EARLY BALLOONISTS THRILLED THOUSANDS IN CHRISTCHURCH

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30901, 6 November 1965, Page 5

EARLY BALLOONISTS THRILLED THOUSANDS IN CHRISTCHURCH

Aeronauts Sat On Swings

Holding Parachutes

(Specially written for “The Press” by

R. C. LAMB)

QN the morning of Monday, January 28, 1889, the streets leading to the Christchurch gasworks were thronged with people. They were going to watch Professor T. S. Baldwin, a visiting American aeronaut, make an ascent in a balloon. This was to be his third attempt, in Christchurch; his earlier two —made in the previous week from the Addington Showgrounds—were unsuccessful.

Shortfe before noon the balloon was fully inflated, and, on release rose rairly rapidly and drifting in a south-westerly direction towards the hills.

Between 800 and 1000 feet, it appeared to begin to fall, and Baldwin then made his parachute descent: —the first in Canterbury.

At first he dropped like a stone; but once his parachute had opened, he drifted gently down into a paddock about a quarter of a mile to the south-east of the gasworks.

He managed, to clear a barbed-wire. He got into a waiting cab and was loudly cheered as he returned to his starting point.

Baldwin had promised to make an ascent of two miles so that he might be seen from ail parts of the city; but the gas, he explained to the applauding crowd, ’.ras “very good for illumination,” but not so satisfactory “for balloon purposes.” During his short visit, Baldwin stayed at Coker’s Hotel which, before the end of that year, was to feature in the news in connexion with a visiting English balloonist. On December 18, 1889 “The Press” carried the following advertisement:—

Balloon Ascent. This Day, weather permitting, Professor Jackson will perform his marvellous feat of dropping from the clouds. Inflation of Balloon commences at Twelve o’clock in Manchester Street opposite Coker’s Hotel

The ascent was scheduled for 5 p.m. and by then about 1500 people had assembled in the pad dock opposite Cokers. The balloon was tethered close to the street, and pipes were laid from the gas mains to inflate it. A strong nor’-wester was blowing, and when the balloon was let go, it sailed swiftly across the street into some telegraph wires which caught the parachute and Jackson, with a good deal of prudence, jumped to the ground as the balloon started its flight over the Port Hills. It was retrieved by Mr Gideon Henderson, of Charteris Bay. Valve Left Open On Boxing Day, 1889, Jackton was to make a second attempt, this time from Lancaster Park. His balloon was filled wih 24,000 cubic feet of gas; but by some mischance a third of it escaped when someone opened a valve just when everything was ready for the flight to begin. Then heavy rain set in and the attempt was cancelled. Two days later crowds once more came to Lancaster Park to watch Jackson try again. At 3.40 pan. he put on Ms safety belt, took Ms seat “in the ring of the balloon,” and gave the order: “Let her go!” The ropes were slackened out, but the balloon failed to rise more than two feet. An

open valve had caused a repitition of Hie fiasco of Boxing Day, and there was a little hooting from the crowd. Military Aeronaut The next aeronaut to visit Christchurch was Captain Lorraine, who made a balloon ascent from Lancaster Park on October 14, 1899. An Aucklander by birth, Lorraine was at the time attached, as military aeronaut, to the Ist Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment which had been ordered to South Africa. The abortive attempts of 10 years earlier had not been forgotten. But, nevertheless, thousands of people went to the park to watch him go up. Inflating the Empress was completed by 4 o’clock and a total of 16,000 cubic feet of gas had been pumped into it by the Christchurch Gas company and it swayed about a good deal even though it was held down by sandbags and by a number of men. Jumped At 11,000 ft At 4.15 p.m. Lorraine got the rope swing attached to the balloon, and holding the large parachute, he gave the word to let go. The Empress shot up swiftly as he waved to the crowd below. A strong north-easterly wind carried the balloon towards Spreydon.

At 11,000 feet, Lorraine dropped on the trapeze attached to the parachute, and Ms weight at once detached it from the ballon. In those days the parachute was not attached to the aeronaut’s back, but to a trapeze which he gripped with his hands. Describing his experience, Lorraine said that after reaching 7000 feet, the air had become “very thin” and in the intense cold he had suffered a ringing sensation in his ears. When his parachute opened, he was brought up with a jerk which almost threw him off the trapeze and his wrists were severely strained. Sailed In Space Once the parachute had fully expanded, his descent — he said—was glorious. He

“merely sailed through space” surveying the country beneath him until he landed in a paddock near Strickland street, Sydenham.

As the balloon became airborne at the park, hundreds of cyclists and horsemen began to follow its course, but only two or three cyclists were at the spot where Lorraine landed. Lorraine was driven back to Lancaster Park in a horse and trap and he received a great ovation.

Five days later he made another successful ascent from the park. On this occasion, inflating the balloon began at 1 p.m., but the pressure in the mains was so low it was not till 5.30 p.m. that enough gas had been pumped into the Empress.

This time the balloon at 7000 feet encountered a strong south-west wind which carried it towards Opawa. At 12,000 feet, Lorraine, nearly numb with cold, jumped.

Within 200 feet of the ground, the parachute almost collapsed, and the rest of the descent was so rapid that he was badly shaken when he landed in a field in lower Selwyn street. The balloon came to rest on some trees near Opawa, and fell into the Heathcote river. Last, Fatal Flight After this performance, Lorraine said: “Christchurch is the ideal place for a balloonist, and if the wind does not carry me too far, I am going to try and break my record of 20,000 feet.” On Thursday, November 2, 1899, this daring, but doomed, attempt, was made before a horrified crowd at Lancaster Park.

