letters left the city in balloons. Research Aeronautics
RE is an abbreviation for Reunion
RE is an abbreviation for Radiative Equilibrium
RE is an abbreviation for Recurring Expense
RE is an abbreviation for Royal Engineers
RE is an abbreviation for Reference Research RE
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Ordnance Survey
