Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1889-07-25
FALLING TWO MILES.
A YOUNG AERONAUT'S Thrill.
LING EXPERIENCE.
A Rapid Ascent and Still More
Rapid Dcsccnt-H He Caused the
Balloon to Collapse.

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 III his new
balloon, "What Cheer" which has a
capacity of $4,000 cubic feet, at 4 30 IN
the afternoon. The crowd about the
anchorage Mt Crawford street bridge
gave rounds of cheers rs the great
golden balloon, with its gayly deco
rated car, rose quickly up through tho
damp mir. Higher and higher 1t went,
until it became mere speck IN the SKY,
and drifted off to tho eastward. Then
it was buried in huge cloud, ana,
when it was next seen, thrill OF horror
shot through the crowd OF spectators.
The round shape had gone. The little
sphere lad vanished, as though all its
buoyancy had been let out INTO the
clouds, and in its stead was bag, flap
ping and swinging wildly III the air.
Almost Mt the same instant 1t began
shooting downward, and i'll a twinklinS
it had descended through hundreds OF
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 ieicely from side to
side The young wife of Allen, who
had 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 East Providence,
where it was presumed that the occu-
pant of the balloon was already lying, q
mangled corpse. The movement grew
into a rush, and the rush into stam-
podc, 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 Daggett's farm, six miles
away, he found his friend Allen, pale
but smiling. He had landed in the
middle of II soft -bottomed meadow, and
this had undoubtedly saved his life.
After 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.
al pulled tho explosion cord myself"
said lie. "The balloon did not burst.
The collapse was my own work. l 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. | went up fast,
and my balloon began to expand. Tho
moro it expanded, the faster l went. l
was shooting up through the clouds and
going fast for open water. Tho 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 pleasant day 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 out quickly enough, and l
was afraid of the effect the water on the
balloon might have upon it. So 1
climbed into the concentric ring and
pulled the explosion cord, ripping the
balloon open. Then, as the balloon
4
and pulled it out as fiat as possible, so
as to resist the air. / came down pretty
fast but expected that. | landed all
right, basket first. "
Allen was tritie more than two miles
above the city when he caused his bal
loon to collapse. The onlookers at tho
Daggett farm tell much moro exciting
etory than he. One man who was
Watching the balloon with q glass as it
came toward tho ground, says, Allen
WAS trying to get on top of the balloon
as soon rs it collapsed. When he came
near, he was crying wildly for help and
clinging in the rigging. The man says
that Allen was in the car when the bal
loon exploded
The "explosion" has beon the talk of
Providence ever since it occurred. 10
is hard to convince most people that the
collapse was intentional. The hole i'll
the balloon shows a rip in the middle of
a breadth of cloth from the top near The
valve to the neck.
Allen is only 81 years old. He comes
from IL family of aeronauts. His father
is Prof. James Allen. Since 1886 the
young man has made aScensions from
Ridgeway, Pa, Carlisle, pn., Iitchburg,
Mass, and seven other y laccs, His
brother, james X, was the navigator OF
Campbell's air ship at Couey Island last
year His father did good service as q
balloonist in the civil war and was dc,o-
rated by Emperor Don Pedro Of Brazil
for services there. A cousin, Prof e.
! S. Allen, made an agccnsion AT Boston
on the Fourth, and the wife Of the lat
ter also made successful aerial ascent
at Pautuclet on the same day New
York Sun.