The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-09-24
In a Bursted Balloon.

While the balloon is on the ground it
is customary to close the neck of the
machine by means of handkerchief
tied in sljp-knot, in order to prevent
the admixture of the heavy lower
stratum of atmospheric air with the
more buoyant carburetted hydrogen in
side the balloon. Directly the balloon
ascends the prudent aeronaut slips of
the handkerchief. Our aeronaut did
no such thing. The assistant may have
been unaware that the thing ought to
be done. He cried out gleefully that
we had risen to the altitude of one mile
that we we're just over Fulham
Church, and that we we're about to cross
the Thames. just then heard sharp
cracking report, probably like that of
mnsket-shot, above my head. The
balloon had burst. It could scarcely,
under the circumstances, have done
anything but burst. The gas in the
machine had become rarefed, and had
rapidly expanded. 1t could not escape
from above, the valve was closed it
could not escape from below, the neck
was closed. So it went to smash, Just
as an inflated and air-tight bag of paper
goes to smash between the palms of
schoolboys hands. So we fell, as a
stone falls, half mile. When we as
cended it had appeared to me that the
earth was sinking beneath us. Now
the globe-felds, houses, lamp-posts,
chimney -pots-seemed to be rushing
up to us with literally inconceivable
rapidity. There was in particular one
tall church steeple, which, by the celeri.
ty of its approach, appeared to be hor-
ribly anxious that should be impaled
on its apex. It could not have been
Fulham Church /; but whatever and
wherever was the edifce, it was there
rus shing up at me and 1 declare that
the grotesqueness Of the position of i'm
palement-all legs and wings, like
ckchafer-distinctly and visibly oc-
CURED to me. I declare also, sans
phrases, that there arose before me no
panorama" of my early life or of my
bygone acts and deeds, as such piano.
ramas are said to have arisen before the
eyes of persons rescued at the very last
instant from hanging or drowning.
Yet [ do plainly and literally remember
several things that heard voice cry
with an oath, "Let go p and "Cut
cut ~ and that knife was thrust into
my hand and it seemed afterwards that
the assistant and had pitched out all
the ballast in the balloon-bags and all
and that I had cut away the grapnel
or anchor from the side of the car.
That had done SO was plain from two
Of my fingers being jagged across by
the knife. What became Of the grap-
mel We never knew; but if it had fallen
in a populous street it would in all
probability have killed somebody. The
heavy bags of ballast, too, must have
fallen like stones. Meanwhile-the
term is well-nigh inappropriate, since
there was scarcely any "while" to be
''mean"-the aeronaut, who looked like
sailor, had not lost his presence of
mind and not been idle. He saw at
glance, this brave little old man-al-
though he had been forgetful in the
matter of the slip-knotted handkerchief
our single chance of safety
lay. He jumped out into the shrouds |
OF the balloon; cut the cords which at
tached the neck of the machine to the
hoop and away to the very top of the
netting flew the whole of the exhausted |
silk body of the sausage. Then it |
formed a cupola of the approved um-
brella pattern-it formed q parachute |
1t steadied instantly. There was no
collapse, and down we came swiftly but |
easily, in a slanting direction, alighting
among the cabbages in market-gar.
den, Fulham Fields George augustus
Saia.