Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-07-06
A WoMAN'S JUMP.
Mrs. Van Tassell. Lands safely on
the Earth,

town who noted with surprise the pres
ence of Professor Van Tassell's balloon
in the air fully three hours ahead of the
time advertised for its ascension will be
surprised to learn that Van Tassell kept
his contract to the letter in all but the
time of the ascension. Van Tassell, ac-
companied by lis pretty wife and D. E.
Barclay, Deputy County Recorder of this
county, did 60 up in the balloon, and
Mrs. Van Tassell did perform the daring
feat of decending to the earth from a
distance of nearly 1000 feet, with the
aid of a skeleton-like parachute. 1t was
not believed on Wednesday that this had
been done, and until some authoritative
statement could be obtained the HERALD
refrained from publishing an account of
the voyage.
AS advertised, Van Tassell, his consort
and male companion, were to seek a
higher altitude in balloon, from the
corner of Los Angeles and Also streets,
at O'Clock yesterday afternoon. Some
body, considering death in store for Mrs.
Van Tassell should she leap from the bal
loon attached to parachute, addressed a
message to Chief of Police Cuddy asking
that he prohibit Mrs. Van Tassell from
doing so. The Chief took the writer's
view of the matter and ordered Detec-
tive Tom Mccarthy to be on hand at the
time appointed for the ascension and un-
less Mrs. Van Tassell gave her word of
honor not to make the leap, to prohibit
her from going up in the balloon. The
hardy aeronaut. and his wife heard of
uho OF rho Ghiaf VIC q t,.. Il 1,
decided to get heavenward with all pos
sible speed. Already the huge gas bag
was well inflated, the register showing
that close on to 100000 feet of gas was
in the balloon. Bags of sand served as
anchors to stay the balloon from flying
upward and numerous guy ropes served
as auxiliaries in the same direction. All
but the guy ropes were cast loose from
the balloon, and then Mr.. Barclay was
sent for. Mr.. Barclay is an amateur aero
naut of considerable experience. He has
made several ascensions, one with Van
Tassell, from this city two years ago.
Barclay was found by the messenger and
told to repair, as speedily as possible, to
the scene of the ascension. He did so,
and had just time to pull on
his overcoat and Jump into the
cage, in which were seated Van Tassell
and his wife. The balloon was then
held to earth by but one rope. Van
Tassell gave the order to an assistant to
"cut her loose" In a moment the bal
loon shot heavenward, attaining at the
initial jump an altitude of nearly 1000
feet. 1t was just at 10: AT O'Clock that
the huge gas-bag darted heavenward
from terra frma.
The voyage in the air is probably best
told by Mr.. Barclay He was seen after
the ascension by a HERALD man. De-
scribing the ascent, voyage in mid air
and return to earth, Mr.. Barclay said !:
"The balloon contained about 250, 1000
feet of gas when we started up. Incl
dent to an ascension is an upward Jump
of the balloon Immediately it is cut loose
from its moorings. The Jump of our
balloon was memorable one. 1t car
ried us to an altitude of about 1000 feet.
Professor Van Tassel, Mrs. Van Tassel
and myself were in the cage. When we
had attained that altitude we found no
clearly defined current of air. A
calm, so to speak, was prevalent.
Our height, we all agreed, was
not:sufiiclent to admit of the parachute
jump being made with safety. Our bal
last consisted of several bags of sand and
numerous bundles of papers, dodgers,
etc. Some ballast was tossed out, but
we finally decided to release some gas.
This we did and came to within about
1000 feet of earth when a good wind cur
rent was struck. We shut off the gas
valve and rode with the current, taking
a gradually upward course until we were
about over, or little to one side of the
Jefferies place, and near the Arroyo
Seco. At that time, 1 shall Judge we
were 5000 feet in the air.
Evan Tassell all along was extremely
wary. Every moment he would glance
up at the parachute we carried sw ung
from the cage. The chute, as he called
it, seemed all right. Finally he said he
guessed the time had come for the leap.
Mrs. Van Tassell was cool and collected.
Van Tassell pulled the chute down into
the cage. The parachute is shaped much
like an umbrella, and just about twenty
feet in diameter at its mouth. Pendant
from it are two ropes, provided
with hand rings at their ends.
To these rings Mrs. Van Tassell's hands
were strapped. Also pendant from the
center of the apex of the corner of the
now inflated chute is rope. About
Mrs. Van Tassell's waist we fixed a stout
strap in circingle, and the end of this we
attached to this rope. All was ready,
Van Tassell bade his wife good-by, and
so did l. She was cool as an iceberg as
Van Tassell cleared the parachute from
its moorings. She stepped on the edge
of the cage, looked down once and then
then stepped off into space. We shot
heayenward at once, a distance of about
500 feet. cyan" was so nervous he
crouched in corner of the cage. peep
ed down and saw the parachute dashing
toward the earth like rocket. NV heart
was in my mouth for a moment, but
when saw the old "chute" fill out and
sail downward at an easy gait knew
that the first parachute descent in the
world by woman was complete sue
cess.
Van Tassell had arranged with his
wife that should she reach the earth in
safety, she was to hail him by waving
her handkerchief. AS soon as we could
collect ourselves, Van Tassell told me to
pull the valve cord. This cord, when
pulled, releases the valve, or plug, hold
ing the gas in the balloon. / pulled it
with will and we were soon descending
at fearful rate. tried then to release
the valve but failed, and it looked as if
we were going to get the worst of it until
we got within about 300 feet of the
ground. We were tossing out all the
ballast left, when the balloon lighteped
a little. When the cage was within
about ten feet of the earth, we both
loo nod <,,,t nj lonJaJ =. ..f..