The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-10-01
the balloon lay half empty on the grounr
It was 4;S7 p. m.
142 Miles in PA Minutes.


IN 3H minutes, or five hours and forty
four minutes. In the upper current it had
travelled llS miles in 2s5 minutes. This is
forty and one-half feet a second. We hal
been travelling at railway speed.
But you do not feel the speed I'm the
balloon. You seem 80 hover stationary
IN that wondrous silense. There was not
the least joiting, we did not know that
We were moving unless we looked intently
at the earth beneath, and saw Il slipping
by. We felt the motion as little we feel
the motion Of the earth around the sun.
Our balloon journey had been neither
the highest nor the furtherest ever taken,
but il was the first that had been taken
over specific mountain, and he
first in which a balloon had remained
above 1900 feet for hours at a time.
The trip Of the Vega over the Alps
was the j03rd successful ascension conduct
ed by Capt. Spelterini without accident.
we did not even feel dizzy" says Prof
Helm, and our trip proved that dizziness
IS not one OF the accompaniments Of trav-
cling by balloon, a long mooted question.
The most wonderful thing Of all to us
was the perfect quiet and sacred silence
of the nights. Whether the balloon went
up or down, or rushed through the air
with railway speed, we felt none of IT, We
We're in absolute quiet. Then we knew
what quiet is About 1900 feet you hear
the blood rushing through your cars: az
your blood is uubearabe. IT is altogeth-
err different from the stiffness on a noun
tam top. There Is still the noise coming
from below, even though brokenly. But
with us the silence was absolute-Oppres-
sive.
Sensations Of the Voyage.
Until we had ascended to 1900 feet
all felt well. At 1900 feet Dr. Bieder-
mann complained of palpitation of the
heart. AT 1900 feet DR.. Maurer com
planned Of severe sticking pains in the
back of his head and of nausea
AT 1900 feet and 10000 feet ! felt won
derfully well sitting in one corner of the
car on a sack OF ballast Half dreaming
! looked out over the shining clouds, or
at the yellowish horizon or upward at the
black sky. l did not want any oxygen. I
felt no difficulty in breathing, no uneasi-
ness whatever no 'air-hunger. But the
ability to work was gone, my energy was
lost II required a great effort for me TO
take my note book up and write in It, My
pulse was very weak. / could hardly find
1t, but II was quietly beating so to IS times
a second. All at once | felt freezing cold
But IL was so delightful TO sit there quiet
~. Better to freeze than take the trouble
to put on the cloak that lay at my side
But my conscience spoke, saying YOU
ought 20 observe look around. note what
you see! and ! looked out but I noticed
nothing and wrote not word. Only to sit
quietly and let the balloon ascend to heav-
emily nights, that must be a beautiful end!
But when we had descended /, 500 or
1900 feet we were as new born The eff
fects of the rarided air were felt only
while we were in it.
strange to say during all our trip none
OF us felt the least desire for food.
The View From the Balloon.
TO describe the view from the balloon
IS like trying to describe a symphony to a
deaf man. The woods looked, like the
softest moss. The varying colors of the
foliage were clearer than ever melting into
%ondrous harmony. The lace work of
field and meadow, of fruit trees and for
ests wove a wool of beauteous color. All
of the colors seemed far brighter from the
balloon, far fresher; and as we rose hign-
er and higher all took on a beautiful violet
tint. The cities looked like master paint
ngs. the streets like white threads hold
ing all together. If ] could tell all that 1
saw IL would be my greatest earthly pleas
sure, but language is all too feeble The
coloring of the clouds, the shadows on the
mountains, what words can tell their beau
ty"
what the Voyage Proved.
The results of this unparalleled flight
over the Alps and Jura are of more than
passing interest. It has shown that
healthy men may ascend to about four
tremendous hight without any serious in
convenience. 1t has shown also that dir
illness is not an accompaniment of balloon
voyaging, a most important point for fu-
ture aerial navigation.
The phenomena observed were new and
interesting. The fact that the earth APP
pears to be bathed in atmosphere of violet
color when seen from the balloon is ac-
counted for by Prof. Helm in this way 4
when we look at a mountain as we stand
on the earth il appears to be blue, on ac-
count of the thick atmosphere at the earth's
surface. But when seen from balloon
the blue atmosphere spectacles through
which We gaze are made paler on account
of the rarity of the atmospheric medium,
and we at first see them in their natural
colors. Seen from above they appear like
islands, especially when we are above 19,
900 feet. Mont Blanc was discernable only
by the clouds that surrounded its sum
init. for it was hidden in mist Jura look
ed like a series of ridges on the earth's
surface, yet we could note all of its val
leys and nights, as if they were drawn on
a relief map. All of the mountain sum-
mits were encircled by balls of cloud
(cumulD, some of which extended deeply
into the valleys.
No Birds in High Air.
"The birds which appear from earth to
be near the highest mountain peaks never
really fly very high. The atmosphere
above 1000 feet appears TO be without a
single inhabltant There was not bird
10 be seen when we rose to 1900 feet al
though we were over the valleys in which
the ravens are most common, and l
" atched intently for a glimpse of one.
above 1900 feet the coloring of the bal
loon and ourselves appeared to change.
The sun cast no warm yellow light on us.
but a pure white light. white to ghastli-
ness. All of the shadows were a deep
black ! noted the depth of this shadow
when I had TO look for something in
shaded corner of the car.
IF we looked first at the horizon and
then at earth the former seemed to be
bluc-violet, the latter bright yellow. The
blue violet coloring of the earth appeared
at 1000 feet and over This was eXpli-
cable by the fact that the yellow rays of
the sunlight were absorbed in the atmos-
pheric covering of the earth as we looked
towards IT, leaving The violet rays in the
ascendant. Seen from the moon, the earth
tnuef look violet Looking "a maintains