News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-07-25
FALLING TWO MILES.
A YOUNG AERONAUT'S Thrill
LING EXPERIENCE.
A Rapid Ascent and Still More
Rapid Descent He Caused the
Balloon to Collapse.

The performance Of Professor NAL
vern Hill Allen, the young aeronaut, at
Providence, is considered one of the
most remarkable in the whole history of
balloon ascensions. He started from
Providence on his aerial trip i'll his new
balloon, "What Cheer" which has a
capacity of "a, 200 cubic feet, mt 4:30 in
the afternoon. The crowd about the
anchorage ut Crawford street bridge
gave rounds Of cheers as the great
golden balloon, with its gayly deco
rated car, rose quickly up through the
damp air. Higher and higher it went,
until it became a mere speck in the sky,
and drifted off to the eastward. Then
it was buried in q huge cloud, and,
when it was next seen, a thrill of horror
shot through the crowd of spectators.
The round shape had gone. The little
sphere had vanished, as though all its
buoyancy had been let out into the
clouds, and in its stead was bag, flap
ping and swinging wildly in the air.
Almost at the same instant it began
shooting downward, and in Il twinkling
it had descended through hundreds of
feet of space. The sight made the OBJ
servers dizzy to look at.
"The thug has bursted," was the cry
that quickly circulated through the
crowd.
On it came, still falling, falling, TAX
ing on different forms, but always rock
ing and swaying fcrcely from side to
side. The young wife of Allen, who
had a place in the enclosure at the
bridge, fell in dead faint as she heard
the terrible cry, and people turned away
from the sight with blanched faces.
When they looked again the balloon had
shot below their line of vision. Very
quickly there was general movement
of the crowd toward Fast Providence,
where it"was presumed that the occu-
pant of the balloon was already lying, a
mangled corpse. The movement grew
into a rush, and the rush into a stam-
pede, such was the intense anxiety on
the part of the throng to know the
worst Mr.. McIlvane was in the front
of the crowd.
On William Daggetts farm, six miles
away, he found his friend Allen, pale
but smiling. He had landed in the
middle of soft-bottomed meadow, and
this had undoubtedly saved his life.
After a few drinks of milk from his
pocket cup and n brief rest, the young
man gave an explanation of his rapid
fall to the ground.
ST pulled the explosion cord myself"
snid he. '"The balloon did not burst.
The collapse was my own work. / had
to go up quick to get out of the way of
the buildings about the bridge. Hence
/ had to have tremendous ascending
power and but little ballast. had only
one bag of sand, in fact. L went up fast,
10 10
more it expanded, the faster | went. l
was shooting up through the clouds and
going fast for open water. The gas was
pouring out of the neck of the balloon,
and nearly choking me. had not
enough ballast to navigate with. If it
had been a pleasant day i should have
thrown out all | had and stayed up all
night. But it was TOO rainy. The bal
loon, basket, cords, and all were soaked
with wet. There was no use of opening
the valve at the top, for that would not
let the gas ont quickly enough, and /
was afraid of the effect the water on the
balloon might have upon it. So I
climbed into the concentric ring and
pulled the explosion cord, ripping the
balloon open. Then, as the balloon
collapsed, I got hold of what 1 could
and pulled it out os fat as possible, so
as to resist the air. / came down pretty
fast, but expected that. / landed all
right, basket first"
Allen was q trihe more than two miles
above the city when. .he caused his bal
loon to collapse. The onlookers at the
Daggett farm tell much more exciting
etory than he. One man who was
watching the balloon with glass as it
came toward the ground. says, Allen
near ID: vas 4 G9fRsedaiaW 1oS' neRp nsSRl'S2id S2d
clinging in the rigging. The man says
that Allen was in the car when the bal
loon exploded.
The "explosion" has been the talk of
Providence ever since it occurred. 1t
is hard to convince most people that the
collapse was intentional. The hole in
the balloon shows a rip i'll the middle OF
n breadth of cloth from the top near the
valve to the neck.
Allen is only 81 years old. He comes
from family of aeronauts. His father
is Prof. James Allen. Since 1886 the
young man has made ascensions from
Ridqeway, Pa, Carlisle, Pa, Fitchburg,
Mass. and seven other p laces, His
brother, James K, was the navigator OF
Campbell's air ship at Coney Island last
year. His father did good service as a
balloonist in the civil war and was deco
rated by Emperor Don Pedro of Brazil
for services there. A cousin, Prof. Il.
s. Allen, made an ascension at Boston
on the Fourth, and the wife OF the lat.
for also made a successful aerial ascent
ot Pautucket on the same day. New
York Sun.