The "Flight of a Lifetime" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Driving through the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, my hometown, with my wife, searching for the historical plaque that tells the story of Mr. John Wise who was a famous American Aeronautic Pioneer who was born on February 24, 1808 in what is now downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  

Mr. John Wise

He completed, from various towns, 462 balloon ascensions during his lifetime.  His parents were William and Mary Trey Weiss who anglicized his surname to Wise.  He was the fourth of eight children.  He worked as an apprentice cabinetmaker from the time he was 16 until the age of 21 when he became a piano maker.  After a few trips through downtown Lancaster, my wife and I found a plaque on the corner of East Marion and North Lime Streets that told of his life living at that location in downtown Lancaster.  He had been interested in ballooning since reading an article in the local newspaper when he was 14 years old.  In 1835, at the age of 27, he decided to construct his own balloon.  John made his first ascent in Philadelphia on May 2, 1835.  As the construction had been self-financed, the materials for his home-made balloon were not of the highest quality.  He used muslin sheet coated with a mixture of birdlime suspended in linseed oil to make the sheet impermeable.  Unlike most balloonists of the day, John was not ballooning as a commercial venture, but rather for his own interest and scientific curiosity.  The ascent was short and uneventful.  He took a second flight in neighboring Lebanon County on Independence Day, 1835.  He attempted to open the valve on the top of the balloon, but lost control, and it burst, compelling him to descend.  On October 1, 1835, he attempted an ascension from Lancaster, Pa., but was thrown from the car and became unconscious while the balloon ascended alone.  On May 7, 1836, he ascended again from Lancaster, but was thrown from the car and became unconscious while the balloon ascended alone.  On May 7, 1836, he ascended again from Lancaster, and landed in Harford County, Maryland, about 75 miles from his original location.  He made a voyage from Philadelphia on September 18, 1837, alighting in the Delaware River, where he was rescued.  On this trip he set loose two parachutes for the purpose of demonstrating the superiority of the inverted parachute.  In October of 1837 he ascended again from Philadelphia, and alighted in New Jersey, 40 miles from his starting point.  In his early flights in Pennsylvania, he conducted various experiments of atmospheric pressure, pneumatics an hydrostatics, and while his primary interest remained scientific, he joined the ranks of commercial balloonists performing at shows and county fairs.  Wise started the first airmail delivery in the United States on August 17, 1859 from Lafayette, Indiana.  In 1838 he developed a balloon that if ruptured or deflated when aloft wold collapse to form a parachute which would allow the occupants of the basket to descend without injury or loss of life.  Although the idea was not original, he was the first to build a working version and the first to demonstrate its use.  On a flight from Easton, PA on August 11, 1838 in bad weather, the design was put to an impromptu test when Wise's balloon was punctured at 13,000 feet.  In less that ten seconds all the gas had escaped.  The balloon descended rapidly with an oscillating motion, and, on reaching the earth, rebounded, throwing Wise 10 feet from the car.  Wise survived without injury.  He later advertised that on October 1, 1838, he would ascend and in the air would convert his balloon into a parachute, which feat he successfully accomplished.  Another of Wise's innovations was the rip panel for controlled deflation on landing.  Prior to Wise's use of the rip panel, balloons would drag along the ground when landing and had to be secured by anchors and lines.  

Mr. John Wise's Balloon

Balloonists wishing to deflate their balloons would climb out of their baskets onto the netting surrounding the balloon, and having scaled to the top of the balloon would open the valve to allow the gas to escape.  The weight of the balloonist would cause the balloon to collapse inwards and there had been a number of accidents where the balloonists had been killed after becoming entangled in the rigging.  Wise also recognized that the heat from the sun played a valuable role in warming the gas in the balloon, and built a black balloon to utilize the effects.  He was the first to observe the jet stream, noting there was a "great river of air which always blows from west to east.  On August 17, 1859, he made the first flight of Local airmail in the U. S. from Lafayette, Indiana, to Crawfordsville, Indiana, in a balloon named Jupiterk carrying 123 letters and 23 circulars of which one cover was discovered in 1957.  His trip of 25 miles ended when he was forced to land by lack of buoyancy.

During the Civil War John was recommended for building a balloon for the purposes of demonstrating aerial surveillance for map making.  On September 28, 1879 he disappeared with passenger George Burr on a trip in high-speed winds from East St. Louis, Illinois over Lake Michigan.  It is reported the balloon was seen over Carlinville, Illinois.  No trace of Wise or the balloon have ever been found.  The body of Mr. Burr was found in Lake Michigan, and left little doubt of the fate of John Wise.  In 44 years, Mr. Wise had made 463 ascents that took Mr. John Wise on one of the most interesting journeys in aeronautical history.  I actually felt that I was part of history while standing in front of the plaque that gave a bit of his story.  Would have loved to have been alive during that time in history to have been able to see Mr. Wise's balloon.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.