The Mystery of Andree

STOCKHOLM BUDGET.

Andree's Balloon and Polar Expedition Described.

CLEVELAND TO VISIT THE NORTH.

Elenora Duse in the Capital of Sweded (sic) -- Harmonious Meeting of the Union Committee.

Stockholm, Dec. 22.

[Special to the News.]

Chief Engineer S.A. Andree, who is to start for the North Pole next summer, delivered recently a representation about the balloon that will be used during his polar expedition. There were some new inventions, but only the most indispensable and none that were not sufficiently tested. Among the new inventions are the sails on the sides of the baloon (sic), and a kind of calotte or partial cover at the top of the balloon, intended as a protection against snow, water and change of temperature. The calotte or top cover is to be glazed with varnish so as to prevent as much as possible the snow from fastening on it; and if the quantity of snow should become too heavy, the balloon sinks and takes an oblique position, and when the balloon is cleared from snow on one side, it dips over to the other and is of course cleared there in the same way. The top ventilation is taken away, and instead of it a wooden ring is applied. As a substitute of the top ventilator, two ventilators are applied, one above the other, on the side of the balloon. Below the middle of the balloon a broad belt of cloth of good firmness is applied to give strength and steadiness to the form of the balloon as well as protection against the pressure of the wind, as at the use of a trail line the pressure becomes so intense as to create a concavity, and this must be avoided when sails are used.

The safety of the expedition is explained to be so great that at the most urgent extremity 2,000 kilometers must be thrown out to keep the balloon aloof (sic), the expedition still having a boat, clothes and provisions for four months and a half, instruments, firearms and ammunition for fifteen hundred shots. One should think that this does not mean shipwreck in the polar regions.

Reproduced with permission: L.L. Lewis, Explorations (Newspaper Clippings Related to Polar Exploration), Vol. 1 & 2. University Archives, Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries, Lawrence, KS.