Balloon train
Balloon Train (also balloon fleet, aeronaut Park) was a branch of service , which was responsible for all equipment that Transport using observation balloons and other aircraft before the invention of aircraft were used. Like the train , the balloon train also relied on horses for heavy objects .
The main task of the balloon train was to produce the hydrogen gas that was needed to operate the balloon as quickly as possible at each location . For this purpose, mobile gas generators that were as light as possible and simply constructed were used.
History of Military Gas Generation
After many years of experimentation, the Frenchman Renard constructed a mobile gas generator which, with the help of a steam engine, drove a mixture of sulfuric acid and water through a boiler filled with zinc or iron filings . In addition to the sulfuric acid, more than 1,500 kg of zinc or iron had to be carried along in order to fill even the smallest balloon (of around 500 m³ ). In this way, around 200 m³ of gas could be generated per hour. The smallest of these balloons could lift two people more than 500 meters into the air.
In Germany, a dry process was used instead of the wet one. Cartridges containing a mixture of lime and zinc dust were heated to red heat in a mobile retort furnace, releasing copious amounts of hydrogen gas.
Both methods were unsuitable for use in the field, as the balloon filling took more than three hours and heavy equipment had to be carried. However, they were used for fortresses.
During the expedition to Egypt in 1885, Great Britain carried compressed hydrogen gas in strong iron cylinders and three balloons made of cylinders 3.5 m in length and 500 kg in weight were filled. In addition, about a hundred gas containers with 4 m³ of gas each were carried by the teams. A gas generator was available in the operations base to refill the cylinders if necessary.
This procedure prevailed in the period that followed and completely changed the way the balloon train worked. Instead of the cumbersome devices, there were now light and mobile units. Two to six gas vans were required per balloon, which could fill a balloon at the same time and thus the filling only took a few minutes.
literature
- Austrian military magazine , Kaiserl. Royal Court and State Printing House, 1900