Blowing up the enemy
QUESTION Were balloons used during the American Civil War?
Yes, balloons were used for military observation during the American Civil War, 1861 to 1865.
The French had already used balloons for reconnaissance. In 1794, the Committee of Public safety set up the Corps d’Aerostiers, which deployed them during the Revolutionary Wars.
U.s. President Abraham Lincoln was impressed by aeronaut Thaddeus Lowe, who designed the City Of New York, then the largest balloon in the world with a lift of 22.5 tons. He asked him to run the Union Army Balloon Corps, allotting 30 Philadelphia seamstresses to the task.
Lowe designed balloons with a silk envelope of a much smaller size, equipped with telegraphic cables that enabled him to communicate observations directly to the field commander.
By the end of 1861, he was commanding a flotilla of seven balloons, which varied in size from the 32,000 cubic feet Intrepid to the 15,000 cubic feet eagle and excelsior. each had enough cable to be raised to 5,000ft. The balloons were connected to the ground by ropes and pulleys so could be dragged away if under enemy fire.
Lowe provided each unit with mobile hydrogen generators, of his own invention, which could inflate a balloon in an unprecedented two and a half hours.
The Uss George Washington Parke Custis, a coal barge fitted with a launching deck as a mobile balloon base, was the first aircraft carrier.
Lowe directed the first artillery fire from the air. His ascent in Intrepid over the Battle of seven Pines in 1862, where he observed the oncoming Confederate Army and reported troop size and movements, saved the isolated army of General samuel P. Heintzelman.
John LaMountain was the only balloonist bold enough to make free reconnaissance flights over the enemy. He drifted over Confederate lines to make observations and then ascended high enough for the wind to carry him to safety.
Confederate use of balloons was far less successful. Their first was a rigid contraption filled with hot air from a fire. It was flown by volunteer Captain John R. Bryan, who disliked the experience.
The Gazelle, made from dressmaking silk, was piloted by the famous Confederate artillery commander e. P. Alexander.
By 1863, the Union Balloon Corps was beginning to have a demoralising effect on Confederate troops. But after Lowe contracted malaria, responsibility was handed to the Army Corps of engineers, who showed little interest in balloons.
After the war, Lowe invented the water gas process to produce large amounts of hydrogen from steam and coke. His patents on this process and ice-making machines made him a millionaire.
Charles Crofts, Wolverhampton, W. Mids.
QUESTION Who published the first phone book?
NORTH America’s first commercial telephone exchange, The Connecticut District Telephone Company, published the world’s first directory in 1878. It was a booklet of the names and addresses of 391 subscribers who paid $22 annually for the service.
A year later, The Telephone Company opened Britain’s first exchange in Coleman street in the City of London, with only seven subscribers. Demand grew quickly, with other exchanges opening in London within a year.
On January 15, 1880, The Telephone Company issued its first phone book of 248 personal and business names, but without phone numbers. A caller would ring the exchange and ask to be connected to another subscriber in the phone book. By April 1880, phone numbers were listed. In 1896, the first phone book for the whole country was published with 81,000 entries.
K. E. Evans, Cardiff.
QUESTION Has a film critic made a movie?
A FeW critics have turned their talents to directing and even proved good at it.
Paul schrader of the Los Angeles Free Press and Cinema magazine wrote the screenplays for Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. In 1978, he wrote and directed the acclaimed film Blue Collar and in 1980 achieved enduring success with American Gigolo, starring Richard Gere.
Two of French cinema’s greats, JeanLuc Godard and Francois Truffaut, were movie critics disgruntled with the quality of films. Godard contributed to the journal Gazette du Cinema and wrote commentary for Cahiers du Cinema. He ushered in the French New Wave with his 1960 film Breathless (A Bout de Souffle).
Truffaut, who also wrote for Cahiers du Cinema, co-wrote Breathless and directed the 1960 classic Jules And Jim.
Comedian Joe Cornish presented the BBC Radio 4 film programme Back Row from 2002 to 2003. He wrote and directed Attack The Block in 2011 and The Kid Who Would Be King in 2019.
Frank s. Nugent reviewed films for The New York Times before John Ford offered him a screenwriter’s role. His classic Westerns include she Wore A Yellow Ribbon and The searchers.
Karen White, Droitwich, Worcs.