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NEW YORK HERALD, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1859 -- TRIP BALLOONING IN NEW YORK -------- Ascensions of Mr. Wise's Balloon Jupiter from Hamilton Park. -------- REPORTERS ON BOARD -------- Birdseye View of the Metropolis from a Special Reporter of the Herald. -------- Fears for the Safety of Mr. La mountain. -------- BALLOONING TO EUROPE, &c., &c., &c. -------- The uncertainty of the fate of La Mountain and his companion, who ascended from Watertown, in this State, four or five days ago, does not deter aeronauts from voyaging in the clouds. Professor Lowe is hard at work, over in the Jerseys, building a monster aerial ship, with new and hitherto untried appliances, in the shape of a circular fan by which the balloon is to be elevated or depressed without any expenditure of gas or ballast, and of a rudder with which she is to be steered through the skies. Professor Wise, too- he who formed one of the party that made that perilous voyage in July last from the Mississippi to Lake Ontario- is in New York, busily engaged in preparations for other long voyages. The balloon which he now has - the Jupiter - is smaller by one-third than the Atlantic, in which La Mountain proposed to cross the ocean, and, of course, is not suited for any such enterprise. But he is using her for the purpose of habituating people to receive the idea of the feasibility of aerial navigation, in hopes, probably, that enough of interest will be manifested in the matter by capitalists as well induce some of them to invest a little in the experiment. Two or three days ago an attempt was made to send up the Jupiter from Jones' Wood, but it turned out that the pressure on the gas there was not sufficient to inflate the balloon within any reasonable time, and so the attempt was abandoned. Yesterday it was renewed with better success, the ground chosen being in Hamilton park, at Sixty-sixth street, just east of Third avenue. It was expected that all things would be in readiness to have the ascent take place at noon. But unavoidable delays prevented that. Hamilton park has been used during the week for the State Agricultural Fair, and it was understood that the trial of the steam plough would have taken place yesterday, and would have attracted a large number of spectators. It was in that idea that the same day was selected by Professor Wise. But the ploughing match was postponed, and the expected crowd did not come. Mr Wise did not seem to have any regret on that account, for crowds interfere rather too much with the successful management of a balloon, and he knew that he secured his object of publicity better bye having half a dozen reporters present, than if his spectators were numbered by hundreds of thousands. The inflation commenced about half past ten o'clock. The neck of the balloon being connected by a canvas pipe with the gas apparatus, the gas was turned on, with slight force at first, but with increased force as the balloon began to assume size and shape. The netting which surrounded it was hooked on to canvas bags of ballast arranged in a circle, and according as the size of the balloon increased, the bags were shifted farther out from the centre into a larger circle. It was slow work, this inflation of the balloon, and it tired out to patience of many persons. The admission into the grounds was dependent on payment of twenty-five cents, for the benefit, not of Mr. Wise, but of the funds of the State fair; and as there was really nothing on exhibition, the payers of quarters were not very numerous. Boys climbed the boundary fences railing in the park, from the Third avenue and from the street to the north, and sat perched on the top thereof till the heat of the sun's rays and the unpromising appeaaance of matters generally drove them off. Under the shade of a line of tall trees were seated two or three score of persons, men and women, who had paid their admission fees and who, having something wherewith to regale themselves, either in their lunch baskets or in the entrance saloon, awaited the completion of all the preliminary preparations. A few policemen were rendering officious services in driving pegs for a rope circle and keeping the curious from pressing their inquiries too far; and some laboring men were lending a hand in doing little chores around. Professor Wise himself was not on hand; but his son Charlie was. Charlie took things very coolly and imperturbably; saw to it that the netting was kept [xx]entangled, and referred to Mr. Wilbur, a journalist who seemed to have some control in the matter, for general directions. Another member of the press, Captain Smith, who has had considerable seafaring experience, rendered mos important services. He arranged the windlass by which the ascension of the balloon was to be regulated, saw to it that it was firmly planted in the soil and not likely to be carried away by the strain upon it, fixed the coil of rope, and took general control of the management of the cranks. By these and other aids from newspaper men, police and bystanders generally, the preparations for an ascension were completed a little before two o'clock. The only obstacle then was that there appeared to be too much wind stirring. The white clouds sailed pretty briskly over the blue sunny sky, and the waving of the tree tops showed occasionally that there was considerable of a breeze aloft. Mr. Wish thought it rather hazardous in that state of the atmosphere, to attempt an ascension. He was afraid that the strain upon the rope by which the elevation of the balloon was to be controlled might be too great, and that if the rope snapped the balloon would be carried out to sea, the wind blowing from the northwest. For a trip the weather was pleasant enough, indeed delightful, barring the risk of being carried out to sea; but for only a limited ascent, restricted by ropes, he though it was too gusty. It was all but resolved upon, therefore, to defer the ascent till next day, and in the meantime to secure the balloon where it was. But a spell of perfect calmness determined him finally to make the