Spherical canister of compressed hydrogen for use in inflating military balloons. A large number of these canisters may be tapped at the same time and the inflation proceed rapidly; a large balloon being filled in two hours.] In more recent times the French used balloons at Tonkin, in 1884; the English, in Africa, in 1885; the Italians, in Abyssinia, in 1888; and the United States, at Santiago, in 1898. During the Boer War, in 1900, balloons were used by the British for directing artillery fire, and one was shot to pieces by well-aimed Boer cannon. At Port Arthur, both the Japanese and the Russians used balloons and man-carrying kites for observation. The most recent use is that by Spain, in her campaign against the Moors, in 1909. The introduction of compressed hydrogen in compact cylinders, which are easily transported, has simplified the problem of inflating balloons in the field, and of restoring gas lost by leakage. The advent of the dirigible has engaged the active attention of the war departments of all the civilized nations, and experiments are constantly progressing, in many instances in secret. It is a fact at once significant and interesting, as marking the rapidity of the march of improvement, that the German Government has lately refused to buy the newest Zeppelin dirigible, on the ground that it is built of aluminum, which is out of date since the discovery of its lighter alloys. [Illustration: The German military non-rigid dirigible Parseval II. It survived the storm which wrecked the Zeppelin II in April, 1910, and reached its shed at Cologne in safety.] Practically all the armies are being provided with fleets of aeroplanes, ostensibly for use in scouting. But there have been many contests by aviators in “bomb-dropping” which have at least proved that it is possible to drop explosives from an aeroplane with a great degree of accuracy. The favorite target in these contests has been the life-sized outline of a battleship. [Illustration: The German military Zeppelin dirigible, which took part in the manœuvres at Hamburg in April, 1910, and was wrecked by a high wind at Weilburg on the return journey to Cologne.] Glenn Curtiss, after his trip down the Hudson from Albany, declared that he could have dropped a large enough torpedo upon the Poughkeepsie Bridge to have wrecked it. His subsequent feats in dropping “bombs,” represented by oranges, have given weight to his claims. By some writers it is asserted that the successful navigation of the air will guarantee universal peace; that war with aircraft will be so destructive that the whole world will rise against its horrors. Against a fleet of flying machines dropping explosives into the heart of great cities there can be no adequate defence.