The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1908-02-17
I'm FALLING
BALLOON
Fearful and Tragic Experience
Of Three AerOnauts.
ONE SAVED BY A MIRACLE
The Terrific Cold and the Peculiar Sensa-
tons That Encompassed the Daring
vOyagers at an Altitude Of Over
Five Miles-The Descent.

One of the most terrific experiences
in the history Of ballooning was that
Of three aeronauts who In 1875 made
an ascension in a large and well made
balloon, the Zenith. In this voyage
the object was to reach the greatest
possible altitude The balloon rose to
height Of $4,000 feet.-that is, about
five and half miles from the earth.
At this point something happened
what. no one VIII ever know, since tho
only surviving baloonIst. TissandIer,
was at the time insensIble But the
balloon began a rapid fall and finally
struck the ground with such fright
full shock that Siveb and Croce-Spin-
nelli we're killed instantly, while Tis-
sanders life was spared by a miracle.
The account OF this voyage is per-
haps best told In Tissandler's own
words:
AT $4,000 feet we were standing up
in the car. Sivei, who had given up
for moment, was reinyigoratea.
Croce-Spinnelli was motionless in front
of me. | felt stupefed and frozen
wished to put on my fur gloves. But
without being conscious OF 1t the ac-
ton Of taking them from my pocket
neeessitated 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 IN a hardly iegible manner by a
hand trembling with cold;
my hands are frozen. I 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 SiveI seized his
knife and cut successfully three cords,
and the three bags emptied them
selves, and we assembled rapidly.
when sivel cut away the bags OF
ballast at the height OF about $4,000
feet seemed to remember that he was
sitting at the bottom Of the car and
nearly In the same position as Croce-
spinneili For my part, ! was in the
angle Of the ear. 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 130 p. N. At 20S p. m.
awoAe for moment and found the
balloon rapidly descending. was able
to cut away a 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, ia inches. We are descend
ing. siyel and Croce still in a faint
ing state at the bottom OF the car
Descending very rapidly
Hardly had written these lines
when a kind OF trembling seized me,
aud / fell back weakened again. There
was a violent wind from below up
ward, denotlng 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 81
vel was awake. called to mind that
Croee unfastened the aspirator which
be then threw overheard, and he threw
out ballast, rugs, etc.
"At $50 D. m. ] opened my eyes
again. felt dreadfully giddy aud OPP
pressed. but gradually came to myself
The balloon was descending with
frlghtful speed and making great osoil-
lations. | crept along on my knees
and pulled Siyei 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 endeayored 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.
ITO relate what happened afterward
is impossible. ! felt a frlghtful wind.
We were still 9,T00 feet high. There
remained in the ear two bags 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 it. was
like madman and continued to call, |
'sivel, sivelv BY good fortune was
able to put my hand upon my knife |
and detaeh the anchor at the right |
moment
The shock on coming to the ground |
was dreadful. The balloon seemed as
II It was being hattened thought II
was going to remain where It had fail |
en-, but the wind was high. and it 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 4
line, and the gas soon escaped from /
the balloon, which lodged against a
tree. 1t was then 1 o'clock. On step
ping out was seized with a feverlsh /
attack and sank down and thought for
a moment that ] was going to Join my /
friends In the next world. but ! came
to. found the bodies Of my friends
cold and stir had them put under
shelter IN an adjacent barn. The de-
scent Of the Zenith took place on the
plains 155 miles from Paris as the
crow flies. The greatest height at.
tnlned In this ascent is estimated at
5000 feeta-w. Z. C. Latson IN Min.
noseolfa Tonrual