When the United States entered the war we were practically without this type of aircraft, the only balloon possessed by our military forces on the Mexican border having been the gift of an Akron rubber company to the Ohio National Guard. In April, 1917, the whole production of military balloons in the United States was not over two or three a month, but at the request of the government the various rubber manufacturers went whole-heartedly into the business of production, so that when the war ended we were producing ten balloons a day. Up to November 11 there had been produced for the United States Army alone 1,025 balloons of all types, 642 of these being the final Type R Observation Balloon. Propaganda and target balloons were likewise developed and produced, as were new-type parachutes, canvas balloon hangars, and 1,221,582 feet of steel cable—a sufficient length of single-strand, specially manufactured wire to more than reach around the globe. One of the chief difficulties which had to be overcome was the question of a sufficient supply of cotton cloth of proper strength and texture, for balloon cloth was practically unknown in this country when we entered the war. In order to keep up with the balloon schedule of the War Department, the manufacturers required millions of yards of a very high-grade cloth with a weave of 140 threads to the inch both ways. At first the wastage due to imperfect balloon cloth was enormous, frequently running as high as 60 per cent, but by care and effort this was reduced to perhaps 10 per cent in total from the loom to the balloon. The wastage was largely caused by “slubs,” knots, and other imperfections of weaving, which prevented an even surface for rubberizing and consequently impaired the strength and gas-holding qualities of the cloth. Hundreds of inspectors, both factory and government employees, were necessary to get an approximately perfect fabric, and all had to be developed for this work. Indeed, the making of balloon cloth in the United States amounted to the development of an entirely new industry, for which thousands of men had to be specially trained for months. It will give you a better conception of the magnitude of this new industry, perhaps, when I tell you that to make ten balloons a day it was necessary for the cotton-mills to weave about 600,000 yards of this special balloon cloth a month, and this required 3,200 looms. It is a tribute to the skill of the American weavers that reports from the front stated that the American fabric burnt very much more slowly than that made in Europe, thus giving the observer more time to get away in his parachute and minimizing the danger of the burning balloon falling on him.