party report, which Lowe refuted in a lengthy response, gave pause to the Union commanders for further use of balloons. In addition, Lowe's appointments of personnel independent of the engineer officers had strained his relations with the military. Lowe tendered his resignation in May 1863 and the Allen brothers took charge of the Balloon Corps, but by August, the Corps had ceased to exist. Return to the private sector Lowe sought to recuperate from the effects of malaria and the fatigue of war. He and Leontine returned to Jefferson, New Hampshire, where he spent time with his family. He had a month's return to Washington in the fall of 1863 to complete his war report to the Secretary, then returned home to buy a farm near Valley Forge, where the farming life allowed him to recompose himself. As the advanced techniques of aerial reconnaissance developed by Lowe became influential around the world, Great Britain, France and Brazil offered him the position of major-general if he were to organize a balloon corps for them. Having had enough of war, he declined the offer, but he did send them a balloon with equipment including portable generators. He consulted with their military experts and recruited his best aeronauts, the Allen brothers, to assist them. James and Ezra Allen formed the Brazilian Balloon Corps using two of Lowe's balloons, one 12.2 m to carry 6-8 people, and another 8.5 m in diameter to carry 2 persons. During his Civil War days, Lowe had met Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who was at the time acting as a military observer of the war. General McClellan had put all balloon ride-alongs off limits, so Lowe sent von Zeppelin to Poolesville to visit his German assistant aeronaut John Steiner, who could entertain him in his own language. Von Zeppelin returned in the 1870s to interview Lowe on all of his aeronautic techniques. Count von Zeppelin later designed the dirigible aircraft that bore his name. Lowe made a new home in Norristown, Pennsylvania where he continued with his scientific endeavors with hydrogen gas, improving upon and patenting the water gas process by which high volumes of the volatile fuel could be made from passing steam over hot coal. The industry revolutionized home heating and lighting along the eastern seaboard. He held several patents on ice making machines, including his perfected "Compression Ice Machine" which would revolutionize the cold storage