School of Ballooning
The School of Ballooning was a training and test centre for British Army experiments with balloons and airships. It was established at Chatham in Kent in 1888. The School moved to Stanhope Lines, Aldershot in 1890 when a balloon section and depot were formed as permanent units of the Royal Engineers establishment. The School was sometimes known as the Balloon Factory.
In 1862 two Royal Engineers officers, who had seen balloons being used in the American Civil War, drew the attention of the War Office to the potential use of balloons for observation. These officers demonstrated balloons to the army, but it was only in 1878 that the War Office directed Captain James Templer, an army reservist and experienced balloonist, to set up a small unit of Royal Engineers which became known as the School of Ballooning.
Initially the School was based at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. In 1878 the school constructed and flew a hydrogen-filled balloon of 10,000 cubic feet (280 m3) capacity. By 1879 the unit had 5 balloons. In 1880 military balloon training and demonstration took place at Aldershot. After a tragic incident in 1881 Templer concentrated on development of balloons rather than making ascents himself.
In 1882 the School moved to the School of Military Engineering at Chatham where they discovered that Goldbeater's skin was superior balloon fabric than the material they had used previously – in particular it was easier to stow for transport. Templer also took out a patent for the use of unmanned balloons for “balloon photography” of the ground below.
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