experiment, and it was arranged that the reporter of the HERALD and the reporter of another New York paper should accompany him. "Now then," said young Wise, " I want one man to place himself at each of those sand bags, and do as I tell him." Thirty men were prompty at the poss assigned them, waiting for orders. A string from each of the pendants of the netting, where it was held by the ballast bags, was quickly tied to the strings of the basket. This operation connected the basket firmly with the balloon. Then a piece of strong, new rope was firmly tied double and crosswise, to the hickory hoop out of which these basket strings raidated. An expert hand stood ready at the proper moment to attach to this fastening the end of the rope that was wound round the drum of the windlass. So that it will be seen the safety of the aeronauts depended chiefly on the strength of the hickory hoop and the security of the fastenings. Both proved all right. Wise now gave the word to unhook the sand bags and to hold tight to the ropes. The order was obeyed. " now then, hand over hand, and draw into the right." This maneuvre gave the balloon an ascension of a few feet. Three or four sand bags are thrown into the basket. The windlass rope is firmly knotted to the hoop. Wise and the two reporters jump in. "Now then, all but eight let go." Another spring of the balloon. "All but four let go." this was to test the ascending power. A bag of ballast is thrown out, and the balloon is now in proper trim. "Let go." There she goes! and cheers go up with her. Some forty feet from the ground, Wise finds that more ballast may be got rid of. Lifting one to the edge of the basket, and singing to the people below to look out, he half empties it of its contents. The shouts of laighter from below tell us that some one in the crowd has received a shower bath of sand. This lightening of the balloon lifts us above the tops of that row of tall trees, and we ascend regularly, though not very rapidly, because we are held by the rope. We see the crowd gathered around the windlass, and watching anxiously the intense strain upon the rope, fearing lest it should give way. Wish gives his orders, and every syllable is [distinctly] heard below, just as every word uttered below is heard by those in basket. At the height of some four hundred feet the word "Hold on" is given. Poised at the elevation, and without any sensible motion to ourselves, although the basket appears to those below to sway considerably, we stand and look around at the prospect Right beneath us is the Central Park. To the west we see the Hudson stretching along, flanked by the palisades, and with its waters ploughed by many a steamboat and sailing vessel. The view northward, embracing all the upper portion of the island of New York, gives us a beautiful glimpse of that fairy-looking edifice, the High Bridge. Far to the east we see the blue waters of Long Island sound, and nearer still those of the East river, meandering as it were among the islands. And southward is spread before us the beautiful panorama of New York city, with the vanes of many a church spire glittering in the sunshine. The straight avenues enable us to trace it like a map right down to Trinity church. From the Battery to the Narrows the atmosphere appears to be rather thick, so that we cannot get a very clear view of Staten Island. Mr. Wise, who is a stranger here, asks as he points over the East river, what large town that is? "That? oh, that is the city of Brooklyn, containing over three hundred thousand inhabitants and there, on the other side of New York, is Jersey City, and near us still the picturesque Hoboken." After some ten or fifteen minutes spent in this most charming survey, Wise waved his hat as a signal to haul in. Soon we began to perceive the effect of that movement. The tall trees appear to be less pigmy than they were a few moments since, and the men at the windlass are not such mere Lilliputs as they were just now. Nearer and nearer the earth we come. We are right over those tall trees, and the balloon appears to be bearing down upon them. Wise cautions us not to be nervous in case our basket should try to nestle in their tops. Our nerves are not put to the test, for we clear them, and sweep down gracefully and quickly to the earth. As the basket touches, it is seized and help down by a hundred strong arms, and the sand bags are thrown in again, until everything is in readiness for the next trip. A quarter of an hour after we see the balloon ascending again, with Mr. Wise and two reporters in the basket. In the meantime, the breeze has sprung up again, and drives the balloon farther to the east. Once or twice the rope gets foul of the trees, and brings down thick branches to the earth. There is danger of the rope being severed by friction against the boughs. It stands the test well. The tree is cleared, but soon the aeronauts get into other difficulties. The balloon [sweeps] down over another line of trees. It cannot escape them. People run to see the crash. Down comes the car into the top of the tree, smashing the boughs as if they were but pipe stems. It was feared that the balloon itself might get torn; but it escaped, and rose again, carrying its affrighted freight out of the branches. The descent was soon afterwards effected, when it was found that one of the reporters had got the back of his hand considerably cut and bruised by incautiously holding on to the outer rim of the basket in its descent through the tree. These experiments convinced Mr. Wise that it would be unsafe to venture up any more, and so the balloon was secured on the same spot where it was filled in the morning. It had been arranged to have a photographer go up and take stereoscopic views of terrestial things from a certain elevation. The too great movement in the atmosphere precluded the possibility of such a thing yesterday. He may go up to-day if it be perfectly still and calm, as under no other conditions of the atmosphere would such a thing be feasible. Mr. Wish will probably indulge others who may wish to enjoy a new sensation, by giving them a chance to ascend a