Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-22

lake, and were lost to view. They were
never seen alive again. A terrific storm
arose that night, and both were lost The
BODY of Grimwood, with a torn life pre-
server about 1t, told all that will be known
of their fate.
1t Is probable that Donaldson, like Wise
and Prof Rogers, remained with the car
until it struck the water and went down
with it. The reporters Burr and Grim.
wood, in both cases, like Goldsmith the
other day, struck out for life away from the
vehicle that had come to seem to them the
engine of destruction.
Lost in tho Wilds of Maine.
In 1872, two experienced voyagers rose
from Plymouth, n. H., and, crossing the
White Mountains, they found themselves
at nightfall over the wilds of Maine. Dur
ing the night they foated over the Cana
dian wilderness, aud in the morning foated
out over the Gulf of ST. Lawrence. By
good fortune q counter current set inshore,
where they made q landing, $50 miles below
Quebec.
A company of five persons from Buffalo
were up 13 hours and descended safely.
They fioated across the State of Pennsyl-
vania, over the Allegheny Mountains into
Maryland, and finally were waited back to
New Jersey, where they landed.
Seven persons went up from Cleveland
one September afternoon, and fo2ted down
Lake Erie for $50 miles. After eight hours
over the lake they left it on the Canadian
side and foated westward over Lake St.
Clair and Lake Huron, finally landing at
midnight at Port Huron.
Two voyagers from Chicago were up 10
hours, and then landed, after cruising 600
miles, in q dense wilderness. They were
6va dave ,vifbouf food hut rooobad
Chippewa Falls where they could telegraph
home.
The highest ascent is claimed by Coggs-
well, the English aeronaut, and Glaisher,
the meteorologist, who went up seven miles
and were almost frozen to death, as well as
prostrated by the rarity of the atmosphere.
Mr.. Glaisher became insensible, and Coggs-
well lost the use of his hands and was
obliged to pull the valve cord for their de-
scent with his teeth. :.
Balloons Used During the Civil War.
Early in our Civil War a balloon corps
was organized by the United States War
Department, with La Mountain, Lour and
other experienced aeronauts associated.
Mr.. Lour first performed the feat of tele-
600 feet about the earth, and at
the battle of Fair Oaks, which he watched
from the altitude of 2, 900 feet, was the first |
to announce the enemy's retreat to Rich |
mond.
On one occasion, while General Fitz- |
John Porter was watching the enemy from |
q captive balloon the rope broke and he |
was carried toward the Confederate lines
By pulling the valve string he caused the |
balloon to descend, when it struck another |
current of air that landed him in the Union |
lines
The history of the ascents from Boston
Common during the past ten years shows
that the aeronauts have hardly an even
chance of landing on terra drma In 1883,
1888, 1889, 1891 and 1892 the voyagers have
been precipitated into the water of the
coast, always with more or less danger and
1t last with the loss of two lives.
In 1888 the party landed in the harbor off
Point Shirley; in 1888, with the late Prof
Rogers as aeronaut, the party were rescued
of Deer Island; In 1889 Prof Allen and Ed.
}. Stickney, of the Herald were thrown into
he harbor near Fort Winthrop, and last
rear Ezra S. Allen, of Providence, and John
Fynes, reporter, were carried out to
ea and ducked again and again, and finally
escued near Marblehead.
A Disaster Caused by Parsimony.
Under ordinary conditions, with the craft
hat are sailing in Boston harbor on the
Fourth of July, all aeronauts say they had
ather land in the water than anywhere
lse
''These men in the Governor Russell"
aid an experienced balloonist yesterday,
were not drowned, they were smothered.
they we're half asphixiated by the gas be-
ore the balloon struck the water
False economy was the real cause of the
disaster. The trouble was, poor Gus
Rogers was out of money, and the contract |
Tas awarded him so late that he found him.
elf in corner. He had to assign his con-
ract in order to raise money to buy the
10th. He purchased the very poorest quail
ty of cotton cloth, and he did not have
ime to oil it enough to keep the gas in.
eff he could have given it one or two
or awhile it would have helped some, but
he cloth was too thin, anyway.
PROF. Rogers had good net, but that
7as all. 1t is a wonder the balloon did not
urst before it left the Common.
'Just before it started said to Prof
Rogers: sat your old tricks, see-going
# with no life preservers.
"'What do want of life preservers,' he
eplied, I'm an old sailor and can swim.'
The Balloon Becomes q Parachute,
''The valve of a balloon is at the top of
he bag When Prot. Rogers pulled the
scape cord, the valve opened, and the neck
+ the bag, the material being so thin,
as sucked up until it finally closed the
perture in the valve, and the balloon be-
anne parachute and dropped into the
ater. Instead of floating clear, as a bal
bon should do. it closed down over the
asket, while the gas from the rent on the
de almost smothered its occupants. Rogers
nd Goldsmith got out, but Fenton was
nothered before he was drowned
Rogers, no doubt, was too badly affected |
y the gas to swim. If it hadn't been for
nat he would probably have been rescued.
was the gas, too, that explains Gold
nith's great exhaustion