<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></SPAN></span></p>
<h2>II</h2>
<h3>WHICH TREATS OF EXPERIMENTS IN STEERING BALLOONS</h3>
<div class='cap'>IN all their experiments at the farm, Professor Myers
and Mme. Carlotta have worked on individual lines,
he striving of late years to perfect his skycycle (which
is simply a balloon of torpedo shape with a rigging of
propellers and fans underneath), while she has been
content to gain skill in steering a balloon of ordinary
shape by merely moving her body and utilizing varying
air-currents, for the wind blows in different directions
as you ascend.</div>
<p>It is remarkable how the position of an aëronaut's
body may alter a balloon's movements. It is possible,
for instance, to make a balloon ascend or descend, without
touching valve or ballast, by a simple change of
position. Stand with your legs apart, straddling from
edge to edge of the basket, and by throwing your
weight first on one foot and then on the other you will
give a polliwog movement to the big bag above you,
and it will go wriggling upward head-first some hundreds
of feet. Or if you would make it descend (all
this the professor explained to me), stand with your
feet together in the middle of the basket, and, catching
the balloon-neck at both sides, stretch your arms wide
apart so that the fabric forms a chisel-edge, then sway
your hips forward as far as you can, then back as far
as you can, and keep doing this. Now the wriggling<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></SPAN></span>
process is reversed; and this time the basket goes first,
"tail wagging the dog," and the balloon descends.</p>
<div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus24.jpg" width-obs="302" height-obs="500" alt="MME. CARLOTTA STEERING A BALLOON BY TIPPING THE FOOT-BOARD." title="" /> <span class="caption">MME. CARLOTTA STEERING A BALLOON BY TIPPING THE FOOT-BOARD.</span></div>
<p>This ability to rise or fall at will allows Mme. Carlotta
to pass easily from one train of clouds to another,
and, by long study of these cross-moving aërial trains,<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></SPAN></span>
she is able to pick out the one she wants for a certain
destination with almost the precision of a foot-passenger
selecting his particular street-car or changing from
one to another. And in descending she has learned to
steer forward or back, to left or right, by tipping the
basket foot-board in the direction she wishes to take.
The balloon follows the lowest edge of the foot-board
as a ship follows her rudder.</p>
<p>An almost incredible instance of the skill attained
by Carlotta in these experiments was furnished some
dozen years ago at Ottawa, where she made an ascension
never forgotten by the people of that city. It
was a grand occasion in honor of Queen Victoria's
gift of the Crystal Palace to her loyal subjects, and
Canada had rarely seen such a gathering. Twenty-five
thousand people, as was estimated, were packed
inside the Exposition grounds to see the aëronaut rise
to the clouds. And there at the appointed time stood
Carlotta on a raised platform, with the multitude about
her, waiting for the balloon. She wore a short skirt
over a gymnasium suit, and made an attractive picture
with her fine figure and golden-bronze hair. So
thought various city dignitaries, who chatted with her
admiringly while the crowd surged about them.</p>
<p>Meantime Professor Myers was anxiously watching
the manœuvers of some Indians hired by a committee
to tow the balloon from gas-works two miles distant,
where it had been filled. This was rather against the
professor's judgment, for the Rideau River, flowing by
the grounds, offered an obstacle that could be overcome
only with the help of canoes and tow-lines; and to paddle
a big balloon across a river, a fresh-filled, hard-tugging
balloon, is not a thing to be undertaken lightly.
