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and exploding it at the proper time is now brought to perfection and may be witnessed at another time, price of admission only fifty cents. It was fortunate, after all, that the balloon did not start.
The reporter who intended to accompany it forgot to insure his life, besides leaving his pocketbook behind him. There was also a painful rumor before the expected ascension that didn't take place that Mr. Lunt's washing wasn't ready. Professor Wise lost his umbrella, and the daring Donaldson was waiting for his slippers. Just as well the balloon burst, for there is no telling to what a condition of distraction among the aeronauts these unlooked for circumstances would lead on the voyage. Mons. Tilton, the president of the indignation meeting, was taken for Donaldson by the rural folks from Long Island. They followed him all over the grounds, and lamented that the balloon burst before taking him up a few thousand miles. They evidently felt cheated in not being gratified so far; but the country people of Long Island always did want too much for their money. After the great, greasy gasbag
COLLAPSED AND FELL FLAT
as any flounder about 100 laborers were instantly set to work to roll the mass of canvas up and put it out of sight. Few persons saw anything of the rent through which the gas escaped. It was hid from prying eyes in no time, and so ended for the present the aerial voyage to Europe. Europe will be seriously grieved at this catastrophe. The easterly current will pause in astonishment, and the Signal Bureau at Washington will lapse into chaos. One of the managers of the enterprise said the accident was owing to "a kink" in the balloon. If a kink in the head had only the same happy ending how much more harmony might prevail in the world! That balloon is not dead yet, for as long as there is gas there is hope. Patience for the next grand burst. Admission only fifty cents.

Interview With Mr. Donaldson.
A HERALD report went to see Mr. Donaldson last evening at his hotel. The gentleman was in bed seemingly exhausted with fatigue after his work of the day. He, however, got out of bed, and said he was willing to tell all he knew about the balloon business. The following conversation then took place:-
REPORTER-Is there any truth in the report that you intend again inflating the balloon on Monday and trying to go up?
Mr. DONALDSON-No; we have definitely given up the present balloon. I am going to have a silk one made right away, and then try the thing over again.
REPORTER-Is the new enterprise under the same management as the last?
Mr. DONALDSON-Yes. The promoters of the balloon which has failed intend having the new one constructed, and I am to sign articles with them to-morrow morning. The construction of the new silk balloon will be commenced immediately.
REPORTER-How soon can she be got ready?
Mr. DONALSON-Well, I think we can start some time in October; I am almost sure of it. At all events the construction will be pushed forward as rapidly as possible, and we'll get off directly she's ready.
REPORTER-Is the same plan to be adhered to of going to Europe?
Mr. DONALDSON-Certainly; we never gave up this idea. Had the other balloon, which has burst, gone up, I should have endeavored to go over to Europe. This idea was never for a moment abandoned.
REPORTER-The cost of the new silk balloon will be much greater, I suppose, than the late cotton one.
Mr. DONALDSON-I guess not. You see, the new one is to be only about half the size of the old one- that is, about eighty feet in diameter and to contain about 200,000 cubic feet of gas. This will be ample for our purpose, and, moreover, will obviate all the trouble we have had with the last one-that of unwieldiness. The last balloon was good enough in all senses except this. She was too large, and when such an enormous amount of gas was let into her the pressure became too great on the stuff, and, allied to the difficulty in managing so great a mass, some little spots were left faulty, no doubt, and thus the accident occurred to-day. I think it was because the stuff lay over itself a couple of feet from the valve that she burst. The stuff was not rotten at all; it was good stuff; but, after all, a silk one and a smaller one will be better in all respects. Three minutes after she burst to-day the managers came to me and we consulted briefly. We agreed the present balloon had better be abandoned, and they then wanted me to sign articles immediately for the new silk one, and I agreed to do it in the morning. The thing is entirely genuine, as the last one was. I have no doubt, and never had any, that the balloon project was genuine on the part of the managers. They meant business, in spite of all that has been said about them.
REPORTER-Is Professor Wise not to be identified with the new project?
Mr. DONALDSON-No, I shall go up with Lunt. Wise made all the trouble about this last balloon. He put all the obstacles in the way of it that he could. He was always grumbling, and altogether acted like a man who did'nt mean to go. He said the balloon was rotten from exposure. But this was'nt so. In fact he was always complaining. He would'nt have gone to-day if the balloon had been all right. Of course this thing is a great triumph for him, and I hope he may enjoy it. The disappointment was very great to the public; but, however great, it was a hundred times worse for me. I never felt so bad in my life as when she burst. The balloon had fully 300,000 feet of gas in her when the accident occurred, and in half and hour more we should have been off. However, the next balloon will show whether we mean business or not. Everything will be done to make it a success, and whatever faults there were in the last will be corrected in the next.
At this point, Mr. Donaldson, who had been yawning during the entire interview quite audibly, opened his mouth to most portentous dimensions. So the reported left, and Mr. Donaldson was snoring before the writer was out of the room.

