The San Francisco call., 1910-06-13
BALLOON FALLS
EIGHT THOUSAND
FEET into RIVER
Young Millionaire and Aeronaut
Escape Unhurt After Peril
Gus Descent
Fall Checked 200 Feet Above
the Mississippi, but Basket
Hits Water Hard
[Speeial Dispaleh 10 The Canl

ST. LOUIS, June 12.-J. d. Wooster
Lambert, a young millionaire of this
city who has just taken up aeronautics
as a sport. dropped from a height of
5000 feet into the Mississippi river at
Baden, North St Louis, today while
making his maiden balloon trip IN the
$4,000 cubic foot St Louis No. 8 of the
aero club Of St. Louis, with S. Louis
Nonphul as pilot Both were rescued
10y motor boat and escaped with wet
feet. The balloon also was saved.
The pair left the aero club grounds
at $50 a. m. and were becalmed. trav-
cling only about eight miles in two
hours. To seek air currents they rose
10 an altitude of 5000 feet, but could
not get away from the Mississippi river.
over which they hovered for an hour
When they desired to descend, the rip
and valve cords were found to be en-
tangled and it was not safe to use
either. 1t was necessary to allow the
balloon TO drop Of its own accord. and
the fall was not checked until within
200 feet Of the river. The basket with
Nonphul in il struck the water hard.
but was held up by the gas in the bag.
Lambert was perched in the rigging.
Lambert says the fall was good ex-
perience for him, and he viii fly again
the latter part of this week.
Willard Hurt in Fall
SPRINGFIELD, No, June 12.-
Prompt action on the part of Charles
T. Willard. an aviator. who made an
ascension in Curtiss biplane here to-
. day. caused the almost complete de-
structiOn of his machine, but prevented
il from swooping down into the i'm
mense crowd Of spectators.
The biplane fell $50 feet and landed
almost % ards from the crowd, break
ing the engine and severely bruising
the aviator.
Willard was travelling about so miles
an hour when the engine suddenly
stopped. The biplane darted down
ward directly toward the center Of the
.. crowd. The aviator, instead of trying
TO right his machine, turned his entire
attention to preventing it from falling
into the crowd.
Hamilton Flies in Rain
NEW YORK. June 12-Such a little
thing as a broken guy wire could not
ground today. In the pouring rain
Hamilton left the ground at y min
utes past this evening. and for 10
minutes and 3 seconds circIed the lower
end of Governors island and hovered
over the harbor. In making his pre-
lminary run over the sandy surface of
the island Hamilton bumped a sur
veyor's stake and smashed a guy wire
He knew il himself, but nobody else
did until he alighted after a beautiful
fight. II rained hard all day, but de-
spite the faint prospects of decent
weather for flight a good sized crowd
bore witness to their faith in Hamil-
toms daring.
Shortly before o'clock the weather
moderated. There was almost no wind
and heavy, moisture laden atmosphere
was just right for aviation. So Hamil-
ton wheeled out his machine, warmed
up the engine and was off in a few
minutes.
Seven times he circIed the island at
= height Of about 200 feet, and then
came down with the sWoop of a falcon.
Hamilton confidently expects to start
tomorrow morning al o'clock on his
flight TO Philadelphia and return for
the New York Times and the Philadel-
phia Public Ledger prize. A special
train viii accompany him. The weather
prediction for tomorrow in the territory
Hamilton viii traverse is fair to cloudy.
with rising winds.
Goes Up 1000 Feet
TOPEKA. Kans., June IA. c. Mars.
in a Curtiss biplane, flew six miles this
afternoon during the Topeka aviation
meet. which has been in progress for
the last six days. He attained a max
imum height Of 1000 feet Mars will
leave Topeka for Kansas City tomor-
row for his overland fight between the
two cities.