Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-12-06
REMARKABLE VIEWS TAKEN FROM BALLOON
AN AERIAL VOYAGE


become indistinct you have none of the
feeling of seasickness or giddiness that
so many persons imagine must accom-
pany aerial navigation. AS the indi-
viduality below you is lost your hori-
ION widens and you begin to deal in
miles where heretofore you have count
ed feet
So many features come to you that
YOU feel at loss which to turn to
first. Looking down as you go over
the city you will notice just the edge
of the street pavement beyond build
ing, and as the balloon passes over the
street it comes into view bit by bit,
fading in a like manner as you leave
ii behind Voices come up to you with
a distinctness you did not expect, but
even though you may seem but a snort
distance from the EARTH your shouts
to those below are. dissipated in the
whirr and jumbling mixture of the
street noises
Now you are watching the pilot and
learning the intricacies of what he
terms good ballooning." He throws
out a small handful of sand-not too
much nor too little; and just enough
is a fine point-and the balloon goes
higher, seeking the current to carry
it in the desired direction.
The balloonist has sand and gas to
deal out, and to him these are so much
gold, especially when distance is aimed
at Either gas or sand, when once
paid out, is lost, and that much of the
trip is gone. The experienced pilot
will allow his balloon to sink at times
when a novice would hastily throw
out ballast. The former will catch
warmer current taking him up to the
latitude he had just left. But the nov
iGofra fnn "a
be carried higher than he had in
tended to go, and may lose ground in
stead of gaining. The aeronaut who
knows the "game" will husband his
ballast and supplies as a wrestler his
strength, although at times he may
seem a veritable spendthrift
But back to the ground again. Let
us say you are passing over the heart
of Los Angeles. Your vision extends
away beyond that in every direction
where the smoke does not interfere, and
beyond the scope of any camera. You
catch the huge bulk of the Pacific Elec-
trio building, with the Kerckhoff and
Central buildings just the other side.
A little beyond are the Security build
ing and the Alexandria hotel. These
give you a line on the other promi-
nent buildings, and you follow out to
the baths of Bimini, easily recogniza-
BILE, or past Pasadena to the CLINT of
the observatory on the mountain. Your
fancy directs the eye toward the build
ings you know best.
This is presuming that the day is
sharp and clear and sunshiny-a Cali
fornian's day-and the air currents are
not bothersome If you drift along you
can think on these things; but If the
schedule is forty miles an hour or bet
ter, you will be thinking of other
phases of air travel.
AS the balloon passes into the coun-
try, over the orange groves and other
tracts which stand out like so many
patterns, you catch a vista like stand
ing on half dozen mountain vantage
points at once. To the Californian there
is never ending delight in the views
gained from mountain grades of the
valleys, their groves and fields and
towns: and they make the streets seem
narrow and as far off as they ought
to be. The mountain tramper knows
what these are and how far away from
anything like adequate description.
The view from RubidouX Heights at
Riverside or from Smiley Heights at
Redlands, from Mount Wilson, or any
one of a thousand other places in
Southern California, will call to mind
scenes which battle the telling of them.
But if you will imagine all put together
you will yet fall short of the joys of
seeing California from a balloon.
The views shown by the illustrations
were taken by Aeronaut Horace B. Wild
from the Ferris balloon UNITED States"
in the San Gabriel valley, with the ex-
ception of that showing the business
center of Los Angeles, which was taken
the afternoon before The latter was