Kittinger and the Free-Fall From Space

Many of us gone sky-diving or bungee or base jumping. The more daring of you may have even done some extreme free falling. But none of us have ever done what Joseph Kittinger did on August 16, 1960: free-fall from space.

Joseph Kittinger

Kittinger performed the free-fall as part of a government experiment on how such high altitudes affect humans. To this day he still holds world records from this one jump alone: the highest balloon ascent, highest parachute jump, longest free-fall, and fastest speed by man through the atmosphere.

It all started in 1949, when Kittinger joined the Air Force as an aviation cadet. In 1953, he got the chance to participate in a rocket-sled experiment to test the effects of gravity on the human body. With land-speed legend John Paul Stapp overseeing, Kittinger flew at an astounding 632 mph! After the success of the rocket-sled experiment, he was transferred to something called Project Excelsior, which translates to “ever upward.” The project was to test the effects of extreme high altitude exposure to humans. (The rumor was that it was to see if astronauts could free fall from a space vehicle back to Earth if there was ever a problem. There has been no evidence to support this claim.)

 Kittinger dive seen from the Excelsior 

The first test was a disaster that nearly claimed his life. Jumping from 76,000 feet, Kittinger’s parachute malfunctioned and wrapped around his neck. He passed out and was only saved when his emergency chute launched at 10,000 feet and he was revived upon touching the ground. He made another attempt in December of 1959, falling from 74,700 and free-fell from 55,500 feet. Then, in August of 1960, he went up again in a special balloon and basket (called the Excelsior gondola). He reached an unheard of 102,800 feet, or 19.4696 miles. At this height, the air was a freezing minus 94 Fahrenheit, at which he stayed at for almost 12 minutes, despite a rupture in the right hand of his suit which exposed his hand to frostbite. After jumping, he free-fell for nearly five minutes, reaching a speed of 614 mph, all but breaking the sound barrier. He landed safely on the ground in jump that lasted over 13 minutes. View the video here.

He went faster than any other human being outside of a vehicle.

Later in life he spent 18 hours at 82,200 feet and flew 483 missions in the Vietnam War, before being shot down and held as a prisoner of war for a year. In 1983, he flew a balloon from Las Vegas to New York in under 72 hours and later still became the first man to fly across the Atlantic in a balloon, setting a solo record flight of 83 hours and 40 minutes.

According to Wikipedia:

Kittinger is currently advising Felix Baumgartner on a planned free-fall from 120,000 feet (about 36,000m). The project is called the Red Bull Stratos project and has collected leading experts in the fields of aeronautics, medicine and engineering to ensure its success. Felix Baumgartner will also become the first person ever to break the sound barrier while in free fall, if his jump is successful. Baumgartner's jump will be used to test the next generation of full pressure suits, used in space and to collect useful medical and scientific information. Although the jump was planned for 2010, it has been delayed by a legal case between Red Bull and promoter Daniel Hogan, who claims that he was first to propose the jump to Red Bull in 2004, and alleges that Red Bull backed out before resurrecting the project some years later. The lawsuit was resolved out of court in June 2011.

Born in 1928, he currently lives in Orlando, Florida.

The $400 Million Fortune That No One Gets

When Huguette Clark passed away at the age of 104 this past May, she left behind a few things: a bewildered family, an unknown identity, and an estate worth roughly $400 million. To top it all off, she left it all to her family…and she left nothing to her family.

Huguette as a child

Ms. Huguette Clarke, born on June 9, 1906, in Paris, France, was the daughter of United States Senator William Andrews Clark. Senator Clarke of Montana, who lived from 1839 to 1925, and served one full term as a Democrat from 1901 to 1907, was known as one of the Copper King’s and was always mired in controversy. He was elected to the senate in 1900, but gave up the seat due to a bribery scandal, involving other legislators, and that scandal spawned the 17^th Amendment, which gave the direct election of senators to the people, instead of the legislators that Clarke was bribing. He was dubbed one of the Copper King’s because he made his fortune in copper mining, owning mines in Montana and Arizona, as well as owning numerous banks and newspapers, investing in real estate and other profitable ventures. He was, at the beginning of the 20^th century, either the richest or second-richest man in America, possibly behind only John D. Rockefeller himself.

Senator Clarke shocked the world by announcing, when he was 64, that he had married in secret three years earlier, and had a daughter, Andrée. Ms. Huguette Clarke was born two years later and in 1908, the family moved into a massive 121-room house, located at Fifth Avenue and 77^th Street. Essentially a New York City mansion, the massive residence was filled with the French painting collection of the senator. Already, the young Ms. Clarke lived a secluded, yet wealthy and privileged life. In 1925, Senator Clarke died, and Huguette inherited one-fifth of his massive wealth of $3.6 billion in today’s dollars. Huguette’s one-fifth share was equal to $700 million today. When he mother died in 1963, she inherited almost all that fortune too.

