BALLOON JOURNEYS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXIV, Issue 9292, 22 December 1890, Page 6

BALLOON JOURNEYS.

(Cassell's Saturday Journal.) "j One of the longest, as well aa one of thaJ most perilous and exciting balloon,]! 1 voyages on record, has recently taken” place in Austria. Two officers o£ the Army £ Railway Regiment ascended from the !■ Prater at, Vienna in the military balloon’ j named after Eadetsky, the hero of Custozza | and Novara. It was their intention toj \ make only a short experimental trip. But i the wind suddenly increased in strength; < They lost control of their vehicle, andi , c were swept up into dense banks of clouds. 1 lb was impossible to take any observation a , or attempt to guide their coarse. The ’ start had been made at nine in. the evening, and they remained afloat the, ■ long night through. Descent was ultimately effected at Bruczkow, a village in Posen, at a distance of three hundred and fifty miles from Vienna. In time : they had demolished the record of the' , best railway express. They ‘ had done in eleven hours what a fast train 1 required fifteen hours to accomplish. In’ 1808 two men went up from the of the Tuileries, in Paris, in two several' balloons. Agitation and suspense must: have been present in their minds from the . outset, no matter how much native bravery 1 either could command. Their names were Da Grandpre and La Pique. They had a' quarrel, which in the evil fashion of the hour and of the land could only be adjusted in a duel. A novel idea had been ventilated and adopted. At a signal fired in the; gardens below, each aeronaut was to ! / discharge a blunderbuss from his car at the' enemy’s balloon'. If either were successful in hitting the mark, a terrible tragedy must; • follow. And this was actually the case. Do 1 Qrandpre’s ball crashed into Le Pique’s bal«' loon, and headlong to earth went duellist and; second. They both perished. De Grandpa sailed on, and landed some twenty miles' from the capital. Mention of war ballooning invites a note of another exciting and romantic air journey. Great issues . hung upon this. It sent a thrill through; ( Europe. The German armies had closed \ in upon Paris, and France seemed at the! mercy of her foe. It was expected that! i Sedan would prove practically the end of', the war. But M. Gambetta escaped from! the beleaguered city by balloon, and newj chapters of strenuous resistance opened; It was on Oct. 7, 1870, that the adven-i turous minister went up from Montmartre* 1 His secretaries wore with him. “ Long! live the Republic!” “ Long live France I • cried the watching crowd. And out oven l the German lines the balloon sailed. It dipped; it was surely coming down ! Butgj no; it rose again, and with it rose French,’ hopes. So narrow was its escape, that a,’ German shot actually grazed M. Gam- 1 hetta’a hand. A few feet higher and thoi bullet would have brought down the bah* loon. The travellers descended new 1 Amiens, and got safely away to Tours. ■