THE BALLOON TRAGEDY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8665, 7 November 1899, Page 4

THE BALLOON TRAGEDY.

ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS. The deplorable balloon accident caused the greatest sensation in Christchurch, and even the Transvaal war was for the moment quite forgotten. When Captain Lorraine saw that his parachute had broken away from the balloon as he ascended from Lancaster Park, he was near enough for the spectators to see hia face grow stern, as he realised the danger he was in. A fortnight ago he told a Press interviewer that, parachute ballooning would not stand the cost of a valve, for this would bo sin ished every time a descent was made. It wns put to him that nevertheless a valvo seemed a highly desirable safeguard when a thin, easily-snapped string was all that held I one's means of safe descent to earth. " Oh, well," he said, "we none of us do trouble j about it. A valve is a delicately finished piece of join work, and is placed at the top of tho balloon with a cord hanging from it right through tho centre of the balloon. Now a parachutist's balloon is ballasted on top in order that as soon as a man jumps off it may turn over and empty itself of gas. It is the top, therefore, that hits the ground, and we reckon that the valve would be damaged and probably broken to pieces every time." Captain Lorraine went on to say that there was no danger in parachute work, since the hole in the parachute had been thought of. The regretted event of Thursday has unfortunately proved him wrong, and it seems that parachutists are over-confident in doing without a valvo nf some kind. Were it only a square cut out of the silk and so fastened that in real emergency it could ba pulled clean out and afford a gradual descent it would be worth having. On Thursday it would have saved a brave man's life. The aeronaut tried to hold on to the parachute when it broke away from his balloon, but had at last to let go. The balloon held more than 15,000 feet of gas, and was capable of sustaining the weight of several men, and, when released, rose through the air at such a terrific rato that its ascent was faster by many times than the descent of tho parachute would be with a man hangiug from it, and thus it was evident that the strength required to hold the silken umbrella-shaped structure was more than he was able to exert. No one seems able to say how the gaudy bundle of silk broke loose. It was attached to the side of tho balloon by a particular sort of wick-like twine, specially made for the purpose. Some people say one of the assistantsaccidentally fouled it with his foot as the balloon rose, others that it was imperfectly tied, and others again that v sudden gust of wind was the causa of tho catastrophe. The crowd saw the balloon rise rapidly until they could only discern a small ball away in the distant sky, so high in the air that the strongest glasses only detected the unfortunate balloonist as small aa a pin's point clinging to what seemed the finest cobweb, and endeavoring apparently from the motion of the balloon to swing the unwieldly mass so that some of the gas might escape, and it would sink earthwards. Everyone was by this time aware that something had occurred which was likely to be at least dangerous to the balloonist, und everywhere knots of peuple could be seen with upturned faces notching the fast diminishing speck in the sky as it floated apparently '->O,Oooft above the land out towards the ocean. With powerful glasses the watchers saw that the balloon was beginning to behave extraotdimirily. It was swinging tremendously, and they" could not discern that the speck ■it the lower extremity of it, which represented the aeronaut, was being thrown from side to side like a feather, and in danger of being pi ecipitated from it altogether. Previous it appealed to some that he made an endeavor to partially capsize the balloon and ullotv a portion of the gas to escape, but whether this was so or not it is difficult to say, because the balloon was 100 far off for anyone to determine accurately whether he changed his position. One of the most -connected accounts of what took place was obtained from Air J. Jutiss, Captain Lorraine's brother-in-law, who is a member of the Artillery Corps, and was on the top of the lull tliat divides Simmer from Lyttelton, when the balloon went up. He saw it gradually collapse and pass thousands of feet above his head out to sea, where it dropped beyond bis sight, but apparently into ihe ocean ; like a shot from a gun. Ho says tho balloon bt-ciune entirely deflated when ' about 8000 ft above tho sea level, or it ' appeared to him some three times higher than tiie hills, and the unfortunate icronaut ' dropped like a stone or disappeared like a locket. At no place wns the balloon better I seen than at New Brighton, where the I residents gathered on the beach and pier, and every available glass was turned to the object to which the man still clung. Tlio object was watched ab it travelled uver the

sea, then came back slightly landwards, and finally sheered off in the direction of IY-eon Bay, near Lyiteiton Heads, and as one spectator calculated, two or three miles out lo sea. Then it was observed to ho falling »lowly, and then rapidly and more swiftly, until it got down to an altitude of roughly of about, iiOOft,, when its veluoity became terrific. One informant alleges that from Ibe pier be saw the man and balloon strike the water. The latter seemed lo immudulely disappear, and the former strike out for the shore.