The Topeka state journal., 1911-06-14

| Hurt Ear Drums.
After we had ascended to a height
| OF about 1000 feet Jacobs asked me If
| my ears were hurting. had noticed
queer feeling in that vicinity and I
told him. "Just swallow" he said. I
followed his instructions and found
|. that the pain stopped. In the altitude
the air pressure is much lighter than
On the ground and the pressure from
inside the human being pushes out the
ear drums.
| One of the strangest incidents Of the
Whole trip was the manner in which
the sounds can be carried. At all times
We could hear the Growing of roosters
and the barking of dogs.
| At o'clock the whistles down town
and when a. person is up in balloon
he has right to say DOWN town
blew. 1t was almost deafening at our
height: The whistles don't sound like
they do on the ground-they have 4
throbbing and jerSy sound. When fell
lows ear drums are popping out Of his
head the tone of the whistles seem diff
ferent than when they mean that the
days work is over.
Invited to Supper.
Another wonder of the fight was the
conversations we had with people below
us. AT a height of 5000 feet we talked
with people in farm yards below and
could hear them distinctly.
At one place Badders yelled down:
Ham and eggs" came back the "a
swer.
And it sounded good, too. because a
person develops a fanishing hunger
while uo in the air.
| And while We were preparing to ask
another question another voice came
up from another farm and said:
I'VE have strawberries and cream
Then every kid below took up the
cue. When they realized they could
al fn ne thew Uo1INd aUQrUfhinqp they
could think of.
/. One farmer-we knew it was farmer
because all we could see was the top
of his big straw hat-yelled to us to
come down.
1--WE will cook supper with your gas"
he promised.
But we didn't care to think about
that. Before we made the start the
pilot had warned us to remove all
matches from our pockets.
Probably you wonder sometimes what
becomes of the smoke as it leaves a big
factory or house chimney and lifts into
the air. Scientists have told you about
1T in books but in. a balloon you can
detect the dissolution.
At one time we were lowering direct
ly over the chimney Of farm house
The smoke was pouring out in black
stream. We could see it for a few
hundred feet and then IT disappeared.
We didn't smell it. In the air above
we were directly over the city. And
when we waited over. Gage park we
were mighty anxious for a whiff of
Superintendent Reinisch's favorite
roses.
In the air at a great height it is
difficult to see anything moving on the
ground. We saw Santa Fe train
out southeast Of the city. We saw the
smoke and heard it whistle. But not
until close inspection could we see 1t
moving along the track.
The street cars could be heard and
at times we could detect them in the
streets near Washburn college. But
apparently they were not moving al
though we could hear the hum OF the
motors.
When you are 1900 feet above city
and the entire town looks no larger
than a newspaper spread out on the
floor, it is no wonder that slow things
like street cars and railway trains
cannot be detected. +iE ---
If the engineers who laid out Tc-
peka wish to obtain a conclusive PROOF
that their streets are straight. and II
the county engineer desire to know
the regularity of their section lines.
etc, they should take a balloon ride
From a height of 1000 feet or more
every line can be seen-and they are rs
straight and regular as g. checker
board.
How sand Is Dropped.
The greatest aid in the manipulation
of a balloon is ballast. Everything
depends upon the regulation of the
sand carried by the pilot. Before /!
made the ascension last evening had
visions of sand bags dropping to earth:
Often I have wondered what Would
happen and who would be liable II
one of these sacks hit an innocent by
stander on the head.
don't think that way any more.
The sand is dropped by the hand
full. Pilot Jacobs scooped It out
we were descending.
(You will notice never use the
word falling. Jacobs warned me
against it: He said there was no such
Descend" is the only word allowable.)
1t is surprising to see what a hand
full of sand will do:
Possibly you will not believe it.
but every time we expectorated over
air few feet. When We ate oranges
and bananas up in the air we threw
the peelings in the ballast box-not
over the side of the basket. Then
when the pilot wished to rise he
threw cut a peeltng.
The sun has a great effect on the
ascending and descending of the bal
loon. Last evening few thin scat
tered clouds hung near the sun in the
west. AS long as the sun was shin
ing with full force on the gas bag we
rose or retained our position in the
air. But as soon as the sun went un-
der cloud 1t was necessary to throw
out our sand-or a few orange peel
ings.
When we arose from Westlawn park
we had five bags of sand hanging
from the sides of the basket. But
when we began to descend we had
only a few pounds left in the ballast
box. The cool air was rapidly eating
away the strength of the gas in the
10000 cubic foot bag above.
Instrument Tells When You're Falling.
Some think 1t would be easy to tell
whether you are rising or descending.
Only through the instrument called
the statascope are we able to tell this
and sometimes when we descended
very quickly the air rushing up the
sides of the basket from below told us
a or