Friday, February 1, 2008

The Perils of Ballooning

“M. Nadar has been experimenting in France with a balloon called the ‘Giant,’ in which he intended to carry a number of passengers from one part of Europe to another. He had made one successful ascension, and on the 17th of October made another from the Champs de Mars, Paris, with several passengers. The balloon remained up seventeen hours, and traveled 250 leagues. It descended on the next day near Nieuburg, in Hanover, Germany, after dragging for several housrs in consequence of the anchor having broken. M. Madar had both his legs dislocated; his wife sustained a compression of the thorax and contusions on the leg; and M. Sait Felix, one of the passengers, experienced a dislocation of the left humerus, besides injuries on the face.”

- Published in The Union Sentinel, Osceola, Iowa, 5 DEC 1863

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