PARK AND CLARA VAN TASSEL quietly left San Francisco via train for Los Angeles. Park had secured the opportunity to make an ascension in Los Angeles as a part of Independence Day celebrations, and he wished to make additional income through a series of captive flights for paying customers ahead of July 4. They traveled with the Monitor and arrived in Los Angeles in the latter half of June 1886.
A test flight of the Monitor was arranged for June 26. Taking off at 5:00 p.m., they made the ascension together, perhaps for the first time. As for their landing, they first came down on Morgan Lane but then bounced back into the air and came down on the house of former Los Angeles mayor Cameron E. Thom, then in his backyard, then on a house at 240 South Main Street, demolishing a chimney in the process. They finally came to rest in a vacant lot.1
Park offered tethered flights in the Monitor from the arena grounds at the corner of Main and Fourth Streets.2 Flights were made to an altitude of 1,000 feet, using a strong cable and winch.3 Newspapers reported that the “amusement is a most novel one, and probably no more dangerous than baseball.”4 As a part of Independence Day celebrations, Van Tassel made his ascension in the Monitor accompanied by E. R. Cleveland and J. M. Hale. They enjoyed a serene flight in calm conditions, landing roughly 3 miles west of Los Angeles an hour or so after takeoff.5
On July 5, Van Tassel went up in the Monitor again, this time with a passenger named Moody of Pasadena. They launched from the arena grounds after the balloon was filled with hydrogen gas provided by the City Gas Company. Park had been using coal gas predominantly to this point, and the higher lifting power of hydrogen gas would have been a pleasant relief. Rather quickly they ascended to 7,200 feet, making a grand tour of the Los Angeles Basin from Cahuenga Valley (now Hollywood) to Glendale, finally coming to a landing not far from the home of Superior Court justice K. M. Rose.6
The Monitor was “seized” at Los Angeles on July 6, “on an attachment for $100, but was afterward released.”7 Van Tassel had held a $100 debt, which he paid to secure release of the balloon. It is possible the payment was for damages caused by his landing on June 26. Articles in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Herald describing Van Tassel’s “monster” balloon were duplicated nationally,8 including in Scientific American9 and even internationally,10 especially in Australia.11 This process began in mid-August 1886 and continued through the end of October 1886, with more reprints in July 1887. The stories generally focused on the Monitor’s very large capacity and Van Tassel’s desire to complete a transcontinental flight across America at high altitudes that would allow for unheard of speeds above 100 miles per hour.
With increasing notoriety, Park Van Tassel traveled from California to Denver and then Kansas City, Missouri. It is unclear if Clara accompanied him. In Denver, Van Tassel was scheduled to make an ascension on August 1, 1886, with the City of London, accompanied by passenger Lute Wilcox, a local newspaper reporter. Already familiar with Van Tassel, the papers in Albuquerque noted, “When he [Wilcox] gets up to the highest attainable altitude he had best grab onto the edge of a cloud and stay there. He will never get nearer heaven.”12 The flight was moved to August 6, to take place from Jewell Park.13 Van Tassel connected the balloon to a local gas main at 2:00 a.m., but filling took a far longer than expected. By 3:00 p.m., the balloon was only half-full. Locals wondered if the entire affair was a hoax and grumbled that refunds should have been offered to cover the cost of the train ride to the launch location.14 The flight was postponed to August 8. While Van Tassel did briefly take to the sky that day, the ascension was considered a failure by most.15 The Herald Democrat wrote, “The greatest elevation reached by the aeronaut would not have permitted him to see across the Colorado range. He could have reached a higher point on a narrow-gauge train.”16 Van Tassel made another attempt on Sunday, August 13. Before a large crowd, the ascension proved difficult. Van Tassel gained only a few hundred feet before landing very close to where he had started. The Colorado Daily Chieftain wrote that the balloon ascension was “as tame as the flight of a pet buzzard . . . . The problem of practical aerial navigation is still among the unsolved possibilities.”17 Despite the difficulties, some modern historians credit Van Tassel with the first balloon flight in Colorado.18
Park moved on to Kansas City. There, on August 27, he spoke with a reporter from the Kansas City Times about his career as an aeronaut. A planned ascension at League Park was arranged for August 29. Van Tassel boasted that he had been flying for eight years (it was likely closer to four) and that he had made forty ascensions (in actuality there were more).19 Van Tassel felt that the previous fifty years hadn’t offered many technological improvements to ballooning, with the exception of small devices, such as a rip cord to open a panel on the side of the balloon for deflation:
My balloon, the “City of London,” in which I will make my ascension Sunday is a gas balloon and not a hot air one. I know nothing about the latter, which I believe to be utter[ly] worthless. The “City of London” contains when filled about 80,000 square [sic] feet of gas and it is made of a patented cloth especially for balloons. The cloth is constructed of muslin woven in with linen and raw silk. It is very light but remarkably strong. The cloth is cut into a pattern to conform with the shape of the balloon, and then sewed together by a machine using the lock-stitch. The top of the balloon is much stronger than the other part, because it has to bear the strain. It is arranged in tapering layers of cloth, the next seven feet three layers and so on tapering down. The inside and outside are then coated with a preparation formed of turpentine and boiled oil. Two such coats are put on and after the balloon has been used once another coat is added. This renders it perfectly air tight.
