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This great ship of the air was to be a regular little town, as you may see.  The balloon was to be one hundred and fifty feet in diameter, and was to carry a large ship, on which the passengers would be safe if they descended in the water, even if it were the middle of the ocean.

Everything was to be provided for the safety and convenience of the passengers.  Around the upper part of the balloon you will see a platform, with sentries and tents.  These soldiers were to be called the “air-marines.”  There is a small balloon—­about the common size—­which could be sent off like a small boat whenever occasion required.  If any one got tired of the expedition, and wanted to go home, there was a parachute by which he might descend.  On the deck of the ship, near the stern, was to be a little church; small houses hung from below, reached by ladders of silk, which were to be used as medicine-rooms, gymnasiums, etc.; and under the ship would hang a great hogshead, as big as a house, which would contain provisions and stores, and keep them tight and dry.  There was also a kitchen; and a cannon, with which to fire off salutes, besides a number of guns, which you see projecting from the port-holes of the ship.  These, I suppose, were to be used against all enemies or pirates of the air, sea, or land.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

I cannot enumerate all the appendages of this wonderful balloon—­you see there are telescopes, sails, great speaking-trumpets, anchors, etc.; but I will merely remark that it was never constructed.

One of the safest, and sometimes the most profitable, methods of using a balloon, is that shown in the picture, “Safe Ballooning.”  Here a battle is going on, and the individuals in the balloon, safely watching the progress of events and the movements of the enemy, transmit their observations to the army with which they are connected.  Of course the men on the ground manage a balloon of this sort, and pull it around to any point that they please, lowering it by the ropes when the observations are concluded.  Balloons are often used in warfare in this manner.

But during the late siege of Paris, balloons became more useful than they have ever been since their invention.  A great many aeronauts left the besieged city, floated safely over the Prussian army, and descended in friendly localities.  Some of these balloons were captured, but they generally accomplished their purposes, and were of great service to the French.  On one occasion, however, a balloon from Paris was driven by adverse winds to the ocean, and its occupants were drowned.

It has not been one hundred years since the balloon was invented by the brothers Montgolfier, of France.  They used heated air instead of gas, and their balloons were of course inferior to those of the present day.  But we have not improved very much upon the original balloon, and what progress will eventually be made in aerial navigation it is difficult to prophesy.  But there are persons who believe that in time air-ships will make regular trips in all directions, like our present steamboats and railroad-trains.