Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1895-08-30
LOST HIS SILK BALLOON.

Island orin the waters Whereabouts.
1t belongs to Prot. Carl Meyers,
the aurOnaet, ami he Is willing TO
give a substantial reward to any
body who will return it to him. A
dozen or more men, who were
holding the big silkea glObo at
Paln's fireworks show at Manhattan
Beach on Satui daV night, are glad
that they we're not distributed
along the course the balloon took
after it got away from them.
When inflated with 5000 cubic
feet of hydrogen gas the balloon
was thirty feet high and twenty
feet in diameter. Ii carried SKY.
ward a lot of set pieces Of fireworks
including an immense American
flag. 1t was held captive 500 feet
above the earth by stout manila
hawser. After 1t had been hauled
down, at about $40 o'clock, and
while Prot. Myers and his men
we're holding it, a fierce south
We terly squall sprang up. Prot
Myers's pocket thermometer in.
dlcated that the squall had force
of about a mile a minute.
When the squall struck the
DuIging aging fabric, the men
clinging to it found themselves
dancing on nothing. They didn't
like the sensation and let go In a
hurry. Tne balloon tugged at the
hawser like a coaster on an ice shore
IN a gale. A few seconds after the
men let go the hawser snapped as
if it were a mere thread, aud the
ball, on shot up like a giant pro-
iectile from a mortar. Many of the
spectators thought that the escape
of the air ship was a part of the
programme, and they applaude d
vigorously.
The darkness was mOmentaiily
illumined by the glare of Kissing
rockets and fire showers from
bursting boOms, and the balloon
gIOwed like a full moon on an
aerial lark as it bounded east
northeast almost diagOnally across
Long Island. The Professor watch
ed 1t until it got beyond the i'll.
huence of the pyrotechnical glow.
Itw VS. going with the wind at
express TRAIN speed, and rising with
velocity tLat was beyond the
Professors powers of computation
The instant it broke loose, the
Professor, who is as nimOle witted
as a hawk took out his pocket com
pass and made note of the course
OF his vanishing property. de
made the course out about east
northeast. The Professor said last
night:
There is one other balloon like
this one that got away from me.
You might call them sister ali
ships. Both dre made of pale vel
low pongee silk. Each weighs, will
its white netting, about fifty-sever
pounds, and may he folded in
small package and carried under
the arm. The lost balloon wa'
worth about $500. It was what w
call a one man hydrogen gas bal
lOon-tbat is, one man might as
cend By it. There was no way by
which the gas could escape iron
it, as the valve was closed. w t
were Just about to open it wheI
the squall came up.
CATER it assembled mile or 81
[ have no doubt that it burst after
expanding beyond its limit in th'
rare6ed air. 1t may not have gOn'
five miles before falling. There L
a chance that 1t parachuted and
kept up for ten or fifteen miles. By
way of explanation, [ may say tina
when a balloon parachutes th'
lower part forces itself under TIT
dome of the fabric, giving it thu
appearance of a mushroom. Tue
balloon may be found on one OF th'
littIe islands or in the water o
Jamaica Bay"