National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1873-09-12
Would 20 In a Balloon.

Aho ioAowAhB uItAcie urbI hPpcuo'
in an English paper. II Y as given un-
der the head Of Ballooning Extraor.
dinary," and will prove Of interest at
the present time "A daring feat
was lately accomplished by citizen OF
Gettysburg. Mr.. John Wise, the
American eronaut, had announced his
intention to make his thirty. y.ninth
balloon ascension, and was ready on
the day and hour promised. His bal
loon was inflated. his ballast, graphing
iron, &c, duly slowed, and he was
about to step into the basket At that
moment Mr.. John Mcclellan, n young
gentleman of the town, inquired Of Mr..
Wise whether it would not be possible
for two persons to ascend with the
power then in the balloon. On receiv-
ing a negative reply, Mr.. Mcclellan
seemed much disappointed, said he
was determined to have ride, and
inquired the price at which Mr.. Wise
would permit him to make the voyage
alone One hundred dollars, sir, said
Mr.. Wise, who did not appear to con-
slider the inquirer to be in earnest
Il will give you fifty dollars !! Agreed
fork over 7 The joke was carried
on, ar the cream of it was soon trans
ferred to the pocket of the eronaut-
and h substitute was snugly seated in
the car, vociferating his direction to
cut loose 7 Mr.. Wise thought that
matters had now gone far enough, and
requested his customer out, as
the time had arrived at which he had
promised to be off, But he refused to
Il onl ,n.,akaI hat Ia LoI
ly hired and paid for passage in this
boat and go he would. Mr.. Wise
then let the balloon up short distance
by rope, thinking, probably, that as
there was considerable wind, and the
air-horse consequently turbulent, that
his substitute would have his courage
cooled and give in But this was no
go-and thinking that he had as good
a start as ever he would have, Mr. Nc
Clellan cut the rope-dnd Dds off!
After he found that it was the deter
minatiOn of Mr.. Mcclellan to 60, Mr..
Wise had but time to give him a few
hasty and imperfect instructions in re-
gard to the management OF the balloon
and in lew minutes the daring anna
teur Rronaut had assembled to height
of about two miles. Here he struck
current of air which bore him dieectly
towards York. He said that the earth
receded from him very rapidly after he
had thrown bag or two of sand upon
it--that Gettysburg passed off towards
Hagerstown, and that he saw Carlisle,
Hanover, Abbottstown, Oxford and
Berlin, strolling about-and that soon
after, just ahead of him, he saw old
York coming full tilt up the turnpike
towards him, apparently taking an after
moons walk to Gettysburg. Having de-
termined to stop at York, and fearing,
from the remarkable speed at which that
staid and sober town was travelling, that
she would soon pass under his balloon,
and give him the slip, he pulled the
string attached to the safety valve, in
order to let off portion of his gas
The valve is SO constructed that when
the rope attached to it is pulled, the
valve opens to the interior and again
closes by the force of the gas when the
rope is let go. On ortunately, however,
the inexperienced aeronaut pulled toe
violently at the valve rope, tore the
valve door completely off its hinges,
and brought it down into the car! When
this occurred he was more thas mile
high, and he Immediately, and with
fearful rapidity. descended, or rather
fell, to the earth! When the valve door
came off, the gas, of course, escaped
but the balloon caught suffi-
cient air to form parachute, by which
the fall was moderated, and we ere hap
py to say that the voyager reached the
earth, about five miles from York, en-
tirely uninjured! He says that as soon
as the valve door came down upon him
he knew that soTaething had broke
loose, and just tLen remembering that
MIR. Wise had tCld him to be sure when
he descended 20 throw out his graphing
ron, he Vas preparing to get at it,
among tie numerous things in the
basket, when the earth bounced up
agains,c the bottom of the car! The es-
ape. of the gas was distinctly seen from
fo. o.rk, and as the balloon neared The
sarth it had lost its rotundity and ap-
peared to the gazers to come down
heartily like wet sheet"