And in spite of all their skill these Indians found themselves
presently lifted into the air, canoes and all (oh,<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></SPAN></span>
they were badly frightened Indians!), not quite clear
of the water, but high enough to make it doubtful if
they would ever reach shore, and highly interesting to
the crowd which pressed down to the river, even into
the river, in well-meant efforts to help, and dragged the
balloon up the bank and along toward the platform
with such eagerness that they tore great rents in it
that let out the gas in volumes.</p>
<p>In an instant, as happens in crowds, the balloon became
the center of a struggling mass of people, who
slowly pressed in from all sides to see what the matter
was. Now, when twenty-five thousand people are all
pressing slowly toward one point, it is apt to fare ill
with those at that point; and had not Carlotta acted on
a flash of inspiration there would surely have been disaster
in that merciless crush. She looked over the
shouting, swaying multitude, and in a second saw the
danger—saw women held helpless and fainting in that
jam of bodies; saw one way, and only one, to save the
situation, and took that way. Stepping off the platform,
she ran lightly and swiftly over heads and shoulders,
packed solid, and came to the balloon. Such was
the people's fright that they scarcely felt her pass.</p>
<p>"You can't go up," cried her husband; "the balloon
is a wreck."</p>
<p>"I must go up," she answered; "if I don't these people
will be crushed to death."</p>
<p>"There's a hole in her big enough to drive a team
through," he protested; but already she was in the
basket, and a great cheer arose.</p>
<div class="figright"><SPAN name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/illus25.jpg" width-obs="356" height-obs="600" alt=""IN SPITE OF ALL THEIR SKILL THESE INDIANS FOUND THEMSELVES PRESENTLY LIFTED INTO THE AIR, CANOES AND ALL."" title="" /> <span class="caption">"IN SPITE OF ALL THEIR SKILL THESE INDIANS FOUND THEMSELVES PRESENTLY LIFTED INTO THE AIR, CANOES AND ALL."</span></div>
<p>"It's better to risk one life than many," she answered
with decision, and, turning to the crowd, motioned
them to loose the car. In their wonder the mad
multitude forgot their fear, and the struggling quieted.
All eyes were now on the balloon; one woman's courage<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></SPAN></span>
had quelled the panic. The danger to the crowd
was past, to the woman just beginning.</p>
<p>"Wait a moment," shouted Professor Myers; "you
must have more ballast." But in the din of voices she
misunderstood him and cast out the last bag. Then,
with a great heave and a flapping of its torn sides, the
balloon wrenched itself free and shot upward, a cripple
soaring with its last strength. Up and up it went,
higher and higher as the small store of gas expanded.
That tattered balloon, with its seams gaping open,
raised itself somehow two miles over the city of Ottawa,
and then almost immediately began to fall. The
gas stayed in just long enough to lift the broken bag,
and then left it to dash downward. Professor Myers,
heart-sick on the ground, turned his eyes away, sure
that he had seen his wife alive for the last time.</p>
<p>But Carlotta was of no such mind. She had saved
the crowd, now she would save herself; and even as the
balloon dropped with frightful speed, she put her plan
into action. Swinging herself up on the netting, she
caught the flapping silk above a long tear, and drew it
down with all her weight until it reached the car. Instantly
the air rushed in underneath, and bellied out the
fabric into a great umbrella, a parachute improvised
from a ripped balloon. Now they were slowing up;
they had put the brakes on, and now they were soaring
easily, drifting with the wind. Carlotta drew a long
breath of relief and looked down. They were still a
mile above ground. She had the runaway in hand, but
where should she land him? Most aëronauts would
have been thankful enough to get down alive anywhere;
she proposed to do a feat of steering as well. No
doubt there was some gas in the upper part of the bag
to help her, but in the main she was guiding a parachute;
and she guided it so skilfully by tipping the foot-board<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></SPAN></span>
forward or back, to left or right, that she landed
finally in a clump of evergreen-trees, some fifteen miles
from Ottawa, that she had selected as the very place
she proposed to land. And great were the rejoicings
when it was known that she had come to no harm.</p>
<p>The story had an interesting sequel the following
year, when Carlotta made another ascension from the
same place.</p>
<p>"Where will you land this time?" one of the committee
asked her.</p>
<p>Carlotta looked at the clouds a moment, then, smiling,
said, "If you like, I will land exactly where I did
last year."</p>
<p>This they all declared impossible, for the wind was
strong in just the opposite direction; but Carlotta insisted
she would land in that clump of evergreens and
nowhere else. And she kept her word. She had observed
that at a certain height the wind was favorable
to her purpose, and by the same tactics of seeking the
right wind-currents and by the same clever foot-board
tipping she reached the point she was steering for, to
the general wonder and admiration.</p>
<p>My acquaintance with Professor Myers has given me
some light on a question often in my mind; that is,
what kind of children these men have who follow careers
of danger and daring. Will the son of a steeple-climber
climb steeples? Will the daughter of a lion-tamer
be afraid of a mouse? And so on. Of course,
with both father and mother aëronauts, as in this case,
it would be strange indeed if their child did not love
balloons; and so it has turned out, for Miss Aërial
Myers, now a girl in her teens, has already made various
ascensions, and enjoys nothing better than soaring
aloft on her father's skycycle, which she steers skilfully.
