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[[Newspaper Clipping 1]] THE AMERICAN BALLOON. The great experiment which was to have tried in the matter of aerostation over the Atlantic has collapsed, and there is no probability of balloons crossing from the other side of the "herring-pond," at any rate for some time to come. The American papers discuss the subject neither in sorrow nor in anger; and if such headings are to be trustted [[trusted]] as " Where's the balloon?" "Wrong kind of wind in the way!" "Professor Wise on the Fizzle!" and "The Floundering Gas-bag!" there is, perhaps, some consolation to be obtained from a sly grin at the credulity with which the scheme was at first welcomed. The balloon announced to start for Europe, from Brooklyn, September 10, never took leave of the ground. When only one-fourth filled, for some reason or another, an ingenious person ripped open the side, and the machine heaved a sigh or two and died. Then everybody concerned and unconcerned appears to have been duly "interviewed," with the result that Professor Wise seems to have had but little faith in the safety of the apparatus itself, his wishes with regard to almost every detail having been disregarded, and everything done to save expense at the possible risk of life. In his own words, as reported, "The management of the thing was taken out of my hands. They have not done as I wanted. In place of New York mills they substituted the Orchard brand of muslin. The varnishing is not properly done. The balloon weighs four times more than one made of silk. I don't want that car and all that truck you see there in the tent. The boat is all I care to use, but that, too, is not constructed the way I wanted. When I go up I shall cut away that deck they have put there. Everything has been done contrary to my directions. I desired to have the balloon kept until ready for inflation in the ship-house of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where it would be protected from the weather. In place of that it has been kept out under the rain; the water has lodged on it in pools, and spoiled the cloth." The individual, however, who had charge of the lifeboat did not seem to share the Professor's views upon things in general. "He said his appetite was good. He was asked if he felt anything like a man who was going to be hanged, and he replied no, nor did he feel like a man who was going to be drowned. He affected contempt for the balloon, and said the great point in the whole enterprise was the lifeboat. He should show that he was able to cross to Europe in that if he only got a chance." Professor Lowe, who has also been "interviewed," thinks the balloon too large for the purposes for which is was designed. [[Handwriting in Right Margin]] Daily Telegraph 23rd Sept [[/Handwriting in Right Margin]] [[/Newspaper Clipping 1]] [[Newspaper Clipping 2]] DAILY NEWS, WEDNESDAY THE PROPOSED BALLOON VOYAGE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) NEW YORK, SEPT. 12. The balloon voyage to Europe, about which everybody has been talking, was doubtless undertaken in good faith; but it has been so badly managed that the chances of its success have long since been desperate. Mr. Wise, the aëronaut, has been an enthusiast upon the subject all his life, and for the thirty years has been trying to raise means for the experiment. The proprietors of a new evening illustrated paper, the Daily Graphic, entered into the project, and seem to have turned it to some account. But they did not make a good balloon. The alleged cost of the machine was 15,000 dollars (3,000l.); the actual cost, Mr. Wise tells me, was not over 4,000 dollars (800l.), and the proprietors must have recovered that amount, and cleared something handsome besides, by admitting people to see the ballon at half a dollar a head. Its magnificent proportions have shrunk very rapidly of late. It was to carry ten or twenty people, in a three-storied car provided with various domestic comforts, and an open verandah; and several distinguished people (including General Butler) were formally invited to take a free passage. It turned out after a while that there would be room for only four, and then that the balloon could not carry any car at all, but the voyagers must trust themselves to the lifeboat. Wise long ago gave up the expectation of reaching Europe with the flimsy contrivance, but he expected to make an ascent, go as far as he could, and then take to the boat. The inflation was attempted on the 10th inst., but had to be abandoned in consequence of the high wind. This morning the work was resumed. It was a beautiful day, with only a gentle breeze blowing, which hardly disturbed the great globe as it slowly assumed shape. At 4 o'clock it was about half or two-thirds full, when a rent suddenly showed itself in the top, and in a moment it was a heap of ruins. Then the crowd swarmed over the barriers, and three or four thousand people went home, laughing good-humouredly at what they called the "humbug." Wise has been for weeks in a state of wrath over the wreck which he foresaw, and has freely predicted the very catastrophe which has occurred. He still holds to his theory of an