The San Francisco call., 1907-03-17
by Lieut. Frank p. Iah1n

had overestimated the gripping power
OF my anchor, for on striking the
ground II tore up a little sod, then let
go. and the wind carried us on. A
stone wall served only to twist the
shank of the anchor.
Finally. due TO the loss of gas, the
car struck the ground in a field half
mile past the house. jumped up just
high enough to clear a stone wall, came
down again, turned on it's side. dragged
q few yards after the tugging balloon.
then stopped. On striking the second
time / pulled the rip cord" which
tears q large strip out OF the top of
the balloon. The gas rushed out and
our good steed which had carried us
so many miles lost his strength and lay
stretched out on the meadow, a fiat
and empty bag.
Before extricating myself from the
ropes. ballast bags and other impedi-
ments ! looked at my watch-exactly
twelve minutes past : p. m. We had
been in the air 90 hours and II minutes,
and according to the official measure
nlents OF the committee, published
since We had covered over 647 kilo-
meters. or about 40 miles. in a straight
line from Paris. Necessarily the actual
distance travelled was considerably
longer than this. as our course had not
been straight line at all.
Our reception by the goodly people
of Fyling Dales One name OF the
inanor) was a most cordial one. The
squire himself chanced To be in an
adjoining field and FASTENED up to in
quire if we were injured. The amaze
me1t OF the tenants -as amusing. As
the squire said. IAN earthquake could
not have caused more excitement in the
neighborhood than had the landing of
our balloon"
With the cheerful assistance of will
ing hands the United States" was
folded. packed on to a wagon. and we
were off for the railroad station. q mile
away Fyling Hall was the name of
the place, fifteen miles north of Scar
borough. in the moi tiiern part Of the
county Of York. In the immediate
neighborhood--in fact. within sight of
cur landing spots-were places with
familiar and interesting names. such
as the Convent OF Whitby and Robin
Hoods Bay. Gladly would we have
stopped a day or two in this quaint and
attractive district but We were drawn
still more strongly toward London and
news OF the other balloons
AS neither of us had had winks
sleep the night before we stopped at
York for q nights rest. Next morning
/ was awakened by vigorous pounding
on my door. Wake up and look at
this" 1t was Major Hersey, and from
the unusually CHEEKY ring in his voice
I suspected good news. The morning
papers he brought did indeed report us
as the winners. although they failed TO
account for Mr.. Rolls of the English
club. On our arrival IN London that
afternoon all doubts We're dispelled
when we read the chasing of the first
four balloons in the following order:
The United States first; Signor Von-
n -. - II. L.
ing at Hull, some forty-hve miles be-
hind u.s. Mr.. Rolls. third. and Count de
la Walk. of the French club, fourth.
Nine OF the sixteen balloons had not at
tempted the Channel crossing, but
landed on French soil.
In marked contrast was our crossing
of the channel that night on our return
TO Paris compared with the beautiful
crossing in the United States" two
nights before. A violent southwest
wind made the little cross channel
steamer perform as only little steam
ers can, and made US wish regretfully
for our aerial craft.
Our welcome in Paris was a most
hearty one. First came the sleepless
reporters. then our friends, the secre-
tary of the French club. then dozens of
kilograms, cables and letters. The fol-
lowing evening the Aero Club gave a
dinner, presided at by Prince Roland
Bonaparte, president of the Interna-
tional Federation of Aero Clubs. After
dinner we were treated to an exhibit
tion of moving pictures of the start at
the Tuileries. four days before.
To one who has never had the pleas
ure OF a trip in a balloon IL may be
Interesting to know what we carried
with US in the car In the bottom was
q layer of straw 10 keep us warm. This
proved entirely unnecessary. About a
third Of the space was occupied at the
start with the sand used for ballast.
This was in twenty-nine sacks weigh
ing over forty pounds each. Our 'navi-
eating" instruments consisted of a reg