How Civil War balloons actually worked

Civil War balloons weren't just a novelty - they were a case study in problem solving. Twitter:   / philedwardsinc   Instagram:   / philedwardsinc   Patreon:   / philedwardsinc   Thaddeus Lowe and his Civil War balloons seem like an oddity, but they served a real purpose and changed the shape of reconnaissance during the Civil War. But I was curious - how did these things actually work? Here's some links: This was the big, epic, fantastic ballooning book I read. You can read it at archive.org for free (with an account). https://archive.org/details/militaryb... This is the battlefield I checked out. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/vi... Here's the Navy balloon history film I pulled clips from. I actually got a bit jealous at what a good job they did covering the weird methods of Thaddeus Lowe: https://archive.org/details/HistoryOf...