The work began under the superintendence of the most celebrated aeronaut of the United States, Harry W.Tinder, immortalized by three of his ascents out of a thousand, one in which he rose to a height of twelve thousand yards, higher than Gay Lussac, Coxwell, Sivet, Croce-Spinelli, Tissandier, Glaisher; another in which he had crossed America from New York to San Francisco, exceeding by many hundred leagues the journeys of Nadar, Godard, and others, to say nothing of that of John Wise, who accomplished eleven hundred and fifty miles from St.Louis to Jefferson county; the third, which ended in a frightful fall from fifteen hundred feet at the cost of a slight sprain in the right thumb, while the less fortunate Pilatre de Rozier fell only seven hundred feet, and yet killed himself on the spot! At the time this story begins the Weldon Institute had got their work well in hand.

In the Turner yard at Philadelphia there reposed an enormous aerostat, whose strength had been tried by highly compressed air.

It well merited the name of the monster balloon.
How large was Nadar's Geant?
Six thousand cubic meters.

How large was John Wise's balloon?
Twenty thousand cubic meters.

How large was the Giffard balloon at the 1878 Exhibition?
Twenty-five thousand cubic meters.