easterly current, and it he can persuade anybody to make him a balloon strong enough to hold gas, you may depend upon hearing of him again. But the Daily Graphic air-ship, I suspect, will never be seen any more. [[/Newspaper Clipping 2]] [[Newspaper Clipping 3]] A little boy, eleven years of age, was found by a policeman last Sunday sitting on a doorstep in the Caledonian-road, placidly awaiting the arrival of the American balloon. If as is very broadly hinted, the whole scheme of the Transatlantic voyage was only a novel way of advertising the newspaper which started the idea, this patient little boy's proceedings may be accepted as a proof that the notion has proved successful. As, however, his curiosity had conquered his honesty, and induced him to take 6l. from his brother's till, his re-entry to his native Peterborough was not a triumphant one. The proprietors of the New York Daily Graphic have much to answer for, and if Mr. BARNUM, with his extensive knowledge of puffing, continues his present mania for aerial voyages elder brothers must keep their tills carefully locked, or we shall have more little boys arriving in London to watch for coming balloons, an occupation which may not improbably necessitate their residence in town for a considerable period. [[Handwriting in Right Margin]] [[Standard London]] [[/Handwriting in Right Margin]] [[/Newspaper Clipping 3]] [[Newspaper Clipping 4]] The Figaro announces that Barnum has arrived in Paris to hold a congress of aeronauts. No man is better qualified to take the lead in such a body, for he has all his life been an adept in raising the wind. [[/Newspaper Clipping 4]] [[Newspaper Clipping 5]] The New York Times. NEW-YORK, MONDAY, JUNE 9, 1873. Over Sea by Balloon. The proposition of a Philadelphia aeronaut, "Prof." WISE, to cross the Atlantic by balloon in three days, recalls the once famous but now forgotten balloon hoax of EDGAR A. POE. Thirty years ago it was published in the New-York Sun, and for a few hours set the whole town agog with wonder and delight. In those days the electric telegraph had hardly ceased to seem as impossible as such an air-trip still seems. And by fixing the point of landing of his fictitious balloon at Charleston, POE gained the interval between two mails for the undisturbed enjoyment of his deception. The hoax is worth recalling, not only for the intrinsic interest which such speculations must always have, but because of certain analogies with the scheme now proposed, which suggest either a curious degree of foresight on the one hand or some indebtedness on the other. In POE's narrative the great achievement is the result of happy accident, not of design. A party of English aeronauts, setting out from a point in North Wales on Saturday afternoon to cross the British Channel, are borne rapidly out to sea, and making a virtue of necessity, conceive the bold project of attempting to reach America. The party was supposed to consist of two professional aeronauts, MONCK MASON and ROBERT HOLLAND; Mr. HEWSON, the projector of an unsuccessful flying-machine; Sir EVERARD BRINGHURST, Mr. OSBORNE, a nephew of Lord BENTINCK; HARRISON AINSWORTH, the novelist, and two sailors. Besides these eight persons, weight in the aggregate 1,200 pounds, the car hold provisions for a fort-night, water-casks, cloaks, carpet-bags, barometers, telescopes, &c., and ballast up to 2,500 pounds, the carrying capacity of the balloon. Among other articles is a machine "contrived for warming coffee by means of slack lime, so as to dispense with fire." The balloon itself holds 40,000 cubic feet of coal gas, and is provided with a marvelous steering and propelling apparatus of screws and springs and rudders, which the aeronaut of the present would dismiss with calm derision, but which to the simple folk of those days was a miracle of ingenuity. After various adventures duly detailed in journals kept by MASON and AINSWORTH, the balloon lands on Tuesday morning at Sullivan's Island, near Charleston, making seventy-five hours from shore to shore. It is curious, too, to compare the crude notions of aeronautic possibilities prevalent in POE's time with the practical experience of our own. POE's balloon, with 40,000 feet of gas, and a carrying capacity of 2,500 pounds, is made to carry eight grown men. Prof. WISE thinks 325,000 feet of gas and a supporting power of 11,000 pounds little enough to carry two. On the other hand, the time specified and the lime-heating apparatus present quite as curious coincidences. If the parallel should be completed by a successful landing of the Philadelphia aeronant on the other side, who shall limit the future of aerial voyaging, or gainsay that before long people may be going to Europe by balloon with at least as much speed, safety, and certainty as, let us say, in a Philadelphia steam-ship. A few years ago the latter mode of travel was ridiculed as wildly impracticable. Yet the Pennsylvania has actually struggled across the ocean with a few daring and devoted Pennsylvanians on board, getting there, it is true, in a rather dilapidated condition, but still getting there. Let us not be too skeptical about Philadelphia enterprises. [[/Newspaper Clipping 5]]
