A FOOLNARDY VOYAGE.

Lake County Press, Issue 2114, 19 April 1906, Page 7

A FOOLNARDY VOYAGE.

j One of the most currous ideas of ♦.ravelling over the surface of the : world was thai brought forward by , Peter Nissen, who last, winter lost, his life in attempting to cross Lake Michigan in n balloon-shaped struc- , turn. It was made of heavy canvas, , and when inflated was 38ft. long and I 22ft. in diameter. It had a porthole i at each end, and through the centre was a shaft about 12ft. long and I .'Jin. in diameter. This shaft was , suspended from cords fastened round the inside, on exactly the same principle as ihe spokes of a wheel. On ! thi' shaft he arranged a sliding seat, , so that he could move towards the ends, hoping in this way to steep i )),■ hig hall by throwing one end up m 1 the wind to cause ii to swerve as he ! desired, as the high end would filter i more surface to the wind. Suspended : from tile shaft and below Ihe seat, was a cradle or boat, where he coiil leinplated resting when fatigued from riding on the seat. A two-inch | hose was run through one end of j the balloon to furnish an air supply,. In pump of his own invention being ! on the inside. lie christened his invention "FoolKiller No. '•'>," he having previously built two boats for navigating the I whirlpool rapids of Niagara, which | were named respectively "Fool-ldller I No. 1 and 2." I It was .'i o'clock in the afternoon of November 20th of last, year when | Nissen called from the inside of his ! balloon to let it free, and it .rapidly I rolled away from the shore, and in I 35 minutes was out of sight. Two days later Nissen*s body was ! found on the lake shore, and 2UUft. j away was "Fool-killer No. 3," torn j and wrecked. Despite his failure i-> |survive the journey, it is evident that an apparatus such as he designed will roll with the wind over land, sea, and ice, but it is doubtful whether it would prove either serviceable or useful.