thousand feet. Of course he will have to charge something for the entertainment. His father, we understand, is arranging for a trip in the clouds one of these days, and will either charge a fixed sum - say fifty dollars - or put up the seats to public auction. The Jupiter is some thirty-four feet in diameter by about fifty in extreme height. With the car attached, its height is sixty-five feet. It contains some twenty-four thousand cubic feet of gas, so that it inflation alone costs about sixty dollars. Of course the gas was not discharged last evening, it will serve for ascension for some days, it being easy to replenish it to the extent needed. The balloon was entirely devoid of ornamentation. It is composed of oiled cotton, of which material some two thousand yards perhaps are used up. On one side it has its name painted in large letters; on the other, the Latin legend:- "Astra, Castra, Numen, Lumen" -which means, "The stars are my dwelling place, the divinity my light." There are several patches on it, accounted for by the fact that in one of the Western railroad baggage cars, sparks from the locomotive fell upon it. Trips have been made with it from Boston, St. Louis and Lafayette, Ind. the basket is the ordinary specimen of oblong wickerwork which is used in warehouses for hoisting goods in, and by washerwomen in good business. It is four and a half feet long by three and a half wide - so that there was not much room to spare in that cage. It was amusing to listen to the comments of the bystanders as the balloon was being inflated. One would declare, in reply to a question whether he would like to go up, that he was not tired of his life yet; while another would declare that he would as lief go up in her as cross the river in a ferry boat. Between the two ascensions there was an unpleasant interlude. A man somewhat under the influence of liquor was ordered gruffly by a policeman to get outside of the ring. He replied that he wanted to go up, as he was the editor of an Irish-American paper. He said this jocularly, but the policeman evidently did not appreciate the joke, for he rushed at the unfortunate would-be editor's throat, knocked him down, and then set to to roll him over as soldiers roll up their mattresses. In short, there was a great deal of uncalled for brutality exhibited, and when an elderly man denounced it in no measured terms, he was himself seized upon and marched off to the station house; while other police officers drew their batons and rushed in upon the respectable persons who had gathered around the old man, and drove them right and left as if they were a party of rowdies. Such conduct is not calculated to insure to our police officers the countenance and support of the good citizens of New York. BANGOR BALLOON ------ BY J.S.L.**** ------ October first in Fifty-seven, Icarus takes his flight, And sixty minutes after eleven, The pageant soars upright. A waning speck above is spied, Beyond the thunder's home, And up and up the castle glides, Where fiery meteors roam. Great Montgolfier!'* true to art, now mounts the skies sublime, From cloud to cloud like meteors dart, Afar from shores of time. Unbreathing crowds deep gaze on thee, With wonder and surprise, To see Elijah soaring free, Far up the glimmering skies. A prayer we waft to thee, brave Wise! Should thy Argo be riven, Thy spirit freed may roam the skies, And reach a blissful heaven. Norridgewock, Oct. 1, 1857 ---*The name of the first Ascensionist. LOCAL INTELLIGENCE. AERIAL NAVIGATION: Prof. Wise has long entertained his favorite project of crossing the Atlantic with a balloon. After several unsuccessful memorials to Congress for aid to enable him to carry it out, one, and the last one presented there, having elicited a highly complementary speech from Senator Douglas, wherein that eminent Statesman expressed a decided opinion in its favor, and very strongly recommended the idea of the project; and after a correspondence with ex-Chief Justice Ellis Lewis in 1853, upon the subject, he announced that he would not trouble the public nor the Federal government again until he should have demonstrated by actual experiment that the thing could be done. He says that he is now prepared to make this demonstration, by sailing from St. Louis or Chicago to the Atlantic sea-board. And for this purpose there have been put under construction two balloons, one of them about being completed, and the other well under way, with which to make the demonstrative experiment the present summer. Although aerial navigation has not received much attention, and from the prevalent opinion that it is not an art invested with the elements of human economy, Prof. Wise insists that this adverse opinion of its merits will all vanish upon a proper and scientific understanding of its positively deducible usefulness and application to human comforts and civilizing progress. There has been as rapid and cheering a progress of its improvement since its discovery to the present day, as there was with steam and its appliances during the same length of time from its first introduction. This being the fact, there is much to hope for in these forthcoming investigations and experiments. Since the general introduction or carboretted hydrogen for the lighting of cities -- the facility and cheapness of the manufacture of balloons - the ease with which they are managed, there is no reason any longer to doubt the advance proposed in this department of the human knowledge; and equally well sustained is the idea that the nineteenth century may yet open upon us the era of traveling through the air, and with at least as much, if not with greater safety and comfort, than traveling by land and by sea. We have the satisfaction of announcing upon authority that the balloons are within a few weeks of completion, one of them sixty feet in diameter and a lifting power of seven thousand pounds; the other sixty-eight feet in diameter and a lifting power of ten thousand pounds. The first experimental trip is designed from St. Louis, to start in the evening and remain up all night, and if nothing adverse happens in the progress of....
