The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-07-02
Giant Dirigible Balloon, Built to Cross the Ocean,
Exploded While 1000 Feet High and Five
Men Lost Their Lives.
WAS LATEST AER0NAUT|C TRIUMPH
Great Gas Bag Burst and Crashed Into Water in
Blaze of Fire and Tangled Mass With
Passengers Corpses in the Wreck.

In moment the whole airship was
enveloped in flame, and with flashing
flame, roaring upward, the balloon
with Its passengers dropped earth
ward.
1t fell rapidly, and long before any
one could reach the scene the bodies
of Vaniman and his companions had
been submerged in an inlet about half
a mile from the baseball park. The
water in the inlet was about nine feet
deep. What remained OF the burning
bag and the frame work, fell on the
five men and crushed them into the
water. 1t is believed probably that
they lost consciousness, however, be-
fore they hit the water.
The point where the balloon fell ID
about half mile from the nearest
solid ground. Rescuers immeditely
went out in boats but had difficulty
in getting at the bodies, which we're
evidently still under the Akrons
frame. One body was taken out at 8
O'Clock, but 1t was so badly burned
and mangled that it could not be iden-
titled at the time 1t was taken into
a boat, and started for the city.
One Man Leaped Off.
That one man leaped from the big
dirigible and that another man fell to
the ground hanging oyer the balloons
side was the declaration of Thomas
Tobin of Philadelphia, an eye witness.
II was on my way to the railroad
station" said Tobin, when saw
vaniman's balloon. Suddenly some
thing semed to go wrong with it. The
bag shrivelled. A man climbed out
and plunged to earth and another man
climbed over, and hung to the side of
the car, apparently afraid to drop.
Then the big bag collapsed and tum-
bled earthward"
Describing his invention IN his last
public statement, Vaniman said: "At
last the rational airship. l feel SO
happy over 1t that / can hardly dis
cuss 1t yet 1t sounds too good to be
true What the new cloth does is
simply this:
1T means no more equilibrator
problems, no more ballast problems;
no more drag rope or sinking into the
ocean at midnight. We have a prison
for hydrogen at last that will hold 1t.
Put hydrogen In a strong steel case,
and heat it, and 1t cannot expand, 1t
becomes compressed, just as steam
does or air.
You have got to have for the air
the exact counterpart of the sub
marines of the sea. have long
sought to build the submarine OF the
air now have it,
The Akron was not composed Of
the new cloth, on which Vaniman
mainly depended for the success Of his
new idea, but there is little doubt
that he equipped 1t with the interior
air bag control, which was to be a
big feature of his new balloon.
Vaniman, by his skill and daring,
had won strong financial and official
backing. General Allen of the Unit
ed States signal corps, recently said:
Il expect Vaniman's work to lead
10 VdludUle results. ne IS du deTldf
engineer Of great skill and is likely
to accomplish eventually what he has
I set out to do-make a dirigible that
will fly across the ocean"
Mrs. Vaniman Saw It.
ATLANTIC CITY, N. J., July a.
Mrs. Melvin yaniman and the wives
of the three members of the dirigible
balloon Akron's crew, standing on the
lveranda of the Vaniman cottage near
Brigandine Beach early today, saw
the great dirigible explode and then
/ dart down from mid air, carrying
their husbands to death in nine feet
of water in basin inlet. They
screamed and covered their faces and
4 Mrs. Vaniman tainted, but all shortly
4 recovered and rushed with 1000 other
spectators toward the place where the
balloon fell, killing Vaniman and four
Others
Miss Qulmby Killed.
4 BOSTON, July 2.-The aged mother