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CP IN A BALLOON.PBBIlig OF AKItONAUTg AND PAKACHCTIS JUMPERS.No Trip Ever Made That is Not Awful With Danger—How the World Looks From High Above in the (Clouds.T this time every year the managers ' fairs and may be they will with printed.. rA-dt the act of plungingfrom a height. These indicate that the balloon season has arrived and that the aeronaut and parachutist is preparing for his season's work.Few people who witness a balloon ascension comprehend its fascinations, its perils or its methods, and only those who have made the.trip into the clouds can accurately describe its accompanying sensations. Professor Mortimer McKim, an ^aeronaut of experience, gives it as . -hiropinicm-tbst-thcaeronautUvcaalife-time in the few brief moments of his voyage. To those interested in aerial navigation, a description of the airship is necessary. The material employed in the construction consists of a superior quality of sheeting, the breadths being stitched together firmly, with the edges felled. The average balloon, being 150 feet in circumference and seventy-five feet in height, requires eight hundred or more yards of cloth. At the mouth of the balloon a hoop the size of a wagon wheel, and made of wood, is attached to keep the mouth open while the hot air is being forced into it, and this onfice remains open during the ascension. The inside of the fire balloon is coated with a sizing of glue, whiting, alum and other non-combustibles, as a precaution against sparks, which, with the hot air, arise frequently to a height of thirty feet during the inflation.On being released, the balloon rises at first slowly until at about a height of fitty feet, when its velocity is at the rate of forty-five miles an hour. At the expiration of two minutes the oalloon has attained an altitude of a mile and a half, then it commences to sail with the ait-current which strikes it. This drifting about continues for a period of four minutes, when the escaping hot air causes a gradual shrinking of the balloon and its consequent descent. The unique sensations of the aeronaut begin with the moment he mounts the trapeze bar attached to the balloon. OraspiDg the ropes, the feeling is much like that of being seated in a swing. For the first 100 feet there is a realization of the ascent ; objects below appear smaller and smaller until gradually they fade from view. At a height of 200 feet in the air, rushing past with tremendous velocity, gives one the_jmpression of leaning out of the car window alt a limited express, the sounds of earth die awuy ia a mur -cold current,the result iscollapse and disaster, for thete is no safety valve to the fire balloon.The aeronaut is invariably an enthusiast until he ineeta within accident, after which discretion becomes the better part of .his valor, and he is content to rally substitutes for an ascension. After a few years ho is apt to retire altogether, and leave to others the hazardous occupation. Up to a period of six years ago there numbered but twenty aeronauts in. this country, and these were in great demand at county fairs, settlers' and soldiers’ reunions and upon legal ] holidays, rural 'celebrations be- | ing considered incomplete without the daring balloonist, who, for the time being, was of more importance than the President and entire Senate, and it may be added that no occupation is’more conducive to conceit and Self sufficiency than that of the aeronaut. There is less profit in the buainesOow than formerly; the novelty of the ordinary balloon ascension no longet exists tor Americans. Realizing this, nearly every aeronaut now makes the sensational parachute descent.On reaching the desired altitude this is effected by cutting the connecting rope. There is a rapid fall, the resistance of the air forciQg open the parachute, which is nothing more than a ribless umbrella, twenty-eight feet in diameter. The operator, on cutting .loose^.xlarts- downward, as if fired from a catapult, until within a few hundred feet ofv the earth, when he is sustained by the parachute. Should thiB fail to operate, death is inevitable; Abroad the balloon is still an attraction, and especially 'in Mexico, Australia and the West Indies. Professor McKira, who has toured the civilized, world, is one of the few experienced, aeronauts who find it difficult to abandon the profession, about which there exists a fascination, even in the danger. Taken all in all, it is as great a game of clmnce as ever played by a man, with this difference—that the aeronaut has no opponent, and should he fail no one is gainer through his defeat.—New York Advertiser.INFLATING THE BALLOON.mur, and it is theu that the balloon seems stationary, the earth falling away from it.Looking downward from the height, all surfaces appear level, mountains and valleys are alike, and the world looks as if spread out and flattened by a ’•oiling pin. Roads and rivers resolve themselves into narrow ribbons; forests, fields and meadows are clumps of green, red and black, with green as the dominant cqjor. At two miles earth is lost to view, as in a fog. Presently the balloon begins to sail, driven by an air current. There is now no apparent motion. The aeronaut experiences a feeling of oppression, the air, deprived of its vital principle, exhausts at each inspiration ; ringing rounds are heard in cars,and one can, so to speak, hear the stillness. The breath comes in quick, successive gasps that do not satisfy the lungs. It is like going to one's death.Looking upward, the horizon is jloon—dark against the milky opaqueness of the atmosphere. The airship is swaying and swinging, while the clouds, floating in a contrary direction, produce a vague giddiness. There is, how,-ever, no time for tremors. Seconds seem hours, the mind and memory traveling with electric flight. Conjectures, recollections and retrospections flash across the bewildered brain as one reels through space. Suddenly the top of the balloon comes in contact with a cloud, there is a slight jar, and the next instant, call is enveloped in fog, from which the aeronaut emerges soaked with spray. And now for the spectacle 1 Subtine, dazzling Mountains of iridescence, fleecy white clouds tinged with creamy pink, like the plumage of the cockatoo. Swirling combinations of color, blending and shifting as- in a gigantic bubble. Golden greens, that melt into purple and bronze and crimson, with the 9un dissolving and overflowing upon their tops. Wonderful tints, sucn as artist never dreamed of. To couipre-bend color it is necessary to have seen the magic canvasses of the cloud*. The bsttoon sails or and drops slowly away trom this panorama once more iuto the .colorless atmosphere.With the descent, earth appears to rise and the balloon to remain fixed; and now the operator is occupied with oafc idea— speculation as to where and hojv he will reach earth, for distance is...incalculable and perspective a myth. The balloon ia HwLspfirt M. change, tMd. isjlabje to , deposit its.passenger anywhere fropi the top of a church steeple to tb% bottom of a ditch. The aeronaut takes .bis life in hia own hands when he ascends with the airship. Should it take fire, burst in midair or cool of too suddenly in striking, a
Newspaper Details
Friendship Weekly Register
Friendship, New York, US
Thu, Apr 28, 1892
Page 8
Full Page
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Anonymous
USA 17 Apr 2025
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