Los Angeles herald., 1906-06-26
RUNAWAY eALLooN IN A NIeHT FLIeHT
Amazing Experiences Of Dr. Thomas New Aeronsut
While Passing Through a Electrical
New


After a night nieht above the clouds
In balloon, some Of the time with
their clothes frozen stiff and at other
times in the midst of a terrible cleo
trio storm, DR.. Julian p. Thomas of
this city and Charles Levee, a French
aeronaut. returned safely last night.
confident that in several ways they
have broken all aeronautic records in
America.
They left New York In Or. Thomas
big balloon, the Nirvana, at 6 o'clock
on Sunday night and for fourteen and
q half hours were buffeted about over
New York, Pennsylvania and New Jer-
sey. landing on the farm Of c. l.. Mil
Ter. I'm the township OF Butternut, OF
seRo county, N. Y, at $3.50 o'clock yes
terday morning.
During the entire night they were out
of sight Of the earth, with the excep-
tion Of now and then hazy glimpse
aggregating less than half an hour all
told. While suffering considerably
from the extreme cold and almost con-
tinuous drenching, the men were in
good spirits when they arrived on n
West Shore train at o'clock last
night. Their balloon is unharmed.
DR.. Thomas gave a description of
their Journey. Immediately after ris-
ing above the city" he said, 1--WE en-
IeTHu u SlOTIl stratum anu lilt ld1t
thing we saw was Grants tomb as we
sailed over it. He did not know
whether we had crossed the Hudson
or were sailing out to sea until we
heard the church bells of Hackensack.
Far above us the sun was then shin
ing with marvellous radiance, while
below us there was rain and clouds
and how beautiful the clouds were as
we looked down upon them. over Lit
tie Falls, N. j., we dropped within a
few hundred feet of the earth and
shouted my telephone to several per-
sons, and that message reached my
wife early yesterday.
Lost in Midair
"Then we rose again rapidly for the
night We were not quite sure which
way we were drifting, but realized we
were travelling very rapidly. Presently
we entered the most terrific electrical
storm imaginable. 1t is useless to at
tempt to find words to give even an
impression of what it was like. Below
us were the great banks of clouds that
looked like mountains.
1.-THE thunder seemed to roll along
their SUBMITS and through the great
cloud canyons, bursting and cracking
with an effect like the splitting of the
air. There was something so weird in
the sound of thunder below us. Above
and about us there was the most Won
derful display of electricity. The light
ming fitted through the basket, ran up
and down the ropes and played across
our faces but we did not interfere with
it and it did not molest us.
"If you could comprehend the tran
quill Indifference and utter absence of
fear that comes to one so far above
the earth, you would understand why
| say we did not molest the lightning.
1t did not seem to impress us, except
that we enjoyed the grandeur of the
thing.
"This storm lasted from 9 O'Clock
until in the morning. Meanwhile we
were from 1000 to 5000 feet above the
earth and going through space, prob
ably twenty or thirty miles an hour.
Whenever the storm abated we saw
myriads of small lightning bugs far
below us, and with all seriousness, I
am obliged to tell you that at times
we were nearly devoured with mos
quitoes while passing over New Jersey.
Suddenly the wind changed, a little
after midnight, and we felt sure we
were going out to sea. l confess that
this was very unpleasant period OF
our journey. Levee boasts about his
strong heart, but he admitted to me
that it's action increased perceptibly
when we saw where we were drifting,
or where we thouglk we were drift
ing.
Land in Treetop
1--WE talked the matter over and de-
cided that we would drop down, and
elON hn hi tc nf