trial-balloon

plural trial-balloons

1. alternativeAlternative form of trial balloon.

   If any stronger presumption that his brochure is a trial-balloon of the present ministry be required, it will be found in the pages 19 and 20, wherein Sir Howard Douglas and Mr. Bliss receive a full volley of foul-mouthed Billingsgate.

   1832 October, “The Canada Corn Trade”, in Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country, volume VI, number XXXIII, London: James Fraser […], →OCLC, page 365, column 2

   2 more examples

   Hints—trial-balloons he [Joseph René Bellot] called them—are adroitly thrown out in the newspapers, and one or two articles from his pen appear in the periodicals. When the public mind, as he judges, is prepared, he addresses the Minister officially on the subject.

   1855 December, “Bellot. His Adventures and Death in the Arctic Regions.”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume XII, number LXVII, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers, […], →OCLC, page 100, column 2

   The other two productions of the press quoted at the commencement are of the fugitive pamphlet sort, to be considered as a sort of literary trial-balloons, thrown out to see if the current of opinion sets fairly for their makers to follow on with larger, or, as sometimes happens, to attract the public gaze to the makers of the new literary bubbles.

   1867 October, “Review VI. 1. Die Inhalations-Therapie in Krankheiten der Respirations-Organe, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der durch Laryngscop ermittelten Krankheiten des Kehlkopfs. Von Dr. Georg Lewin. Mit 25 Holzschnitten Zweite Auflage. Berlin. 1865. Pp. 506; mit Anhang, pp. 37. …”, in The British and Foreign Medico-chirurgical Review: Or Quarterly Review of Practical Medicine and Surgery, volume XL, London: John Churchill and Sons, […], →OCLC, page 386