To big fanfare & in front of an estimated crowd of 10,000 in downtown Lafayette, The Jupiter, set fourth on an amazing feat for the time. John Wise, considered the father of ballooning, set fourth to make a delivery of 120 pieces of mail in New York from Lafayette. An historic first, it would be the first time mail would attempt to be delivered by air after jet streams were discovered & the premise of potential balloon travel was realized.
Picture of John Wise, Aeronaut, is in below from Science, Industry & Business Library, New York Public Library.
A modern feat for the time, The Lafayette Gas Light Company converted coal into gas for the town of 9,000, making it easy to fill the balloon. The very strong manufacturing base of the exploding river & canal town drove the demand for gas & the city was known for the modern amenities for the time.
Despite this, the original flight date of Tuesday, August 16 at noon was moved to Wednesday, August 17, due to a broken valve, which pushed the launch further to 2 p.m. on that day after he had tried to launch. The goal was for the launch to occur right on the courthouse square, but to avoid the newly-strung telegraph wires, the launching spot was set at 4th & Wall, just north of modern-day Imagination Station.
Launch time at 4th & Wall, likely looking northeastward is below:
Commencement of inflating the balloon at the Lafayette Gas Works occurred at 10 a.m. & wrapped up near 2 p.m. The massive crowed gathered, reportedly back to Mississippi & Main Street to 4th & Wall.
100th anniversary card, 1959....In fact the U.S. Postal Service released a stamp commemorating the event on its centennial.
The temperature had reportedly reached a high of 91 on the afternoon of the launch in Lafayette (in pics, the you note the whiter, lighter clothing of the residents in the heat) & this is verified in this reconstruction of the temperature anomalies compared to modern normals.
Dr. Fred Brendel's weather diary (records taken near Peoria, Illinois) from August 1859 states that the highest temperature of the month at 2 p.m. was August 12 when 95 was recorded. Meanwhile, the lowest 7 a.m. temperature was 50 on August 29. He did report 4.14" rain for the month with rain on 7 days after extremely dry weather in June & July.
J. Hall's diary from near Springfield, Illinois reported a clear sky on August 17 with a northeast wind, but with a Beaufort Force of 1. That is extremely light wind at only 1-3 mph with direction shown by smoke drift, just some ripples on water & light movement of some leaves or slow, scattered fluttering of cottonwood leaves.
This, after the August 2 "terrible tornado" that was witnessed touching down near modern-day Tippecanoe Mall on Wildcat Prairie. It tracked northeastward until lifting upon crossing into Clinton County after damaging or destroying multiple farm houses & structures. Two were injured. Other heavy forest damage from tornado track was reported along the modern-day Hoosier Heartland or (at that time) the Peru Road in Carroll & Cass counties. "A hurricane" "ruining much ...timber & fences" was reported in Miami County.
10 - 79/73.......20-min. heavy rain; rainy day (no total given)
11 - 86/70
12 - 82/66.......Dense fog AM
13 - 83/63
14 - 86/63
15 - 87/66
16 - 88/62
17 - 91/65
18 - 91/64.......Trace rain 4 p.m.
19 - 73/57
20 - 77/50
21 - 80/60
22 - 81/59.......Trace rain 9 a.m.; 9 pm T'Storm
23 - 77/62.......Dense fog AM; 0.74" rain overnight
24 - 78/59
25 - 79/59.......Hazy, smoky
26 - 78/62......."Hard rain" (No total given)
27 - 73/59.......Rain all afternoon (No total given)
28 - 78/63.......Brilliant Aurora Borealis
29 - 70/46
30 - 77/48
31 - 78/59.....Smoky, haze
So, August 17 was tranquil.......actually too tranquil for a balloon launch....
Massive ridging & heat can be noted west & northwest of our area, while below normal temperatures with considerable upper troughing occurred in the Northeast & along the East Coast overall.
Surface winds & direction:
Surface map:
Here is a look at the upper-level map reconstruction.
The balloon reportedly rose, but remained nearly stationary in position (but rose) until 4 p.m. before being pushed southwestward once a significant height was reached.
In 5 hours or by 7 p.m., the balloon reaching 14,000' began to stall & showed a lack of buoyancy. Only going 25-30 miles in that 5 hours, Wise brought it down in Montgomery County near Crawfordsville. He attempted tirelessly to push the balloon upward & eastward to no avail & reportedly danced above the tree tops for sometime.
The winds at the surface & at that level weren't carrying him to the east, but rather southwestward.
Reconstruction of the winds at that level show northeast winds moving around a surface high northeast of our area, to the east of the north apex of the hot upper ridge.
Note the high winds off the coast of the Northeast.....
At least a Category 2 hurricane was occurring off the Northeast coast.
CAPE was anomalously low for the time of year (energy or buoyancy for storms).
CINH or Convective Inhibition or anti-CAPE was much higher for the time of year. This suggested a lot of capping, warm air aloft & dry, dry air.
Precipitable Water was unusually low for mid-August (amount of water to squeeze out).
Specific Humidity shows that dew points were likely only in the lower to middle 50s with temperature at 91.
Temperatures at the mid-levels were anomalously warm with strong cap.
Upper level temperatures unusually warm as well with very warm air aloft creating a very stable environment.
The balloon down, the mail was picked up & transported via train to New York.
Wise ended doing more balloon launches with success. He actually ended up working for the U.S. government in the Civil War & was of great assistance in flying risky observation balloons for the Union Army.
He actually lost his life in a balloon crash September 28, 1879 when a storm downed his balloon over Lake Michigan. He was on route from East St. Louis when he disappeared over Lake Michigan. His passenger's body was found, but the balloon & Mr. Wise was never found. He was last seen moving northeast over Lake Michigan, viewed from just a few miles north-northeast of present-day O'Hare Airport area. He was 71 years old.
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