Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1879-11-20
AerOnautic Adventures.

The mystery surrounding the fate q
Professor Wise, ,Whois nOWlying beneat
the cold waters of Lake Michigan, 0
amid the wastes of the Northern pineries
renders grinly attractive all reminis
cences of wild and terrible experience
that have heretofore befallen voyage
in the air. The sad story Of Donaldsol
and Grimwood, 80 familiar and yet s.
nearly forgotten, has been revived, an,
the horrible particulars of any balloon
disaster from that first one of history
when ID. Roster in June, 1885, wa
borne in a burning car across the En-
glish Channel and dashed to the grounC
from a height of 5000 feet-to the suf
location of Mr.. Chambers by escaping
gas when high above the city of Not
tingham, have been carefully and mos
minutely drawn out OF their historical
hiding places. The natural impression
created by this feeding on the dark sidC
of aeronautic history is that it is rec
ord of sheer disaster, when the actua
fact is that during the hundred years
of experimenting in air travel
not over fifteen deaths have oc.
Cured as the result of rash en-
deavors. Some years ago MOnck Ma
son, in his Aeronautica, compiled
painstakingly all the names of persons
who had made ascents, and ascertained
that only nine out of AL adventurers
had been killed, while against these
nine deaths were arrayed the benefits
of science and the advances made to-
ward the time when the rapid transit
by air would be a glad actuality. 1t
must be confessed that this last argu-
ment possessed little weight when it is
remembered that the aeronaut of to-day
is as far from holding any control over
the direction of the air-ship as was
Montgolfer in 1888. The accidents to
Donaldson, and, indeed, to Wise, would
refute all such claims. 1t is within the
power of the aerOnaut to ascend to the
utmost height to which human exist
ence is possible; but when he desires to
move in horizontal direction, he is for
the most part like a rudderless ship at
the mercy of the winds and waves.
The balloonist, it has been found, after
hundreds of vain trials for the contrary,
may start from a given point and trav-
erse the segment of q circle, or describe
the most eccentric course, and after
hours of aerial navigation, be as far, or,
more likely, ten times farther from the
proposed goal than when he started.
All that science and common sense
have been able to learn about bal
loon navigation during the past
ten decades is that the balloon usually
mounts in an oblique direction under
the combined influence of the vertical
ascensional force and the direction of
the wind; it ceases to ascend as soon as
the density of the air is the same as it.
self, and ballast must be changed;
when it strikes current, or rather is
struck by a current, farewell to control
and probably welcome to the impetus
of q rushing tornado. The last sem
tence contains all the benefits definitely
conferred upon the believers in air.
transit. The chief benefits derived
from balloon experiments have been in
the well known facilities for war mes
sages, as best demonstrated in the
Franco-Prussian struggle, and in the
splendid opportunities given to science
for investigating the elements and the
components around the earth. The
objects of the journey under
taken by Professor Wise from St. Louis |
recently was to determine upon the
quantity of ozone in certain currents
the globe; and it was for a
similar purpose that in June, 1859, he
entered upon an ascension that was in |
all likelihood the longest ever expert
encedb by an aeronaut. Leaving st. Louis
he was swept by strong current that
his car over distance of /, 150
miles, and landed in Jefferson County,
New York. He had always spoken of the
Journey as the most exciting of any of
he 100 of his life in the upper
'egions. The celebrated French chem
st, Gay Lussac, in 1904, reached the
wonderful height of 23,040 feet, and
,arried up with him the necessary
means for scientific study of the char
lcter and properties of the atmosphere.
10 great was the tenuity of the air in
he elevated region that Lussac suffered
intense agonies and narrowly escaped
With his life. The injuries inflicted
pon his system by the rasping atmos-
here rendered him confirmed in
aid; he ascertained the courses of
ONE previously unknown currents and !
njOyed the distinction during his days !
1 having foated higher in the stream
I air about the earth than any other
lan. Until as late as Sept, 5, 1862,
he height reached by Lussac was the
lost extreme ever attained by man,
ut at the mentioned time an English
ian named Glaisher succeeded in soar I
lg in a balloon to the vast height of }
bout seven miles. \
The peculiar sufferings and strange q
1perienoes of this noted ascent are '
-orthy of an account in detail. The '
hatiOn took place in the vicinity of
Ondon Bridge. Accompanying Clash e
: was one Coxwell. Until the fifth v
lie was passed the ascent differed lit q
Q from the customary experience of 9
10 aeronaut, and all observations had Il
zen easily taken. Shortly after the Ii
,ginning of the sixth mile, however, n
laisher found that he could not
o the column of mercury in /,
o wet bulb thermometer, and 4,
on the hands on his watch be- Il