The actual cost of a balloon will be understood from information also derived from Mr. Graham. His celebrated "Victoria Balloon," which has passed through so many hairbreadth escapes, was sixty-five feet high, and thirty-eight feet in diameter in the broadest part; and the following articles were used in its construction:-- £ _s._ _d._ 1400 yards of Corah silk, at 2_s._ 6_d._ per yard 175 0 0 The netting weighed 70 lbs. 20 0 0 Extra ropes weighed 20 lbs. at 2_s._ per lb. 2 0 0 The car weighed 25 lbs. 7 0 0 Varnish, wages, &c. 16 0 0 ------------- £220 0 0 Thirty-eight thousand cubic feet of coal gas were required to fill this balloon, charged by one company 20_l._, by others from 9_l._ to 10_l._; and eight men were required to hold the inflated baggy monster. Such a balloon as described above is a mere soap bubble when compared with the "New Aerial Ship" now building in the vicinity of New York; the details are so practical and interesting, that we quote nearly the whole account of this mammoth or Great Eastern amongst balloons, as given in the _New York Times_. "An experiment in scientific ballooning, greater than has yet been undertaken, is about to be tried in this city. The project of crossing the Atlantic Ocean with an air-ship, long talked of, but never accomplished, has taken a shape so definite that the apparatus is already prepared and the aeronaut ready to undertake his task. "The work has been conducted quietly, in the immediate vicinity of New York, since the opening of spring. The new air-ship, which has [Page 113] been christened the City of New York, is so nearly completed, that but few essentials of detail are wanting to enable the projectors to bring it visibly before the public. "The aeronaut in charge is Mr. T. S. C. Lowe, a New Hampshire man, who has made thirty-six balloon ascensions. "The dimensions of the City of New York so far exceed those of any balloon previously constructed, that the bare fact of its existence is notable. Briefly, for so large a subject, the following are the dimensions:--Greatest diameter, 130 feet; transverse diameter, 104 feet; height, from valve to boat, 350 feet; weight, with outfit, 3½ tons; lifting power (aggregate), 22½ tons; capacity of gas envelope, 725,000 cubic feet. "The City of New York, therefore, is nearly five times larger than the largest balloon ever before built. Its form is that of the usual perpendicular gas-receiver, with basket and lifeboat attached.