noon
Here again Ned showed what he had accomplished in the six weeks he had spent in the East . Clearing a space near the generating tanks , they placed the one hundred sand bags , weighing forty pounds each , in parallel rows . These sacks , with convenient loops on each for attaching the rigging of the bag as it was being filled , had already been prepared by the `` greaser '' laborers , but the placing of the two tons of dead weight was not a joke , and the boys regretted that they had not kept a few men around . But by noon this was done , and then the great waterproof fiber trunk containing the silk bag was rolled out between the retaining bags . The boys could not carry it , as the balloon itself weighed seven hundred and twenty pounds , but they improvised rollers and with many a laughing `` yo he ho '' finally accomplished the task . The bag had been made by one of the leading aeronautical engineers of America , whose factory , strangely enough , was in one of the small inland towns of New York State . In a spirit of humor the manufactory had been termed the `` Balloon Farm , '' and so famous was it that Ned had even planned to spend a part of his summer vacation visiting it .