Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1863-07-16
Balloon Ascension In MlIwaur.e.-

accompanledmby Mr. STRICKLAND, Book
Iseller, and Mr.. E D. Cole, ticket agent of
the Detroit and Milwaukee Railway Com
psny, was complete success. The bal.
loon " as one of the largest ever sent up
IN TINS country, and was capable of hold
ing 4o,oOo cubic feet of gas. They ascend.
ed about !, GOO feet, in a most beautiful
I style. The balloon landed in the lake but
was taken ashore all in safety. Mr. SrR.oa.
LAND furnished an account of his sensa.
tions during the trip for the Wicconsin.
which we copy as follows:
NOVICE IN A BALLNoN-sE SENSATIONS.
Who can describe the sensations of
novice during his first experience in bal
looming? .#+
Does the pen exist which can do Justice
to the tumultous and conflicting sensa-
tons OF the aerial voyager, when he first
realizes that all the ties which connect
him with the earth are positively sander
ed :; that hence1orth his own volition
must be surrendered, and he must DRIFT,
DRIFT, drift, at the will of power in which
SO strangely yet so contdingly he is will
| Ing to repose. r-r
In The first few seconds during which
the buildings and other objects around
him are apparently retredting, the novice
will feel some little trepidalIon; all, is 20
new, untried and strange. This leellng,
| however, will last but few seconds; the
grandeur OF the Gene below, soon dtssi-
pates all thought OF self; and his whole
soul is entirely absorbed, In drinking in
its beauty and subiimity; and In analyz-
ing the immei.se varlety OF objects SO sud-
denly opened to his view.
That sea of ten thousand upturned faces.
the variegated rament of the spectators.
| those streets which look like narrow paths
In garden, those patches OF green verdure
amongst brownish roofs of buildings, that
streak of FURNISHED silver which he knows
to be the Milwaukee river, that immense
mirror, Lake Michigan, that looking glass,
| Lake Pewaukee, that piece of rope laid
across the marsh, which he knows is the
Chicago railway track, that bed quilt, off
to the southwest, known as fields and
farms, that brown spot called the city of
Racine, and many, many other otjects can
never be erased from the memory OF the
novice who sees them but once.
| All these soon become DINNER and dim.
mer, fainter and fsinter as he drifts over
the lake and ascends some seven thousand
feet from its surface. Everything now is
dim, hazy and obscure. Oppressive, aaofuI
stiffness relgns supreme, awe Is the best
word he can select to define bis feelings
n0U. He will want to sit in perfect ST.
leEce; to do so is rapture. If he speak,
bis voice does not sound as if it came from
his lips, but as though it were buried in
his chest. A strange voice, deep base, not
his own in any sense. The sound OF his
comrades voice does not come from the
customary place, but is located above
about twenty or thirty feet distant.
AS the balloon goes higher and higher,
thas buz, buz, buz in his ear, accompanied
by dull pressure on the interior of that
organ, Is very disagreeable. His wish
now, will be to descend and thus rid him.
I self of the annoyance. The balloon,
which though somewhat faccid when he
started on the trip, ID now tull, taut, round
and symmetrical.
The line is pulled which leads to the
valve at the top of the balloon, ard por-
ton of the gas is permitted to escape.
Soon that buz and dieagreeable pressure
of which he has complained ceases: the
atmosphere appears less hazy; the shore
line OF the lake, which had almost been
lost, becomes palmer and palmer, and he
is soon conscious that he Is descending,
though none of his senses have given the
slightest indication that there has been any
motion, however small, except the fact
that he breathes more freely aud does not
now feel That buz in his ear.
In this instance the decent was quite
| fln 81, 4
to attest certain principles in @rostation,
which have been the subjects of his study
and research and which he now wished
to illustrate by positive experiment.
In his own good time these will be
made public, and bis companions IN. this
trip, will be called on to verify as witness
IS the success of bis practical application
of new principle discovered by himself.
The balloon was permitted to descend
until the car suspended beneath, struck
the surface of the lake with considerable
violence, causing a decided reDonnd.-
The current of air now acting on the bal
loon drove 1t at the rate OF some thirty
miles an hour towards the shore of the
lake, the car in which we were seated
barely SWIMMING above the water and &C.
casionally dip, dipping on the surface.
Talk OF Pegasus, Bonner teams and
other old fogy notions of speed Give me
the good balloon "Herculesn with a thirty
mile an hour breeze, and Professor Steiner
holding the ribbons.
Talk of elixers! Is there, can there be
any other elixer equal to that which
coursed thro these veins when seated in
the car of the "Hercules' skimmng along
the surface of old Lake Michigan; exhil-
aIating to degree that you must shout,
you must cut up antics which uDder other
circumstances would lead to the conclu.
sion that you were &c subject for a lu-
natic asylum. STRICKLAND.
Doln II NAasn