The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-09-30
Aeronaut Stanley Spencer Tells How
1t Feels to Bob Up Clear
Against the Sky.
MORE THAN FIVE MILES
Above the Highest Cloud, Into the Realm of Eternal
Emptiness and Iciness-Breathing Compressed
Oxygen-Results to Science.

| Inc oxygen fIILSL4clSiy E4dNO hAC -SNi
! buoyant again. We wer estill foatine
! upward. though less rapidly. kfinew
that we had passed ne limit for breath
ing for any human being. We had gone
miles above the fight OF the highest
birds. The few thin wreaths Of cirrus
clouds which We had sighted at a height
of four miles were now below US. Above
was nothing but sky OF deepest indigo
blue and setting sun that was SO daz-
zling in its unnatural brilhancy that we
could not look at it.
ExhiIrated by the oxygen, we were in
the most daring mood AS we passed
the p, 900 foot elevation Professor Berson
was as joyous as a school-boy. We then
knew that we were making a world
record. There seemed to be no limit to
which we could not go. But then had TO
begin to calculate our chances of getting
down again. W had but four bags of
sand ballast left dared not cast these
out for fear of being unable 10 control our
descent.
We finally mounted to 1880 feet, I
shouted 10 Professor Berson that that
must be our limit. Despite the oxygen we
were both beginning to grow weak and
pale in the face. The cold was telling
upon US. 1t stod at 29 degrees below
zero in the thermometer. The frost
crusted our boards and whitened all the
metal attachments of the car. the ballast
hooks and the steel tubes of the COM
pressed oxygen.
I pulled the valve, and then began the
thrilling sensations Of the descent With
lurch that made US seasick we shot
downward ike a meteor. We must have
dropped 5000 feet in thirty seconds. To
check this frightful speed I threw out two
bags OF sand. Still down we went for
another mile. like a dead weight falling
until we struck denser volume of air
AS we slowed up a most extraordinary
thing happened. The sand which ] had
thrown out amile above came battering
down on the balloon and cutting us in the
face. II was just catching US in its fall
When We had come within 10000 feet
or about two miles, of the earth our de-
scent became very gradual and pleasant.
From that point we sank down slowly,
and finally touched ground, as softly as if
in a captive balloon, in a stubblefield at
Romford, twenty-five miles from London.
The farmers on their way home from
work remarked what an easy trip we had
had until they had noticed our still
frosted boards and went off in the great
est astonishment when we told them that
we had been over five miles straight up in
the air.
1 believe that this Is the highest ascen-
sion ever made though I am aware that
James Glaisher in 1862 is said to have
gone $4,000 feet That must have been
incorrect, for we proved that no man
could breathe for any length of time
above 5000 feet without oxygen. 1t is
known that Mr.. Glaisher did not have OK
ygen to sustain him. Neither did he nave
the accurate self-registering instruments
that we had
Professor Berson is now writing out
the readings of our instruments and the
other scientific data secured.
The readings of our instruments show
some interesting facts. While the Their
mometer at the start was 30 degrees, It
fell to 81 degrees at tho height of a mile
At two miles It was IS degrees, at three
miles Il degrees, at four miles ? degrees.
below zero, at five miles q degrees below
zero, and at the highest point, 1880 feet.
as already stated, Il was 90 degrees below
zero. In about thirty minutes we passed
through ssxty-one degrees of frost Our
whole trip consumed only ninety minutes.
When Professor Berson has completed
the readings OF all his instruments and
made the allowances for all possible vari-
atoms. some Of the figures which l have
given may be modified little, but the two
essential igures-27,500 fet in elevation
and % degrees temperature below zero at
that height-are according to Professor
Bersons most accurate revisions.
think that this balloon trip will prove Of
incalculable benefit TO science.