Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 December 1887 — A DARING AERONAUT. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A DARING AERONAUT.

The Thrilling and Perilous Exploits of Thomas S. Baldwin, of Quincy, 111. Leaping from a Balloon and Falling Thousands of Feet to the Earth. A novelty has been supplied to the lovers of excitement. Whether it falls under the head of aeronautics, gymnastics, or simply daring, does not seem easy to determine. It certainly involves all three, although the man who supplies the novelty is as cool as if he were folding a napkin. Perhaps an explanation of the feat may enakle the reader to appreciate better how it should be determined. A young fellow twenty-seven years of age ascends by means of a balloon, sometimes as high as five thousand feet, throws himself over from the basket and drops to the ground. Happily, he is assisted by a parachute, or else he would not have dropped but once, and that once would have been too often. Thomas S. Baldwin, of Quincy, 111., is the name of the young man. He traveled for several years with a circus as a professional gymnast, then took to tight-rope walking, and finally to ballooning. His first jump from a balloon was made in January of this year at San Francisco. He jumped from a height of one thousand feet. This was enough to thrill twenty-five thousand people; but it was only the modest beginning. At Syracuse September last he had attained ah elevation of five thousand feet before he switched off on the parachute route. Mr. Baldwin remained in New York a few days after this before going West.

What he has to say about this feat which he so successfully practices, may prove of interest to the very large number who will never know from experience what such a journey means. “What led you into this hazardous kind of feat?” was quite a natural question to begin with. “Well, I am fond of things that are daring. I have been a gymnast performer for some time, and also a tightrope walker. I was very much interested in ballooning, and accounts which I read of several descents from them by means of parachutes took my fancy. A Frenchman did it all right, but an Englishman tried it and came to grief. He was killed. The parachute collapsed. I gave the matter a good deal of thought, trying to work out the thing. Then I practiced before attempting the very high jump. There is scientific pr nciple enough in the feafi to see what the effect ought to be o:' such an experiment. But there is enough uncertainty about it to make ili a little dangerous. There is always the possibility of the parachutes collapsing, and if it does that at any height, why, it would be a miracle if a fellow escaped death. He would get crushed to pieces when he struck the ground.” “What sort of a parachute do you use ?” “I have used several kinds. I have them made of Wamsutta muslin, and without any ribs. Sometimes they . have seven or eight ribs. It is about sixteen or eighteen feet in diameter. The cords which are attached to it come down and fasten to an iron ring. The ring is what I hold on to when I drop. ” “How is the parachute arranged in the balloon?” “it is fastened by the top to the side of the balloon so that the ring hangs somewhat below the top of the car. It is tied so that the weight of my body when it bears on the fastenings breaks them loose, and the parachute is free or the balloon. That I have to let go, and two or three times I have nearly

i lost it, and the poor old thing shows the wounds it has received where it is patched up. But it is a trusty old ship, though I mean to get a new one for next season. ” “Well, tell me just how you make your arrangements.” “I get a good hold of the iron ring. That is pretty important, you can bet. It isn’t easy to make any change on the way down, and if you let go, why, then you won’t make any more jumps, that is all. But I am not afraid of losing my hold because I have not good e ough grip. My hands are pretty strong, and I can hold on well enough. The dangerous part of this holding on is that my arms get strained so through the wrenching they get from the swaying motion, the oscillations, that sometimes the strain is very great and they become completely exhausted. After I have gripped on to the ring, I get carefully over the rim of the basket, and then drop. There is no need to spring out It is not so good, because the straighter down one goes the easier it is for the parachute to fill out and be sustained by the air.” “What are your sensations on the way down ?” “The first hundred feet are the worst. The parachute does not fill at once, and so it is like falling sheer through that much space. And that is another reason why the drop has to be made a lit-

tie carefully; otherwise I might get turned over, and though, of course, if I hold on, ’twill come all right, but the wrench on my arms would be and the thing would shake more. It shakes quite enough now, I assure you, although I have improved a little on it in that respect. You can fancy what a fall of a hundred feet might be, though it is pretty hard to imagine it if you have never been through the thing. The sensation is not altogether pleasant. It is a giddy sinking through the air. The condensation of the atmosphere under the parachute, which is shaped like an umbrella, to catch the air more readily, brings me up suddenly. It is almost like a jerk, and to people looking at me I seem to stop for a moment. After that the descent is more gradual, though it is quite fast enough for ordinary purposes. The rate of descent is about 1,200 feet a minute. I have given the point of resistance which the parachute offers w.th a certain weight and when it is of a certain diameter a good deal of study. The sensation is pleasant enough in summer. Floating down through the air in that way is cool. It is something like coming down a rapidly running elevator. But your legs are free, and you feel your body with nothing around it.

