Los Angeles herald., 1910-06-15

tors. His mother, now Mrs. N. Beau
dette. tells many stories of her boys
early experiments in New Britain,
Conn.,, where Charles was born twenty
nine years ago.
When but q little chap he smashed his
mothers best parasol by using 1t as o.
parachute in a flight from the upper
door of a barn. Not at all discouraged
the lad began experiments with kites
of all sorts and sizes. Then, not be-
ing able to lift himself off the ground,
he compromised on a sail wagon with
which he ran over the grocer's cart.
His mother, who admitted that she
sympathized with Charles desire to
fly, paid the grocer's bill with never a
thought of resorting to the maternal
slipper.
Then came at last the day when the
boy really found himself aloft. A bal
loonist was giving an exhibition in
town and the boy begged for a fight
and got 1t. That flight appears to have
been the starting point in his later
career, he realizing instinctiyely that
he had found his life work.
Hamilton has reached his present emil
nence in his profession not without
more than the usual number OF close
calls that come to every man whose
work is in the air. But he is a little
chap-he weighs only 10 pounds-and
who have worked with him declare he
falls as nonchalantly as does a cat,
always right side up with care.
While working with Israel Ludlow
in his experiments with the gliding box
kite arrangement, the forerunner of
the aeroplane, he fell sixty-three times.
He was repeatedly thrown from his dl-
AaIr rs.s-- 4
plane has cheated death on more than
one occasion.
FIRST FALL
One of his first falls was at Ormond
Beach, Fla, while using Ludlow
glider. He was 300 feet from the ground,
being drawn by an automobile at
went wrong. He came down like a
stone, but when his glider struck the
ground his friends found the nervy,
cool-headed chap had In the first thirty
seconds of the drop climbed UP the
upper plane of the glider The frame
work below broke his fall and he was
only stunned. The only peevishness he
exhibited in connection with the acct
dent was due to the fact that he had
lost a good cigar somewhere on the trip
down.
Since then he has been converted to
cigarettes. They steady his nerves, he
says. There is always a piece Of light
ed punk fastened to the framework of
the machine In reach of the aviator's s
face when he is flying. 1t has to be
within reach of his face, for one can
not attend to eight or ten levers and
light matches at the same time while
flying fifty miles an hour.
DROPS IN DIRIGIBLE
Hamilton's most exciting session with
q dirigible balloon was some $4,000 feet
above Paterson, N. ]. While making
an ascent there the balloon ballast
fell off and his big dirigible promptly
pointed its nose toward the sky and
shot upward like q projectile for two
miles, Hamilton climbed into the rig
ging and was trying to open the es-
cape valve, when the gas bag burst
After about a mile of sheer drop the
torn silk shaped itself into a crude,
but serviceable parachute and Hamll-
ton landed as lightly as a leaf.
Hamilton's famous aeroplane glide,
with which he has startled spectators
so many times, was discovered by acci-
dent One day while the aviator was
flying at n considerable height the
crank shaft of his motor broke. He
realized instantly that as soon as he
lost momentum he must drop. with
that almost BlXIH SeIlSS oSShiiiA6iy
possessed by men who navigate the
air he instinctively DETECTED his for
ward planes and shot toward the earth
at a sharp angle, gaining instead Of
losing momentum as he went. Near
the earth he threw the forward planes
up again, rose gracefully and then set
tied to the earth without a jar. He
had discovered the glide. Many Of his
friends have predicted that he VIII
often
prediction came near fulfllment at
Seattle. He was flying over Lake
Washington when he decided to glide
down to the surface of the lake, skim
along like a skipper stone for few
rods and then go up again. He came
down low all right, but miscalculated his
distance and plunged into the lake,
But again his marvelously cool head
saved him. He climbed to the top OF
the machine when he saw that he had
miscalculated