Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1854-10-12
From the Petersburg va, InteIlig,n,e-

Ffooi 1--e ~ee@-eSeiS " a. Antet1geneer.
TIE ILLUSION SEEN BY PRoF. ELLIOTT.
i-As we promised our readers yester-
day, we win now attempt to give an
idea Of the optical Illusion seen by Mr..
George Elliott, last Wednesday, in his
ascension from this city. In order to
do so, however, to be understood, we
presume we shall be freely excused in
commencing with short preface.
After he assembled about three thou
sand feet, he discharged some FIVE
pounds of his ballast, when he shot on
ward and upward with amazing rapidity
till he began to approximate the clouds.
He then discharged about FIVE pounds
more of sand, the remainder Of the bag,
when he again darted upwards among
the clouds, which were so dense as to
exclude all terrestrial objects from his
view, and of course he was lost to all
observers below. These discharges Of
ballast were distinctly seen by his visi-
tors, and on the first occasion some one
exclaimed that the balloon had bursted.
While among the clouds, he said it
seemed to him as if he was in the midst
of large ground glass globe. some two
or three hundred feet in diameter, against
the side of which opposite to the sun,
the shadow of the Lady Isabella rested,
some FIVE or six times larger than the
corporeal one. About half way be-
tween him and the shadow, which
seemed as if resting on the glass wall,
another balloon was seen of size be-
tween the shadow and the real one,
resting as if in a vacuum, which dis
played every color faithfully of the
original. He then saw another Elliott,
clad and with features like himself, ap9
seemingly self-like. He then ertendeG
his own fingers, when he was "imicKe9
by this image; and whether he eGIenGed
one finger or more, or whatever he DID,
this figure duplicated exactly. When
he wo1Id cauee bis balloon to oscillate,
this balloon would move exactly like his.
when he threw out more ballast to ele-
vate himself, this figure sank dot0n in
stead of rising with him; and when he
arose above the clouds, into the rays of
The unclouded sun, he left the mimic
eronaut below him.
In the rays of the sun above the
clouds he found it SO warm as to per-
spire freely, a state of heat never before
at this height, nearly twen-
ty-four thousand feet, where the air is
very rarifed, and generally very chilly.
He then opened the valve for the pur
pose of descending, and as soon as he
sank one or two thousand feet, which he
by barometricsl indications,
he felt as if he had entered an ice house,
and cold chill siezed his whole person.
Here he again met his mimic aerial
Toyager, whom he kept in company for
some time, for philosophical motives
Whenever he moved sideways, this
mum gentleman would move in the
same direction, but when he moved up
Or down, the duplicate would move in a
directly opposite way; and when he con-
,luded to descend, the image moved
Upward until the tri-colored flash was
,ut of sight, when he could see the car
md the eronaut still standing in it, as if
n a basket attached to nothing. He
till kept looking. until his head was
aobespierred, and finally piece by piece,
lis body and at last his feet, and basket
lscended out of sight.
Professor Elliott says that he has
been up a hundred and one times, but
never saw anything in the form of an
llusion like this before; and he asks the
opinion of the scientific and learned, as
@ the probable cause of this remark
lble phenomenon, for the information OF
he public.