Things began to get weird after that.

The last know photograph of Ms. Huguette Clarke, 

1930

Huguette became a recluse, so much so that the last known photograph of her was taken in 1930. Very little is known of her during this time. She married briefly but had no children. Her only full sister, Andree, died at age 16 and also had no children. So everything became hers and she became more and more shy. Her amassed wealth includes a $100 million oceanfront estate in Santa Barbra, CA; a $20 million country house in CT; three apartments in New York, whose total combined value is estimated at nearly $100 million; priceless paints by such masters as Renoir and Monet and an equally priceless doll collection.

Nearly 20 years ago, she decided to live in various hospital rooms under various fake names, perhaps to find the loneliness she must have felt from nearly a lifetime alone. Just last year, a reporter discovered that her three apartments in New York were empty and she became fodder on the internet and tabloids, as people tried to figure out exactly what made her tick.

Huguette originally had two wills made out, when she was 19 and 22 respectively, that left everything to her mother. Under state law, that means these first two will should leave everything to her current relatives making claims now, nearly 50 of them, all somehow related to Senator Clarke. On March 7, 2005, she hand wrote a new will, leaving $5 million to her long-time nurse, and only those relatives of hers that were related to her father from his first marriage. Then, six weeks later, on April 19, 2005, she wrote a new will, leaving her family nothing. Her nurse now received $34 million. Her attorney and her accountant, who worked on both wills, each received $500,000. Her doctor got $100,000. And finally, a massive amount of money went to charity that is run by both her attorney and accountant.

So the fight begins over this lost fortune as both sides try to figure out what happened in that six week span and try to piece together the mysterious puzzle that was the life of Huguette Clarke.

The Great San Francisco Fire of 1906

Natural disasters are always life-changing events. Some are more remembered than others. One such event was the great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. As if the earthquake itself wasn't enough, hundreds died in the great fire that erupted and burned for four days and cost an estimated $500 million in early 20th century dollars.

On the morning of April 18, 1906, at 5:25 am, there was a small quake that was felt throughout all of the Bay area. About 25 seconds later, an estimated 8.3 earthquake struck the city, with devastating affect. Buildings crumbled, street tore open like gaping mouths and cries filled the air.

City Hall after the quake

Once the shaking stopped, the real terror began: the fires. It spread from building to building without mercy; poorly constructed wooden fixtures collapsed. People were trapped inside with no means of escape. The streets literally liquefied and collapsed. There was nowhere to run.

Market Street

The fire department was ill-equipped to fight the blaze. A few firemen fought the blaze with knapsacks, brooms and a fraction of water from an operating hydrant at 20th and Church.

The fire spread over the next four days. On 395 Hayes Street, the "Ham and Egg" fie would break out, destroying part of the Western Addition, the Mechanics' Pavilion and City Hall. It then jumped to Market Street where the Winchester Hotel caught fire and collapsed.

The Hearst Building at Third and Market streets became emblazoned and collapsed. At first the wounded were sent to the Mechanics' Pavillion, but when the fire approached they were evacuated. The same happened at St. Mary's Hospital. Shortly thereafter, the entire Financial District caught fire and began to burn.

Postal Telegraph operators transmitted their last message to the outside world as army troops ordered them from the building at 534 Market St., opposite Second St., at 2:20 p.m. because of the approaching fire.

Mayor Schmitz was confident that downtown could be saved, but fire broke out at the Delmonica Restaurant in the Alcazar Theatre Building. It turned to downtown and Nob Hill.

As the fire department began to dynamite buildings to stop the blaze, all they did was keep it spreading. In the end, they never put out the fire. It simply burned itself out. The estimated damage was $500 million dollars and the death toll was estimated at 1000. Three-quarters of San Francisco had burned to the ground.

The King of Bombs

Today, I want to share with you the story of Tsar Bomba, the King of all bombs.

Tsar Bomba, also known as Big Ivan, was the largest nuclear weapon ever constructed or detonated. Built by the Russians in 1961, it was designed to have the firepower of 100 million tons of TNT. But, in order to reduce the nuclear fallout in their own territory, the firepower was reduced to 57 million tons of TNT. To put that in perspective, the power of this bomb was five times greater than all the TNT used in World War II (including both atomic bombs dropped over Japan!) Luckily, the bomb got 97% of its energy from from fusion reactions. Had it not, it would have increased the world's total fission fallout since the invention of the atomic bomb by 25%!