At 4 p.m., the huge balloon was filled and ready. Lorraine secured the parachute to the ring at the side of the balloon, and took the trapeze brought to him by his wife. As the balloon rose rapidly the parachute broke loose and opened. Lorraine, his balloon and the parachute rose higher and higher, floated beyond the coast, and dropped into the sea about a mile from Taylor’s Mistake. When the balloon sank, Lorraine went down with it. His body was not recovered. In 1910, V. M. Beebe, an

American who had come to live in Christchurch, founded the Beebe Balloon Company. Associated with him in the venture, were Albert East wood—from Queensland —and a man named Sephbe. The company staged its inaugural ascent on Saturday, December 10, 1910 in bad weather from the Addington Showgrounds. A blustering south-west wind delayed filling the balloon.

To fill the balloon a long, narrow trench about three feet deep was dug, and into it was placed some wood sprinkled with kerosene. The trench was covered with corrugated iron, and at one end there was a small chimney that funnelled the pent-up, hot air—once the fire had been kindled—into the balloon which was fixed jn position above the chimney vent. The chimney was liable to become red hot; and in order to prevent it from setting fire to the balloon, it was surrounded with earth.

By 4.30 p.m. inflation was completed, and Beebe, who was supervising the performance, made sure the parachutist, Sephbe, was safely on the trapeze and then fired a pistol as a signal for the ascent to begin.

Parachutes Tangled The balloon soared rapidly aloft as the strong wind carried it away. It was intended that Sephbe should make a triple descent; and he carried with him three different coloured parachutes arranged one below the other. He was to drop 40ft with the first, then cut it with a knife from the remaining two and repeat the operation with each of them in turn.

At 6400 ft, the balloon was

lost to sight in a heavy bank of clouds. Just before it entered the clouds, Beebe fired a second pistol that gave the signal to Sephbe to leave the balloon with the first parachute. This proved an impossible task, as the ropes of the first parachute had been permitted to pass through the ring of the second, and the two parachutes had become inseparable.

ered with mud. The balloon came to rest on an island in the river. One of the parachutes was missing. The next Saturday, in splendid weather, the Beebe hotair balloon was once again at Lancaster Park when Eastwood and Sephbe gave a parachute display. Just before inflation was completed, the balloon caught fire, but the flames were quickly extingished. In spite of a large dent in it, the balloon rose quickly, with the two aeronauts seated on the wide trapeze attached to it. Driven by the north-west wind, it floated away slowly, but was then caught in a cross-current, and at one stage started to return to the park. At 2650 ft Sephbe dropped on a red, white and blue parachute, and landed in an open space near Wilson’s road.

By this time Sephbe’s hands were so cold he almost fell from the trapeze so he twined his legs round a rope attached to the balloon. Finally he let go and descended into a hay field at Shirley. As he came down, he grazed a willow tree and received some bruises. But the balloon was undamaged. He was picked up by a motorist and driven back to the showgrounds where the crowd cheered him for his daring performance. Landed In River On Monday, January 2, 1911, it was Kaiapoi’s turn to see Eastwood in action; but things did not run very smoothly at this performance. The balloon—which had been made in Christchurch the previous week—was inflated only after a great deal of trouble because of the wind.

After rising from the Kaiapoi Domain to a height of about 1000 feet, the balloon drifted rapidly seawards beyond the view of the spectators.

From 4950 ft Eastwood made a double parachute descent, alightenlng safely on the lawn of Mr R. Malcolm’s property at Opawa. Both men, upon returning to the park, were greeted with applause. A week later, using a new balloon, Sephbe went up to 7000 ft from Lancaster Park and then—using two parachutes in succession—descended into Queen street, Sydenham.

Eastwood landed in the Waimakariri river near its mouth, scrambled ashore and returned to the domain cov-

Smile. See Blastwood Hanging by his Teeth”—so ran the advertisement.

Jumped On To House

Beebe and Ms aeronauts gave one more performance at Lancaster Park before they left for Australia. This, their “final appearance," was advertised for tihe evening of Wednesday, January 18, 1911. “See the Sanguine Sephbe

At 8 p.m. in the semi-dusk, the balloon began its ascent with the two men clinging to their trapezes. Eastwood did some acrobatic turns as it left the ground. The balloon after rising a few hundred feet, began to fall rapidly and disappeared from view. A little later it was seen by the crowd to be ascending, but without its two occupants. The latter soon returned to the Park and explained that because of “the heavy atmospheric pressure and the newness of the balloon,” a high ascent had been impossible. The balloon, they added, had come down over a house in Thackeray street, Sydenham. Eight feet above the house, Sephbe “cut loose”. He

landed on the verandah. Eastwood had landed unharmed. As for the balloon, after “turning over a fence and pulling out a tree or two,” it had got clear and ascended to a fair height, but where it landed does not appear to have been recorded. Founded Theatre Later Beebe was to become a well-known showman in Christchurch. In 1918 he formed the Crystal Palace Company which built that theatre in Cathedral Square. With its ornate plaster mouldings fountains on the stage, chandeliers hung from the ceiling, and seats of red plush, it was —when completed—one of the finest in New Zealand. Since then it has undergone considerable alternation, and has been re-named the Carlton. —R. C. Lamb.