Evening star., 1933-11-24
SPECTACLE WEIRD
IN SHAKESPEARE
Maj. Fordney Describes
World as Topsy.Turvy in
Blue Ceiling.
BY MAI. CHESTER L. FORDNEY,
u. 8, M. C.

u. >. M. T..
BRIDGETON. N. j.. November a.
Splashing through swampy turf and
across bayous. sometimes neck deep in
tide water, q crew Of workmen Is ferry
ing the great white envelope of the
Century Of Progress stratosphere bal
loon out Of its resting place in the bog.
Today the envelope. washed and re-
folded, will be stored and my own ex-
pedition with Lieut.. Comdr. Settle will
be oficially finished.
There remains little to be said about
the stratosphere, which so many people
talk about and so few have seen.
From this point Of view, as one looks
up toward a sky covered with cirrus
clouds and mist, it Is hard to believe
that such a region Of luminous empti-
ness really exists.
Spectacle Uncanny.
Neither Comdr. Settle nor I will ever
forget the ufcanny spectacle Of the
stratOsphere itself-a dome OF color
without brilliance where the sun is a
shining disc at which one may look
without hurting his eyes. Overhead a
dome of blue as deep in shade as a
a horizon of misty blue and white
below a stretch OF very light blue. also
dome shaped and flecked with scurrying
white clouds.
Looking down through the ports, the
earth looked as the sky doeS when one
sees 1t from the ground. The whole IL
lusion was that of world turned up
side down.
Immediately above us was an even
stranger spectacle, the great envelope,
fully inflated as II had never been seen
by any one on the ground, spherical in
shape and more dazzling in it's white
brilliance than the sun whose heat had
expanded 1t.
The lack Of brilliance in the sky of
the stratosphere is due, of course. to
the lack of dust particles to reflect it,
but the fabric Of the balloon was the
same 11a miles up as. it had been on
the field at Akron and its response to
sunlight was the same.
Raised BY Nothing"
While We remained there at full
height with the white bag absorbing
heat and constantly expanding the gas,
the appendix Immediately above the
gondola was open and one could look
up through it into the inside of the
bag-a startling thing to look at. CIV
ing as it did the feeling that one was
being held aloft by emptiness. The
opening in the bottom Of the bag had
been examined in advance and its size
carefully calculated. inasmuch as the
balloon could not be stretched beyond
maximum imitation and gas must be
allowed to flow out of 1t fast enough
to compensate for expansion.
One could be excused some miSgiv-
ings at the thought that presently, as
the sun moved down, there would be
a cooling effect and that the envelope
with much of its gas dissipated would
fall rapidly unless lightened by further
sacrifice of ballast.
There was another elemental phenom-
enon easily noticed as the balloon hung
at the peak. One-half of the gondola
had been painted white to reflect what
would seem to be the negligible heat OF
the sun: the other half was black to
absorb heat. And while physicists who
never in their lives were of the ground
could calculate Just how much tempera-
ture this would give the gondola and
how much circulation the combination
of black and white would promote, the
demonstration Of the principle was odd
enough to fix ones attention. Outside
the sealed metal sphere the thermometer
showed q temperature of So degrees
below zero, but inside We were warm.
Fall Begins.
The fall Of the balloon when the ex-
pected cooling effect was first noticed
made no impression upon Comdr. Set
tie, who was used to such things. but
to me it seemed almost incontrollably
rapid AS matter Of fact, the instru-
ments showed that even when We were
forced to open up the ports and toss
out everything We could move, We were
falling only about 8 miles an hour
considerably less than the speed of a
fast elevator.
The work to decrease acceleration by
tightening the load was rapid and ex-
hausting The hatch covers Of the
gondola went down. We threw out our
batteries and our food along with our
reserve of lead dust. All fittings that
could be pried loose went overheard.
Soon nearly everything that We had
taken up was gone and told the COM
mander that I was ready to jump out
and give him buoyancy enough to land
the balloon. He shook his head.
You won't have to-" he said. But
you might as well take of your para
chute harness"
asked him why.
Because" he said. 'T dumped the
parachutes Is minutes ago."
A few minutes later we came down.
(Copyright, 1888 by North American News
paper Alliance, Inc)