Professor Wise States His Case.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALF:-
As my name has been prominently mentioned in the public prints for numbers of weeks past in connection with the balloon build by the Daily Graphic Company for the ostensible purpose of attempting to cross the Atlantic, I feel that justice

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me with their confidence, requires that I shall explain the reasons for my withdrawal from the [[italics]]Graphic's[[/italics]] enterprise. I am an enthusiast, but not a mere theorist, and my calculations of the probabilities of the successful transit of the Atlantic in a balloon are based upon careful observations of the upper atmosphere extending over a period of nearly forty years. I have never under estimated the risks which must be run by any one who would undertake to demonstrate the feasibility of crossing the Atlantic in a balloon; on the contrary, I have calculated, so far as it is practicable to do so, all the chances of failure. Under the best auspices failure is possible, for the experiment is an untried one; but I believe now, as I have believed for more than twenty years, that the probabilities are largely in favor of success, provided a properly constructed air vessel is furnished. Many persons considered Columbus a fool when he started out to discover the New World. He would have been a fool had he started in a rotten and leaky ship. I may be mistaken in my theories, but I do not think I am, and I am not a fool in endeavoring to give them a practical test. I would be a fool if I was to attempt a voyage in a rotten balloon. This is the whole matter in a nutshell. The Graphic Company agreed to furnish me with a well constructed gastight balloon. They did not do so, and that the proposed expedition is a failure is their fault and not mine. The [[italics]]Graphic[[/italics]] balloon was not constructed of the material I suggested nor in the manner I suggested. I had no control over it, my functions being merely advisor. On the contrary, my advice, based on many years' practical experience as an aeronaut, was disregarded at every point, and, although I have hoped against hope up to the last moment, the unhappy finale to what promised to be a most interesting and important scientific experiment is exactly what I expected it would be weeks ago. It is a sad thing for me, when I thought that the great dream of my life was about to be realized, to behold such an inglorious conclusion; but I feel that no blame can attach to me in the matter, and that an impartial public will only blame me for not having abandoned the enterprise long ago. Perhaps I am to blame in this respect, but it was at least an amiable weakness to hold on until the last minute in the hope that the balloon might prove capable in the hope that the balloon might prove capable of making a creditable start, even if it ended its career and mine by letting me down in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. My faith in my theory of a great easterly current is now as strong as it ever was, for it is based upon positive scientific facts. I am ready now, as I have been ready for the last thirty years, to risk my life in attempting to cross the Atlantic. All I demand is a reliable air ship. Had I possessed the means I would have fitted one out long ago: but the leanness of my purse, rather than any lack of inclination, has compelled me to defer the enterprise as a private adventure. If I can be provided with a gas-tight balloon of the proper dimensions I will start to-morrow, or next week, or next month, or whenever the air ship is ready. I do not wish to undertake such an experiment as an exhibition for making money; on the contrary I am bitterly opposed to even an appearance of charlatanism in connection with what I believe will test an important scientific fact, and if another attempt is made to start a balloon upon a voyage across the Atlantic, I most sincerely hope that it will be done soberly, advisedly, and without any attempts to make the expedition a moneymaking affair, since a mere pecuniary enterprise must inevitable cause embarrassment, which will imperil the success of a scientific experiment.
JOHN WISE.

Professor Steiner's Opinion of the Balloon.
ALBANY, Sept. 2, 1873.
Professor JOHN WISE:-
MY DEAR SIR-Your favor of the 21st of August has just come to hand, then only through mere chance, as the letter was advertised. You asked me to give you my candid opinion of the great balloon. I will do so. It grieves me very much to learn that you have been obliged to take what a set of inexperienced men have thought fit to give. The idea that men of no practical or theoretical knowledge of aerostatics to be chosen to build a balloon to make one of the greatest experiments ever undertaken by man is simply absurd, and the machine they have produced is not fit for you to risk your life in; and be assured that if, through this miserable and miserly proceeding, you should lose your life, I will expose the whole proceeding and show how you have been hampered from the beginning of the contract. I do not believe that the balloon will hold gas or stand the inflation, as it will be half rotten from useless exposure before it is completed. Then the great amount of oil that has been smeared on it is sufficient to tear the lower half from the upper at the equator, if the least wind should blow on the day of inflation; then the network is the poorest I ever saw for the business. I hope we may get her inflated and off all right, but I have serious apprehensions that she will never leave the ground, or, if she does, that she will not remain afloat forty-eight hours. The cloth should not have been allowed to lay in the wet, as oil and water will rot it very fast; then the seams should have been sewed three times and the varnish dried under shelter. I hope you will have at least a ten inch main to inflate her, as much depends on a rapid inflation.
I do not believe it out to be half inflated for one week to gratify idle curiosity, as the risk is great of chafing or tearing it and making it unfit for the final ascension. Let me know by telegraph when you need me and I will come. I think of you very often, and do sincerely hope that you will succeed in crossing the Atlantic and be spared to roap the honors that will await you. J.
H. STIENER.

