North Queensferry Barrage Balloons – 7

Improved practices

 
By 1941, a great deal of sophistication in ballooning had arrived. Rapid deflation could be brought about by manipulating a special patch, and could even be achieved under crash conditions by an explosive rip link. Detonator links allowed the steel cable to parachute to the ground in the event of a breakaway. Coal gas was provided to many sites to facilitate topping up and to economise on the consumption of hydrogen. [Coal gas is a mixture of hydrogen and highly-toxic carbon monoxide, it was the standard domestic fuel supply until it was replaced by the safer “natural gas” which consists of methane.]

When a balloon was not being flown it was now secured to concrete embedded rings, which replaced the earlier screw pickets. These were arranged on a 90 foot all-directional balloon bed.