New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-08-06
Diriiggible Casts
Off Grew and
Makes a Boil
(contInu.d from paus one)

~''~f
jacent communities. By wireless at the
station a general alarm was flashed to
surrounding communities, warming
them to hold the blimp if it alighted.
Balloon Defies Pursuer
So far as recapturing the balloon
was concerned, the airplane was help
less, but it frisked about it like an
exasperated pup trying to drive q
headstrong cow. Residents of the Bronx
and Westchester County enjoyed the
spectacle hugely.
Officers at the naval air station had
realized that the airplane could do
nothing but trail the Grant blimp, and
a powerful motor truck, with Lieu
tenant Grant Carpenter aboard in COM
mand Of wrecking crew, had been sent
out to trail the chase.
The balloon and the airplane, which
was in charge of Lieutenant Myron
Eddy, were travelling at an altitude of
5000 feet or more and were visible
to the motor truck crew when they
started and most of the time there
after. Only the uniforms of it's occu-
which its driver kept his foot on the
gas pedal kept the speeding motor
truck QUO of the hands of the police
as it raced through three counties in
pursuit of an airplane and dirigible
balloon.
High Flying Forces Descent
BY the time the balloon reached
Mount Vernon it had mounted to an
altitude Of about 5000 feet, and Lieu
tenant Eddy knew that the automatic
valve, whose action is dependent upon
the expansion of gas, which takes
Eplace at high attitudes, soon must open.
Accordingly he descended and tele-
phoned to the naval air station that
the HI would descend within a few
miles.
The descent, forced by the auto
matte valve, began almost immediate ly
and grew swifter as the blimp APP
preached the earth. When it passed
threatened to impale itself upon the
steeple of the Dutch Reformed Church
or catch in the branches of trees.
Men and women, wild with excite
ment at the strange sight, rushed from
their homes and pursued their aerial
visitor across lots, needless Of bitches,
barbed wire fences and flower beds
and lawns which INSTRUCTED their path.
Between Scarsdale and Tuckahoe the
balloon made an almost faultless land
ing on the farm of Alexander N. Crane,
quite free from trees. William Seely,
justice of the peace, whose home is
nearby, and William P. Mattil, who
has a garage in the neighborhood, were
the first to reach the runaway.
Serious Damage Averted
The justice of the peace was ready
to quote the trespass law to the aviators
who had ventured on his neighbours
farm and Mattil was prepared to under
| t,l, O~1x o%k q
were needed. He quickly found the
valve release and pulled it wide open,
expelling what gas remained in the bag
and reducing the surface exposed to the
wind.
This saved the blimp from being
rolled across the meadow by the wind,
probably with considerable damage.
Within few minutes several hundred
persons were on the scene, all eager to
be of assistance, and in a jiffy the HI
was bound as intricately as was Guilt
yer when he awoke in Liliput.
Lieutenant Carpenter and his motor
truck were only few miles away
when the balloon came down and
ings were completed. They found that
little damage had been suffered and
reported to the Rockaway Point sta
ton.
Another motor truck was dispatched
and the two crews loaded the blimp
aboard the two vehicles and started
the return trip. The field in which the
balloon landed is more than a mile
from any road and the wrecking crews
had to carry the dirigible, bit by bit,
on their shoulders to their vehicles.
The HI is of the type known as q
towing dirigible and carries $4,000
cubic feet of gas. 1t is used chiefly for
observation purposes and is towed
overhead by a battleship or cruiser
! when in action,