The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-07-24

lltiu AtiO Ddlh early ldSL lutSudy
morning commenced, the crowd be-
gan to gather to see the getaway and
to snapshot the immense bag from all
possible positions.
The Balloon and its Occupants
THE balloon used for the trip was
"Tne Heart of the Berkshires," with
a capacity of $4,000 cubic feet of gas.
While somewhat smaller than the
Massachusetts, which assembled
from Rutland recently, the difference
in size was hardly to be detected by
the observer. The occupants of the
basket were Oswald Tower, a recent
graduate of Williams college, who is
instructor in science at Wesleyan
academy, Wilbraham, Mass, the writ
er, and tne intrepid sky pilot, BILLY"
Van Sleet, for whom it was the Both
trip in little over year. Mr.. Tow
er is studying for masters degree
lin absentia" at Williams and made
the trip for the purpose of taking
some meteorological observations in
furtherance of that degree. The very
ing air currents temperature atmos-
pheric pressure, at different attitudes
were observed and recorded.
In Pittsfield from an eight inch
pipe they fill balloons at the ate of
1000 cubic feet minute. The Aero
park is a level 10 acre lot.
"The getaway was scheduled for s
o'clock but was delayed 40 minutes to
While the sky was cloudless at an
early hour the spanking northwest
wind that came up drove herds of
feecy clouds along and when the start
was made in a 30-mile wind the sky
was flecked with cumulus and nimbus
clouds. The ascent gave no sensation
of rising The aeronaut is at rest in
tae car and the surface of the earth
passes under him in an ever changing
and beautiful panorama.
twenty-five Lakes in Sight at Once
Within five minutes the balloon
was at a height of 5000 feet as regis
tered by the paragraph Fenced
fields and farms, outlined by walls,
fences or rows of trees looked like
subdivisions of a great garden. In
FIVE minutes more at the height of
sight and the Berkshire hills with the
magnificent estates stretched away in
all directions like a beautifully kept
park
Sailing a little east of south the
Connecticut river came into view like
a tiny ribbon of silver and the wooded
and lake-dotted stretches of southern
Massachusetts and Connecticut were
before us. Farmers stopped in the
fields. teamsters halted in the road.
women and children hocked to the
doors to see the passing gas sphere.
Why a Balloon is "She"
Soon after leaving Pittsfeld a MIN
bus or rain cloud attached itself above
the balloon and stuck there like
plaster. The pilot could neither
brake her nor put on his high speed
clutch but simply had to pour out
sand continuously in order to keep the
elevation.
I'VE asked Billy why he referred
to the balloon as she He said: It's
because 'sne' cant be controlled We
were willing to concede the feminine
gender to- the balloon but rather
thought the answer should be: It's be-
cause She is always above us
1T was perhaps half an hour be
fore the cloud dissipated and the gas
and the balloon rose. The
loss of sand ballast while In the shad-
ow OF the cloud shortened the trip at
least two hours. When again in the
sunlight only about 1875 pounds of bal
last were in stock.
above the clouds at a height of
nearly 5000 feet, the view, was sur
passingly grand The cumulus clouds
looked like endless bursted bales of
cotton. Through the openings could
be seen vistas of green landscape.
TIE shadow of the balloon on the
clouds wore rainbow halo-a COM
plete circle of prismatic colors.
Experimenting With Eggs, Imagining
Them to Be Bomps
THE writer had taken with him a
dozen nice fresh, Vermont country
eggs with which to experiment. Chas.
J. Glidden the globe trotter and en-
thusiastic aeronaut, claims that on
one of his balloon trips he was able
from the distance of mile to hit
stone wall. The terrific possibilities
of the use of the balloon in warfare
can be well imagined if bombs are
substituted for eggs.
I'VE were little skeptical about
the ability of person to see an egg
for distance of mile but Mr.. Gid
den assured us that If white shelled
egg is used 1t can be seen through it's
entire descent by the sun glints on
It's surface as it turns over in the air.
We made sure, however, that the eggs
we're not only strictly fresh but that
they had snow white shells.
"Phe first egg thrown was at barn
in the center of field from distance
Of about 5000 feet. We Judge that we
came within 500 feet of the mark.
We then tried a cleared patch of
ground from a somewhat higher alti-
tude and as far as we could Judge
missed that. Even with the aid of
strong marine glasses with which the
descending egg was followed it could
only be seen for approximately 5000
feet and was then lost to view.
I'VE then discovered that, looking
over the edge of the basket, the trail
rope which is about 375 feet long
made first class line along which to
sight. Sighting along this rope the
mark at which the egg was thrown
was more nearly approached. The
eighth egg thrown from a distance
Of over 5000 feet struck as nearly as