Hot Air Balloon

[WinterLeia]

There's a rather entertaining scene in the TV series The Blue and the Gray involving a young Confederate soldier being sent up in a hot air balloon. I know that hot air balloons were used in the Civil War. But I was wondering how prevalent they were and how they worked out. Even though the scene begins somewhat humorously it kind of gives the impression that it's not a good idea and it's probably not going to end well for the characters involved. Sure enough, tragedy strikes when the line on the ground becomes untethered and the wind ends up pushing the balloon across the river and into enemy territory. One of the men in the balloon gets shot and killed. The other one somehow lands safely, but deep in enemy territory, and is captured almost immediately. Did anything like that happen in real life?

 

[TSCLowe]

Subsequent examination of color footage of Hindenburg and of fragments of the covering indicate that in her case it was the outer covering that ignited, the chemicals used to weatherproof the canvas mix was almost literally solid rocket fuel.

The paint covering the top half of the Hindenburg to help it solar fly across the ocean to "save gas" included magnesium which burns extremely hot, bright, and for a long time. "Oh, The Humanity!"

A hydrogen explosion is quick and creates a flame.

Respectfully Submitted,

TSC Lowe, Aeronaut
Civil War Balloon Corps Living History

 

[TSCLowe]

Capt. George Custer went up on one of the early balloon rides during the Peninsula Campaign:

George Custer’s Reluctant Ride in a War Balloon

By Ken Zurski In 1862, at the age of twenty-two, and nearly 15 years before his death at the Battle of Little Bighorn, the newly appointed Captain George Armstrong Custer went up in a hydrogen-fill…

unrememberedhistory.com

Lieutenant Custer made jokes about and bad mouth the use of balloons for observation until he was assigned as an observer in a balloon operated by the Aeronaut James Allen at the Warwick Court House during the Peninsula Campaign. He kept asking Allen "Is it safe? Is it safe?" Allen replied "Of course it's safe. I do this all the time!!" Custer entered the basket and cowered in the bottom as the balloon ascended. When he asked again if it was safe Allen jumped up and down in the basket shaking it vigorously. Now the joke is on Custer!!

To his credit, Custer was the first to report the Confederates withdrawing from Yorktown.

Respectfully Submitted,

TSC Lowe, Aeronaut
Civil War Balloon Corps Living History

 

[TSCLowe]

The hot air balloons in the Civil War were made of silk covered by a varnish and if they were in a city with a gas works, they were often filled with coal gas. In the field, the Union used hydrogen generators which required 3300 pounds of iron filings to be mixed with 1600 pounds of sulfuric acid which produced enough hydrogen gas to fill one balloon for each use which took about three hours.

Your statement contradicts it self @redbob: The correct term is gas balloon. Hot Air Balloons are inflated with heated air. The only heated air balloon used during the Civil War was the first balloon used by the Confederates. ALL others, as you explained, were inflated with City, also known as Coal Gas, or Hydrogen.

Respectfully Submitted,

TSC Lowe, Aeronaut
Civil War Balloon Corps Living History

 

[TSCLowe]

I think I read that the Confederates had to use cold air balloons because they had shortages of hydrogen (there being few hydrogen mines in the south). So, we don't see much about their balloons as they as they just didn't rise to the occasion like the Union balloons.

BJ

The Confederates inflated their second balloon, The Gazelle, (also known as the Silk Dress Balloon) at the Richmond Gas Works along the James River.

We don't see much about Confederate Balloons because before the war most of the professional Aeronauts operated in the North. At the beginning of the war four Aeronauts brought their personal balloons with them offering the Union their services and equipment for aerial observation. The Union then contracted with Thaddeus Lowe, Chief Aeronaut, to build seven (7) Balloons use in "combat".

The Confederates finances, or lack thereof, also limited what they could or couldn't support. A balloon Corps was not high on their list of priorities.

Respectfully Submitted,

TSC Lowe, Aeronaut
Civil War Balloon Corps Living History

 

[John Winn]

..

 

[USS ALASKA]

@TSCLowe

Sir - you are 'Da Man!'

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[USS ALASKA]

The paint covering the top half of the Hindenburg to help it solar fly across the ocean to "save gas" included magnesium which burns extremely hot, bright, and for a long time. "Oh, The Humanity!"

Do NOT extinguish with water...

Magnesium is capable of reducing water and releasing highly flammable hydrogen gas:

Mg(s) + 2 H
2O(l) → Mg(OH)
2(s) + H
2(g)

Therefore, water cannot extinguish magnesium fires. The hydrogen gas produced intensifies the fire. Dry sand is an effective smothering agent, but only on relatively level and flat surfaces.

Magnesium reacts with carbon dioxide exothermically to form magnesium oxide and carbon:[85]

2 Mg(s) + CO
2(g) → 2 MgO(s) + C(s)
Hence, carbon dioxide fuels rather than extinguishes magnesium fires.

Burning magnesium can be quenched by using a Class D dry chemical fire extinguisher, or by covering the fire with sand or magnesium foundry flux to remove its air source.

