roswell

With these and subsequent rigging lines the following technique was used:
on all lines a strength test was made and a safety factor of at least ten
to one was demanded. Most of the lines used are of braided or woven nylon.
ohosen for its low weight-strength ratio. To facilitate handling of the
line segments each length is prepared with a small hook on either end. The
knots employed are double carriok bends.
The total length of the early trains reached as much as eight hundred
feet. making them extremely difficult to release. A system of restraining
the load line was evolved with two winches paying out restraining lines
while balloons and equipment were added to the load line. .In this way the
pull of the balloons themselves and the much greater strain caused by even
light winds was held by winches. When the final piece of equipment was
clear of the ground (crwhen the entire flight line was under tension with
the lowest element being held back) a gunpowder squib was electrically fired
to sever the restraining lines near the bottom of the balloon. Figure 27
shows the ahun.inum "cannon" holding the gunpowder, the two winch lines and
a light line used to pull the restraining· lines away £ram the load line after
firing. The load line has not yet been attached in Figure 21. but will be
fixed just above the "cannon".
When the restraining line is severed, there is danger of a pendulum
swing of the train causing the lower components to be dashed into the ground.
To avoid this action, the lowest piece of equipment is usually held by a
member of the crew on the back of a truck. By driving downwind raster than
the surface wind speed, the pull of the balloon can be resolved into only a
vertical component and the equipment may be safely released when the truck
gets under the balloon.
With later plastic cell flights, this method of launching was also
used in cases of light wind. \'vhen windG of about 6 knots are enooun"tered,
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