That the day of ordinary ballooning has not been dimmed by the advent of the airship and the aeroplane is evidenced by the recently made estimate that not less than 800 spherical balloons are in constant use almost daily in one part or another of Christendom. And it seems entirely reasonable to predict that with a better comprehension of the movements of air-currents--to which special knowledge the scientific world is now applying its investigations as never before--they will come a great increase of interest in simple ballooning as a recreation. Chapter XIV. BALLOONS: THE DIRIGIBLE. Elongation of gas-bag--Brisson--Meusnier--Air-ballonnets--Scott--Giffard--Haenlein--Tissandier--Renard and Krebs--Schwartz--Santos-Dumont--Von Zeppelin--Roze--Severo--Bradsky-Leboun--The Lebaudy dirigible--Zeppelin II--Parseval I--Unequal wind pressures--Zeppelin III--Nulli Secundus--La Patrie--Ville-de-Paris--Zeppelin IV--Gross I--Parseval II--Clement-Bayard I--Ricardoni’s airship--Gross II--The new Zeppelin II--La Republique--The German fleet of dirigibles--Parseval V--The Deutschland--The Erbslöh--Gross III--Zeppelin VI--The America--Clement-Bayard III--The Capazza lenticular dirigible. The dirigible balloon, or airship, is built on the same general principles as the ordinary balloon--that is, with the envelope to contain the lifting gas, the car to carry the load, and the suspending cordage--but to this is added some form of propelling power to enable it to make headway against the wind, and a rudder for steering it. Almost from the very beginning of ballooning, some method of directing the balloon to a pre-determined goal had been sought by inventors. Drifting at the fickle pleasure of the prevailing wind did not accord with man’s desire for authority and control. The first step in this direction was the change from the spherical form of the gas-bag to an elongated shape, the round form having an inclination to turn round and round in the air while floating, and having no bow-and-stern structure upon which steering devices could operate. The first known proposal in this direction was made by Brisson, a French scientist, who suggested building the gas-bag in the shape of a horizontal cylinder with conical ends, its length to be five or six times its diameter. His idea for its propulsion was the employment of large-bladed oars, but he rightly doubted whether human strength would prove sufficient to work these rapidly enough to give independent motion to the airship.