Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-23
ADRIFT IN THE UPPER AIR
Thrilling Experience of a Trio Of Adven-
turOus English Aeronauts,
GO ABOVE The CLOUDS TO VIEW LsoNlOs
After Several Hours Anxious TrnycI-
ing Through Spncc Above the
Clouds the Party Reaches Earth
Altogether Too Roughly.

Copyright, 1899, by Press Publishing Co.)
LONDON, Nov. 22.-(New York World
Cablegram-Special Telegram REV. j. NJ.
Bacon, a Noted balloonist, accompanied by
his daughter and Stanley Spencer. a famous
professional aeronaut, has just had re-
markable balloon adventure In Bacon's S
cwn graphic words the story is as follows:
I'VE arranged to get above the pail Of
cloud and fog to see the Leonids. Our
balloon, the largest and strongest practical
bic. was anchored near Newbury, Berk-
shire. At 4 o'clock in the morning we took
seats in the car and quickly mounted 10
the murky canopy overhead, consisting of
dense, wstting fog 1900 feet high In
traversing it the balloon became chilled, 50
we had to discharge a great quantity OF
ballast to enable us to penetrate the cloud.
Our observations continued till in the
morning, when it became desirable to de-
scend. But at that moment the earliest
beams of sunlight struck the moisture-laden
silk, which began to dry off. The gas
grew warmer, the balloon rising rapidly
into space, mounting by leaps 500 feet every
fifteen minutes, till by . in the morning
we had reached an altitude of 5000 feet
and still soaring.
1--WE could have torn open the valve, but
that would have surely killed us, so the
unwelcome fact had to be faced that we
were adrift simply at the mercy of the
wind without a cloud visible to mitigate
the rapidly increasing power of the sun.
breakfast was now produced and eaten
in the solitude CT our little car in gloomy
silence with many forebodings. OF our
whereabouts we knew nothing. Since five
minutes from the start the earth had been
blotted from our gaze Several thousand
feet beneath us was spread out, bathed in
intensely bright sunlight, a cloud sea of
exquisite beauty
Time brought us no comfort. AS break
fast proceeded we heard loud reports over
head the moist, shrunken netting giving
out under the hot sun, rapidly yielding to the
expanding gas. We turned to the aneroid
and saw with grave concern, but no sur
prise, that it registered 5000 feet and was
still rising.
Drifting Toward the Sea.
"Up to twenty minutes previously we had
heard the familiar sounds cf country life,
horses trotting along the hard road cocks
growing, the welcome voice of the CHEEKY
donkey, but now we had risen beyond the
region of earthly sounds and were quickly,
silently and irresistibly passing Through
space seaward. 1t could not be long before
we were over the Atlantic ocean and then
but the frightful tension of the situation
was relieved momentarily by a happy
thought of my daughter. She had a num-
ber of telegraph forms, on which she man
folded the following message thirty-six
times:
Urgent. Large balloon from Newbury
travelling overhead above the clouds. Can
not descend Telegraph to coast guards
to be ready to rescue.
BACON-SPENCER.'
These messages were folded up, marked
urgent in red pencil and thrown over
beard. But before the dispatches were fin
ished we suddenly paused and listened with
all our ears for new sound was in the air.
There was the rhythmical splash of waves
on the shingly shore. 1t was unmistak-
able and as if to end the suspense up there
came the wall of a ships siren. We since
discovered that we were then crossing the
twenty-mile stretch of Bristol channel, but
were then without that comforting know
ledge. We sat in the car, each looking out
over the side and averting the gaze from
each other None wanted to let the others
see the tell-tale look of horror in the eyes
at apparently inevitable death. Suddenly
the cloud floor below us showed tiny open
ing. We strained our gaze, recognizing
with inexpressible relief a thin thread of
white road running through ruddy fields.
Hope began to return, but we were still help
less. We were descending slowly, our mon
ster balloon dying only by sheer leakage
of gas. 1t was race between the gas and
the wind.
Lives at Stake.
"Our lives were the stake If only once
we could dip into the cloud layer our des-
cent would be hastened. but for two hours
we kept dropping closer, closer to it, then
suddenly ascending again with tantalizing
The tension was awful, for
every minute brought us nearer to sudden
death
at last at 1870 we dipped into the clouds
but rose again. Then we fell lower. The
cloud sensibly chilled the gas and in less
than five minutes we had fallen through
below the clouds.
Romantic country broke upon our view
upon which we were swooping too rapidly
The wind blowing stiffly caused us to strike
the earth with considerable force. The next
we were breaking madly through
all obstacles as wild gusts caught the belly
ing silk of the now half empty balloon. My
daughters forearm was broken with the first
rude impact. Then we charged an ugly
five wire barbed fence, every strand of which
snapped like mere pack thread. My neither
were completely torn off my right
leg which, however, sustained only super
fetal injury.
"Still we sped on unchecked till caught in
a dead half grown oak, the head of which
carried right away and entanged our rig
got good hold and by this time help was
hurrying up. This ended the voyage
According to Spencer the descent was by
far the toughest in all his experience. Ac-
cording to our Welsh friend our final course
had been straight for the open sea which
was scarcely mile distant"