Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1911-08-26

slightest mismovement spelling nw FIJI
death--I pulled myself together again
and made a innl desperate effort TO
cross the 10000 mark
1t was impossible for me to know
whether / had succeeded or not. The
last few feet were such a bitter strug-
gle up and down. up and down.
through the thin air that could not
look at the Paragraph and indeed could
not see the line the one time did try.
Finally, utterly exhausted and numb
both In body and mind, gave up the
struggle and turned the nose OF the
Bleriot toward the earth.
The Drop to Earth.
I have no words to describe that de-
scent 1t would sound like the veriest
drivel If 1 should try, for only a man
trained to repression of superlatives
could give an idea of its horrors with
out making 1t seem like silly exaggera-
ton.
Every reader has probably gone
down fifteen or twenty floors in an ex-
press elevator. Do you remember how
dizzy and sick at the stomach 1t made
you?
My descent was made at the rate OF
a vertical mile in about two minutes
while 1 was travelling horizontally at
the rate of seventy or seventy-five
miles an hour. In other words, my
vertical speed downward was about
four times as fast as that of the fast
est elevator, and had the added
strain of the tremendous horizontal
momentum.
The effect of this rapid descent is
almost paralyzing. Those who have
travelled under the new Pennsylvania
railroad tunnels to New York have
felt the effect of the pressure of air
against the eardrums. This is about
one-tenth the effect that is made upon
the ears when descending In an aero
plane from great height. In my
case in coming down from 1897 feet
at my tremendous rate of speed my
ears felt that they would burst, and
the top OF my head felt as though 1t
would fly off at any moment. Added
to this came the feeling of nausea.
which grew and grew until my head
6Wuhl, anu just lOI ohC iiOihOhN 4 ohi
sure l lost consciousness This occur
red. l should say, at q height of be-
tween 1000 and 5000 feet.
Again, I had to bring all my self
control to my rescue. but my nervous
energy was ebbing fast, and l remem-
Der wondering how much longer
should be able to fight back the utter
collapse that I knew was coming soon.
You must remember that all this
was occurring when l had only an APP
proximate idea of how high above the
earth / was and when l had absolute
ly no idea of my geographical posi-
ton. After I had passed through the
upper strata of clouds at q height of
some 1000 feet I had not again seen
the earth except for little drifting
patches of indistinct drab as / few
over the)rifts- in the vapor. and l did
not know whether l was one mile or
hundred from Philadelphia. And
now / was descending so fast and
was so nearly helpless, both physical
ly and mentally, that could do moth
ing except keep the Bleriot on the
proper slant to give the best descent
with the least possible strain.
Astray In Skyland.
My first sight of the earth as 1 drop
ped from the lower fringes of the
clouds showed me that was doomed
to another disappointment. Not a
sign of city was in sight. Not sin
gle landmark that had been told to
look out for was to be seen. Instead
there were farm land and forest, plow-
ed fields and orchards and nowhere so
much as a smooth meadow fit for me
to alight upon without smashing up.
For the third time ], saw Death. as
it were, sitting grinning on the gaso-
line tank in front of me. My head
swan, and again. with that awful
feeling of nausea. seemed to lose
consciousness for fleeting moment.
Then the sight of a small field brought
me back to my senses, and I circled
again to come upon 1t from the best
direction.
Fortunately for me, I made a per.
feet landing. 1t was probably tho in
stinct that comes Of long practice that
kept me from smashing up on coming
to the ground, for 1 know that my
brain was no longer working and my
muscles were incapable of obeying a
mental command.
1 must have sat there helplessly IN
the machine for fully five minutes.
mumbling meaningless things to my
self, until saw woman coming to-
ward me. Then / stretched myself,
half rose and sprawled rather than
climbed down from my seat to the
ground. But even then could not
stand without help.
found that / had landed In Ore
land, about fourteen miles northwest
of my starting point in Philadelphia. ]
The After Effect.
Later came the dismaying announce
ment that test of my Paragraph IA
rough reading of which had showed
9,97o feet gave me only
n little more than>9, 400 feet. But the
officials of the Aero Club of Pennsyl-
vania, under whose auspices the flight
had been made, were sure that mis-
luke had been made somewhere and
30 turned the instrument over to
George S. Bliss, head of the United
States weather bureau in Philadel-
phia. To the interchangeable and gener-
Ous efforts of this official we owe the