Los Angeles herald., 1907-05-12
ENJOY GOOD MEAL
ABOVE THE CLOUDS
BALL L00NlSTS DESCRIBE THEIR
EXPERIENCES
Drift Over Four States and Finally
Land in a Field After a Long
and Interesting
49, Journey .-.... ,.--.


ST. LOUIS. May Sit is worth while
to spend sleepless night in the crowd.
ed wicker basket of balloon in order
to see the sunrise from a point above
the clouds, according to Aeronaut j. G.
Mccoy, who sailed about over Missouri
Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois fol
nineteen hours in an effort to win the
| Lahm cup.
Captain Charles Def. Chandler of the
United States army was Mr.. McCoy's
fellow traveller. The balloon left ST.
Louis at 1880 p. m. and returned to
earth near Golconda, ILL.,, 120 miles dis
tant in straight line, at 2:30 p. m. the
| following day.
| "At the start the balloon rose 1900
feet and drifted southwark" said Mr..
Mccoy. "Then it slanted downward to
! the southeast, across the Mississippi
river. 1t was too dark to read the
companss, so we couldn't tell exactly
in what direction we we're going.
Neither of us slept a wink that
night. The excitement, the exhilaration
of being up there in the air was too
great to permit sleep. The voyage was
II p. m. We were then somewhere
above the Ozark mountains, about 1900
feet above sea level. I was trying with
the aid of a pocket electric light bulb
to figure out our approximate location
from a chart, when suddenly the bas-
ket gave a lurch and 1 could feel the
drag rope tighten.
Rope Caught in Tree
"I knew then that the end of the rope
had caught in the branches of trees
on the mountain tops. 1t was hanging
down distance of 800 feet. AS fast as
/ could I emptied two sacks of sand,
eighty pounds, and the balloon shot up
and tore the rope free.
THE balloon went up to about 1000
feet above the ground. Then we got the
full benefit of the moonlight and could
read our instruments without difficulty.
AS long as we had sailed below the
clouds the moon had been cut off from
our sight. 1t was a great relief to be
able to see.
During the night the balloonist has
an eerie sort of feeling that is some
what dispelled by day. Just before
morning we could hear cowbe1ls, the
barking of dogs and all the sounds of
the barnyard. Several times when we
were near the earth l barked as well
as 1 could through the megaphone to
hear the dogs bark in reply. We had
more fun out of that megaphone than
anything else during the trip.
Lunch Above the Crowds
About midnight we had our first
lunch of hot coffee and soup. We had
shot up above the clouds then and were
shivering in our overcoats. 1t was be-
low freezing up there. That hot chick
en- broth tasted better than the best
meal on earth.
Our canned goods were put up in
self-heating tins. All we had to do to
get a hot meal was to pour little
ItV,a4 to- Tl,a Ir
tween the inner and outer tins. Our
coffee was put up in thermos bottles.
Each of these bottles is made double.
Between an inner and outer glass there
is a vacuum that keeps the heat in the
liquid for thirty-six hours or more.
That coffee was good and hot when we
drank it.
Below us. as sunrise came UP, a
brilliant picture presented itself. We
could see the white, foamy mass of the
clouds, tinged with the suns rays, bill
lowing at times like the sea- Some
times there would be only white sur
face without motion, like the body of
a still lake. The sight was worth
doing without sleep to see.
early in the morning we came down
through the clouds and could see the
towns that we passed over. l carried
a megaphone and shouted down to the
earth every now and then. We could
distinctly hear voices from below, but
make ourselves understood.
The earth is like big sounding board.
The sounds come up all right, but there
was nothing back of US to carry our
voices downward.
II called out repeatedly to learn
what state we were in, or rather over,
but nobody seemed to understand.
Several persons called back and asked
how we were and where we expected
to go.
Knife Blade Caused Rise
when we were at our greatest alti-
tude of three miles Capt. Chandler
broke his pocket knife in pulling a
cork from a bottle. Half of the blade
came off.
"'Watch the statoscope, he said,
and see what will happen when L
throw out this piece of blade
81 looked and the needle took a sud-
den little turn, indicating a rise of 100
feet. That illustrates the use of bal
last. Just a spoonful thrown out when
the balloon is at perfect equilibrium
will have an appreciable effect in send
ing the bag up. The balloonist will not
feel the rise, but AN tell it by the stat
oscope.
ballast, sometimes is worth its
weight in pure gold to the balloonist.
During the trip we threw overheard
everything we coul sacrifce-cans,
baskets, odds and ends of rope-in order
to save the sand. Before we came down
we had thrown out all but a sack of the
precious sand. In the descent the last
of our lunch-five cans of meat and
soups-went overheard.
"Three miles up in the air we could
feel a slight acceleration of the pulse
beat, and we had a little difficulty in
breathing on account of the rarity of
the atmosphere. We were not seriously
affected, however.
Had Used All the Ballast
"Soon after we started realized that
the shifting air currents that took us
back and forth in four states-Missouri,
Illinois, Kentucky ant Indiana-would
not permit us to win the cup. We de-
cided to come down when we saw the
balloon was headed for the Ohio river
and our ballast WAS growing less all the
time. We were then north of the Orio,
sailing west toward q bend in the river.
I'VE made the descent easily and
landed without accident. The drag
rope caught in a tree and kept us from
landing in a iield that we had picked
ont Seven or eight farmers hocked