The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-09-01
THE FATE OF AER0NAUTS.
a Talk with Professor King - The
Greatest Living BallOonists.
j Thrilling Experience in the Midst OF an
Electrical Storm-PrOfessOr Kings
First Ascension.

Professor Samuel A. King, of Philadelphia, the
Noted aefonaut, is in the city getting ready LOT
business during the Fair week. Each day he
will make what are called captive ascenslohs,
and on the last day he will make regular cut
away. "Four years ago." said the Professor
81 made captive balloon ascensions at Manhat-
tan Beach. had two large balloons each hold
ing sc, 900 cubic feet of gas, both made alike,
each containing over nine thousand yards OF the
finest linen, and both balloons elegantly orna-
mented. These allowed to ascend TO
height of a thousand feet, being held by ropes
We had our own gas machine-the apparatus
cost So, OOO-and filed the balloons ourselves
The gas was made by the Lowe process, leaving
ont the petroleum oil and decompOsing the
water, which gave us an impure hydrogen gas
1t was very cheap; cost less than twenty five
cents a thousand feet. The gas will use here
will cost eight times as much for the same vol
ume."
The Professor is six feet high, of good COM
plexlon, and has a clean bright eye and genial
hearty manner. He is ffty-tive years old, but
doesn't look it. Father Time has dealt gently
with him as his long brown beard has few
stroaks Of silver in it. But he has taken an en-
vious pull at the Professors brown hair and
lifted a lock or two from the crown of his head
HIS FIRST ASCENSION.
81 made my first ascension" said the Pro-
fessor, "ln Philadelphia, Sep. %, 1851, 1t all
came about by accident. was quite young and
Hos active in a secret order called the American
Mechanics. One day 1 went into the State
Oouncil-room to the secretary He was en-
gagged, and picked up book and began to turn
the leaves. 1t was a book ON balloon voyages
i read LITTLE in IL, became interested ana Dor
rowed it. l determined to make balloon
voyage myself and began experimenting with
the ideas had picked up and finally I built a
balloon. My first ascent not in every respect
a success. The gas company, q small concern
then, had only half filled the balloon before
hausting its supply. got in and started with
out ballast A telegraph wire above the bridge
at Paramount caught in the willows OF my bas-
ket and had some difficulty to get away. There
was some loss by the cooling of the gas and l
was driven into tree-top 1 extrcated myself
and the balloon gradually descending got into
the Sohuykiil river but rebounding from the
water struck the falls. lodged for moment
on the dam and then skipped up the river after
throwing away rope and anchor Then the bal
loon rose five hundred feet and took my first
real survey of the earth from balloon. Then
ithe balloon gradually descended and altghted
4n stubblc-teld as quietly as duck pumps
unto a pond"
"HOw many ascensions have you nader
1.-TWO hundred and forty seven l have been
exceedingly fortunate, and yet have had some
rough usage. had long tumble from tree
near Wilkesbarre, Pa, and longer in South
Carolina. don't like to mention it, because
aObody will believe it, but I actually fell in the
latter instance sixty-five feet, and the BASKET
Being under me was all that saved my ife."
IN THUNDER CLOUD.
"The most thrilling incident in balloon voyage
en- my experience, occurred in a voyage made
Rur1inUtOD. Ia. in 1878. AhOut
minutes after had left the ground / was in
wicked-looking thunderstorm. 1 expected to
ride through and come out at the top; not that
have ever been able to do Storms seem to
reach to a great altitude. three and a half or
four miles. rode along quietly after entering
the clouds. and must have reached great
height. OF course, L could not see. F0rtu-
nately went in large balloon, and it
was not near full of gas, the lower part being
empty and haccid, leaving large amount of
room for expansion. / had been for some time
in the cloud, expecting momentarily to come out
at the top in the sunshine, and when had
reached apparently the greatest altitude, was
surprised to notice electrical discharges right in
my vicinity. not mere flashes but zg-zag dis
charges. The air about the balloon became
seemingly attenuated and the gas in the balloon
expanded, filling 1t out To the utmost tension
and forcing volume OF gas down through the
neck of the balloon, dischargng upon my head.
Al the same time the balloon was rocking back
ward and forward with great violence and
going at the same time with almost
cannOn-ball velocity in the center of the
storm. A collapse of the vapor of the cloud had
evidently taken place and the balloon was rush
ing toward that vacuum. ! tied the rope to my
waist and leaned forward to escape the dis
charging gas and get my breath. All this time
was holding the valve wide open 1.-THE opening in
the top of the balloon was fully foot in diam
eter) and continued doing until almost all the
gas was gone The wind was so violent it seemed
that If there had been no gas at all in the bal
loon It. could have been handled in the same
way But at last the added weight of water to
the balloon, caused by the cOIapses of vapor,
forced me down, the balloon falling through the
cOud AFTER that quietly enough. then learned
for the first time by practical experience that
thunder storm is not where it looks the blacklist,
but where it is the lightest, and that the lower
part OF the cond, though 1t may be dark and
rough in appearance, is really the
most harmless part OF the storm cloud.
You must understand that the danger in that
adventure was while the gas was escaping in
the storm, through ignition from one of :he nu-
merous discharges of electricity about me-"
WHO have been the great aeronauts OF this
country, now dead or retred2"
GREAT AERoNAUTs.
"Well, there was Paulin. He became crazy on
religious matters. and is dead. L don't know
whether he died IN asylum or not. My i'm
preston about La Mountain is that after his
Wilderness ascension, and his privations in the
northern woods, he never took another balloon
voyage, He died in his bed Lowe is still liv-
ing He has quit balloonng and has made a
fortune by his process for making gas out of
water and petroleum. see him frequently in
Philadelphia. John Steiner made his first as
eenson with me- He died in 1879, from the
eff cts of a balloon voyage made from San Fran
Disco. He came down in the back bays, and
took cold from wading in the water. and died of
consumption. John Wise is supposed
have been drowned in Lake Michi-
gan. Donaldson was drowned in
Lake Michigan, which appears TO be
sort OF aeronautic graveyard. L have looked nc
1t, and wondered If | would go down in its
depths, too. Elliott, OF Baltimore, is living yet
over eighty years old and the oldest living aero
naut. or course he hasn't made an ascension for
many years.
AN APPARITIoN.
"ElliOtt made an ascension many years ago, in
the slavery days, from Charleston. 8. c. IL was
beautiful still day. about such a day as this,