Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/169

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Chapter XV.
Fourth of July Balloons With New and Novel Attachments.

Did you ever, while watching a beautiful soap-bubble dance merrily through the air, think how closely it resembled the immense silken bubble beneath which the daring aëronaut goes bounding among the clouds?

Especially is this true of the gas-bubble described in the foregoing chapter. When a boy, the author's ambition naturally led him from these vapor balloons to experimenting in Image missingToo long a neck (unsafe). more lasting material than soapsuds. He then devoted his attention for some time to paper balloons, and, after numerous experiments and disasters, succeeded in building balloons of a style which is comparatively safe from accident and seldom the cause of a mortifying failure. If you do not want to disappoint the spectators by having a fire instead of an ascension, avoid models with small mouth-openings or narrow necks. Experience has also taught the writer that balloons of good, substantial, portly build go up best and make their journey in a stately, dignified manner, while the slim, narrow balloon, on the contrary, even if it suc-

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