Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1874-11-06
Sixteen Thousand Feet Above the
Earth.

THE following Is taken from an ac-
count, published in the Baltimore
Amertcdn, of recent balloon ascen-
sion with Prof. Donaldson;
Now came the most stirring incident
of our trip From the height of 4 1000 feet
we, steadily ascended, the country dwarf
ing into panorama of toys below us, |
had the aneroid barometer in my hand,
and so marked our progress upward. At
G,600 feet our breaths became visible,
Just as they would be on frosty morn
ing We already began to feel cold in
the body, but the rays of the sun beat in
upon us with fierce intensity The in
dcx of the barometer steadily crept
around the dial, marking off the thou
sands until it reached the fourteenth,
then flying back again and starting from
zero, from whence it progressed once
more around the dial until 1t haited on
the verge of the two-thousandeh, telling
us that we were only about 100 feet less
than 10000 feet above the earth.
At this height the world was an OBJ
scurity to us, vapory haze shut it out
from our view, and we could detect
nothing of it but the silver lines that
marked the great bays and rivers. From
contemplation of the indistinct scene |
revert to my own feelings The air was
very cold and the sun was very warm.
The thermometer stood at eighty-two de
grees, the sun was intensely hot as its
rays fell upon us, but for all that we
might as we'll have been in an Arctic re-
gion. This il one of the most curious
phenomena of life above the clouds.
The rarefaction of the air hardly accounts
for the chilling cold which penetrates
you through and through, while the ther
mometcr and the heat of the solar rays
are indicating high summer tempera-
ture at the height of 10000 feet was
shivering, while my head seemed to be
burningup, and all the blood in my body
rushing toward it. | felt very slight
difficulty in breathing, but my ears were
stopped up, and | could hardly hear what
Mr.. Fox was saying to me when he was
standing by my side,
We did not remain long at this tire.
mendous elevation We slipped down
through the atmosphere to between
II 900 and 10000 feet above the earth,
and it was there we had our grandest
view. We had within our range OF
vision at the same moment Philadelphia
Baltimore and Harrisburg, the Chesa
peake and Delaware Bays, and all theil
upper tributaries, and also Annapolis
and most of the smaller toMps were in
cluded within this extended vision. But
the grandest feature of all was when
gazing downwafdlv, we very plainly per
ceived the Atlantic Ocean. There was
no mistake about it; the mist had lifted
little and we could plainly see where
the waters of the Delaware Bay mingled
with those of the Atlantic.
The view at this time was above The
possibility of language to picture. Th'
peninsula of land between the Chesa
peake and Delaware Bays was but /
thread of dark green upon the landscape
the Susquehanna River was hardly per
ceptible, except for the dark line which
we knew to be the great bridge across 1t
the country below US was but checke
board of indistinct green and whit,
squares; Baltimore and Philadelphi;
were only masses of shade upon the map
but the great ocean was a reality and t
view of it we constantly turned ou
eyes, with feeling that here was some
thing everlasting and enduring. TIL
panorama that came within our scope o
vision was probably not less than 20
square miles, but from our height o
16, 900 feet it seemed to be dwarfed to
space YOU might cover with your hand
kerchief 1t seemed to us as if we wer
looking through the wrong end of ou
field-glass.
When at this height of 16, 000 feet, O
over three miles above the EARTH Pro
Donaldson told us that the balloon ha
obtained its equilibrium; that it wa
poised on exact balance, and that as 500
as the gas commenced to condense, eve
in the slightest degree, we would d
scend rapidly. And it was precisely
this fashion that we did go down.