The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-08-29 00:00:00

BALLOONING IN A STORM.

On the 29th of July Captain A. E. Moore and Pro-
fessor S. M. Breoks made a balloon ascension from
Winsted, and four hours later returned home Ly the
Hartford and Connecticut Western Railroad. Capt.
Moore gives this account of the trip: "You will re-
member that we started at 12.54 o'clock, when we
were advertised to start•at precisely one. The reason
of our early start was to avoid a heavy shower of rain
which we saw coming, but we were disappointed, for
it struck us in less than three minutes after we cut
loose, but not with sufficient force to cause any trouble
more than to bring us down about Btalf t. We were at
a height of 1800 ft, before encountering the rain. We
then threw out 251 b. of ballast., and immediately
rose to our former altitude, where we were caught by
a belt breeze, which carried us in a south-easterly
direction, giving us a beautiful view of a panorama
which is never seen except from a balloon. There
were a dozen towns spread out beneath us, some near
enough to be recognised, while others were so far
away that the houses looked like white spots on the
broad green fields. Winsted's two lakes, West-lull
Pond, in New Hartford, and Otis Pond over in
Massachusetts, shone in the sunlight like silver
shields. The cackling and crowing of hens and
roosters, the shouting of boys and men, and the
rumbling of the Naugatuck Railroad train could
be heard when all other sounds had ceased to reach
us. The sight was wonderfully grand, but we did
not enjoy it very long, for on looking up we dis-
covered that we were being berm) toward what
aeronauts call a cumulus cloud—or, to make it plainer,
what was apparently a bank of fog, dark and heavy,
and about 400 feet through from the top to the
bottom. This cloud was continually moving in and out,
seething and boiling like the ocean in a storm, while
cold breezes swept along its face which chilled us and
caused the thermometer to drop 20 deg. in a few
seconds. Large blocks of cloud would break away
from the main body, sometimes pessing over us,
sometimes under us, and then enveloping us in such
darkness and rain that the balloon was scarcely visible
from the basket. After being buffeted about on the
borders of this cloud for a few minutes we were car-
ried away into the sunshine again with clouds beneath
us, but the earth visnsto on one side. Here another
treeLe, ueset us; for though the sunlight was a
comfort, yet its heat, together with the lightness of
the air, which relieved the pressure from the outside,
caused the gas to expand to such an extent that it
passed out at the neck of the balloon at the rate of
1000 feet a minute. The stillness here was oppressive.
I could plainly hear the ticking of a watch in my
pocket, and our straw hats made such a crackling
sound that I thought they wore going to pieces.
Brookes opened the valve at the top of the balloon
and we dropped down a few hundred feet and came
back pretty close to our old enemy, the heavy black
cloud. We did not like the look of things here, and
were debating whether it would not be better to con-
tinue down and make a landing, when we were
caught in a whirlwind and carried right into
the darkness and storm. Then began what
seemed hours of terror. The rain was pouring in on
us in torrents. It came at us from all sides—from
above and below—being forced up through the
bottom of the basket by the changing wind. Forked
tongues of lightning severed the clouds on each side
of us, each flash followed immediately by sharp,
snapping thunder. The balloon trembled, and some-
times stood still for a second or two, then swung
away, to be again brought to a halt by a cross
current; the netting would occasionally shift from
its position with a grating sound, while we held on
as beat we could until the wind began to whistle
through the cords, when wo immediately dropped to
the bottom of the basket, knowing that our course
must soon change and the basket go swinging around
like schoolboys playing 'snap the whip.' We were
travelling at what seemed better than a mile a
minute, in total darkness, eometimes in one direction
and sometimes in another, when we began throwing
out ballast in hopes of rising above the storm; but
after having thrown out 1651 b., and having but 101 b.
left with which to manage our landing, and being
still in the storm, we concluded to return to mother
earth. We were still 6600 feet from the ground,
as shown by the barometer—having gone 2200
feet through that one cloud. The thermometer
marked 45 deg. Throwing out ballast was stopped,
and we started forward, When we left the cloud
the thermometer and watch showed us that we
were going down at the rate of 100 feet every
four seconds. A moment later we heard the voices
of men, and looking down, discovered that we were
nearing some farmhouses, and that the people were
out watching as. Many of their remarks could be
plainly heard; and when within about 800? t. of the
ground we dropped the grappling iron, which dragged
safely through a herd of cattle in a pasture without
catching on to anything that could stop us. Brooks
called out to me to pull the rip-cord, which I did,
opening a hole 40ft. long in the side of the balloon
and letting in a gust of wind which turned it inside
out and dropped the whole thing on Barn-door Hill,
in Granby, without injuring either of us. We were
up 54 minutes and landed 16 miles from tLe starting
point."--Hartford (Conn) Times.