Daily Kennebec journal., 1910-05-13
Flight Of Forbes and Yates
Has Compensation.
Some Valuable Photographs Of
Comet We're Secured,
The Men Suffered from Lack of
oxygen After 1900 Feet.

| Horse Cave, KY, May 12.-That the
flight for d worlds distance record
| from Quincy, Ills, by A. Holland
| Forbes, holder Of the Ldhm cup. and
James Darlington Yates. the astron-
omcr, both of New York. which began
at Quincy, Ills, Monday evening, ter
minated late Tuesday in Il disastrous
tumble to the earth from the height
| of perhaps 300 feet, near Center KY.
was not without its compensations,
was indicated by a statement made
by Forbes last night. The balloon
| broke the ascent record, it is declared,
and some valuable photographs of the
comet were secured, at an elevation
of $4,000 feet Forbes in discussing
their experience, after reaching an al
titude of 20,60O feet, said:
In descending from the great ele-
walton we had very little sand left
and as the gas contracted the balloon
bag became extremely habby. Every
| thing. however, went well until We
were Il few hundred feet above the
ground when the appendix line broke
loose from the ring supporting the
| basket. There was SO little gas in the
| bag at the time that the rigging col
| Idpscd and the basket attached ma
turally dropped. This caused the rip
cord which is attached to the ring to
| rip open the balloon at the height Of
300 feet from the ground
cannot describe the sensation of
| that 300 feet to the ground. 1t came
| so suddenly. | have a faint rccollec-
| tion of seeing men below me in Il ploW-
l...l 4
| ing. it seemed, to tilt up the basket
| that Mr.. Yates and | might spring for
the rigging when close IT, the ground.
The basket did not tilt as it would
| have done under ordinary crcum
jstanccS and was the cause OF our in
| jury. | believe the only thing that
prevented the breaking of our backs
when the basket fell bottom suuarely
| down under the weight of the bag was
| the rubber air mattress which we had
! placed in the bottom of the basket
| that we might be comfortable when we
| wanted to lie down.
For moment was stunned by the
| impact. Then | recovered and saw
| two or three men coming to our aid.
| They eXtrcated us and in improviscd
| littcrS we were carried to this house.
In starting from Quincy we were
unable to carry more than 33 40
| pound bags of sand which, together
with the tremendous height to which
/ we asccndcd. shortened the trip. We
| should never have started the flight
with less than 30 bags of ballast.
"On this trip did not mind the low
temperature SO much. Both of us We're
! prepared for it. We suffered for want
of oxygen though when we went high
or than $4,000 feet the air pressure at
| that altitude is not more than three or
| four pounds. aud il seems that one
cannot get enough air. We painted like
! dogs and my ear drums and eyes pain
| ed me greatly. Yates suffered in the
same manner. Some aeronauts take
tanks of oxygen with their supplies
but we did not think we would need
it. one can become accustomed to the
rapid changes in air pressure after he
has been in the same a while
Both Forbes and Yates We're resting
comfortably this morning and eX
pressed the opinion that by the end
| OF the week they would be able to un-
dcrtakc the journey to their homes in
New York