by the new
science were increasing at an even greater speed. But there was no
breach of continuity; the process was a process of growth; the new was
added, and the old was not abolished.

From the days of the Montgolfiers for more than a century the value of
the balloon in war was a matter of debate and question and experiment.
At the battle of Fleurus, in 1794, the triumphant French republican army
used a captive balloon, chiefly, perhaps, as a symbol and token of the
new era of science and liberty. Balloons were used in the Peninsular
Campaign, but Napoleon's greatest achievements owed nothing to
observation from the air. Even in the American Civil War, where the
Federals certainly derived some advantage from their use, balloons were
criticized and ridiculed more than they were feared. In Great Britain
military experiments with balloons began at Woolwich Arsenal in 1878. In
the following year Captain R. P. Lee, of the Royal Engineers, reporting
on the work done at the arsenal, stated that they had a thoroughly sound
and reliable fleet of five balloons, and a few trained officers and men,
competent to undertake their management. One of these balloons
accompanied the troops on manoeuvre at the Easter Volunteer Review at
Brighton. Captain H. Elsdale, of the Royal Engineers, who was in charge
of the party, took part in the final march past; he was in the car of
the balloon at a height of two hundred and fifty feet, while Captain J.
L. B. Templer, a militia officer, managed the transport on the ground. A
balloon section was present at the Aldershot manoeuvres both in 1880 and
in 1882; it was judged a success, and instructions were issued in the
autumn of 1882 that the Balloon Equipment Store, as the establishment at
Woolwich was called, should be removed to the School of Military
Engineering at Chatham, where a small balloon factory, depot, and school
of instruction was established in 1883. The practice with the balloons
was under the charge of Major Lee, and in that year Major Templer came
to Chatham to carry out certain experiments in the manufacture of
balloons. He brought with him a family of the name of Weinling, to
construct balloons on a system devised by himself. The fabric of the
balloons was the internal membrane of the lower intestine of the ox,
sometimes called gold-beater's skin. The Weinling family had a secret,
or what they believed to be a secret, for the secure joining together of
the pieces of this skin.