Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1901-07-15
SAFE IN THuNDERcLou0.
The Remarkable Experience of {
Preacher-Aeronaut in England.

I
Preacher-Aeronaut in England.
To be in the very heart of a thun-
der cloud and escape unframed is an
unusual if not unique experience.
That is what happened to the Rev.
John M. Bacon and some companions
in one of his balloon ascensions from
Newbury, England.
Mr. Bacon in telling of the expert
ence says: I'm scarcely more than
twenty minutes from the start sud-
den and surprising change took place
in our circumstances. Our environ
ment, which had appeared absolutely
calm and clear, began changing with
the rapidity of transformation scene.
Below us the few hundred feet which
separated us from earth began filing
in with blue haze quite transparent,
but growing palapably f1lmier, while
ahead, as also right and left, the hor-
lion at the level of our eye and higher
opposed a dense fog barrier of an
ashen hue. Overhead of course the
sky view was entirely hidden by the
huge silken globe. At this time we
were being swept along on our course,
which remained sensibly unaltered in
direction, at speed which we subse-
quently were able to fix at approx
mate1y forty miles an hour.
ITO ourselves the full significance
of these circumstances was not imme-
diately apparent, but the onlookers at
our point of departure town gas
works, now some five miles in our
wake-clearly detected the approach
of heavy thunder pack and, as they
reasonably asserted, coming against
the wind. It lowered above the bal
loon, now seen projected plainly
against it's face. 1t came on rapidly
and assumed formidable proportions
The balloon was flying due west at
high speed, and at apparently no great
distance overhead the thundercloud
was progressing at a moderate We
locity not accurately determined, but
due east or directly opposed to the
surface current.
"And now with a whistle a binding
sheet Of hail attacked the aeronauts,
singing their faces so sharply as to
give the idea that the stones were fall
ing from a great height, and immedi-
ately afterward from all sides and close
around flashes Of lightning shot out
with remarkable frequency and vivid
ness. We were, in fact, fairly en-
bosomed in the thundercloud. Other
and near observers narrowly watched
the phases of phenomena now in pro
gress These were the countrymen
who became interested spectators and
who presently came to our assist
ance. They seemed to have imagined
that the balloon must be infallibly
struck, inasmuch as it appeared to
them completely encircled with light
ming. 1t was, indeed, the worst storm
the countryside had known for many
years. At Devices, only a few miles
ahead, it lasted for five hours con-
tinuously. A little way on our right a
house was struck and burned to the
ground, and on our left a couple Of
soldiers were killed on Salisbury plain
Though the storm progressed, it
also appeared to lag behind the wind
that bore it along. It did not seem to
advance against us as whole, but
rather about us, forming itself out of
what few moments before had ap-
peared mere empty and transparent
air.
pie in the balloon seemed to leap from
cloud to cloud and not from the clouds
to the earth, and the noise of the thun-
der consisted of short, sharp reports
like the explosions of gun cotton with
out any of the rolling reverberations
heard on the earth The aeronauts
passed through the thunderstorm I'M
injured, but it was trying to the
nerves. The question is: With the
houses and men being struck and the
lightning playing all around It and
earth below, why was not the balloon
demolished by thunderbolt? "-
New Orleans Times Democrat.