Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-27
DARING BALLOON TRIP
PROPELLER ENABLED THOMAS
TO RISE AND DROP AT WILL.

DR.. Julian P. Thomas returned to his
home In New York city last night with his
brother, Jefferson Davis Thomas of Angus
ia. Ca, after their trip in DR.. Thomas bal
loon, which was begun Saturday evening
shortly after o'clock. Since then they had
been reported Saturday night by three New
Jersey cities. After that nothing had been
heard from them except one telegram re-
ceived by Mrs. Thomas yesterday morning
from Beemerville, N. j., near the Kitatinny
mountains, saying that they would continue
on their journey, as the trip had been en-
5oyabie and successful.
The balloon made three descents. The
men stopped overnight at Beemersville with
their air chariot tied to a tree and resumed
their journey in the morning. sailing to a
forest near Oakland. Sullivan county, New
York. ten miles north of Port Jervis where
they fell with great violence in a forest, as
cending again. the doctors brother being
left out for the sake of lifting the balloon.
The balloon descended again at nearby
farmhouse summer resort, where II was
packed up and carried to the station to re-
turn with the aeronauts to the city by rail.
Oakland is about seventy miles from New
YORK as the crow flies.
A Great Flight.
Telling Of his trip. after greeting his fam
lily last night, DR.. Thomas said:
1T was a great journey in every way,
particularly in the successful work of the
propeller. We cleared the gas works at sos
o'clock In the evening" and. after throwing
away one bag Of ballast. had no need to
waste more for long time. The first bag
was used so that we could dodge a machine
shop near the starting point. When we
were fairly in the air began using the
propeller. / found that could turn the
balloon completely around with it, holding
crate, and that by lacking I Gould even ad-
vance the big bag and basket against the
wind.
THE air is rapidly rarified in the higher
well as to q man. The motors will have to
be SO fixed that the fluid will not be af-
fected by the oxygen supply. In my expert
ments going over New York found that
with the propeller I could give a steady pull
upward or downward Of fifteen pounds.
This means a tremendous saving both in
gas and ballast.
las we passed over the Hudson river the
tracing the gas. but to an unusual ex-
tent, SO that we dropped faster than we
should. We were headed directly for a
ship-just as If we were aiming for it, The
fifteen pounds uplift was not sufficient to
save us from hitting the ship.
Il jumped of the bicycle frame, which
my brother mounted. 1 had to throw out
three forty-pound sand bags before we
came mighty near, however. hitting a
mast, and 1 am glad we did not. That
would have probably been our end.
Wonderful Sight BeloY.
LAS we went high over the many New
Jersey cities there was a wonderful sight
below us. I never knew there could be so
many lights. Near by New Jersey was
Illuminated for miles. We could hear the
people shouting to us, some Of them cheer
Ing but 1t was all very indistinct because
we were very high. Then we ran into a
fog. 1t was perfectly black. The instru-
ments told US we were 1900 feet high, but
there was no way Of knowing where we
were going.
1.-The wind seemed to have entirely died
out, and there was no use in floating
about without any indication of where we
might be by the use Of the propeller I de-
scended First, there were the sounds of
chickens crying out in alarm, and then
the barking Of dogs, and saw not far be-
low US house. We could hear the voices
We dropped the drag ropes. and shouted to
them to catch hold. Although we could
hear them plainly. 1t was some time before
they heard us.
"Finally 1 made them understand that
we wanted to know how far of the sea
was. They answered IS miles, but
thought they said 8. This meant danger,
and I begged them to get hold Of the
drag rope. This they finally did. and
wrapped 1t about tree In this way we
pulled ourselves down by a pulley in the
basket
1.-THE man who had helped US proved to be
John G. Newman. He had never been to
New York, and he had never seen a balloon,
but that did not prevent him from being
a good host and an interested listener TO
what the men who came out Of the clouds
had to say to him. He told us that when
he heard the chickens and the dogs he went
out to see what was the matter.
Thought Balloon a Meteor.
HE thought the balloon was a meteor.
When he heard voices he was frightened.
He had read Of airships. and guessed the