The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-01-31
'INAFALL.lIc BALLOON
Fearful and fraolo Experience ii
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OF three aeronauts who in 1915 mal(
an Ascension IN d large and well inads
balloon, the ZENITH jK this voyage
the object was to reach the greatest
possible altitude. The balloon rose to
. height Of 5000 feet--that Is, about
five and half mlles from the earth.
At this point something happened
What 40 one viii ever know, since the
6hiy surviving baiioonlst. Tissahdfer.
was at the tiiho ihsensible. But the
balioon begau d rapid fall and finally
struck the ground with such a fright
ftii shock thut sivel anu Croce-Spin-
nelh were killed instantly. while Tis-
sanders life was SPARED by miracle.
hThe acco.nt 0f this voyage Is per-
haps best told In Tissandier's own
words: W
AT $4,000 feet we were standing up
in the car. Sivel, WHO had given up
for n moment. wis reinvlgorated.
Croce.Spinnelli was motionless In front
Of me. felt stupefied and frozen.
wished to put on my fur gloves. But
without being conscious of 1t the ac-
tion of taking them from my pocket
necessitated 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 30. They are
traced in hardly legIble 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 ana cut successfully three cords,
and the three bags emptied them
selves, and we ascended rapidly.
."when Siyel cut away the bags Of
ballast at, the height Of about 24.0OO
feet seemed to to'remeinber that he was
sitting at the bottom, OF, the car ana
nearly in the same position an Croce-
Splnnelli. For my part. ! was ip the
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 i 80 p.E Hnf AT POS p. m.
awoke for a moment and found the
balloon rapidly descending. | was able
to cut away a bag Of ballast to check
the speed and wrote ine my notebook
the following Words: ,,qst
"'We are descending ! Temperature.
8 degrees. I throw ont ballast. Ba-
rometer. 1874 Inches. We nre descend
Ing. Sivel and Croce still In faint
ing state at the bottom Of, the car
Descending very rapidly
Hardly had I written these lines
when n kind of trembling seized me,
and fell back weakened again. There
was violent wind from below up
ward. denoting d very, rapid descent.
After some minutes .,iv.felt myself
shaken by the arm and recognized
Croce. who had revived. Throw out
ballast he said to me. we are de-
scending.' But I could hardly open
my eyes and did not see whether 81.
vel was awake. called to mind that
Croce unfastened the aspirator. which
lie then threw overheard. and he threw
out ballast, rugs. etc. ft
SAT $40 p. III. ! opened my eyes
ngain. / felt dreadfully giddy and op-
pressed. but gradually came to myself
The balloon was descending with
frightfui speed and making great oscil.
lations. crept along on my knees
and pulled Sivel and Croce by the
arm. 'Sivel! Grocer 4 exclaimed.
Wake upy Ny two comPanions were
huddled up motionless In the cdr, Gov
cred by their cloaks. I collected all my
strength and endeavored to raise them
up. Sivel'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 afterwarc
ID impossible. l felt q frightful wind
We were still ie.7OO feet high. There
remained In the car two bags of bal
last, which ! threw out. was draw
lag near the earth. l. looked for my
knife to cut the small rope which held
the anchor, but could not ind It. was
like D tilndinan and Continued to call
! 'Sivel. Sivelr By good fortife 1 was
able to put my hand upon my Knife
and -detach the anchor ut the righ
moment P ci,.f
THE shock on coming TO the gronht
was dreadful The balloon seemed a
II 1t was being iiattened. ! thought 4
was going to remain where It had fall
en-, but the wind was high. aud 1t wa,
dragged across fields. The bodies q
my unfortunate friends were shaker
'about In the car. and Thought everi
! ri9n1ent they would be 5erked out "A
le4gth, however. seized ths ta1v'
lsfide. ana the gas soon escubed IRON
y tho balloon which ainxV>11r1 dkatuaf ,