The netting of a balloon adds more than anything else to its strength. That over the City of London is made of the very finest Italian cord and the basket is formed of the best rattan and willow. The collapsing cord I spoke of runs up the side and is so arranged by loops in the seam that by pulling it the whole side of the balloon can be opened right out. It is only used in stormy weather when there is danger in landing.
The gas is put in the pipe by means of a hose leading from the main to the neck of the balloon where an upright arm is inserted. I never fill my balloons full so that the neck and all bulge out because I think it is dangerous and I am as careful of my life as you would be of yours even if folks do call me a balloonatic. When I go up I generally carry plenty of ballast because that is my greatest reliance—lots of little pieces of tissue paper to tell the course of the balloon and whether it is moving or not. Then with something to eat, and plenty to drink, in an emergency, I feel almost as safe on land, although I would have mighty little to catch on to 7,000 or 8,000 feet above the ground in case anything happened.20
Van Tassel’s balloon ascension from the baseball park in Kansas City was a fine one, although the crowd outside the park, watching the event for free, was about ten times larger than the number of paying attendees inside. This was quite frustrating. When the appointed time for the launch arrived, Van Tassel asked a nearby officer, Dan Kane, to remove some people near the entrance to the park who were making a fuss, but Kane would not do so. Van Tassel demanded that the officer take action and that it was his right as a citizen to ask for the officer’s assistance. But Kane later noted that Van Tassel seemed very angry, that the number of people who had failed to pay was large, and that Van Tassel was intoxicated at the time of his request. People were merely blocking the entrance rather than being rowdy, so Kane refrained from interfering and told Van Tassel that it would be impossible for him to disperse a crowd of three to four thousand people. According to Kane’s accounting, upon hearing this, Van Tassel swore at him and told the officer that if he did not assist, he would have Kane removed from the grounds. Kane felt threatened, and when Van Tassel reportedly came toward him in a menacing way, Kane struck Van Tassel on the head with his club and arrested him. This altercation delayed the launch by an hour while Van Tassel arranged for bail, but he still managed to launch in his balloon.21
Following the flight, Van Tassel was charged with disturbing the peace. The case came before Judge Worthen on August 31, 1886. While Kane brought four witnesses to represent his side of things, Van Tassel brought seven witnesses. Park’s witnesses swore that Kane had struck Van Tassel before Van Tassel had abused the officer. The court could not reach a verdict and the case was dropped in favor of Van Tassel.22
An example of a tethered balloon from the period, the large multipassenger City of San Francisco is prepared for ascension from the Central Park baseball yard in San Francisco in 1894. San Diego Air and Space Museum.
City of San Francisco floats above Central Park at Eighth and Mission Streets, giving passengers a panoramic view of the city. The balloon was raised and lowered by winch. San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.
Without much luck in Denver or Kansas City, Park Van Tassel returned to San Francisco to make captive balloon ascensions for paying customers at Central Park in October 1886.23 Tethered by a 1,200-foot rope, 2 inches in diameter, the very large Monarch held 115,000 cubic feet of gas and could be raised to an altitude of roughly 1,100 feet.24 Rides lasted about seven minutes before the balloon was pulled back to Earth. The large basket under the balloon had a maximum capacity of sixteen people, with passengers charged $2 for the experience.25
Park announced a desire to fly from Woodward’s Gardens in San Francisco to Sacramento in November 1886, but the unknown large sum of money required to perform the feat could not be raised, so the launch never took place.26 An ascension was planned for November 14 at Central Park to carry Van Tassel; the assistant superintendent of the California Street Railroad, John Ferguson; and two others, Charles Chapman and J. C. Tice. But the winds were so strong that Van Tassel elected to pull the release valve on the balloon during inflation rather than risk additional damage to the balloon or its passengers.27 On November 19, a Mr. Marion and a Mr. W. H. Hart paid Van Tassel a sufficient sum to make their own flight in the Eclipse. Neither Marion nor Hart had ever flown in a balloon before; the stunt was the result of a saloon bet that Marion would not go up in a balloon.28 They launched at 1:00 p.m. from Central Park, opposite City Hall in San Francisco, and soon rose more than 2 miles into the sky. They drifted south, descending to a landing at Millbrae at 4:00 p.m. without injury. The balloon was returned by train to Van Tassel the following day.29 For the rest of 1886, the inventive Van Tassel began a series of experiments that would change his direction in aviation considerably.