The descent is described as successful, it was made from a balloon on August 9th, at Rockaway, New York State, U.S.A.
The aëronaut’s name was Thomas S. Baldwin, and he first ascended in his balloon the “City of Quincy,” which rose to a height of over a 1,000 feet, when he grasped the parachute and cut himself adrift from the balloon.
The manœuvre shows a want of aëronautic common sense which the newspaper description of “jumping out of the car” tends to intensify.
The time of his descent was one minute and twenty-four seconds.
It is said, that to the spectators below, a white cloud seemed to fall. For a distance of seventy-five feet the parachute gave no signs of expansion, and it was feared that another death would be added to the roll of those who have made this perilous experiment. Then the umbrella-like mass spread and hung like a white dome over the aëronaut’s head.
It soon rolled in circles with a slight rocking and swaying motion from side to side, until at length Mr. Thomas S. Baldwin was landed, or rather watered, to a depth of only a few feet, apparently none the worse after a renewed acquaintance with his mother earth.
AN ENGLISHMAN’S PARACHUTE DESCENT IN 1839.
Mr. John Hampton, with whom I first ascended, came down three times in a newly constructed apparatus which was in many respects superior to the American’s. The upper part of Hampton’s parachute was, in all respects, in the form of an umbrella, having whalebone ribs, and a curtain besides, below the ribs, like the sunshades patronized by the ladies not long since.
Mr. Hampton determined, in the summer of 1839, to outstrip all competition by descending, after leaving the Montpelier Gardens, at Cheltenham, by stealth, in his balloon “Albion.” The fate of Mr. Cocking, and the censure which the proprietors of Vauxhall Gardens incurred, induced the owner of the Montpelier Gardens to withhold his consent to the experiment, but in order to carry out Mr. Hampton’s firm resolve and to gratify the curiosity of an immense number of spectators that were assembled upon that occasion, the manager agreed that the balloon and parachute should be exhibited, but on no account should ascend higher than sixty feet from the earth for fear of accident.
When Mr. Hampton had reached this altitude, he severed the rope which held his balloon, and the astonished spectators then beheld the intrepid aëronaut majestically sailing towards the clouds previous to his separation.