The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1882-04-26
THROUGH THE AIR.
A BALLOON VOYAGE ACROSS THE ENG
LISH CHANNEL.
London Times

London Times. f
Col. Burnaby. made successful
balloon ascent from Doyer yester-
day morning with the intention of
crossing the channel. Col. Burn
ably, accompanied by Mr.. Thos.
Wright, the Crystal palace aeronaut,
arrived in Dover on Tuesday night
with the intention of making an as
cent on the following morning.
This they were unable to do, owing
to the wind being too high to adj
NIT of the balloon being filed. All
the preliminary arrangements have
been made, and the imitation was
commenced yesterday morning at
a few minutes past six o'clock, Col.
Burnaby having beeb on the ground
an hour previously. The filling
process was very slow at first, and
Col. Burnaby, being very anxious
not to delay. the start too long, the
contents of a second gasometer were
connected with the four inch main
through which the gas was convey
ed to the balloon. However, the
balloon was not satisfactorily inflated
until half-past nine. The cubic cap
acity of the balloon is. $4,000 feet,
with which quantity of gas it was
supplied. The balloon is compar
atively new machine, being not
much more than twelve months old.
1t belongs to Mr.. Wright, and is
the same as that in which the late
Mr.. Powell asc ended in July last
year, and in which the novel eXcur-
sion was made to the Derby. Mr..
Wright, who was born in the same
town as Col. Burnaby, is very proud
of the balloon, and remarked that
but for his great confidence in the
ballooning experience of Col. Burn
ably, he would not have trusted him
with it. Great surprise was ex-
pressed when it became known that
Col. Burnaby intened to dispense
with anything in the shape of life
saving apparatus in the case of his
falling into the water He, how
ever, treated the matter very light
", and laughed at the idea, remark
ing that he did not anticipate any
such catarophe, and that if be did
he must take his chance Col. Bur-
naby wished to obtain as much ris-
ing power as possible, and for this
reason declined to take any other
person with him. By adopting this
course he was able to take nearly
one hundred weight and half more
ballast than he could otherwise have
done, and, in fact, made his ascent
with three times that quantity. Col.
Burnaby was very anxious about
this part of the arrangement, and
frequently urged the aeronaut to
give him as much ballast as he
could carry. As soon as the car was
properly attached to the balloon
Col. Burnaby proceeded to direct
the arrangements. of the contents of
the car, which comprised about
twenty bags of sand, a bundle of
newspapers and a rug, packet of
sandwiches, and a bottle of Apolli-
naris water These were the only
contents of the balloon AT half past
8 the mail train passed by on the
way to the pier, and Col. Burnaby
hastened to get away in order that |
he might start with the ordinary
mail boat At a quarter to 10
o'clock he stepped into the car, and
within five minutes afterward made |
a capital ascent, amid loud cheers,
passing over the hills toward the
sea in beautiful weather, with wind
north-northeast, at an. altitude of |
about two thousand feet Just before
starting Col. Burnaby remarked
that if the weather held favorable
he hoped to dine at his club in Paris
the Same evening. The balloon ar
rived over the channel at 10 o'clock,
and disappeared from sight in a
direction about forty
minutes afterward. Later in the
day the wind shifted round more to
the west.
A Reuters telegram from Bou-
logne stated that Col. Burnaby's
balloon Eclipse was sighted there at
noon yesterday at great latitude,
direction south by west. At 1;50
N the afternoon the balloon passed
Letouquet, fifteen miles south,
where it reascended, proceeding
4 $3.50 ~
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