The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1908-01-31
IN A FALLING BALLOON
Fearful and Tragic Experience of
Three Aeronauts.
ONE SAVED AS BY A MIRACLE
The Terrific Cold and the Peculiar
Sensations That Eneompassed tho
Daring Voyasers at an Altitude of
Over Five Mles-The Descent.

One OF tne HOSt terrl0c experiences
in the history OF ballooning was tina
OF three aeronauts who In 1875 made
an ascension in large and well made
balloon, the Zenith. In this voyage
the object was TO reach the creates
possible altitude. The balloon rose Il
height OF $4,000 feet-that is, abou
five and half miles from the earth
At this point something happened
what, no one will ever know, since the
only surviving balloonist, Tissandler
was at the time insensible. But the
balloon began rapid fall and finally
struck the ground with such fright
ful shock that Sivel and Croce-Spln
nell were killed instantly, while Tls
sanders life was spared by a miracle
The account of this voyage Is per
haps best told in Tissandier's own
words:
AT $4,000 feet we were standing up
In the car. Slvel, who had given up
! for n moment, was reinvigorated.
! Croce- -Spinneli was motionless I'm front
Of me. ! felt stupefed and frozen.
wished to put on my fur gloves. But
without being conscious Of II the ac-
! ton Of taking them from my pocket
uecessitated an effort that | could no
longer make. | copy verbatim the fol
lowing lines which were written by
me, although | have no very distinct
remembrance OF doing so. They are
traced I'm n hardly leglble manner by a
hand trembling with cold
"My hands are frozen. am all
right. We are all right. Fog in the
horizon, with little rounded cirrus. We
are ascending. Croce pants. He In
hales oxygen. Sivel closes his eyes.
Croce also closes his eyes Sivel
throws out ballast Sivel seized his
knife and cut successfully three cords,
and the three bags emptied them
selves, and we ascended rapidly.
"When Svel cut away the bags or
ballast at the height Of about 24,000
feet | seemed to remember that he was
sitting at the bottom of the car and
nearly I'm the same position as Croce-
angle of the car, thanks to which sup
port was able to hold up, but soon
felt too weak even to turn my head to
look at my companions. This was
about 1:30 p. IN. At 2:0S p. III. ]
awoke for moment and found the
balloon rapidly descending. | was able
to cut away n bag of ballast to check
the speed and wrote in my notebook
the following words:
1--WE are descending. Temperature,
8 degrees. / throw out ballast Ba-
rometer, 124 inches. We are descend
ing. Sivel and Croce still In faint
ing state at the bottom of the car
Descending very rapidly
Hardly had | written these lines
when a kind OF trembling seized me,
and fell back weakened again. There
was violent wind from below up
ward, denoting very rapid descent
After some minutes felt myself
shaken by the arm and recognized
Croce, who had revived. Throw out
ballast he said to me. We are de-
scending.' But | could hardly open
my eyes and did not see whether ST.
vel was awake. called to mind that
Croce unfastened the aspirator, which
he then threw overheard, and he threw
out ballast, rugs, etc.
AT $3.50 y. m. | opened my eyes
again. felt dreadfully giddy and op-
pressed, but gradually came to myself
The balloon was descending with
frightful speed and making great oscll-
latlons. | crept along on my knees
and pulled Siyel and Croce by the
arm. Swell Grocer exclaimed
Wake upr My two companions were
huddled up motionless In the car, COW
cred by their cloaks. collected all my
strength and endeavored TO raise them
up. Sivers face was black. his eyes
dull, and his mouth was open and full
of blood Croce's eyes were half clos
ed, and his mouth was bloody.
1. "To relate what happened afterward
is impossible. felt fpightful wind.
We were still 300 feet high. There
remained In the car two baSa of bal
last, which threw out. | was draw
Ing near the earth. looked for my
knife TO cut the small rope which held
the anchor. but could not find IL. | was
like madman and continued to call,
'Slyel, Sivelr BY good fortune ! was
able TO put my hand upon my knife
and detach the anchor at the right
moment.
"The shock on coming to the ground
was dreadful. The balloon seemed as
IL II was being fattened. thought II
was going to remain where II had fall.
en-, but the wind was high. and II was
dragged across fields. The bodies of
my unfortunate friends were shaken
about in the car. and ] thought every
moment they would be jerked out AT
length. however. | seized the valve
line, and the gas soon escaped from
the balloon. which lodged against n
tree. IL was then o'clock. On step
ping out was seized with n feverish
attack aud sank down and thought for
| n moment thnt I was going to ioin my