> We have to go back a few years to 1877 France. The French military used balloons for various purposes and of various sizes, and they had to be anchored using cables. Over time, they ended up with 425 different sizes of mooring cables that had to be individually ordered and inventoried. Talk about a nightmare.
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> Enter Charles Renard. He was tasked with improving the balloons, but discovered this rat’s nest of cables in the inventory closet instead. He spent some time thinking about it and came up with a series of 17 cable sizes that would allow for every type of balloon to be properly moored.
I'm astonished that 425 distinct mooring-cable sizes were ever allowed to happen, and I'm also slightly astonished that even the cleaned-up version used 17. Anyone have more info about that? What were they doing with all those different-sized ropes? How many different balloon models could there have been?
Think about tethering a zeppelin with a curved body shape, where you need to attach in multiple places. Combine that with needing to tether at different elevations and it will get out of hand pretty quick.
You're thinking that shorter lines can be thicker without tearing under their own weight, so the optimal mix is a few heavy lines supported by a larger number of light ones? And/or heavy lines for safety, many light lines for stability?
I suppose that makes sense, though it still seems weird that they needed that many types.
> We have to go back a few years to 1877 France. The French military used balloons for various purposes and of various sizes, and they had to be anchored using cables. Over time, they ended up with 425 different sizes of mooring cables that had to be individually ordered and inventoried. Talk about a nightmare. > > Enter Charles Renard. He was tasked with improving the balloons, but discovered this rat’s nest of cables in the inventory closet instead. He spent some time thinking about it and came up with a series of 17 cable sizes that would allow for every type of balloon to be properly moored.
I'm astonished that 425 distinct mooring-cable sizes were ever allowed to happen, and I'm also slightly astonished that even the cleaned-up version used 17. Anyone have more info about that? What were they doing with all those different-sized ropes? How many different balloon models could there have been?