Viewing page 92 of 105

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

189

During the period of building new rudders, Ed Unger came over tom e and asked if there would be any objection, if he gave two of my boys a new experience for them.

Ed was a professional balloonist, had all of his equipment, and wanted to erect a hot air balloon on our lot, and would send each man seperately to make a parachute descent, that is two seperate balloon ascensions. Personally, I was interested in seeing the performance and told him to go ahead.

Ed was working for the airship at the time, he was the foreman of the landing crew. He used his men to dig a trench about 30 feet long by 3 foot wide and 3 foot deep. He covered the trench with sheet iron except at both ends, and then threw dirt on [[strikethrough]] of [[/strikethrough]] the iron. On one end of the trench he erected a stack about 4 feet high and 4 feet in diameter.

We had lumber on hand from which two 30 foot poles was made, and these poles was erected on each side of the stack, spaced about 40 feet apart. The poles were securely guyed and from the top of each a pully was fastened with a long rope threaded through. One end of the each rope was attached to an iron ring in the top of the balloon. The boys then pulled the balloon up about 20 feet high immediately over the stack.

After getting all of the apparatus in readiness, a fire was started in the open end of the trench, the heated air was ocnveyed through the [[strikethrough]] and [[/strikethrough]] stack to the interior of the balloon, and in about twenty minutes, the balloon was filled and ready for the ascent. Carl Holmes was the first to go. He reached an elevation of about 3,000 feet and cut loose and made a very nice descent in the parachute.