Her first experience of a voyage in the air is<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></SPAN></span>
memorable for two facts, that it nearly brought destruction
to herself and her mother, and drew attention to
an important but little-known fact in ballooning science.</p>
<p>It was some years ago, at the Syracuse County Fair,
and a balloon race had been advertised between Carlotta
and young Tysdell, an assistant of Professor Myers.
For this event an enormous crowd had gathered on the
grounds. And now (by what tears and pleadings who
can say?) Miss Aërial, aged eleven, had persuaded her
too fond mother to take her along, and off they went,
amid cheers and wavings, with a strong breeze blowing,
and the child peering down at the dwindling earth over
the basket-side. She watched the roads change into
yellow streaks, and the hills swing up from back of the
horizon, and the clouds spread away below them like a
sea. She watched her mother take readings of compass
and barometer, and as the wind swept them along to
new view-points she would cry out, "Here comes another
town, mama!" and clap her hands as the town
raced by.</p>
<div class="figleft"><SPAN name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/illus26.jpg" width-obs="334" height-obs="600" alt="MME. CARLOTTA CALLS FOR ASSISTANCE FROM ANOTHER BALLOONIST THREE MILES AWAY." title="" /> <span class="caption">MME. CARLOTTA CALLS FOR ASSISTANCE FROM ANOTHER BALLOONIST THREE MILES AWAY.</span></div>
<p>Tysdell won the race, having ballast in plenty to
throw out, while Carlotta had little, since the extra
lifting-power of her balloon was needed for Miss
Aërial. Now, the difficulty of managing a balloon is
much increased if you have no ballast, for then you
cannot rise at will to enter a higher wind-current blowing
the way you want to go, but must drift where the
current you are in may take you. And the current they
were in took them (such is the perversity of things)
straight toward a deep and dangerous lake. Carlotta
saw where they were going, but was powerless to prevent
it. She could not throw Miss Aërial overboard
like a sand-bag to make the balloon go higher, although
she did throw overboard everything else that was movable,
even to her jacket and shoes. Then, having done<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></SPAN></span>
all that was possible, she waited, clutching the basket-sides
with anxious fingers, and wondering if there was
any way to safety.</p>
<p>Suddenly an idea came to her, and she scanned the
heavens for Tysdell's balloon. No sight of it anywhere.
Tysdell was three miles away, hidden by
clouds. Nevertheless she lifted her voice and sent
forth a loud cry, calling his name. Immediately the
answer came, quite distinct. She explained their peril,
and asked Tysdell if he could come to them. He said
he would try, and questioned her where they were and
what wind-currents had borne them. Carlotta told
Tysdell to what height he must drop (she knew her
own height by the barometer), and in a very few minutes,
being able to rise and fall as he pleased, he was
near the two other air-sailors, and got his balloon
down by the lake-side in time to help them ashore when
they struck, as presently they did. The basket splashed
the water, then skipped along the surface under the
drag of the balloon, and was caught finally in the arms
of a tree that reached out from the bank. And the
only harm done was the spoiling of Miss Aërial's best
frock!</p>
<p>Here was a case of conversation carried on easily between
two balloons a mile or so above the earth and
three miles apart. But other experiments made by
Mme. Carlotta show that talking between balloons may
go on over much greater distances, a reach of nearly
eight miles having been accomplished on one occasion
near Ogdensburg, New York. The explanation of this
phenomenon is perfectly simple. Each balloon, while
it is speaking, acts as a huge megaphone for the other,
and each balloon, while it is listening, acts as a huge
sounding-board for the other; and the tighter the balloons
are kept under pressure of gas, the easier it is to<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></SPAN></span>
make these great silken horns (for such they are)
throw forth and receive the messages. It should be
noted that this facility for voice transmission does not
exist at great heights because of the rarefied air. At
a mile above earth, however, this difficulty is not presented,
and it may be that a superior kind of wireless
telegraphy will be introduced some day by the use of
talking balloons. Why not?</p>
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