Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-02-02
IN A FALLING BALLOON.
Fearful and Tragic Experience oil
Three Aeronauts.
ONE SAVED AS BY A MIRACLE
The Terrific Cold and the PeeuIia,
Sensations That Encompassed the
Daring voyasers at an Altitude Of
Over Five Miies-The Deseent.

S'uS WIZ ana sue FecuuaS
Sensations That Eneompassed the
Daring voyasers at an Altitude Of
Over Five Miies--The Descent.
One of the most terrific experiences
In the history of ballooning was that
OF three aeronauts who in 1876 made
an ascension in large and well made
balloon, the Zenith. In this voyage
the object was to reach the greatest
possible altitude. The balloon rose to
q height Of $4,000 feet-that is, about
i've and a half miles from the earth.
At this point something happened
what. no one will ever know, since the
only surviving balloonist. Tissandier,
was atathe time insensible. But the
balloon began q rapid fall and finally
struck the ground with, such, a fright
full shock that Sivel and Croce-Spin-
nellf We're killed instantly, while lis
sanders life was spared by miracle
The account Of this voyage is per-
haps best told in Tissandier's own
WVAOSs '4Sta2 ~ sst4sF"asN ~ wa Az
"At $4,000 feet we were standing up
In the car. Swell who had given up
FORA moment, jWasI sreinvigorated.
Croce. Spinnelli was motionless in front
Of me- l felt stupefied and frozen. /
wished to put On my FUR gloves. But
without being conscious of it the ac-
ton of taking them from my pocket
necassitated an affortgthat /, could no
longer make. i COPY verbatim thu, fol-
Lowing lines which were written By
me. although have no very distinct
remembrance of doing So They are
traced in hardly iegible manner by a
hand trembling with cold:
slf My hands are frozena L am all
right Weaare all right. Fog lin the
horizon, with little rounded cirrus. We
are ascending. Croce pants. He In
hales oxygen. Siyel closes, his. eyes.
Croce also closes his eyes, Sivel
throws out ballast sivel seized his
knife and cut successfully three cords,
and the three satags iAemptied them
selves, and we assembled rapidly.
4fsstsWhen ,Siyel cut, away the bags of
ballast at the, height Of about ,24,OOO
feet seemed to remember that he was
sitting at the bottom Of the car and
nearly in the same position as Croce-
Spinnelli. For my part. was in the
angle of the car, thanksito which sup
port was able to hold up. butt soon
felt too weak even to turn my head to
look, at my companions, This was
about 80 p. M: At 2:0s p. m. 1
awoke for a moment and found the
balloon rapidly descending. l was able
to cut away bag Of ballast to check
the speed and wrote in my notebook
the, following words: .a
We are descending. Temperature,
3 degrees. throw out ballast. Ba-
rometer., 12.4 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 I 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. l called to mind that
Croce unfastened the aspirator, which
he then threw overheard, and he threw
out ballast, rugs, etc.
AT $50 p. m. opened my eyes
again. felt dreadfully giddy and OPP
pressed, but gradually came to myself.
The balloon was descending with
frightful speed and making great oscil-
lations. crept along on my knees
and pulled Sivel and Croce by the
arm. .Sivel! Grocer exclaimed.
Wake upv 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. Siyel's 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.
ITO relate what happened afterward
Is impossible. felt asfrightful wind.
We We're still 900 feet high. There
remained in the car two bags of bal
last, which threw out. l was draw
ing near the earth. looked for my
knife to cut the small rope which held
the anchor, but could not find it. was
like mailman and continued to call,
'Sivel. Sivel! 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
If 1t was being fiattened. | thought II