The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-07-03

the experiment.. At a public ascention made
at London September ~. 1886. he suspended
below his car the miserable apparatus to
which Cooking hung by a wire; then at a
height of more than 1000 feet the eronaut
The descent was terrible. In less than a
minute the unfortunate man fell to the
earth and was dashed to pieces.
The register of deaths from b%allooning
tells US of the @ronaut. Comaschi. who, in
1916, assembled fiom Constantinople before
the gaze OF a cheering crowd ana dlsap-
peared forever.
In the same way Ledet left St. Peters
burg in a balloon in 1S47 and was mover seen
again..
rose from Bordeaux with a horse for bal
last, md descended at Cestas at seven
O'Clock in the evening. The horse was re-
moved by peasants and the balloon at once
arose with incredible rapidity. The zero
naut was found in Gascony the next morn
ING. suffocated with hydrogen gas.
The same year Al ban made his last as
cension in Spain. He was carried away by
severe wind and sell among the SHOWS of
the Pyrenees, or into the sea, and WAS never
seen again.
September Is, 1851, Tardini left Copen-
hagen, accompanied by his wife and son.
He descended on the island of Seeland, and.
starting again alone, was never heard from.
Some days later, Sept. "a, Merle made an
ascension at Chalons-sur-Ma and died
Manipulated by gas. His assistant, a little
h~unchback, received no injury.
A singular accident oocu red at Buenos
Ayres May "a. 1869. The %aeronaut Baraiile
rose from the center of the city, lowered
over it, and descended in a roadstead. A
number of boats and a small steamer has
tened to save hin from drowning. The
steamer smokestack set fire to the gas and
d terrible explosion destroyed both balloon
aud steamer. The Grew and oarslnen were
twenty-five wounded
At the time OF the memorable siege of
Paris. from September. 1870, to February.
1871, the organizers of the aerial post con-
ceived the unfortunate plan of having the
balloons start at II O'Clock in the evening to
avoid the enemies observation. The same
end would have been obtained by starting
at four O'Clock in the morning, while by
starting in the middle of the night there
was great risk of reaching the sea before
daylight. This unwise plan cost the lives
of two %aeronauts, and might easily have
caused the loss of more. On the 30th of
November a sailor named Prince started
from the railway station d'Orleans. which
had become an aerial station; there was no
moon and the wind blew violently. The
a~erostat was rapidly driven westward, and
ut dawn fishermen saw the globe disappear.
swallowed by the waves, Poor Prince must
have been drowned. The snme night. at
about half-pnst eleven, that is. half
nm hour later, a pecond balloon was sent up
from the Station du Nord and also reached
the ocean at sunrise. 1t seems that the
commission. after determining the rate Of
the and breeze. gave the sailor a%eronau
strict orders to remain in the air eight
hours. But the balloon ca; ried n second
passenger. When they had renched tho
ocean and the balloon WINS passing over
Belle isle. the passenge, dis eaarding the
command, opened the valve. He did it
none too soon, for if another moment had
ELAPSED the second balloon would have
shared the fate of the fl st.
January q, 1871, at the time of the nrmis-
tice. the last but one of the balloons used
during the siege left the Station du Nord
commanded by the sailor Lacuze and was
lost in the sen off La Rochelle.
1t seems miraculous that the balloon
which left the station d'Orlenns Nov. q
was not lost IN the sea. IT started ut II
o'clock in the evening and in fifteen hours
was driven by a tempest ncross the north
sen and beyond Christinna in Norway. The
%neronaut, Roller. and his companion be-
lieved themselves absolutely lost during
long hours of Sgony, and owed their de-
liverance only to their icouI ageous perse-
verance and to the geographical contour of
the Norwegian coast. Az they passed over
u mountain OF fir trees the anchor was sue
cessfullv cast from the car and they were
saved.
Oh the sixty-four post balloons sent out
during the seiGe two were lost at sea. al We
have just seen. and four others barely es-
capped Il similar fate.
July 1, 1879, another aerial shipwreck
occurred At lonia, Mich. The aeronaut La
Mountain. whose courage had often been
pushed to temeritv, and who tho year be-
fore had very nearly been drowned in Lake