THRILLING ADVENTURES OF DARINGS BALLOONISTS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 343, 8 March 1911, Page 2

THRILLING ADVENTURES OF DARINGS BALLOONISTS.

Hairbreadth Escapes in IVlid-air. Last summer Miss Viola, Spencer had a thrilling adventure after an ascent from Heanor, Derbyshire. After rising to an altitude of 3,000 ft, she found her parachute would not release, and while she essayed to loosen it she was carried up to 10,000 ft. Passing close to Nottingham, the balloon descended at Hearsby, Leicester, when Miss Spencer slipped safely off her seat, after seventy-five minutes in the air. Then the balloon rose again and disappeared, but next morning both it and the parachute were found . in the back-yard of a dwelling-house undamaged. Miss Daisy Shepherd and Miss Louie May will probably never forget their thrilling experience in the air last Whit-Monday but one. For the entertainment of a Bank Holiday crowd of spectators they had arranged an ascent from London Park, Staffordshire, and as a special attraction the descent was to be a double one. Had they known what kind of experience was in store for them, and how and where they would descend, they would in all probability have given up the idea of such a performance. But they could not foresee what was to be the sequel to their ballon ascent, any more than could the sightseers who had assembled to witness the fair parachutists' return to mother earth.

The ballon rose to a great height , when it became apparent something had gone wrong. The young ladies vanished in the clouds in a southeasterly direction, and at Longton were not again seen. It afterwards transpired that they had had an experience that would have thrilled the bravest man. One of the parachutes became entangled in the cording of the balloon and consequently failed to act. At an altitude of 11,000 ft. the young lady involved took the only course open to save her life. She made a flying leap to her companion, both descending on the one parachute. The double weight, however, caused the descent to be very rapid,, and Miss Shepherd was seriously injured, while her companion fortunately escaped. The scene of their descent was Uttoxeter, some eleven miles from Longton.

A couple of years ago Mllo. Nellie Neille, another fair parachutist, provided some thousands of spectators at Pontypool with a thrilling sight. Ascending by means of a captive balloon, she proceeded to come down on her parachute. But an oak tree, standing in the Quakers' burial ground at Penygarn, obstructed her passage, and she alighted on its topmost branch. This caused tremendous excitement amongst the crowd, and as quickly as possible attendants from the park, from which the ascent had been made, went to the rescue with a number of ladders. These having been firmly roped together and raised to the tree, the lady was successfully brought to terra firma ; but not before she had passed a full hour in her perilous situation. Miss Maud Brooks had at least two thrilling escapes while parachuting. On one occasion she made an ascent from Trafford Park, Manchester, only to find herself being carried away from the neighbourhood at a high altitude by strong currents. Soaring higher to avoid these, she passed through a hailstorm, which absolutely precluded any attempt at descent. After a lapse of twenty minutes she left the balloon for the parachute, which carried her still further along. Ultimately it collided with a warehouse at Oldham, nine miles away, but the lady had the good fortune to be rescued without having sustained more than trifling injury.

In some respects a still more alarming experience befell Miss Brooks, at Derby, on the first August Bank Holiday of the present century. Before she attempted to descend her balloon had reached an altitude of 12,000 ft. Then she discovered that the parachute would uot work, and she hung to it. while the balloon covered several miles. By dint of great exertion she climbed back into the car, where she held fast until the balloon itself descended at Stonesby, near Melton Mowbray, and was able to proceed to Derby next morning. An American parachutist, Miss Belle Lockhart, not long since had a ferrible experience in mid-air. The Wiis made from Binghampton, New York, aijd for the space of twenty minutes only the strength of her slender fingers was between her and certain death, When the ballon left the ground she was thrown from her seat on the ear, and when a mile and a half in the air, hanging only by her hands. After the balloon had partially emptied and commenced to descend her hand caught the cut off rope and let the parachute loose.

Then a life-preservrr about her waist caught in the gear and slipped up over her head, cutting off ner vision. Small wonder, therefore, that when she la ivied she became unconscious, or that many women .amongst the spectators fainted at the sight. Some readers will perhaps remember the extraordinary case of ?>ir. Charles Woolcoi, when making a Parachute descent in eneimela. As ill-luck would have it, h's parachute refused to open as lie was dropping from a height of some :5,000ft. To the spectators he seemr.l to drop like a stone, until within about If, Oft. of the ground. Then, strange to say, the apparatus opened, though only to split, the parachutist ieceiving fearful injuries, though he escaped with his life. —"Tit Bits.