Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1890-10-24
A Balloon Accid ent.

An ascension of the balloon Patrie took
place from the Avenue de la Defense de
Paris, at Courbevoie, at o'clock on the
afternoon of Sunday, August 81. Mr.. Paul
Leprince, the Rronaut, and Mr.. George
| Dumuit, one Of his friends, both of the age
of 10 years, were in the car. The ascent
was very rapid. The spectators who were
present saw the balloon assume suddenly
| peculiar shape. First it hattened out, then
it assumed the shape of a spindle, then
that of ball They supposed at first that
the balloon was dirigible air ship; but
the real facts became apparent by the
swaying of the balloon, and then by the
awful drop that followed
'The balloon has burst, and the poor up-
fortunates are lost" cried the spectators.
This is what took place, as narrated by
Mr.. Paul Leprince, who has been good
enough to give us the facts of the case:
''There was nothing unusual about the
initiating operations For moment, how
ever, the balloon was carried by the wind
against the branch of an acacia tree by the
the side of the road, but only heard the
rustling of the braI cheS, and l did not
think of the incident again. Ny friend
and l embarked and in short time reach.
ed an elevation of 800 feet when we be-
gan to hear peculiar whistling sound.
looked in the space about, but seeing
nothing, | climbed on to the ring and then
discovered tear of few inches in length,
partially filled by branch of acacias
which had penetrated the interior of the
balloon. At this moment the sun dispell-
ed the clouds and shone with all its luster
upon the ballon. This produced such an
expansion of the gases within that the gas
was not able to escape sufficiently rapidly
from the valve The fabric was stretched
to its utmost, with a dry, cracking sound,
and l at once knew what would follow.
George" l cried, 'the balloon is torn
ana viii not be able to beer the strain Of
the expansion, and viii explode!'
l had scarcely uttered the words before
the tearing of the fabric like the rrstling of
leaYes could be heard, and blue cloud
appeared about the opening where the gas
was pouring through in great volumes.
eve are lost!p cried George.
"The ballast" | cried, "the ballastr
Fortunately he did not lose his head, and
in an instant two bags were thrown out /
glanced at the barometer and saw that we
were 4, 740 feet from the ground, and the
fall commenced.
Without losing an instant, and without
relying at all upon my equipment, l cut
off the anchor, l threw out the rope and
my overcoat, in fact everything of any
weight, and we prepared TO throw off our
clothes and to cling, at the moment of
striking, in the netting above.
| noticed that, fortunately, there was a
strong wind blowing, which was carrying us
along in an oblique line al the rate of 35 or
40 miles an hour. We were falling at an
angle, and this perhaps would break the
fall somewhat
The balloon was violently shaken in its
fight, and kept swinging and swaying in
horrible manner, but it was this that saved
us. During one of the most violent of
these swinging movements the lower part
OF the balloon was thrown to the upper
part of the netting and rested there against
the valve in the form of dome, forming
an immense improvised parachute At
once the fall was arrested sensibly. Still
we were only about one hundred yards
from the earth. l cried to Dumuit to
throw out more ballast, and about $50 lbs.
more ballast in the form of sand was pass
ed over the side. Now for our clothes
But there was no time. Scarcely had we
reached the ropes attached to the ring
when terrible shock was felt, and we and
the basket and the balloon and all were
rolled over on the ground together. We
were not injured, nor did we even lose con-
sciousness. This fall Of nearly mile was
accomplished in less than four minutes,
during which period, as may be seen, no
time was wasted.
/ believe that our safety is due to the
fact that neither of us lost our presence of
mind. The conclusion to be drawn is
that, even in an accident as serious as the
bursting Of a balloon in mil-air, the stuff
out Of which the balloon is made is likely
80 be formed into q sort Of parachute
by the upward current of air during the
downward fight of the balloon. The other
lesson is that however near death any one
may be, it is always necessary to keep
ones courage Paul Leprince, Aeronaut
in LIHHgfrafiOD