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Show VOYAGING IN THE SKY BALLOONING WITH PROPER CARE 13 NOT DANGEROUS. Shaping One's Course by Weights and Barometer Ba-rometer Experiences of Mr. aud Mrs. Carl E. Myers Playing Shuttlecock Be Iwten Two Thunderclouds. Among the very few people who have reduced aerial navigation to anything like an exact science are Mr. and Mrs. Carl E. Myers, who are now living on Reid avenue, Brooklyn. By a series of experiments stretching over a period of more than 16 years they have learned to manage and guide a balloon with approximately the same accuracy that a sailor employs in guiding a ship, the only element of uncertainty being the weather. A reporter called on the Myerses a few days ago to learn some of their experiences and adventures in cloudland. I He found them not at all like what one would expect of people who pass a large portion of their lives in a most perilous occupation. Mr. Myers is a slender, rather short man about 40 years old, with black eiue whiskers, the face of a scholar and a benevolent expression. expres-sion. Mrs. Myers, who was formerly known professionally as Carlotta, is a sweet faced woman, with keen gray eyes, wavy brown hair and a blight, eager manner in conversation. She looks to be about 36 years old. She does not now make ascensions, having stopped in 1891, but she helps her husband hus-band in his experim eta at his farm at Mohawk, N.Y. In her career she has made more than 500 ascensions. Mr. Myers has been up among the clouds 55 times himself and has superintended upward up-ward of 1,200 aerial excursions. For observational purposes and in pursuance of his Btudies in meteorology he still makes his dangerous, trips, although indeed both he and his wife maintain that ballooning, when carefully conducted con-ducted i -- atmg, foiiS occupation. Neither of them has ever been injured. "To an experienced aeronaut," says Mr. Myers, "the danger is really no, greater than that of sailing in a small boat. It is possible to navigate a balloon bal-loon by taking advantage of the different differ-ent air currents, and in going down the balloonist can steer by weights .on the same principle as steering a canoe by leaning to one side or the other. The platform on which the aeronaut stands serves as the rudder, and by throwing his weight to one side or the other and thus slanting tbe platform he can guide himself. Of course his rising and falling fall-ing are controlled by the valveH and the sandbags." In illustration of this Mr. Myers told how his wife once followed a course ' mapped out for her by Peter C. Campbell Camp-bell of Brooklyn, who built the airship in which Ed Hogan went out to sea and was lost four years ago. Mr. Campbell challenged Mrs. Myers to start from East New York, go to the city hall in Brooklyn, thence up the river, across New York and to the Pennsylvania station sta-tion in New Jersey, to the city hall in Jersey City, and finally to land in Se-caucus. Se-caucus. She made tbe trip in less than an hour, and Mr. Campbell gave her a handsome gold badge as a memento. "There are two or three rules always to be observed in managing a balloon," continued Mr. Myers. "First, be sure that everything is taut and shipshape; secondly, don't try to estimate distances for yourself they are extremely deceptive decep-tive when you are in the air. Refer to the barometer, which is the aeronaut's compass, always. The most important rnle of all is, 'Never give up the ship. No matter what happens, as long as there is anything left of your balloon and you are still fastened to it, you've got a chance." "Have you ever had any unpleasant experiences?" asked the reporter. "Mrs. Myers has had more experiences experi-ences than I have." Being appealed to, Mrs. Myers, after a minute of thought, said: "A very peculiar pe-culiar aerial adventure I once had was over Stafford Springs, Conn., where two thunderclouds played battledoor and shuttlecock with me and my balloon. bal-loon. Usually I experience no difficulties difficul-ties with electric clouds. Their terrors diminish as you approach them, and when actually among them the danger is Blight, if it exists at all. In this Instance, In-stance, however, I got between an upper up-per cloud and a lower cloud, both heavily heav-ily charged. I and my balloon acted as a conductor between them. First. T would go up to tne upper cioua and become be-come charged with electricity and then be repelled to the lower cloud, only to be recharged and bounced back to the upper again. I played this elevator game 11 times before the clouds got matters adjusted to their satisfaction. Then they let me go unhurt, but pretty badly frightened by being made the plaything of such gigantic powers. "Another experience, more common to balloonists and more dangeious, I had on the occasion of the first trial of natural gas for ascension in 1888 at Franklin, Pa.," continued Mrs. Myers. "The balloon was filled hurriedly, and in some way the balloon cloth got caught over the valve, closing it. I went up too rapidly and hied to open the valve, but broke the cord. In such a case there is but one thing to do knot the ropes and keep the balloon from expanding ex-panding to its full extent. Under ordinary ordi-nary conditions a balloon half full at the earth's surface will be fully expanded expand-ed at an altitude of 3,l miles because of the decreased pressure of the atmosphere. atmos-phere. Hence by knotting up the balloon ropes the cubic area is diminished, and the gas begins to pour out sooner. Notwithstanding Not-withstanding my doing this, so fast did the balloon rise that it reached an altitude alti-tude of more than four miles before it stopped going up. There I found a strong east current, as is almost invariably invari-ably the case in very high altitudes. By the aid of that current I traveled 90 mileB in as many minutes and finally landed in the only clear spot in a forest of 40 miles extent." New York Sun. |