Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-02-08
TALKING ON THE AIR
RECORD FOR LONG DISTANCE CON-
 VERSATloN WITHOUT A WIRE.

 How Carlotta Got an Amateur Balloonist
 Out of Fix Mile Up In the Air-HeF
 Voice Reached Over Four Miies--Gas-
 bags Acted as Receivers.
 Tales are plenty of long distances over which men's voices have been conveyed by the medium of placid water. An Adirondack guide tells of having talked ill ordinary tones, on a very still day, wiCh q companion 15 miles distant at the other end af lake, and another guido caps this story with one of yells which wero heard and returned near water azteat of three miles. These tales are quite outdone by well authentl- cated story told by Carlotta, once the most famous woman balloonist in the world. In her story air, instead of wa ter, was the medium, and the distance of the conversation was four miles. It took place above the outskirts of St- Louis some years ago.
 Tt was an aeronautie exhibition, says Carlotta ill telling the story, land a young man named White, who was inexperienced i'll ballooning, had agreed to mako an ascension. 1 had already gono up and was quietly drifting east on an easy air current when he started out. Ho had had enough experience to know how to handle the valves and sandBags, and he intended to go up a milo or so and then descend easily. Now, the upper air is full of varying currents. You may bo going due west at half Q milo altitude, and when you get up n few hundred yards farther you may strike a current that carries you due east Mir White checked his upward career in q west bound draft, so that when he finally drited out of that cur rent into mine we were q good long dis tanee apart.
 'tI always have powerful glass with mo when l make an ascension. When ] turned this on him, saw that he was in trouble His balloon had twisted q little iii such way that l judged it was likely to twist more, and he was clambering around the ropes trying to right it, but without much apparent conception of what was best to do. l was frightened for him, for when the bag of a balloon turns too much the gas begins to escape rapidly, and the results arc likely to be serious l knew that voices could be heard a long way in the air, for l had often heard people q mile below me shouting, so without know ing how far the two balloons were apart I decided to hail the other one. gath cred all my breath and shouted:
 Hello, hello, heIlo!'
 Then l turned my glass on the other balloon again. Up where the air is so clear as it is 3 mile above tho earth one can see at great distances with wonder fuI distincnass. Through my glass 1 could see Mir White start and look all around him. That was quite awhile aft CT l had shouted. He didn seem to un- derstand where the voice came from, but finally l saw him put his hands to his mouth, evidently making speaking trumpet of them. I waited and waited and was just about to shout again when the huge gasbag above mo began to thrill with sounds. They seemed to buzz along it's sides and diffuse the air, only to collect and como whirring and rum bling down the funnel to be poured into my ears, and they formed in q tone that seemed made up of million other tones:
 't .Helloi " Where-are-you?
 1t was the most peculiar sound had ever heard. When it had scattered itself into silence l took ont my watch, and timing myself shouted
 Throw out one sendbag. I'll come to youn
 Forty seconds later my balloon be- gan to yibrato again, finally forming the words:
 !" All right In troubler
 s'There was method ill my telling him to throw out tho sandbag, as it was afterward of use. threw out q number myself, for I reckoned that d little above me I would find a current to carry me toward Mir. White This did and was soon within a short dis, tanco of him. aerially considered. The trouble with his balloon was a slight disarrangement of the ropes, which 1 had myself experienced, so I told him what to do and he was soon all right. As 1 explained to him when we reached the earth, we had been talking over an aerial telephone, tho gasbags being the only material objects up there collecting all the sounds and acting as huge reeeiv- CTS. :"
 Well, said he, you got me out of very bad scrape, but I never was so scared in my life as when that voice surrounded me l thought the balloon was talking, and that had gone crazy.
 It was a pretty long talk, said I. for, allowing the voice to travel five seconds to a mile by my timing, we must hayo been close to four miles apart
 That's simply impossible, said he.
 !" Very well, l said. That's why l told you to drop that sandbag. l threw somo ont, too, and wo can find out how far they landed apart.
 It wasn t muck trouble to find peo. pie who hal found the bags and knew just where they were. Fortunately they had landed near a railroad track, so the distance estimating was made easy fo1 us. Itwas i Ii miles guess that is the record up to date for long distance talk. ing without a wire.