Background
Samuel Archer King was born on April 09, 1828 at Tinicum, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of Dr. Isaac B. King.
Samuel Archer King was born on April 09, 1828 at Tinicum, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of Dr. Isaac B. King.
Early in life King became interested in aeronautics, and on September 25, 1851, he made his first balloon ascent at Philadelphia. He made several hundred ascensions, for the most part in the vicinity of Philadelphia and Boston. Fourth of July celebrations and state fairs figured largely in his life because the flight of a balloon carrying one or more men was an attraction that could be depended upon to draw crowds, and those taking part were accordingly liberally paid.
In the early eighties King became convinced that the balloon offered a means of crossing the Atlantic, and he did much of his later work with this end in view. At this time he got in touch with the United States Signal Service and offered to carry an observer on some of the preliminary voyages from inland cities like Minneapolis and Chicago to the Atlantic seaboard. On September 13, 1881, with Professor Winslow Upton as representative of the Signal Service, he made a preliminary ascent at Minneapolis. The weather was unfavorable and nothing definite came of the effort. King hoped by this and later ascents to prove that a balloon could be constructed of such material that a sufficient volume of hydrogen gas could be kept within it for three or more days. He himself devised a fabric, a kind of rubber cloth, for this purpose. He also hoped to prove that either by one long voyage, lasting four or five days, or by a succession of shorter ones, he could go in one general direction.
King estimated that a balloon of 300, 000 cubic feet capacity, with supplies and outfits for three persons, would cost about $14, 000. He proposed to build such a balloon and attempt to cross the Atlantic under official sanction but the suggestion was rejected. In an article in the Century Magazine (October 1901) he gave at some length his views on the practicability of the experiment. He placed much reliance upon his drag-rope method of controlling the balloon. He also suggested the employment of water anchors, made of stout canvas, which when lowered to the ocean would serve as anchors and retard progress in the wrong direction.
In 1885 W. H. Hammon, representing the Signal Service of the army, made four voyages with King in order to obtain data concerning winds and temperatures at moderate elevations. The balloon was the Eagle Eyrie, the use of which, as well as his own services, King gave without charge. Moreover he agreed to start on telegraphic notice from Washington. The campaign was successfully carried out, and flights were made under different weather conditions on January 19, March 13, March 27, and April 16, 1885. A detailed account of the observations made are recorded in a paper by Hammon in the Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1890 (1891).
King did not live to the time when the Atlantic Ocean was crossed by dirigible balloons. Though it is doubtful whether he would have succeeded in making the journey he must nevertheless be credited with a positive faith in the feasibility of such an undertaking, and if means had been provided, he would doubtless have made the attempt. He lived to old age, a marked exception to the fate of most of the early aeronauts. Professor Cleveland Abbe regarded King as the most cautious, wisest, and safest balloonist of his age.
Samuel Archer King was considered one of the most famous aeronauts in the world. In the course of his life, he made over 480 flights. He was also credited for the introduction of aerial photography and for making great contributions to further scientific studies of the means of air navigation and photographing of objects.
King was married to Margaret Roberts and had two children.
