Public interest in the aerial project skyrocketed. Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and donor of the Nobel prizes, contributed 65,000 kronor ($19,175). King Oscar II of Sweden provided a generous donation, as did Baron Oscar Dickson of Gothenburg and Professor Gustav Retzius, Andrée’s old teacher. An additional $1,000 unexpectedly arrived, a gift from a Swede living in Buenos Aires.

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in Aviation History magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

Saloman Andrée turned to premier balloon maker Henri Lachambre at Champs de Mars in Paris. Christened Ornen, the new balloon featured an elliptical shape with a capacity of 170,000 cubic feet. Three layers of double Chinese silk formed the upper half of the envelope, with a single layer on the bottom half. A heavy casing of woven hempen netting shrouded the balloon, which was surmounted by a cap, or calotte, of varnished silk to keep arctic snows from lodging in the netting.

Suspended from a bearing ring formed from American elm wood was a wicker car measuring 6.5 feet in diameter and 5 feet deep. The circular gondola contained three sleeping berths. Astronomical and meteorological instruments vied for space with rifles, food supplies and survival equipment. Hanging from the bearing ring were canvas sacks containing a collapsible boat, snow sleds, sails and 36 bags of emergency food. Specially constructed pigeon cotes were squeezed in among bags of ballast and ropes.

By using a trio of canvas sails manipulated by guide ropes, Andrée hoped to tack the Ornen much the same way water-bound sailing vessels were tacked. A series of three trailing ballast ropes, each more than 1,000 feet in length, would aid Andrée in maintaining an altitude between 50 to 200 meters (165 to 650 feet) above ice and water. Each of the coconut-fiber ropes had been soaked in vaseline and tallow to reduce friction while being dragged over the ice and to make them impervious to water.

Complications dogged the expedition. Transporting the hydrogen from Sweden meant compressing the gas in steel cylinders, an expenditure in excess of approximately 85,000 kronor ($25,000). Andrée chose to manufacture the gas on the Arctic islands as a cheaper alternative. ‘We would make our gas with water, sulphuric acid and zinc or iron,’ he wrote. ‘Our experts, Ernst Ek and Axel Strake, decided that shavings of wrought iron and steel, mixed with sulphuric acid and water, would accomplish what we sought.’ Arrangements were made to ship 40,800 kilograms (89,760 pounds) of sulphuric acid and 23,000 kilograms (50,600 pounds) of iron filings to the lonely outpost at Spitsbergen.

Andrée and his aeronaut companions, meteorologist Nils Ekholm and physicist-photographer Nils Strindberg, set sail from Gothenburg aboard the transport vessel Virgo on June 7. By the 15th, they had reached the southernmost extremities of Spitsbergen, then turned northwest to reach the frigid shores of Danes Island. Ice ‘high and thick as a wall of rock’ blocked their passage. Fortunately, a storm from the northeast broke upon the expedition with high winds that cracked the ice apart. On June 19, Virgo again set sail to the northwest reaching Danes Island early on the 21st.

Andrée’s crew sprang into action. Two master carpenters supervised the construction of a large ‘balloon house,’ 95 feet long and 200 feet high. The octagonal structure had been prepared in advance and the different sections assembled by means of bolts. As the hangar grew, the Virgo maneuvered close to shore to unload its cargo of balloon bag and hydrogen generators along a roadway of Norwegian pine logs laid from beach to hangar.

By July 27, the balloon was at last ready to take off, waiting only for a suitable southerly wind to propel it toward the North Pole. The winds, however, did not cooperate. On August 3, Andrée noted in his diary: ‘Everything is in order, and we are only waiting for a suitable wind….If only nature would contribute its share, the thing would soon be done.’ In the short polar summer, time was of the essence. If the weather did not change, the expedition would have to begin packing up by August 14. Insurance coverage for the ship and party ended on August 20.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to