The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-04-24 00:00:00

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The bodies of the two aiironauts were interred on
Tuesday, at Pre la Chaise, in the presence of
several scientific men and a large number of the
public. M. Dide, the Protestant pastor, delivered an
impressive address at the railway station and at the
grave, and several other speeches were made.

side to side, and I thought every minute they would fall out
of the car. Nevertheless, I managed to get hold of the rope
of the escape valve, and, the balloon soon emptied itself and
Alin trashed against a tree. it was four o'clock when I put
"foot on earth. I was seized with a violent febrile convulsion,
.and soon I became livid and dejected.. I thought I was
about to join my friends in the other world. However, little
by little, I got better. I was close beside my unfortunate
companions, who were already cold and stiff. I caused their
bodies to be carried into a neighbouring barn. I was choked
with sobs an am still. lam at Ciron, near Le Blanc, where
I have been most hospitably received. I have been feverish
all night. I have not been able to eat anything yet and am
very weak. I embrace you;—CASTON TISSANDIEB."

It would, I think, be difficult to read a more terrible i
tale than s to be found in the above hurried report.
A very curious fact is that the survivor was the
weakest in constitution of any of the three aeronauts,
and yet throughout this dreadful journey he kept his
faculties clearer and supported his strength better than
either of the other two.

The Aeronautical Society has opened a subscription
for the benefit of the families of the deceased. M.
Sivel has left a widow and a little girl, both entirely
dependent on him. M. Spinelli was not married, but
he was the sole support of his parents. The scientific
world will, doubtless, respond liberally to this appeal,
for MM. Spinelli and Sivel lost their lives, noiingrati-
fying foolhardy curiosity, butlin endeavouring to pene-
trate the secrets of the atmosphere for the benefit of
science.. . , Poor Sivel seemed to have had a presenti-
ment of his fate, for the last words he said as the Zenith
started were, "He of us three will be fortunate if he
returns." Less than five hours afterwards only one
did return.

Referring to this melancholy accident, the Daily
Naos, in a leader, writes :

It is not at all probable that the unfortunate death of
two out of the three French aeronauts who went up in
the balloon Zenith will in any measure affect the wide-
spread desire among many people—only a few of whom
can plead the possible interests of science as an excuse—
to defy the laws of gravitation and gain a bird's-eye
'view of the earth. Doubtless the risi; of this form of
sport is to several of its devotees an additional attrac-
tion. It is a challenge to their courage which they
are delighted
,tp 4ake..up. Other men seek to penetrate
the mysteries of the Zokr region,-or track thaliger to his
lair, or shoot the ihpids of some American river; they pre-
. fer toerealise,llr fact', those dreams of "levitation" which
nearly every one has experienced, abandoning thebaselves to
the chances el .the, ,air. On the whole we should imagine
the odeiapatio'ff to be not much more dangerous. than drink-
ing Hamburg slèrry, while it is 'more picturesque, and im-
pressive. . . . No one need suppose; therefore, that any very
stringent warning has been given by the unhappy fate of
MM." Crooe-Spinelli and Sivel ; ballooning, whether as an
amusement 'or as a possible means of aiding science, will
have its ardent votaries as of old.

And yet it is but fair to remark that the two aironauts
who have thus unfortimately.iperished were no mere
amateurs idly undergoing an unnecessary risk for the mere
excitement of the thing. Captain Sivel had made a hundred
and fifty-one ascents before this last one which ended fatally.
One of the Paris journals, having some fear that the balloon
might be blown into the sea, appears to have asked the
Societe Aerienne about the probable safety of the voyagers,
and received for answer, "There is no danger; Sivel
Is with them." Nor was M. Croce-Spinelli a tyro
in such matters. He was well known as the author
'of several valued treatises on aerial navigation' if
that phrase can as yet be properly used. Moreover, they had
taken every precaution against the very danger which, it was
at first assumed, killed them. In view of their intention of
ascending to a great altitude, they had been warned by M.
Paul Bert that as soon as they passed a height of 5,500 metres,
they would find the air too rarefied to support them, and they
were furnished with bags of oxygen with indiarubber tubes at
tached, which they were expected to put into their mouthsln
the event of any necessity arising. The letter addressed to the
President of the Aerial Navigation Society by M. Gaston Tissan-
dier, the sole survivor, states that the balloon having risen to an
altitude of 2,000 metres, its three occupants fainted. At a
later period, M. Tissandier, reviving for a moment, found
that the balloon was descending, and saw M. Croce throw
out the aspirateur. . . . Tissandier fainted again. When
he came to himself Up) balloon had descended to an altitude
of 6,000 metres; and both his companions were dead—their
faces black, and their mouths filled with blood. The first
conclusion arrived at on this painful narrative being pub-
lished was that the aeronauts had been asphyxiated by the
rarefaction of the atmosphere at so great. s. height—that, in
fact, the balloon had risen so rapidly that they had been
surprised and unable to use the store of oxygen they carried
with them. Doubts, however, bay.e been thrown on the
accuracy of this assumption ; and it is now suggested that
they must have been suffocated by an escape of the gas
from the balloon which, in the semi-stupor produced by
the rarefaction of the atmosphere, one of themselves had
caused. . . .
The unfortunate victims of this latest balloon accident
may fairly be awarded the esteem granted to the martyrs of
science; for there can be no doubt as to the strictly scien-
tific objects of the ascent. As a matter of fact it was to
confirm the results of previous experiments, at a greater
altitude than they had previously tried, that MM. Gaston
Tissandier and Groce-Spinelli made this latest ascent, Cap-
tain Sivel's share in the business being limited to the con-
duct of the balloon. Whether all the information we
have gained from aerial " navigation " is worth the
waste of life that has accompanied the securing
of it, is a question which it would be absurd
to raise. The value of unascertained truth cannot
of course be appraised ; and when the impulse of curiosity
ceases to be backed by courage, and perils begin to be
timidly weighed, the character of our men of science will
have deterioriated. The man who embarked on the first ship
did a more daring thing than the man who went up in the
first balloon . . . It is impossible to say all at once, some-
times even for generations, what discoveries are small,
great, barren, or fruitful; and, whether praise or blame be
his lot, the pioneer of science is impelled by his very nature
to hazardous adventures.

