WRECK OF AN AIR-SHIP

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4467, 21 September 1901, Page 4 (Supplement)

WRECK OF AN AIR-SHIP

NARROW ESCAPE OF M. SANTOS DUMONT. STRONG WIND DOUBLES UP HIS BALLOON, (From the “Dailv Mail’s Correspondent.) PARIS, August 8. The most jealous rival of M. Santos Dumont will hardly deny that after his perilous experience this morning the Deutsch prize of £4OOO is nothing more than he deserves. Three times in as many weeks the daring aeronaut has escaped death as if by a miracle, but this morning he passed through the worst quarter of an hour that even he has ever known, and came out, as usual, unscathed, v and smiling. - ’

At twelve minutes past six o’clook he rose from- St. Cloud with a passing salute and a shout of “Bon voyage” from the small knot of • friends ana fellow aeronauts- The sky was cloudless, and there was a Slight breeze blowing in the direction of the Eiffel Tower.

Without a hitch, the young Brazilian cleared the park, and at once made for the Champs de Mars. ' His flight was rapid, the motor, screw and rudder all worked perfectly, and the Santos Dumont V. travelled better than she had ever done before. It was, in fact,-a record passage, for the Eiffel Tower, three and three-quarter miles away, waa renched in the splendid time of nine minutes. In thirty-four seconds more the monster balloon had doubled the tower, near the top, and as the enthusiastic crowd at St. Cloud watched her through their glasses tacking for the home run, a sanguine spectator remarked. “Ho has won it! That leaves him twenty minutes to gets back—twice the time that he took to- get there.” But -he spoke too soon. ’ The wind was against the balloon now, and it was evident that that made a lot of difference. Presently the exports began- to look* at one another. Either the wind was too strong or something had - gone wrong with the works, for it was apparent- that, the air-ship was not making headway; A TERRIBLE PLUNGE.

After travelling for several minutes; the bow or fore part of the air-ship was seen, toy oscillate iu a disquieting, fashion, and then what are known as “pockets”,formed in various parts of the silk, and the balloon became more and more shapeless and unmanageable.- , Suddenly a gugt of wind struck the big cigar on the flank. It doubled, in two, and like a, vessel foundering at sea, the air-ship made a final plunge upwards and then collapsed and disappeared from sight. What happened after that isdescribod by the old restaurant-keeper in whose courtyard I later \ saw the • broken romaiiis of what had been a : thing of beauty and a scientific triumph when it left St. Cloud.

“He made a brave struggle against the wind," said the old man. “But it was easy to see that in. the: deflated, condition of his balloon he would never do the journey to St. Cloud.. He went as far as. bo could go, and .then, when, his screw, stopped working and further progress was impossible, he tried to , come down in the roadway, but wss blown over the houses. \ ,

“That is where he came to grief,” and my informant pointed to the top of a high building wlpch last-summer sheltered hundreds of those who came to the Paris Exhibition, < “The balloon struck on that gable, and the framework which supports the car and motor was thrown violently against the wall, and hung there in a vertical position. - - "By a miracle, M. Santos Dumont wag not pitched out, and when ’ the people in the streets regained enough selfpossession to take in the situation, there was the dauntless aeronaut looking over the edge of the car, five stones off the ground, and waving his straw hat to show that he was still alive. “Help was soon organised. Two or three .workmen scrambled von to the roof above him, and a rope was lowered. Just as quickly as, a gailor might do it, M. Santos Dumont „ passed two turns round his waist, shouted to the men above to fast their, end, find climbed to the top, hand over hand, as nimbly as a-monkey. ■HOT DISHEARTENED. “When the crowd on the. Quaj de Passy. which now .numbered some thoussaw that the young Brazilian was actually out of danger, they raised a lusty cheer, to which the hero of it all, from his high elevation, repeatedly bowed his acknowledgments. When later he reached the ground the enthusiastic spectators carried him -shoulderhigh in triumph. “A detachment of the fire brigade men arrived, and after two hours’ ban*, work the remains of Santos Dumont T, were lowered into'the narrow street adjoining my premises. “Come and see' then.” And the old man took me'to the dismantled fragments. There was the keel, or 'framework, broken in two. The propeller! bruised and torn, lay against the tSall, and the wires 'which held the keel of the balloon were broken and twisted out of all recognition: The motor and the car were the only parts of the air-ship which escaped "destruction. But in spite of the catastrophe,' which it is estimated will cost £2OOO to repair, and which would dishearten many ; a man, M. Dumont is in anything bat a despairing l mood.“As soon aa lam ready, I will commence again," 'he said to-day. , ' "I have never met .your equal,” exclaimed the lieutenant in charge of'the firemen, and- be shook him warmly by the hand. ' Asked for an explanation of the accident, M. Santos Dumont said that the interior balloon,' whose 'function is to supply air to replace that which evaporates from, the other, failed to act. The deflation continued, and the silk envelope fell down'upon, the screw, which in revolving cut several.of the aluminium’cords supporting the car. He only stopped the motor, in time, otherwise the oar would have become completely detached,"and the aeronaut would have been dashed to the ground! Another , fortunate ‘ circumstance is that the air-ship came down on terra firma, for only the breadth of the roadway prevented it from landing in the Seme. . ’ M.' Santos Dumont is said to attribute his providential escape from injury to the fact that 1 h* was wearing. OB' his wrist a bracelet to which hangs a medal of St. Benoit, given him by the Conntess D’Eu. i. V,:i. i! .. ”. 1 .. ... a