Pre-1900 Balloon Adventures
The usage of hot air balloons has changed over the past 200 years, growing from a dare-devil event to a safer, though still adventurous sport. Nineteenth-century newspapers often told tales of aeronauts and their ballooning adventures, including their dangerous flights. Despite the danger, or perhaps because of it, hot air balloon ascensions consistently drew adventurers and spectators alike.
Major Money's Perilous Situation
Major John Money, a novice balloonist who, during a charity flight in 1785, was swept out to the North Sea, survived and later published A Short Treatise on the Use of Balloons in Military Operations (1803). What made this military manual unusual was that he set some of his observations to verse.
Great use, he thought, there might be made
Of these machines in his own trade;
Now o'er a fortress he might soar
And its condition thence explore
Or when by mountains, woods, or bog
An enemy might lie incog
Our friend would o'er their station hover
Their strength, their route, and views discover;
Then change his course, and straight impart
Glad tidings to his chieftain's heart...
The Runaway Balloon
The 1858 Illinois State Fair in Centralia, IL, showed off the state's finest cattle, swine, sheep, and horses. Notably, the fair also offered balloon ascensions! As you might imagine, the balloon ascensions garnered a lot of interest in Centralia, a southern Illinois city 65 miles east of St. Louis, Missouri.
After a flight, balloonist Mr. S. M. Brooks rested his balloon at the farm of Benjamin Harvey. Mr. Harvey and his children, eight-year-old Martha Ann and three-year-old David gathered around to see the balloon. The curious children climbed in, and somehow, the balloon's anchor slipped, and the balloon flew up and soared away with Martha Ann and David in it. Mr. Brooks and Mr. Harvey could hear the children call out "until they had disappeared apparently among the stars" and couldn't be seen or heard.
Mr. Brooks informed the father the balloon was not very tight and would come down in one or two hours. He told Mr. Harvey to arouse the neighborhood for at least ten miles around while he would ride to Centralia to have the news sent by telegraph and railroad in every direction. Mr. Harvey arrived in Centralia at midnight on Friday and searched the surrounding area on Saturday with others. The children were found on Saturday morning, eighteen miles southeast, suspended in the air, with the balloon caught in a tree on the property of Mr. Atchison.
A Thrilling Ride On An Iowa Cyclone
This story tells the exhilarating tale of an aeronaut "clinging to the parachute" and "whirled through the air by the terrible twister." In an 1896 edition of The Champaign Daily News, E. R. Bathrick wrote of his ride in an Iowa cyclone, which took place 20 years prior. While helping another aeronaut carry a parachute and hot air balloon to the nearby fairgrounds, Bathrick was overtaken by storm clouds. The storm swept up behind him, and his parachute opened, sweeping him "fully 500 feet" into the air. After some time in the air, Bathrick lost consciousness. He regained consciousness only when farmers picked him up six miles from where he started.
Went Up In A Balloon
On July 18, 1898, Thomas Baldwin, Quincy, IL, and Lee Coeney, Bloomington, IL, made an ascension from Bloomington's courthouse square with the intention to fly to Chicago. About 2,000 people gathered to witness the balloon's takeoff. However, local newspapers reported that the balloon was still visible with opera glasses an hour after its departure. Baldwin's great balloon, Mars, did not make it to Chicago but returned to earth about an hour later, a mere 25 miles from Bloomington.