Hamilton and the Law of Gravity.

Progress, Volume VI, Issue 4, 1 February 1911, Page 538

Hamilton and the Law of Gravity.

There have been few passengers in aeroplane accidents to report their sensations for us, and professional aviators generally are reticent about their experiences. One of the latter, however, has described some of his adventures in the New York World. Mr. Charles K. Hamilton began the habit early in life by jumping off a fifty-foot trestle when he was fourteen years old. Since that time he has gained in experience and in the past six years his falls total a little over two miles through the air. Broken limbs and hours of unconsciousness are merely incidents of the game. A few of his falls have been sufficiently unusual to merit attention. At an exhibition at Paterson, N.J., with his dirigible, Mr. Hamilton had risen nearly 5,000 feet, and was preparing to come down slowly. Says he:—

"I had just begun to descend and had dropped 600 feet gradually, when, without warning, the gasbag burst and the machine began to fall. The instant I heard the explosion I knew what had happened and I thought everything, was over. I knew that a fall from that height would dash me to pieces, and I also knew there was nothing.l could do to save myself. My whole life flashed through my brain. I thought of everything I had and hadn't done. The mere sensation of falling wasn't, particularly unpleasant. I had fallen so many times that I was used to it. If I had known that I wouldn't be dashed to death, the fall would have been little more than a thrilling experience. However, I knew that I should be killed, and the quick review of my whole life was terrifying. I don't know how many seconds I was falling. It might have been fifteen; it might have been twenty, or even more. It seemed an eternity.

Down, down, down, I went. The rush of the air was so great that I couldn’t breathe. Suddenly when the city loomed up directly below me and I thought every second I should be smashed into a thousand pieces the gasbag of the balloon spread out like a parachute. It was only an accident that it did so. It had been cracking and flapping above me, making a terrific racket, and how or why it spread out two hundred feet above the ground instead of six hundred feet or ten feet when it would have been too lateno one will ever know. It did spread out, however, and that saved my life. My fall was not stopped, but the parachute made by the gas-bag broke it to such an extent that when I cracked upon the roof of a hotel I was simply knocked unconscious. Part of the engine went through the roof, but within five minutes after it struck I was able to get up and walk away. Not a bone was broken, but the shaking up I got was so terrific that I had to spend the next three weeks in a hospital. Of course I was covered with bruises, but I wasn’t really badly hurt. Several falls that I have had from gliders had far more disastrous consequences. The balloon was far more seriously injured than I ” Since he lias taken to aeroplanes Mr. Hamilton has had few serious fails. £ Really, he says, flying is much more exciting than falling. Besides, it isn’t half as dangerous.”