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412 to make my living by wielding a broom. In spite of that, I have many pleasant recollections from that time, because I learned a great deal while staying there. It was there I met the old aëronaut John Wise from Philadelphia, and it was there I got the first lesson in the manufacturing of balloons. For me is America, therefore, indeed memorable, and the Americans can rest assured that I should like very much, if I could, to visit them with my balloon via the North Pole."

Early in 1895 Mr. Andrée laid his ideas for a balloon expedition into the Arctic, then pretty well matured, before the Swedish Academy of Science. Later in the same year he presented them in England before the International Geographical Congress. He estimated that he would require for his project a little over $36,000. In time the money was provided, mainly by the generosity of Mr. Alfred Noble, who died, however, before Andrée could make his start; Baron Oscar Dickson, who died soon after the start; and the King of Sweden. Andrée had now been studying balloons with great care for some years. He had himself made a number of ascensions, and he had had some very thrilling and dangerous adventures. With the money he required made secure, he set about the construction of a balloon especially suited to his purpose.

The "Ornen" was built by M. Lachambre, the well-known balloon-maker of Paris, at an original cost of $10,000. The balloon proper was originally ninety-seven feet through from top to bottom; and, at the widest part, sixty-seven and a quarter feet through from side to side. After the failure to make a start in 1896, Andrée decided to enlarge it, and it was carried back to Paris, cut in two at the middle, and an additional section inserted about three and a quarter feet high. The perpendicular diameter was thus increased by about that much, but the horizontal diameter remained as before. By this enlargement the volume of the balloon was increased 10,600 cubic feet, becoming in all 170,000 cubic feet. It is made of silk — three thicknesses through the upper two-thirds, and two through the lower third, all varnished twice over, inside and out. Over all the seams are laid protecting strips, and to doubly insure tightness these were varnished at the edges, just before the start, with a varnish especially devised for this use. There are two valves about half way up the balloon, nearly, but not quite, opposite each other; and there is a third at the bottom. The latter works automatically; the others are controlled by ropes attached to them on the inside and coming out of the balloon at the bottom beside the third.

The balloon is encased in a heavy netting of hemp, woven above, with much intricacy, of 384 separate ropes, and ending below in forty-eight "suspension" ropes, to which is attached what is known as the "bearing-ring." This ring is a part