The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-04-26
THE SINDBAD OF THE SKY.
An Aged Aeronaut Who Has Made As
censiOnsfrom All PartsOfthe World.
Incidents of Interest in Thirty Years Of Ex-
perience Among Many Different Races
of People in Aerial Navigation.

aeronaut, who says be has made over five hun
dred balloon ascensions, and presumably a
like number of descensions, is in the city and
has been for several weeks A Journal reporter
met him engaged in what was apparently flu
tile effort to convince one or two members of the
State Board Of Agriculture that he could make
an ascent in balloon and descent in a para
chute that would be in the nature of a startling
novelty.
The Professor has mads ascents In nearly
every country in Europe, in India, in Australia,
in Brazil, notable occasion being at the mar
riage of the Princess Isabella to the Count D'Eu,
in the United States many. many times, his ex-
perience in aerial navigation extending over
thirty years.
my experience in india" said the Professor,
man Of venerable appearance and patriarohal
as to beard, was very pleasant made manv
ascents there. At Lucknow Parsee merchant
named Hormesjee gave me two thousand rupees
for an ascent He kept hotel there and I went
up from an Enclosure He made
were much more than he paid me.
At Allahabad made captive ascensions. En-
glishmen and natives paying $40 ahead to go up.
I went up also, for the King of Bhurtnore, max
ing the ascent from the famous Kings garden.
He was very affabe person and somewhat
married, having five hundred wives l gave an
entertainment before the King of Cashmere.
exhibited the powers of magnetism, displayed Pep
per's ghost, and gave number of experiments
with gases. l would have made ascension
there, but the cholera appearing, the King went
away. He afterwards sent me bag of money,
Cashmere shawl for my wife and number of
other valuable presents. / made an ascension
for the King Of Travancore. He gave me from
his own finger a ring, with nine large diamonds
in it, which I was afterward so unfortunate as to
lose. l made another ascent in honor OF the
King of Cochin China, who came to see the King
of Travancore. He gave me dress Of gold and
silver an elephants tusk worth $780, sandal
wood box containing other presents, and hun
dred rupees, beside. had also some presents
from his Prime Minister and from other wealthy
people there, and a flag worth $780, with the
Kings coat-of- arms"
II made" said this old sailor Of the air. "a
new balloon at Bhurtpore. wanted it painted
in grand colors and with the heraldic blazonry of
the Maharajah, who was there on his elephants,
with native princes, who had come from dis
lance, and resident English. 1t took thirty men
full month to saw the immense amount of silk
there were 5000 yards of i'll together. The
Maharajah desired should carry up an elephant,
and had selected one for that purpose. When
the balloon was nearly inflated. and we
trying to arrive at the weight of the elephant
that we had in a cage, he broke away. Ii was
great disappointment to the Maharajah 1t
would have been beautiful experiment
thing never before-but ! had to sail the
ether sea without tho animal He gave me 5000
and many valuable presents. He also gave me
the balloon and my wife cashmere shawl He
sent us to his private palace at Deeg. where for
three days we roamed through his beautiful gar
dens, and at night retired to the downy beds
that before our coming had been occupied by his
queens Went away in the Maharajahs car
riage drawn by his favorite camels.
IL I,o1xy 80 kIn~n
large and small of all the different faiths repre-
sented there, nearly a thousand temples. /
visited the monkey temple In the golden tenn
pie is stone upon the floor. big as the egg of an
ostrich. with hole in IL Through this they,
as they call it, feed the stone rice and sweet
meats. When / entered they garlanded me, as
is their CUSTOM with flowers, expecting gra-
tuity therefor priest was tanning the stone,
and informed me that it was warm that 1t was
a god, and could feel as we do. AT Benares. the
Rajah agreed to give me what would be $500 to
make ascent It was just at the close of the
rainy season. l took the same balloon / had
used in 1864 to make the ascent at the marriage
of the daughter of Dom Pedro. of Brazil. The
day for the ascent was appointed, but the bal
loon needed recoating with varnsh. 1t was re-
coated and laid out upon the grass to dry. The
next morning. at Q o'clock, the ascent was to
take place. The Rajah had invited many
princes to come When l went to
take mp the balloon next morning to initiate
it found it full of holes. Thousands of white
ants had eaten through it. was much
chagrned at this misadventure, and told the
Rajah it would take two days to repair the dam
age. In the meantime great storm
came up. The Rajah could not stay,
but made me present of about
5000, and went away. So I made ascents at
Bombay, Bhurtpore, Allahabad. Lucknow,
Trivandum and Madras; then l went to the is
land of Java. At Batavia l made remarka Bile
ascent. l went up from Batavia, then fifty
miles or more away, ard catching another cur
rent-for the air has streams and currents-re-
turned to within less than five miles of the place
from where | had assembled. Three thousand
dollars was taken In for this entertainment, of
which I got third. / made two ascents at
Batavia, which were the first ever made there.
At Samarang | could not make an ascent as
could get gas, but showed it to native prince,
and thousands of people focked to see it. Roy
atty could not have been feted tc greater OK
tent. l went everywhere from one plantation
to another, an honored guest
This Sindbad OF the ether blue says that at
the breaking out of the war between Germany
and France he was employed by the German
government. For a time he was at Cologne,
making ballons and teaching the art of balloon
ing by captive ascents. But" said the old gen.
tleman. with true republican fire in his eye,
"when France declared herself a republic my
connection with Germany ceased, and took
service for France. / was at Lyons buying silk
for balloon when Gambetta escaped from
Paris, M Bouree, secretary Of the Defense Ma
tionale, having made contract with me to build
balloon. built the first cigar shaped balloon
ever made. 1t was It's feet long. and tho silk
alone cost So, 600. My idea of balloon is that
shape, to carry ten or twenty horse power en-
CINE. and run screw for propulsion when the
wind is not favorable. Electricity is better,
because there is no waste of power
II hope" continued the Skinner of the Sky,
that my idea of north-poe exploration will be
adopted. Commander Cheyne, the arctic ex-
plorer, you remember, gave a lecture before the
New York Academy of Science some time ago
His proposal was to go with seventeen men to
St. Patricks bay. in Smiths sound, within 1876
miles of the pole. There he would find coal
mine. and he wonld have three balloons made of
silk to cost s20, 600 each $780, 900 for tho three.
and to carry in these balloons dogs, provisions
enough to last two months and everything need
full, with instruments to make observations.
Then to establish three stations for observations,
to find the course of the wind, have a telegraph
line to the central station. When the wind is