MR. GLAISHER AND THE BALLOON ACCIDENT.
In London, on Monday evening, the Chairman
and the members of the Guildhall Library Committee
entertained about eighty guests at dinner at the
" London " Tavern and towards the close of the
entertainment Mr. James Glaii3her, F.R S., responding
to a toast with which his name had been connected,
took occasion to say, referring to the fatal balloon ex-
periment in Paris, that he had been exceedingly pained
to read the results' and that he could not but feel that
a great mistake had been made. M. Tissandier, he
said, with whom he was well acquainted, had previously
been with him, and they had talked together about the
power of a man to ascend a certain altitude, even to
the height of five, six, or even seven miles. Mr.
Glaieher argued then, as now, that no man, however
experienced, should attempt to exceed that extreme
limit who had any heart disease or any pulmonary
affection, for in either of those cases, after ascending
to a height of four miles, death might occur at any
moment.

Referring to this disastrous ascent, The Times of
Tuesday, in a leader, remarks :
The calamity which has overtaken this bold attempt of
scientific aeronauts to explore the upper air affords physio-
logical results which have a value both as tests and as warn-
ings. The traveller who leaves the ordinary level of earth
for the higher regions has his endurance tried more or less
by two inevitable conditions—gradual loss of heat and in-
creasing tenuity of the atmosphere. The first of these—cold—
has not hitherto been found a serious difficulty by aeronauts.
At the extreme height to which he has ascended, Mr. Glaisher
experienced 12 degrees below zero—i.e , 44 degrees
below the freezing-point of water. Yet, intense as
was this cold, it inflicted no serious suffering, and of
five pigeons taken up only one died. As to rarefaction of
the atmosphere, there are two differences which render bal-
looning a better measure than mountaineering of what human
lungs can support--first, that the aeronaut has had no toil
In ascending; secondly, that the men who get to the top of
the highest mountains are, as a rule, men of rather more
than average physique. On this occasion, according to M.
Tissandier's notes, distress began to be felt a little short of
four miles from the earth ; stupefaction set in just
above five miles. Now, though the average height
attained by aeronauts bent on scientific observation
was fairly represented by Be Saussnre as 15,000
feet (less than three miles) in 1787, yet there have
been plenty of instances in which observations have been
made at above four miles, and there is at least one instance
in which voyagers came back safely from a height of no less
than seven miles. In 1804 Gay Lussac attained 23,000 feet—
more than four and one-third miles—and brought down, for
analysis, air collected at that altitude. In 1808, Andreoli
and Brioschi ascended from Padua; at 23,000 feet Brioschi
became insensible, but at 29,000 feet—i e., 5i- miles—
Andreoli found that, though he could not use his left arm.
he was still able to observe that the balloon was fully inflated
In 1852, Mr. Welsh, of the Kew Observatory, made a series
of ascents with Mr. Green under the auspices of the
British Association, and made valuable observations
at a maximum height of 29,930 feet. In August,
1862, Mr. Glaisher and Mr. Coxwell ascended from Wolver-
hampton to the vast height of 37,000 feet, or upwards of seven
miles. At about five miles and three-quarters Mr. Glaisher
laid his arm on the table in the car and suddenly found it
powerless. 4f I dimly saw Mr. Coxwell, and endeavoured to
speak, but could not. In an instant intense darkness over-
came me. . . . I thought I had been seized with asphyxia."
Now, M. Tissandier met these symptoms at least three-
quarters of a mile nearer the earth, and Mr. Glaisher's last
observation was made at a point about 3,000 feet above the
point at which M. Tissandier had swooned. Mr Cox-
well had actually retained consciousness, though he felt un-
consciousness fast coming on, till, at the height of seven
miles he opened a valve—not with his hands, for he could
not use them any longer, but by seizing the cord with his
teeth. The true moral of the recent disastrous ascent is not
the prudence of avoiding such efforts in future, but the
necessity, when such efforts are made, of attending in time
to the admonitions of Nature, and of accepting that which it
Is so hard for resolute spirits to accept—an incomplete
success.