Balloon Bomb - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Hopper-Type Flight-control Apparatus
An additional ballast-dropping device was developed
by the Japanese for altitude control. This was the
Hopper Type, but used only on A-Type balloons, and in
very small quantities. This system was equally as unique
as the first and therefore worth recording.
It consisted of two main parts; a hopper-bottom
storage bin capable of carrying 265 pounds of sand
ballast and a metering devise to release ballast in 5.5 to
6.5-pound increments. When the balloon descended a
distance equivalent to a 700-millimeter increase in
barometric pressure, a barometric switch closed and an
electric circuit thus started the ballast-metering device.
This, in turn, released the ballast increments at two to
three-minute intervals until the balloon again ascended
sufficiently to open the electric circuit.
SECTION
A-A
Figure 74.
Schematic diagram of ballast-dispensing apparatus for Hopper-Type flight-control unit.
1. Sand storage bin
la. Funnel
2. Bracket to support (3)
3. Housing
4. Disc, attached to gear (7)
5. Ballast dispensing container
6. Gear attached to (5) and in mesh with (7)
7. Gear. See 4 and 6
8. Cam, an integral part of (6)
9. Rocker, hinged at (30) which is hinged to (3)
10. Lever connecting (13) and (9)
11. Diaphragm dividing (5) into two compartments
12. Stop attached to (4)
13. Trip lever
14. Spring to keep (13) against stop (12)
15. Electric magnet
57
16. Counterweight
17. Two barometric switches
18 and 19. Contact points of circuit switch
20. Bracket for (21)
21. Shaft about which (3) rotates
22. Shaft about which (5) rotates
23. Support for (2)
24. The angle of housing (3) can take when (18) and (19) have
made contact
25,26, and 28. Conductors of the electric circuit
27. Battery
29. Hinge pin for (13)
30. Time switch, set to close the circuit 60 to 70 hours after the
balloon was launched
31. Fuse plugs to release bombs and ignite long fuses to charges
for destroying balloon and equipment