The weekly herald. [volume] (Amarillo, Tex.) 1906-19??, 1908-02-13
IN A FALLING BALLOON
Fearful and Tragic Experience Of
Three AeronautS.
ONE SAVED AS BY A MIRACLE

One OF the most terrific experiences
In the history Of ballooning was That
Of three aerouGuh who In 1875 made
an ascension In large and we'll made
balloon, the Zenith, In this voyage
the object was 10 reach the greatest
possible altitude. The balloon rose TO
a height Of 2s.O0o feet--that IA, about
i've and q 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 insenslble. But the
balloon began a rapid fall and finally
struck the ground with such fright
full shock that slvel and Croce-spln-
nelli were killed instantly, while It's
sanders life was spared by miracle
The account Of this voyage Is per.
haps best told In Tisssndiers own
words:
AT 5000 feet we were standing up
IN the car. Sivel, who had given up
for moment, was reinvigorated.
-SpInnelli was motiOnless In front
Of me. l felt stupened and frozen. |
wished to put on my fur gloves. But
without being conscious Of II the &C.
ton 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 so. They are
traced In hardly leglble manner by
hand trembling with cold:
"'My hands are frozen. l am all
right. We are all right Fog in the
horizon, with little rounded cirrus, We
are ascending. Ctoce pants. He In
hsies oxygen. SiVel closes his eyes.
Crocs 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 assembled rapidly.
when Siyel 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-
Spinnelll. For my part, was in 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 1870 p. M. At 20S p. m. !
awoke for a moment aud 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:
"'we are descending. Temperature,
3 degrees. I throw out ballast. Ba-
rometer, 1874 inches. We are descend
ing. Sivel and Croce still in a faint
ing state at the bottom OF the car.
Descending very rapidly
Hardly had I written these lines
when a kind of trembling seized me,
aud fell back weakened again. There
was a 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.
scendlng, But l could hardly open
my eyes and did not see whether 81.
vel was awake. ] 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 glddy and op-
pressed but gradually came to myself
The balloon was descending with
frightful speed and making great oscll.
lations. crept along on my knees
and pulled Sivel and Croce by the
arm. Swell Croce! l exclaimed.
Wake upr My two companions were
huddled UP motionlsss in the car, GOV.
cred by their cloaks. collected all my
strength and endeavored to raise them
up. Siveps 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 frightful wind
We were still 9.TO0 feet high. There
remained In the car 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 hnd it. l was
like mailman and continued to CALL
'Slvel. Siveln 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
II It was being nattened. thought 1t
was going to remain where it had fall
en- but the wind was high, and 1t 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. aud the gas soon escaped from
the balloon. which lodged against n
tree. 1t was then o'clock. On step
ping out was seized with feverish
attack and sank down and thought for
q moment that I was going TO join my
friends In the next world. but ] came
10. found the bodies OF my friends