Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 266, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1910 — THE NEW BALLOONING. [ARTICLE]

THE NEW BALLOONING.

It Takes Courage to Soar Astride a Skeleton Framework. To stand in the canvas house which shelters a dirigible balloon and to examine the craft itself gives one a t:ew idea of the courage and steady nerves required for aerial navigation. Dne considers just what it means to' mount 6CO feet above solid earth, ascending, or descending at an angle of 45 degrees, buffeted by breezes which may catch the nose of the baboon and make it buck like a frightened horse cr fling it against chimney or spire. >ll the time one is holding on merely by hooking one’s heels against a two inch oak strip—less support than a stirrup—with one hand on a similar .bar; at the mercy of cords, not ropes, iha’.f an inch in diameter and a bubble of Japanese silk and hydrogen gas which may burst or take fire, and a gasoline motor which may sudde 1 stop running, leaving you to be whirled ;ike a leaf, at the mercy of the winds of heaven. The balloon idea to which we are more accustomed has at least some approach to our beloved earthboni notions of solid materiality, says a writer in Fly. The wicker basket has strength and size, the ropes are hea vier and the larger gas envelope gives one a greater sense of safety. Ballooning of the older type is a fairly well established occupation. But to mount into the heavens astride a ske.eton framework, to dive and soar and wheel in circles, to beat into the wind and keep one’s balance in the heavier gusts, with the aid of a lateral rudder, calls for spirit and imagination of a new order.