3-052-466 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Proposed method of reaching the North Pole by balloons: balloons starting - balloons at anchor, 1880. 'The name of Mr. Henry Coxwell has been to a certain extent associated with the proposal...Commander [John P.] Cheyne's calculations...prove that in the month of June,...the mean variable direction of the wind would be...most favourable for an advance and return journey...[Gas] would be provided in a compressed state in tanks taken out in the steamer, and the chemical materials for producing hydrogen would be also carried, so as to generate it on the spot, if necessary. Three balloons would be inflated, and subsequently attached in a triangular form to light spars, so as to afford an opportunity of using two trail-ropes to ride over all obstacles without rising very high in the atmosphere...Reduced speed or anchorage could be effected by an elongated apparatus, composed of the third spar, with grapnels affixed, which would grip in the ice and bring the balloon to a standstill. New strong silk balloons would be almost perfect gasholders, so that fresh inflation would be unnecessary'. Aeronautical pioneer and itinerant showman Cheyne was increasingly maligned as a charlatan and lunatic. He proved unable to realise his dream of polar flight. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.