Operation of Fire Protection Systems by Ed. Cote, Arthur E.

Operation of Fire Protection Systems: 9780877655848: Medicine & Health Science Books @ Amazon.com

Operation of Fire Protection Systems: 9780877655848: Medicine & Health Science Books @ Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[redbob]

Your statement contradicts it self @redbob: The correct term is gas balloon. Hot Air Balloons are inflated with heated air. The only heated air balloon used during the Civil War was the first balloon used by the Confederates. ALL others, as you explained, were inflated with City, also known as Coal Gas, or Hydrogen.

Respectfully Submitted,

TSC Lowe, Aeronaut
Civil War Balloon Corps Living History

I stand corrected. Did the rest of the post have correct information?

 

[TSCLowe]

I stand corrected. Did the rest of the post have correct information?

Thank you for reminding me.

Two (2) of Lowe's portable hydrogen generators required 800lbs of iron shavings and 40gallons of sulfuric acid diluted with water to make enough hydrogen to inflate the larger balloons, the Union and Intrepid, in about three (3) to four (4) hours.

From the hydrogen generators the gas would flow through a water and lime filter remove the acid from the gas and then a water only filter to complete the process.

Respectfully Submitted,

TSC Lowe, Aeronaut
Civil War Balloon Corps Living History

 

[TSCLowe]

On this date, August 20, 1832, Thaddeus Sobieski Constantine Lowe, Scientist, Inventor, and Chief Aeronaut for the Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War was born in Jefferson Mills, New Hampshire.

♫♪♫♪♫♪• HaPpY 193rd BiRtHdAy Professor Lowe! •♪♫♫♪♫♪

Respectfully Submitted,

TSC Lowe, Aeronaut
Civil War Balloon Corps Living History

 

[rebelatsea]

The paint covering the top half of the Hindenburg to help it solar fly across the ocean to "save gas" included magnesium which burns extremely hot, bright, and for a long time. "Oh, The Humanity!"

A hydrogen explosion is quick and creates a flame.

Respectfully Submitted,

TSC Lowe, Aeronaut
Civil War Balloon Corps Living History

Not just the top half, the whole cotton/canvas outer skin was so coated. One of the chemists who tested a sample from a surviving piece that got doused with ballast water said that it was like painting the ship with Saturn 5 rocket fuel. The PBS documentary was on Youtube, but appears to have been taken down.

 

[Library Lady]

Before the Hindenburg, there was the Wingfoot Express and its unfortunate descent into a bank on LaSalle Street in Chicago in 1919.

Wingfoot Express

chicagology.com

If you'd like to know more, the Wingfoot disaster is one of the major problems occurring in the summer of 1919 in Chicago that is extensively covered in the book City of Scoundrels: The 12 Days of Disaster that Gave Birth to Modern Chicago by Gary Krist. It's a very engaging text with plenty of endnotes and a good-sized bibliography.

CITY OF SCOUNDRELS | Kirkus Reviews

Think you’ve had a rough couple of weeks? The author of The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America’s Deadliest Avalanche (2007) returns with a tale of air disaster, race and ethnic riots, labor violence, child murder, political corruption and more—all in a Windy City...

www.kirkusreviews.com

 

[TSCLowe]

Before the Hindenburg, there was the Wingfoot Express and its unfortunate descent into a bank on LaSalle Street in Chicago in 1919.

Wingfoot Express

chicagology.com

I fail to see the connection to the Civil War "Balloon" topic. Yes, another airship disaster where tragedy strikes, but the Wingfoot Airship was inflated with helium so I see no connection to Civil War Ballooning.

The general public always make the Hindenburg connection when I share Civil War Balloons were inflated with hydrogen.

They are surprised when I mention that Ferdinand Von Zeppelin, creator of the rigid airship Hindenburg, was an exchange Officer observing US tactics during the Civil War. After the war he met the Union Aeronaut John Steiner, also a Prussian, near St Paul Minnesota and went on three balloon flights where Steiner explained how balloons were effectively used in military operations. This reinforces the connection to Civil War Ballooning history.

Respectfully Submitted,

TSC Lowe, Aeronaut
Civil War Balloon Corps Living History

 

[TSCLowe]

This scene from the movie "The Blue And The Grey" show how much of nuisance the Union Balloons were to the Confederacy. Every time a balloon ascended the Confederates would have to move their positions, make fake campsites and fake artillery using logs to look like cannons. They marched in circles to kick up dust to make the observers in the balloon think there were more soldiers on the ground than there actually were.

From the Washington Sunday Morning Chronicle June 23, 1861
"No doubt General Beauregard has looked upon the high position of Professor Lowe with considerable amazement.
All of his high reaching guns will fail to reach the messenger, who, from his cloudy seat, spies out the weak points of the traitor's nest."

The balloon used in the filming of The Blue And The Grey was provided by Balloon Excelsior Inc., and piloted by Brent Stockwell.

Respectfully Submitted,

TSC Lowe, Aeronaut
Civil War Balloon Corps Living History