The Inquest.
The Times, 1824-05-27T00:00:00

At tour o'clock ChARLES JE12U5ETT, Esq., tlle Coroner, arrived at the Plough, from Kingston, and the jury having been sworn, the following witnesses were examined:- WVilliamn Sullivan, of No. 6, H ungerford-market, Strand, boot. maker, deposed that on Tuesday afternoon, aboat half-past fou o'clock, the deceased ascended in his balloon from the Eagle-tavern City-road; a lady, Mliss Stocks, ascended with him ; wvitness hell the balloon by the halyards for four minutes and a half, when the deceased cut the ropes, and ascendedf; this rope was attached to the valve; the baUoon rose very steadily in a perpendicular direcdon for some time, and then took a south-westerly cqurse; after the ropes were cut, he took off his hat and waveAl it as a signal that all was right; the balloon was allowed by the Gas Company to be the most perfect machine that ever was put into their hands. It remained vi. sible for about ten minutes, afterwhich timewitness heard 1o- thing of it until he heard of the accident. As far as witness could perceive it, it went in a very steady course. Anthony Geary, gamekeeper to Mrs. Gee, of Beddington-park-, deposed that about 5 o'clock on Tuesday evening, while in the park, he saw the balloon about the height of two trees, or ninety feet; witness was forty or fifty vards from where it fell; it alighted first on the limb of an oak, which was broken ofF, and then the balloon and car fell to the ground as it were is a heap; witness went round to thc car, lifted up part of the balloon. an4 heard a voice, as if moaning in distress, vhich he found to proceed from a female, whom he took out, laid her on the grass, and assisted in taking Mr. Harris out, several other persons by that time having arrived. Alr. Harris appred to be quite dead; witness got some water and batlhed the vty temples, and then assisted in bringing themn to the Plough, which is nearly a mile. The lady asked, " Lord, where am I5" The deceased's neck was open, and it appeared to be very hlack. Witness's attention to the balloon was first attracted by a aoise re- sembling thunder at a great distance, which was occasioned by the balloon being in a loose state, and nearly emptied of gas. Witness saw no part of the balloon torn. MIr. John Rowland Wallace, surgeon, of Carshalton, deposed, that between 6 and 6 o'clock on Tuesday evening he was called to attend the deceased and the lady, in Beddington-vark, who he un- derstood had fa!len out of the balloon. *Vitness saw the lady first, and found her in a very low state, scarcely able to speak, but not senseless; there was no wound tipon her, but she complained of severc pain in her back, her stomach, and legs ; she did not state htow the accident happened. Witness then examined the deceased, who was Iying on the grass dead; he desired the body to be brought to the Plough, and the extremities to be fomented with hot water; and he also ordered the lady to be brought to the same place, where le followed and more minutely exarmined the deceased ; he found a | fracture in the brcast-bone, and a fracture of two or three of theribs on the left side, whiclh were sufficient to produce death. Mlr. WVal- lnce further stated, that he could not pronounce the lady entirely oat of danger, but there were no bones broken. She was in a little fever. Mlr.W. Kervill, of Nelson-street, City-road, stated, that he was at t.e commencement of the inflation of the balloon, which was done with carbonated hydrogen gas, which is created from coal, and is simply clarified sumoke. It was introducel through an iron service pipe from the gasometer, a mile and a half from where the inflatior took place-the Hackney G:s Company's. Witness considers the injury to have been caused in this manner:-Therc is a large valve an the top of th_ balloon, within which is a smallei one, both which arc used to allow gas to esc3pe, as occasion may require: to those valves are lines attached leading into the car.Witness believed there `1-1.:;1--U I UCuI Enree tines, anti was of opinion that the accident arose either froiii these lines being entangled, or from the inexpe- rience of the deceased; he was more inclined to think the latter: indeed, at the time the deceased ascended, and for some time after, witness considered him deficient ini the management. The valve was a newly constructed one, and this was the first time he had an op. portunity of trying it, and the lines becoming entangled, he was un- able to extricate himself, not being sufficiently acquairted with the newly constructed valve. Witness thought him perfectly capable of managing a balloon in every other respect, but he was unable to manage the new valve. AMr. Sullivan observed, that he examined the balloon afterwards, and the lines were then entirely disentangled: he thought that after the lady fainted, iMlr. Harris. in hist great anxiety to reach the earth to obtain assibtance for her,allowed too much gas to escape. Mr. Grahamu, the aeronaut, was callcd and said that Mr. Ker- vill had stated what was most probable, for where there was more than one line there was great danger of their being entangled, partiec- larly in descending. His opiiion was, that the accident arose from the wrong lise being pulled, which opened the large valve instead of the snmall one. Alr. JEXIMETT addressed the jury, and observed that, from aU that had appeared, there was no doubt it was merely accidental. The Jury returned a verdict of " Acddental Death." 41r. Graham, the aerenaut, was present during the examination and took great interest in the proceedings. He is about to ascend himself in a few days. Alr. Harris's balloon contained upwards of 9,000 cubic feet of gas, and in the car were 1081b. of ballast, in bags, rufficient, it is pre- sumed, to have prevented this fatal accident, if he had had the pre- sence of mind to throw out all the ballast; for in that case, the descent would not hI ve been so rapid. He had two carrier pigeons in the car which were so stunned by the concussion, that they could not Wy when set at liberty. We understand Alr. Harris has Id a widow and one child. M'iss Stocks was somewlhat easier when the writer of this state. ment left the Plough, at half-past six last evening. This young girl has lived, since she was old enougb, in ecrvice. Her last situation was that of an attendant in the shop of a pastry. cook in Barbican, which she quitted only on Saturday evening last, in consequence of a love affair (not in the smallest degree discredit- able to either party) with a young man. She is said to be rather of a romantic tumn of mind. She was 18 years of age in October last. The melancholy intelligence of her-husband's death was conmmu- nicated to Alrs. Harris at eight o'clock yesterday morning. She was deeply afflicted, but became tolerably composed after the first shock. Mlr. Harris took paper for the purpose of making mnemorandums on his voyage, to,getner with a thermometer and watch, wbich were found sate. He nad made no use of the paper, THE INQUEST.