The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-10-09
GOOD FOR FAT MEN
BallOOning Flesh Reducer
Says Pilot Jacobs.
w. w. Webb Lost 90 Pounds in
Recent Race.
HEARD RIPPINGSOUND
Topeka Man Thought Gas Bag
Had Burst.
Nearly Caught by Train in
Minnesota.

Frank NJ. Jacobs pilot of the good
balloon Topeka II, believes that the ore
great secret of reducing flesh has been
found. Pilot Jacobs guarantees that il
d portly man will spend one hour in a
thunder storm, $500 feet above the
ground, with the lightning playing
around the basket of his balloon, he
will lose approximately 20 pounds. For
each hour after that he will lose ac-
cordingly
And Pilot Jacobs is not making this
statement without proof. His proof is
w. w Webb, who acted as his aide in
the international races last week. Aide
Webb stepped into the Topeka IL in
Kansas CITY last Thursday tipping the
scales at 30 pounds. When he stepped
on the scales up in Minnesota, few
minutes after the balloon had landed
he weighed 100 pounds-and was stu
going down.
And then there is another thing that
will make a man tighten up his belt.
After you have floated for an hour
above the clouds, your body with a
coating of ice the balloon covered with
icicles, the ballast giving out and the
big bag gradually settling to earth
when you stop and remember that be-
low those clouds may be an endless ex-
panse of cold Water-One OF the Great
Lakes for instance-you just naturally
shrink.
The two Topekans tell some weird
tales of their fourteen hours above the
earth, when they had no means OF
knowing their location and when they
were shut off from a view of the
ground by the thick rain clouds that
rolled and tossed beneath them Thei-
tales are worth reading-in the first
place because they are true and IN the
second place because they are like
f5- of a
who spend their lives observing the law
of gravitation by remaining close TO
mother earth.
Two events of the trip from Kansas
City to Minnesota show what a bal
loonist has to overcome to become ac-
custorned to the air and the clouds and
the fnterferences from things below.
One of them is the experiences OF the
two Kansans in a balloon right IN the
(. idst of a terrific thunder storm An
other is what might have happened
but didn't, of course-if the pilot had
not cleverly pitched enough ballast
over the side of the basket to clear his
drag rope from an oncomIng express
train.
To crawl down under the covers in a
nice warm bed with roof over you is
bad enough when a cracking sputter-
Ing thunder storms is bowling outside.
The person who jumps when clap or
thunder sounds outside his bedroom
W
cavern compared with man VINO
floats around among the swirling
clouds and watches the lightning
crackle around his balloon and disap-
pear in the clouds heading for the earth
below.
Not that there is any danger Of light
ming striking a balloon-but the natural
of thunder breaking in your
ears and the fact that the lightning IS
close enough to reach out and touch is
the hair-raising feature of visiting a
thunder storm in the clouds
Webb Thought Balloon Was Ripping.
1.-THE storm broke about 11:30,' said
Pilot Jacobs this afternoon. ''I was
sleeping and Webb was sitting on the
edge of the basket. We were floating
along at a good rate of speed when a
sudden ripping, bursting sound greet
ed my aide. Shaking me as slept on
the floor of the basket, Webb yelled in
My God, Frank. is our balloon
Il Jumped up at this thought and
peered out over the edge of the bal
: