*Military Value.* As an aid to military operations, the use of the captive balloon dates back many years. It was extensively employed in the Civil war and more recently in the Boer war, but with the advent of both the dirigible and the aeroplane, it was generally considered outside of Germany that its reason for existence had passed away. The German military plans included a large number of balloons for artillery observation purposes and they were used right from the start. It was only when the fighting settled down to trench warfare, however, that they came into prominence and the aid that they rendered the German batteries put their opponents at a serious disadvantage. Like the bayonet, which was also generally considered to have been relegated to military operations of the past, the captive balloon is now playing a very important role, particularly on the western front. In favorable weather, anywhere from ten to forty of these aerial observation posts will be visible from a single point on the line. *Spherical Type Defective.* The captive balloon of the present day, however, bears no resemblance to its predecessors. From a sphere, it has been developed into a form that more nearly resembles the dirigible and at the same time, it embodies some of the features of the aeroplane. The old spherical balloon was always at the mercy of the wind, which not only governed the altitude to which the balloon would rise but also made things extremely uncomfortable as well as dangerous for the observers. With 1,000 feet of cable out, such a balloon rises to an equivalent height on a perfectly, calm day. But even a light wind cuts this height down by 100 or 200 feet, while if a strong wind is blowing, the balloon is held down to within a few hundred feet of the ground regardless of the length of cable paid out. Every strong gust beats it over at a perilous angle and the resulting shocks to the basket are so severe that its occupants can have little thought for anything but their own safety. Strong cross gusts set both the bag and basket to spinning and jumping in a manner that would make the results of the severest storm at sea seem mild by comparison, since the movements of the basket are executed with such rapidity that they seem to be in almost every plane simultaneously. As a result, the old type of captive balloon was available for service only in the calmest weather.