Enterprise (balloon)

Lowe's Enterprise in Harper's Weekly, for a reconnaissance mission at General McDowell's headquarters.

The Enterprise was a gas inflated aerostat built by Prof. Thaddeus S. C. Lowe along with his father Clovis Lowe in 1858. It was the second balloon built by Lowe at his Hoboken, N.J. facility and named with the express approval of his wife Leontine because of the money and time they put into creating it. The Enterprise was built with Indian silk, lightweight cording, and Lowe's patent (recipe kept secret) varnish which could keep the balloon envelope gassed up for as long as two weeks.[1]

  1. ^ Mary Hoehling, p. 46.