Jules Verne: Five Weeks in a Balloon

7. CHAPTER SEVENTH. (continued)

He also provided himself with three thoroughly tested iron anchors, and a light but strong silk ladder fifty feet in length.

He at the same time carefully weighed his stores of provision, which consisted of tea, coffee, biscuit, salted meat, and pemmican, a preparation which comprises many nutritive elements in a small space. Besides a sufficient stock of pure brandy, he arranged two water-tanks, each of which contained twenty-two gallons.

The consumption of these articles would necessarily, little by little, diminish the weight to be sustained, for it must be remembered that the equilibrium of a balloon floating in the atmosphere is extremely sensitive. The loss of an almost insignificant weight suffices to produce a very noticeable displacement.

Nor did the doctor forget an awning to shelter the car, nor the coverings and blankets that were to be the bedding of the journey, nor some fowling pieces and rifles, with their requisite supply of powder and ball.

Here is the summing up of his various items, and their weight, as he computed it:

  Ferguson...........................  135 pounds.
  Kennedy............................  153   "
  Joe................................  120   "
  Weight of the outside balloon......  650   "
  Weight of the second balloon.......  510   "
  Car and network....................  280   "
  Anchors, instruments, awnings,
    and sundry utensils, guns,
    coverings, etc...................  190   "
  Meat, pemmican, biscuits, tea,
    coffee, brandy...................  386   "
  Water..............................  400   "
  Apparatus..........................  700   "
  Weight of the hydrogen.............  276   "
  Ballast............................  200   "
                                          -----
                                          4,000 pounds.

Such were the items of the four thousand pounds that Dr. Ferguson proposed to carry up with him. He took only two hundred pounds of ballast for "unforeseen emergencies," as he remarked, since otherwise he did not expect to use any, thanks to the peculiarity of his apparatus.