Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/176

Image missingFig. 102.Parachute attached to the Fuse and Wire. paper is pasted, enclosing the strings without disturbing them; the ends of the strings come out at the corners.

These parachutes are attached to a wire that hangs from the balloon in this manner: From the centre and top of the parachute is a string, we will say, a foot long; this is tied securely to one end of the large fuse from a pack of Chinese fire-crackers; a few inches from the other end of the fuse another string is tied and fastened to the wire. Just as the balloon starts the free end of the fuse is lighted (Fig. 102). When it has burned itself away past the point where the lower string has been fastened, it of course severs the connection between the parachute and the balloon, and the parachute drops, but does not go far, before the air beneath spreads it out, the weight at the bottom balances it, and it floats away slowly, settling lower and lower, but often travelling miles before finally reaching the earth.

All manner of objects may be attached to a parachute—notes addressed to possible finders, letters, or figures of men or animals. The latter look very odd in the air.

A real passenger balloon may be very closely imitated by painting crossed black lines upon the upper part of a paper balloon to represent the net-work. A pasteboard balloon-car, made after the manner shown in Fig. 103, and holding two pasteboard men cut out as shown in Fig. 104, may be hung on by hook-