Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-09-11

with skepticism and superstitious dread
| by others. The Paris Academy of Sci
ences took up the invention, and supplied
| the means for extending the experiments
with the new principle still farther. In
| September, 1888, a large balloon, seventy
| two feet high, by forty-one in diameter,
was constructed, which weighed 1000
| pounds. A basket of wicker work was
| fastened to it, and with three living ami
mails, a sheep, cock and duck, the ma
chine was sent up in the presence of the
King and royal family, and a vast con-
course of people, at Versailles 1t rose
| about 1900 feet, and descended with the
animals in safety.
Next M. De Rozier volunteered to go
up IN balloon. He first made ascensions
OF two or three hundred feet only, the bal
loon being confined and drawn back to
the earth by ropes. Finally, on the 21st
day of November, 1888. he and the Mar
quis de Arandes went up together in the
basket, amid the shouts and applause of a
great throng of people, who beheld the
machine majestically sailing upward to
the height of about 5000 feet They re-
manned IN the air about half an hour, sail
ing over portion of Paris, in full view
OF the inhabitants, and descended in safety
I'VE miles from where they set out upon
their adventurous pioneer voyage.
This was the first aerial journey ever
made by human beings, SO far as authentic
records are to be found. From that dav
to this many thousands of ascensiOns have
been made in Europe and America, until
balloon voyages have become almost too
common to excite remark The danger
attending them affords a piquant and at
Tactlve element to a peculiar class of
minds; but, according to Professor Wise
and other champions of ballOoning it has
been vastly Overrated. "This most expe-
dltlous, easy and pleasant mode of travel
ing that the human family is capable of
enjoying,' as the enthusiastic Professor
terms it, has certainly not suffered from
want of experiments, however little the
real progress that ninety years of pro
digious activity in the inventive arts have
secured 10 it. The "cloud- compelling
Jove' himself could scarcely talk more
airily of the facilities for serial transit
than Professor Wise, who, to do him JUS
tice, has always manifested an intrepid
zeal to prove his faith by his works Him
self the hero of $50 balloon ascensions,
and OF the longest continuous air journey
on record zone of 200 niles, he insists
that balloOning, in the hands of cautious,
cool and scientific travellers, with trustwor-
thy machinery, is not nearly so perilous
as steamboat or railway travel He
points to the fact that there never had
been one fatal accident from ballooning
in the United States up to the year 1850,
as proof Of this, and declares that, so far
from being exceptionally dangerous, bal
loon voyaging is ''as simple and safe as
any other mode of conveyance" He has
followed it himself for more than thirty
years, and now, in his old age, he is ready
to set his life upon the hazard of a die in
the endeavor to effect the transit of the
Atlantic through the air.
a recent article in the Scientific Amert-
can, which scouts the feasibility of the
project, refers to the mammoth balloon
now being constructed by the Dai1y
Graphic Company for this voyage as the
largest on record. Not so. Within two
years after Montgolfier's discovery, q bal
loon of extraordinary size was construct
ed in Lyons, measuring 1870 feet high by
105 feet in diameter. 1t sustained a
weight OF over eighteen t0us, filled with
only raritied air as means Of buoyahcy.
1t took up seven aeronauts to the height
of $500 feet, when it gave way on one
side, making rent over fifty feet in the
balloon. This brought it down with
great rapidity, though the passengers
were all landed safely, and without the
slightest injury.-Cjacjnuatj Commercial.