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According to a clause of the agreement the envelope was to be inflated with air, and before the last varnishing to be submitted to an internal pressure equal to 3 inches water-column.

This trial took place on the 3rd of May, in the presence of Messrs. de Nordenfeld, engineer of the Nordenfeld Company, Gaston Tissandier, Colonel Renard and Commander Renard, managers of the Central Establishment of Military Aerostation of Chalais-Meudon. The openings of the balloon were provisionally closed; the valve in the appendage was replaced by a wooden hoop covered by a disc of material containing a glazed window, 7⅘ inches in diameter, thus permitting inspection of the interior of the balloon. The latter was inflated by means of a ventilator supplying about 70,633 cubic feet of air per hour.

Andrée’s experts, who had followed up the manufacture step by step, then examined minutely all the parts, and declared the material to be faultless, and quite in accordance with the desires expressed by Andrée.