The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-10-19
AMERICANS WIN
BALLOON TROPHY
Signal Corps Airship Speeds
More Than $50 Miles TAX.
ing Lain Prize.

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 19.-Swinging through
the atmosphere at a speed estimated at
twenty-five miles an hour, the United
States Signal Corps balloon No. 10, in
which A~eronauts ]. c.. Mccoy and Captain
Chandler, Of the signal corps, passed over
Illinois and Indiana and across Ohio Bay
yesterday, and last night landed in the
vicinity of Point Pleasant, w. Va. The
distance covered, on a straight line meas
urement, is approximately 500 miles, and
the length Of the voyage won for the
%aeronauts the Lahm cup
When the ascension was made Thursday
evening it was the intention of the aero
nauts to remain in the air all night as a
test of the gas to be used by the balloons
in the International a%eronautic contests
which begin on Monday. However, con-
sidering the likelihood that they might be
carried a long distance, they went amply
prepared for a long flight. Provisions in
tin cans, self-heating by a lime-slacking
device, were stored in the basket, and a
number Of different Instruments for test
ing purposes were carried.
The balloon, with a capacity Of $4,000 feet
cubic measure, was filled from the gas
plant at Second and Kruger streets. A
number of members Of the Aero Club, of
st. Louis, and visiting %aeronauts were
present when the ascent was made at 4:10
D.. M. The balloon rose gracefully, then
suddenly veered as a sharp wind struck it,
colliding with the tlmbers that supported a
huge coal pile in the gas plant yard. The
basket scraped threateningly, but prompt
work by the %aeronauts in throwing out
sand ballast caused the balloon TO shake
itself free from the coal pile unchanged
and shot straight up several hundred
feet. Then 1t swept toward the northwest,
and sooh was lost to view.
The first report received from the aero
nauts was a message dropped near Lees
burg, O., and ~telegraphed by the finder
to Chicago. This message stated that the
balloonists had dropped it at 6 a. M, and
that they were then travelling southeast
rapidly.
Later the balloonists were seen passing
over Gallipolis, o., and by the middle OF
the afternoon they were in West Vir-
ginia, near Point Pleasant. There the
balloon started up the kanawha valley,
according to a telephone message &c. st
Louis. Members of the international balloon
contest committee and other aeronauts
last night said that the flight. would es-
ablish an epoch in balloon sailing.
The Lahm cup was instituted by the
Aero Club of America soon after the in
ternational races Mt Paris in 1906, when
Lieutenant Frank p. Lahm won the
James Gordon Bennett cup for thai club.
So Joyful We're the members OF t1e cluu
at the victory that the cup was named for
the pilot OF the balloon limited States .
and it was put up by the club to be won
by the %aeronaut who Travelled more than
402 miles. the distance travelled by the
limited States in the Paris races, pro-
vlded the start was made from Ameri-
can soil
The balloon, Stevens No. 81" In which
Alan r. Hawley and Augustus Post as
cended at $50 o'clock Thursday evening,
landed yesterday, 16 miles from Indian
apolis and about 225 miles on a straight
line from st. Louis. The balloon carried
IS. 600 cubic feet of gas. and Hawley and
Post made the ascension simply as a test
flight. The bag was filed with gas OF
an inferior quality as compared with the
gas used by Mccoy and Chandler.
Oscar Erbesloeh and Hans Heidemau,
who will pilot the balloon representing
Germany in the international contest. yes
terday afternoon made an ascension in the
small balloon Psyche Just after they
cleared the ground the balloon travelled
straight for a high brick wall. Quickly
they cut away ballast bags, cleared the
wall and made directly for a smokestack
Again quick use of knives in emitting way
more ballast averted a collision with the
smokestack, but the car struck a guy wire
which snapped.
The balloon, llghtened Of considerable
ballast, leaped into space. while the spec
tators cheered Justify. After a voyage o.
two and one-balf hours the Psyche de
seconded without mishap at Red Budd, Ill.
thirty miles sfSth nf 81 lsntiG