“The. oscillations begin, however, and lam swayed from side to side like a pendulum. Sometimes I have been swung out at an angle of fifty or sixty degrees. The top part of the parachute, the umbrella part, does not sway in this manner. If it fills out all right there is nothing to fear there. But sometimes it does not, and then matters are ticklish.” “How do you land—lightly, or is it hard to escape getting bruised ?” “Generally, I have landed without doing myself any harm. "When I see I am within six or seven feet of the ground I dron. I can land pretty well on my toes, and if I feel a momentum which would be likely to throw me violently down, I try to fall on my right side, and sometimes 1 turn three or four somersaults. This breaks the

force. Of course, I can exercise no control over myself while I am in the air. I have to land wherever chance brings me. If it is a good height from which I drop, and there is a strong wind, I can easily come down at a place a mile or more from the place on the earth underneath the spot I jumped from. I am carried by the wind so that I do not feel it blowing on me very much. When I make an ascension near the water, like that at Rockaway Beach this summer, I take up a life preserver with me, so if I fall into the water at

too great a distance from the shore to swim, I need not drown.” “Do you feel any nervousness or fear in undertaking the feat ?” “I always know that there is danger

in it I couldn’t know as much about the subject as I do and be ignorant of that. But Ido not feel much trepidation in undertaking it The chances are that everything will come out all right, as they have done in all my descents. Then there is an excitement about it It is a funny thing, though, to be performing a feat for an audience so far below you that you cannot see anything but a dark spot on the earth. When you get up so very high in a balloon I do not think that a person is as inclined to feel dizzy as at a much less height from which he can compare the relative altitudes. But I am not subject to dizziness. It doesn’t go well with balloonists, and, besides, my training as a circus man has got me pretty accustomed to things which call for coolness. I do not lose my head, and do everything as coolly as if I were on the ground. The strain on the arms is usually the only thing that bothers me. I must get that stopped, if I can, or else I may have to drop the business. Once I went up in a balloon without any car attached. There was only a ring where I held myself. ” “What is the greatest height from which you have jumped “I have jumped from five thousand feet. I think, however, that a parachute could be made so that a descent from a much higher altitude would be possible. Whether a man can be invented to stand the strain on his arms for the length of time which would be required to descend in, I do not know. You must remember that you can’t stop to rest yourself any on the way down. You’re there on the end of the parachute, and you feel you’ve got to stay there till your feet strike the earth. I came down into a tree once, but I didn’t hurt myself. I have been car-

ried along on the ground with my parachute for twenty feet.” “Are there any other balloonists who perform this feat?’’ “I do not know of any living aeronaut who has attempted it. I dare say there will be others who may imitate my example. It is something that can be done by most anybody who wants to try it, and I dare say it could be done often enough to make a good many willing to try it. Most of the balloon gymnasts, however, have a trapeze fastened to a captive balloon, and when they are up about a thousand feet they perform feats on that.” “Do you think there is any practical value in a feat of this kind ? “Well, it is always a valuable thing to do something new and show what a man can do. I don’t suppose it does any good. Of course ballooning can be of use. They found that out in Paris when they used to send them out during the commune. And they are useful in time of war to reconno ter the enemy’s position. But I like it well enough, and people like to see it, too. There is always more interest in anything that looks dangerous. ” “Do you intend to jump in this way next year?” “Oh, I think it very likely that I may. There ma? be somebody else in the field next year, and then jumping matches could be arranged to see who would spring from the greatest elevation. It wouldn’t take much more courage to go up a few thousand feet more and spring off. When you are up so high as that the earth looks pretty small. I came down through a cloud once. It was below me as far as it was above the spectators on the ground beneath.” Professor Baldwin, for he deserves the title of professor of aeronauties, has received two handsome gold medals for his feats. One is from his fellow-townsmen of Quincy, which shows that it is an appreciative city; another was the offering of the Knights of Pythias. Both were commemorative of his marvelous leaps. One form of the yellow fever is the great desire for gold.

IN MID AIR.

PREPARING TO JUMP.

ON THE WAY DOWN.

THE PARA CHUTE ACTING BADLY.

A WET BANDING.