Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-11

to wither in the blast Of high altitude
gale. Nature marched phalanx
against him. From one side it attacked
with low temperature; from the other
side with sinking pressure; from be-
low with the magnetism of gravity and
from above with a sinister face OF
malevolence All these things she threw
against one man. Nature triumphed.
Interesting theories essay to explain
how the air explorer met his demise
One clue comes from Capt. Macready,
who recalls his own suffering during
a record-breaking fight Reduced air
pressure almost caused his lungs to
burst.
A fellow balloonist holds that Capt.
Gray threw too much ballast oversize.
He should have kept q reserve supply
for breaking his swift descent. He cut
the oxygen tubes from his mask IN
order to throw out the tank of ballast,
this authority explains
Lieut.. Col John A. Paegelow COM
mandant of Scott Field believes that at
his ceiling Capt. Grey was so weak he
could not turn the valve OF his oxygen
cylinder. 1T was thin atmosphere that
got him" said the colonel.
"CIock Frozen"
Had life ebbed into his body, he
might have rested in his basket and
waited for a fortuitous landing in the
spreading boughs of tree.
Now consider that elliptic fight diary
found in the balloon basket: 1t is writ
ten in a Geographic style that does not
cially when compared with thermo-
graph records and Paragraph curves
and by exercising logic and reason.
At 10000 feet he writes.
'KSD (of st. Louis symptoms
Of ricketts,"
Low pressure was affecting him in
the way ricketts, affects one. He starts
his oxygen apparatus.
At $4,000 feet. 2:30 pm. his goggles
begin to fog. His entry, "4V," means
he has four volts of current flowing
to his oxygen tank and goggles. Next,
at 10000 feet, sos pm, the thermom-
eter reads zero. The radio still blares
and he hears the melancholy music
of "Traumerei' as saxophone solo.
The balloon rises. He releases sand
ballast regularly tunes his radio and
reads instruments Everything functions
blamelessly. At $40 pm. he cruises at
$4,000 feet. Snow falls: temperature 8
degrees below zero. KNOX of st, Louis
sends him Thinking of YOU
At 3:13 pm. it is still showing, At
3:15 pm. WLW of Cincinnati presents
Just Another Day Wasted Away"
The S-80-241 floats higher. The Their
mometer tumbles to IS degrees below.
While listening to THE Pied Piper
from WIS. Chicago. the altimeter reg
tiers 10000 feet and temperature IS
below
Capt. Gray writes laconic entry, in
nocent but foreboding:
CLOCK frozen"
A TremulOus Hand.
The next entry 40 degrees toe
much heat, 2V, 36,O00 80 degrees
getting warmer" Some time before he
had coupled on four volts Of electricity
from the storage battery. AS he rises
the airs conductivity decreases and he
feels unduly warm, so he is forced to
shift back to two volts.
He indites the next entry with a
feet all his writing grows less legible
The entry shows the effect of low pres
sure on his mental faculties To wit:
Hair (air?) pulling out belly Vac
uum in mouth, $4,000 feet-28 degrees
1t shows the mercury is rising and he
has entered the stratosphere, where
temperature is calculated to remain al
most stationary. In fact, the strato-
sphere is slightly warmer than the re-
gion below. ". belly Vacuum :.
is enigmatical.
And finally the denouement:
81. sand all gone 10000"
He had reached the ceiling and In
tended staying there to make observa-
tons before cutting away the reserve
ballast-namely, the framework used to
carry SandbagS. This should give him
his final lift. Realizing, however. that
his oxygen would last only an hour and
half, he probably reasoned time was
too short and precious At any rate,
the framework was not thrown off.
Engraved in Water.
While the above entry was the last
in Capt Grays handwriting, the in
struments licked and carried on. One
Paragraph dropped out disabled, but the
other lived to the end. Examining its
curve, we find that at its ceiling the
S-8C-241 was "oscillating" or pumping
up and down. At 4 pm. the craft
reached the top of its first oscillation,
40 200 feet Three or four minutes
oscillation, 42.100 feet. Five or six
minutes later it assembled again to AZ
220 feet. At this juncture the battery
was dropped for ballast and the gas
ship spurted $50 feet higher The peak.
42,470 feet. was reached a few min
utes later
1t is certain Capt. Gray was alive
when the S-80-24l reached her ceiling,
for dead men cannot valve oscillating
balloons. Just after the balloon started
down to begin another oscillation she
was Waived.
The ship began a regular, controlled
descent. At 4:28 pm. she was down to
$4,000 feet and changed abruptly to a
rapid rate of fall. Only human intelli-
gence could have prompted this accel-
Grafton. The balloonist was alive,
thinking. Did he crave oxygen or did
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