Cost of Privately Owned Balloons 1908-1910

[Doc]

Does anyone have any ads or other information which would tell me the cost of commercially-available gas-filled balloons (for private use, not government cost) in France in the 1908-1910 period? Thanks for any help. Doc

[Varese2002]

In

Brockett, Paul. 1910. Bibliography of aeronautics. Smithsonian miscellaneous collections, 55. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.

there is some reference to articles dealing with the cost of ballooning.



Aër. Journal is the Aëronautical Journal, London.

I think (private) ballooning was very costly in those times (1908-1910). Cost could be divided in the balloon envelope, the filling (hydrogen), the extra material (baskets, ropes), the transport (getting the material to the start and from the landing back) and the extra personnel for inflating and start.
Today hot-air ballooning will be an expensive proposition too, I think.

Cheers

Kees

[Doc]

Thanks, Kees. I will have to try to dig up that first reference.

Yes, I agree it was expensive, I'm just trying to quantify it. As you know, I am working on a Biography of Marie Marvingt, who had her own balloon and flew it in numerous competitions, during this period. I'm trying to figure out how much it would have cost her (and eventually, where the money came from). Her father was a postal official, and she did not have any kind of job from which she could have paid such expenses. Thanks for the sources. Doc

[Varese2002]

If you are searching around, you may as well look as this one

Baden-Powell, Baden Fletcher Smyth. 1907. Ballooning as a sport. Edinburgh: W. Blackwood and sons.

According to Google books Baden-Powell quotes prices (1907) of £ 100 to £ 200 for the balloon. But that is only a snippet of the text (Google-style). Price is the GBP level of worth of 1907.

Hartmann quotes some figures (1907) for cost at page 4 (le financement des efforts aéronautiques) of his study, unfortunately no sources given

http://www.hydroretro.net/etudegh/19...erostation.pdf

Cheers

Kees

[Doc]

Thanks again, Kees. I will find those references. I appreciate your assistance. Doc

[Rod_Filan]

Not French, although it is interesting to know that...

Capt. Charles Deforest Chandler of the balloon America, at the St. Louis Gordon Bennett Balloon Race had this to say about the cost of ballooning:

The New York Times. October 20, 1907.

"The dirigible balloons which we have in this country are very unreliable, as a rule, because they are cheap affairs, costing usually a couple thousand dollars or so. Some of the French airships are said to have cost as much as $80,000. They are giants, they make quick time, and they are not breaking down every few minutes. So splendidly equipped are these ships that men manning them are able to do much of their repair work in the air.

"A race of dirigible balloons of that class would be worth seeing. But they cost too much. A good free balloon and a bad dirigible cost about the same money. If I must take my choice of them give me the free balloon every time."

-
Cheers

[Doc]

Thanks, Rod. Interesting. Doc