EVENING BULLETIN
PEACOCK, FETHERSTON & CO.
Saturday, September 13, 1873.
THE EXPLODED BALLOON.
The explosion of the "transatlantic" balloon yesterday was an event not unanticipated by those who reposed faith in the skill and the

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Mr. Wise declared that the balloon was in a hopelessly damaged condition, and although he had determined to ascend with it if it could be made to hold the gas, he felt so certain of the fact that it could not remain in the air for any length of time, that he placed upon file in the Franklin Institute of this city, an indictment of the [[italics]]Graphic[[/italics]] Company with the purpose to show, in the event of his destruction, where the blame lay. At the last, however, he resolutely determined not to enter the car, for he felt and said that such an act would be simply suicidal. For his conduct in this matter he was roundly abused, and by some of his associates was even accused of cowardice. The even of yesterday proved the correctness of his judgment. It showed that while the [[italics]]Graphic[[/italics]] proprietors, the acrobat Donaldson, and all the others who opposed him, declared him to be wrong, he was the only man of the party who had sense enough to comprehend the situation and boldness enough to declare his opinion.
If the construction of the balloon had been entrusted to him, the expedition would probably now be upon its way across the Atlantic. But his employers and associates persisted in conducting operations in their own fashion, and in direct opposition to the advice and warning of Mr. Wise, and the consequence is a most humiliating and disgraceful failure in which every man in the party but one is involved. Mr. Wise alone comes out of the catastrophe with honor and dignity, with an increased reputation and with a better claim than ever to popular respect. We felt the deepest interest in the experiment, and we desired to believe, despite the assertions of the contrary, that the [[italics]]Graphic[[/italics]] people were conducting the business in the very best manner. But it seemed as if Mr. Wise, aeronaut who has devoted forty years to the construction and management of balloons, was, in popular phrase, "a good man to tie to," and events have proved that this confidence was not misplaced.
This brave old man ought not to be left helpless by the failure of yesterday. He wishes to try to cross the ocean through the air, and he is confident he can do so with proper machinery. Now that the New Yorkers have illused him, would it not be a good idea for Philadelphia to take him up? He is a citizen of this city, and an officer of our Franklin Institute, and he ought to receive the heartiest support and encouragement from our people. We should like to have raised for him a sufficient sum to enable him to build a superb silk balloon in his own way, and to make the attempt without being harassed by mountebanks and public exhibitions. Such a balloon might be called "THE CENTENNIAL," and be sent to Europe as the messenger of Philadelphia to the people of the old world. If a meeting of public-spirited citizens should be held, the money for this undertaking could, we believe, be raised in a few moments. Ten thousand dollars will be sufficient for the purpose.

WISE!
Mr. Wise, the aeronaut, has proved after all that he is well named. For some days before that fixed for the departure of the [[italics]]Graphic[[/italics]] balloon he was in numerous interviews with reporters of New York papers, finding fault with the projectors of the excursion to Europe and unhesitatingly expressed his determination not to commit suicide by carrying out his agreement with individuals who, with a desire to make money for themselves, were willing to risk the lives of their aerial agents. Mr. Wise's assertion that the balloon was rotten was on Friday proved to be correct, fortunately before it left the earth, and his many friends in this State congratulate him upon his narrow escape, and admonish him to beware hereafter how he makes contracts with men prompted by mercenary motives. It is understood that the proprietors of the [[italics]]Graphic[[/italics]] will, as early as practicable, have a new balloon made of the best material, and renew their endeavors to penetrate the mysteries of the upper currents, a pecuniary expenditure they can easily incur with such a large fund as they secured from selling many thousands of tickets at fifty cents a piece.

Transcription Notes:
there are some spelling errors in the article's that I have kept in