A BALLOON ASCENT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 190, 11 August 1881, Page 1

A BALLOON ASCENT.

Mr Le Fevre, President of the Balloon Society, writes to the Daily News : — "Accompanied by Mr ;Cobb, of the Photographicar^Depftrtmentl of the Royal Military College, Woolwich, Mr.' Barker being the aeronaut, I ascended from the Lillie Bridge .Grounds at 6-45 p.m. on Monday afternoon.' In a very few minutes the' balloon was among the - clouds, and when they cleared away after an intervalof about twenty minutes, I perceived that we were sailing over the Thames midway between the Albert and Batteraea Bridges. The clouds soon a^ain darkened beneath us, and when, after the lapse of half, an hour,- they next opened, we perceived to our astonishment that the balloon was still almost in the same position, and we discovered that our aerial ship had been all the time _ gyrating or hovering round a certain point in the atmosphere which was no donbfc tho fociis of two distinct air currents of which the ; river was acting as the divider. We threw out here three of Mr Sparrow's homing pigeons, and the birds flew round and round the balloon for several minutes, evidently bewildered by tho novelty : of the situation, before they disappeared. Our next observation disclosed our position to be over Battersea Park, and that we were under the influence of another air current. Throwing out ballast, in ten . minutes we attained a height, as shown by our aneroid, of two :* miles, passing successively through heavy showers of rain, hail/ and snow.' There were sent off three more pigfeotis. . The snow covered the balloon :by degrees with a thick coating, which after the lapse of nearly an hour by its weight and pressure caused an equally rapid descent, but . not: till we had been ; permitted several glorious peep.s of iunshine and felt the breath of the warmer air. 'The lightning was leaving our po.int.-ofde-parture as we rose, so that we had only one really good view of the electric phemomena as we passed away in the direction of EppiDg Forest. Mr Cobb seized the opportunity, however, for borrowing its aid to take one or two photographs, and the result will, be shown at our next meeting on Friday evening. Mr Scott of the Meteorological Department, was so good as to favour us with a weather forecast before we started. It was, 'fine, and wind travelling at the rate of 20 miles an hour,' but for once his department made a mistake. Wo had certainly a fine thunderstorm. We were up for an hour and a quarter, but we made only a- distance of eight miles. : Mr Sparrow informs me that the whole of the birds arrived home the same evening."—"Brett's Hastings Gazette."