The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1870-01-21
BLOOMSBURY. PA. FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, 1870 COL D
COL. DEM. -. VOL. XXXIII.. NO. as.

appearance Of things below, was the
seeming concavity of the surface of the
globe. had, thoughtlessly enough,
expected to see its real conucrity be-
come evident as 1 assembled; but very
little reflection sufliced to explain the
discrepancy. A line, dropped from my
position perpendicularly to the earth,
would have formed the perpendicular
of a right-angled triangle, of which the
base would have extended from the
right'angle to the horizon, and the hy.
pothenuse from the horizon to my pos
ition. But my height was little or moth
ing in comparison with my prospect.
In other words, the base and hypothen.
use ofthe supposed triangle would, in
my case, have been so long, when com.
pared to the perpendicular, that the
two former might have been regarded |
as nearly parallel. In this manner the
horizon of the eronaut appears always
to be upon level with the car. But as |
the point Immediately beneath him
seems, and is, at great distance below
him, it seems, of course, also at a great
distance below the horizon. Hence
the impression of concavity; and this
impression must remain, until the ele.
walton shall bear SO great proportion
to the prospect, that the apparent par
allclism of the base and hypothenuse,
disappears.
The pigeons about this time seeming
to undergo much suffering, determin-
ed upon giving them their liberty.
first united one of them, beautiful
gray.mottled pigeon, and placed him
upon the rim of the wickcr-work. He
appeared extremely uneasy, looking
anxiously around him, futtering his
wings, and making loud cooling noise
but could not be persuaded to trust
himself from the car. / took him up at
last, and threw him to about hafa.doz-
en- yards from the balloon. He made,
however, no attempt to descend as /
had expected, but struggled with great
vehemence to get back, uttering at the
same time very shrill and piercing
cries. He at length succeeded in re-
gaining his former station on the rim,
but had hardly done so when his head
dropped upon his breast, und he fell
| dead within the car. The other one
did not prove so unfortunate. To pre-
vent his following the example of his
companion, and accomplishing return,
l threw him downwards with all my
force, and was pleased to find him con.
tinue his descent, with great velocity,
making use of his wings with case, and
in perfectly natural manner. In a
very short time he was out ofsight ,and
| have no doubt he reached home in
safety. Puss, who seemed in a great
measure recovered from her illness now
made hearty meal of the dead bird,
and then went to sleep with much ap.
parent salts faction. Her kittens were
quite lively and so far evinced not the
slightest sign of any uneasiness.
AT quarter past eight, bel ng able nc
longer to draw breath without the most
intolerable pain, l proceeded, forth
with, to adjust around the car the APP
paratus belonging to the condenser.
This apparatus will require some little
explanation, and your EXcellencies will
please to bear in mind that my object,
in the first place, was to surround my.
self and car entirely with a barricade
against the highly raretied atmosphere
in which l was existing, with the in
tcntion of introducing within this bar
ricade, by means Of my condenser, a
quantity of this same atmosphere sufli-
GENTLY condensed iOr the purposes of
respiration. With this object in view |
had prepared very strong, perfectly
air-tight, but flexible gum, elastic bag.
In this bag, which was of sufficient di.
mensions, the entire car was in man.
ner pl aced. That is to say, it (the bag)
was drawn over the whole bottom of
the car, up its sides, and so on, along
the outside of the ropes, TO the upper
rim or hoop where the network is at
tached. Having pulled the bag up in
this way, and formed a complete enclos-
ure on all sides, and at bottom, it was
now necessary to fasten up its top or
mouth, by passing its material over
the hoop of the net.work, in other
words, between the net work and the
hoop. But if the network work were
separated from the hoop to admit this
passage, what was to sustain the car in
the meantime? Now the net. work was
not permanently fastened to the hoop,
but attached by a series drumming loops
or nooses. Therefore / undid only few
of thes loops at one time, leaving the
car, suspended by the remainder. Hav-
ing thus inserted portion of the cloth
forming the upper part of the bag, re-
fastened the loops-not to the hoop, for
that would have been impossible, since
the cloth now intervened, = but to a
series of large buttons. affixed to the
cloth itself, about three feet below the
mouth of the bag; the intervals be-
tween the buttons having been made to
correspond to the intervals between the
loops. This done, a few more of the
loops were unfastened from the rim, a
fart her portion Of the cloth introduced,
and the disengaged loops then oonnec-
ted with their proper buttons. In this
way it was possible to insert the
whole upper part Of the bag between
the network and the hoop. 1t is evi
dent that the hoop would now drop
down within the car, while the whole
weight of the car itself, with all its con-
tents, would be held up merely by the
strength of the buttons. This at frs,
sight, would seem an inadequate de
pendence; but it was by no means so
for the buttons were not only very
strong In themselves, but so close to-
gether that very slight portion of the
whole weight was supported by any
one of them. Indeed, had the car and