Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-03-09
UP In A BALLOON!
Eight Miles Up In the Air with Death
Staring the VOyagers in the Face
Scientific Daring.

Eight Miles Up In the Air with Death
Staring the VOyaRers in the Face
Scientific Daring.
One full day in August, just after noon
a balloon rose in the air at the foot of elect
Hill, on the western edge of the central
plain of England.
1t was inflated with lightest of gases
which chemical skill could produce, and it
rose with amazing velocity. A mile up il
entered stratum of coulds more than q
thousand feet thick.
Emerging from this. the sun shone bright
ly on the air ship; the sky overhead was
the clearest and deepest blue, and below
lay cloudland-an immeasureabls ex anse
of cloud, whose surface looked as solid as
that Of earth now wholly lost to view.
Lofty mountains, and deep, dark ravines
appeared below; the peakes and sides of
those cloud mountains next the sun glitter
ed like snow, but casting shadows as black
as if they were solid rock. Up rose the
balloon with tremendous velocity. Four
miles above earth pigeon was let loose; it
dropped through the air as if it had been q
stone. The air was too thin to enable it
TO fly. 1t was as if bark laden to deck
were to pass the heavy waters Of the sea
into an inland unsaline lake; the bark
would sink at once in thinner water. Up,
up, still higher! what silence Profound
The heights Of the sky were still as the
deepest depths of the ocean; as was found
during the search for the lost Atlantic ca
bic, the mud lies unstirred from year to
year as the dust which imperceptibly gath
ers on furniture of deserted house. No
sound, no life-only the bright sunshine
falling through sky which it could not
warm.
Up-fye miles above earthl-higher than
the inaccessible summit of Chimborazo.
Despite the sunshine, every thing freezes.
The air grows too thin to support life even
for few minutes. Two men only are in
that adventurous balloon-the one steering
the air ship, the other watching the scien-
tific instruments, and recording them with
a rspidity bred of long practice. Suddenly,
as the latter looks at his instruments, bis
sight grows dim; he takes lens to help his
sight, and only marks from the falling ba-
rometer that they are rising rapidly.
A flask of brandy lies within a foot of
him; he tries to reach it, but his arms re-
fuse to obey his will. he tries to call on
bis comrade, who has gone up into the
Ing dOOfOs n WILD pei II LAAS NOO 5hCuCC
would sulfi1e, but no sound comes from
bis lips-he is voiceless.
The sherman comes down into the car.
He sees his companion in a swoon and
feels his own senses falling him. He saw
at once that life and death hung upon a
few moments. His hands are purple with
intense cold; they are paralyzed; they will
not respond to his will. He seizes the
valve with his teeth; it opens little
once, twice, thrice. The balloon began to
descend. Then the swooniDg man re-
turned to consciousness and SAW the steers
man standing before him. He looked at
his instrument; they must have been nearly
eight miles up. Brandy was used. They
had been higher above earth than mortal
man or living thing had ever baen before.
One minute more of inacion of c0mput-
sorry inaction--on the part Of the steers
man, whose senses were failing him, and
the air-ship, with its intensely rsrifed gas,
would have been floating unattended, with
two corpses, in the wide realms Of space.