Monday, March 21, 2016
Interesting Documentary on Balloon Flights
I saw an interesting documentary on manned balloon flights, and it recalled for me the excellent post by Colin Gauld on the emulsion group's cosmic ray studies, and the photos of the balloon launches. The doco has some tech info so this collection of old blokes won't fall asleep, especially info on the balloon construction techniques and cosmic rays are mentioned en passant! It's a 390MB mp4 posted to my Microsoft One Drive thingo in the clouds. With the link below you can easily download it and play or stream it or if, unlike me, your gear is modern it will play directly on your chosen device. Enjoy:
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=4421DC32EC3106FD!431&authkey=!AMXeaCClRxd8Dwg&ithint=video%2cmp4
--TonyP
Thanks Tone/Carl. It sure is a fascinating piece. We can tell our grandchildren - should they be bothered to tear themselves away from their twittering facebooks - that we had some minuscule connection to this pioneering work.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I seem to remember that Don Melley had quite an intense involvement with hot-air balloons and a group of engineers/friends until tragedy struck. Since he used some of the electronics workshop facilities for some of this exercise, perhaps he could tell us about it.
Yes please Don more info.
DeleteI had a brush with these hot-air chaps - Engineering? A Eng mate and I helped with one balloon launch on the campus oval near the Forest Lodge gates. Must have been ca 1961 when I was in Eng. Memories are dim though.
--TonyP