Ballooning, or to use a compliment-phrase, aerial navigation is so much pursued by rich men of leisure military men of inventive powers. that its uses to science are sometimes overlooked. In this way the existence of an International Commission of Sele fic Aeronautics may be news to many people (journalists included), although it first met in Milan as long ago 1906. The object of the Commission is to investigate the meteorological conditions of the upper atmosphere whether with a view to discovering an outlet for surplus population, or merely for the reformation of our daily wear forecasts does not clearly appear. At any rate the Commission has be to beguile its members with some very fascinating experiments, a large series which was executed uniformly in several used—kites, captive balloons and ballon# sondes which sre small indiarnbber balloons capable of ascending as high a< thirteen or fourteen miles. To each machine self-registering meteorological instruments were attached to register the height stained, the temperature and humidity. On a number of consecutive days ascents were made from Versailles, Boston and the Azores. The Prince of Monaco, accompanied Professor Hergesell, of Strassbar, went to Spitzbergen and xent up kites and balloons. Germany sent " man-"lof-war to the North Atlantic between Iceland and Norway, which lost four balloons and two kites, though it made one excellent kite-ascent of over 12,000 ft. France, Italy and Russia also ent out men-of-war on like errands; and Russia, indeed, caused ascents to be made in fifteen different parts of Europe and Asia. In Great Britain observations were mae by pallone sondes in Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Lancashire and Soutland. But the country is ton small for sich exyeriments, and of twenty-five balloons let loose but fifteen have been recovered. The full resulte of therGxperimeats have
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.