American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-09-04
Some of DOnaldsOn's Remarkable
Balloon Adventures.

| MANY OF those who Z" went up with
Donaldson when he was last here, and
some of those who did not, were favored
with peep at his interesting Journal Il
filled several volumes, and consisted OF
lengthy newspaper accounts of his various
ascensions Che reached his Tooth here)
notes Of his own, and spirited crayon
sketches of the most important events OF
his career. Those who knew of the exis-
tence of these records have lately specu.
lated considerably on their fate. 1t seems
that a large portion of them were left with
DR.. M. L. Amick, 1886 Central avenue, this
city, between whom and the missing
Donaldson there had arisen warm per-
sonal friendship, dating from an arrange
ment between them for scientific ascen-
sions. We are indebted to the doctor for
the extracts from Donaldson's writings
given below, and hope to follow up, in the
same manner, the lost balloonist's record,
so far as the material is available:
The first balloon ascension ever at
iIeOmfsSd by Washington n. - Donaldson
| took place at Reading, Pa, Aug. 80, 1871.
He used a basket, reached a height of a
mile and a half, was in the air one hour
and fifteen minutes, and Travelled a dis
| lance of eighteen miles. We have it from
his own lips that he was so ignorant of the
| first principles of aerial navigation that he
had to contract with the gas company of
W iii Tic UdllOOu LIE
bag was twenty-six feet in diameter and
held 5000 cubic feet of gas. At ten
O'Clock a. m. he gave the orders to "let
CO." but the treacherous machine
stirred not.
Rejecting moment as to how he should
preserve his credit, the adventurer threw
out all his ballast, the grapnel, his coat
and everything that could assist in light
ening his craft. The balloon then shot up
ri or,
and up through the clouds, and in half
an hour was out of sight, the aeronaut
performing several gymnastic feats, from
the ring above the basket, as he rose. At
II a. m the descent began, and the balloon
landed in piowed field near Topton, Pa.
There being no ballast left, the basket
struck the ground with great force and
then rebounded high in the air. On its
coming down again Donaldson held on
tight to the ropes and managed to catch
hold of a fence and stay the monster until
he weighed it down with stones. 1t was
duly packed up and conveyed to Topton
upon farmers wagon, and by train to
Reading.
Upon Donaldson's return to Reading he
felt SO elated with his maiden trip-to use
his own words, /" 1t was so glorious that l
resolved to abandon the tight-rope forev-
err that he Immediately announced his
but, in addition, announced that he would
not use basket, but only trapeze bar.
The intense excitement that prevailed upon
his first successful trip was more than
quadrupled, and, as the hour approached,
business men, clerks, school-children, the
farmers, the ministers, loafers, men,
women and children tiocked to the public
square until it was densely packed. The
shining, inflated monster rocked back and
"a
it, as it surged with the light
breeze. Shortly after one O'Clock
Prof. Donaldson appeared, dressed
in tights. In a few moments all was ready,
and he took his position upon the trapeze
bar. There being but little breeze at the
time, he rose gracefully, and went almost
straight up for a mile Suddenly the
fell, catching with his toes on the bar.
That sent a sudden thrill through the
crowd, but with another spring he was
up, standing on the bar and then followed
one feat after another, hanging by one
hand, one foot, by the back of his head,
etc., until the blood ceased to curdle in
the veins of the awe-stricken crowd, and
they then gave vent to their feelings in
cheer after cheer. His glittering dress
sparkled in the sun long after his outline
was lost to the naked eye. He alighted in
a tree one and one-half miles from Read
ing. Length of trip, thirty minutes. Don
aldsOn says that his second landing was
suggestive of the treachery of the valve.
ut was not my intention to make long
fight. As soon as Ihad fairly cleared the
outskirts of the city climbed up into the
ring, took hold of the valve rope, and
gave it a vigorous pull. 1t resisted my
efforts for some time, until finally strong
jerk tore hole in the silk, and the gas
began escaping at fearful rate. The bal
loon fell with appalling rapidity, the rent
increasing as the gas escaped, until it was
torn nearly three-fOurths of the length of
the balloon, and the latter was turned par
TALLY inside out. While thus falling with
such velocity the balloon, or rather the
hoop and trapeze, struck the top of large
tree in the swamp in BuZZard Neck on
tanners Creek, which broke the force of
the fall and let me down at a considerable
less velocity, but still hard enough to give
me a terrible shaking
Donaldson says that when falling he
was for the first time in his life seriously
alarmed and scarcely knew how he struck
the ground. The balloon that he used on
this occasion was very small, weighing,
with the ballast, netting, rigging and
anchor, only ninety-seven pounds. 1t was
made of taSSOur, an Indian fabric, very
light and sensitive.
In describing the thrilling and blood
curdline event that occurred in an ascen-
sion made from Norfolk, Va, ON the 18th
day of January, 1872, we will simply quote
DOnaldson's own words:
At4:2O, the balloon being full, the aero
naut stepped forward and grasped the
trapeze bar, gave his orders to cast loose
the ropes, when the balloon went up and
off very rapidly: 1.-THE balloon assembled
with a calm, steady motion. When about
800 feet high l went through with my per-
formances. After being in the air about
fifteen minutes l thought it was time to
descend and pulled the valve-rope to al
low the gas to escape. The valve did not
open, and pulled again it still remained
closed; had no time to lose; the ocean
was near. l pulled with both hands;
again failure. l then gave strong,
steady jerk. There was a sharp, kissing
sound, as if made by the tearing of cloth,
TO lowed by rushing noise; then knew
that the balloon had burst. The balloon
did not collapse, being prevented from do
ing so by the rush of air from beneath, but
closed up at the sides; the balloon swaying
from side to side descended with frightful
velocity. l chung with all my strength to
the hoop; could not tell how bad | was
frightened, but felt as though my hair
had all been drawn out. l scarcely had
time to realize that l was alive-I was so
frightened; but with crash, tearing and
crushing, l was projected with the velocity
of a catapult into bur chestnut tree. The
netting and rigging, catching in the tree,
checked my velocity, and had my grasp
jerked loose, and was precipltated through
the limbs, and landed flat upon my back,