The detonation of this bomb was incredible. The cloud mushroomed up and continued to grow and grow. The fireball from the blast, though detonated in the sky, nearly touched the ground.

According to the Nuclear Weapon Archive:

Despite the very substantial burst height of 4,000 m (13,000 ft) the vast fireball reached down to the Earth, and swelled upward to nearly the height of the release plane. The blast pressure below the burst point was 300 PSI, six times the peak pressure experienced at Hiroshima. The flash of light was so bright that it was visible at a distance of 1,000 kilometers, despite cloudy skies. One participant in the test saw a bright flash through dark goggles and felt the effects of a thermal pulse even at a distance of 270 km. One cameraman recalled:

The clouds beneath the aircraft and in the distance were lit up by the powerful flash. The sea of light spread under the hatch and even clouds began to glow and became transparent. At that moment, our aircraft emerged from between two cloud layers and down below in the gap a huge bright orange ball was emerging. The ball was powerful and arrogant like Jupiter. Slowly and silently it crept upwards.... Having broken through the thick layer of clouds it kept growing. It seemed to suck the whole earth into it. The spectacle was fantastic, unreal, supernatural.
Another observer, farther away, described what he witnessed as:
... a powerful white flash over the horizon and after a long period of time he heard a remote, indistinct and heavy blow, as if the earth has been killed!

A shock wave in air was observed at Dickson settlement at 700 km; windowpanes were partially broken to distances of 900 km. All buildings in Severny (both wooden and brick), at a distance of 55 km, were completely destroyed. In districts hundreds of kilometers from ground zero, wooden houses were destroyed, and stone ones lost their roofs, windows and doors; and radio communications were interrupted for almost one hour. The atmospheric disturbance generated by the explosion orbited the earth three times. A gigantic mushroom cloud rose as high as 64 kilometers (210,000 ft).

Despite being exploded in the atmosphere, it generated substantial seismic signals. According to a bulletin of the U.S. Geological Survey it had seismic magnitude mb = 5.0 to 5.25.

People 120 miles from the blast site reported third degree burns. The temperature at the epicenter of the blast reached 1 million degrees Celsius. The Russians had succeeded in creating a sun on the earth!

Here's a video of the explosion:

While all of this is a scary piece of history, as writers it is important for us to know, remember and share.

The Fire That History Forgot

Hey All,

An eyewitness account:

By now the air was literally on fire, scattering its agony throughout the town. Men, women, and children, clad in nightgowns and caps, shrieked with horror when they saw their loved ones burned alive. The entire town was a blazing inferno; there was only one escape; the river! Thousands of people… pressed on with terror in their eyes, going further into the river, where they remained the next day and night. Families were separated; little babies tried desperately to secure footing in the mucky river…yet the river wasn’t even safe, for swooping sparks and bits of fire dropped out of the sky burning entire bodies with an instant sweep!

What was described above was a terrifying event that American history has simply forgotten; an event that left 1,200 people dead in less than 10 minutes. The date was October 8, 1871. The place was the tiny logging town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin and it was one of the most severe, under-reported fires not just in American history, but in human history as well. October 8^th was a Sunday, and on that hot, dry (less than two inches of rain that summer) evening, a fire of unknown origins raged though as a giant fireball, engulfing the town, the countryside and everything else in its path.

The population of the town that morning was roughly 2000, and they had been beaten down by relentless drought and heat. In addition to the townsfolk, the population swelled even more, thanks to the abundance of volunteers in town to help fight the small wildfires that were already popping up across the area. There were so many small fires that the smoke hung in the air like a heavy drapery, making it difficult to breathe. At 8:30 pm, there was a dull roar that raised the alarm in the town. Strong winds had whipped the surrounding wildfires into a blazing inferno that was barreling towards Peshtigo. Firefighters quickly threw in the towel, when their buckets of water failed to stop the blaze. The people began to head towards the Peshtigo River.

Suddenly, a surge of flames, roasting at over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, blasted into the town. The combination of heat and wind created superheated tornadoes with terrifyingly strong speeds. Sand, debris and burning chards and embers began to rain down on the town, almost as if fire were dropping from Heaven itself. People ran for their lives. Some jumped into wells, only to find the water there boiling; some dropped dead as they breathed, the air being so hot it burned their lungs; the bridge over the river collapsed with hundreds of people on it; some rushed into the river itself, seeking protection, only to be crushed by falling debris or drowned by the multitudes of people crowding in.

DamnInteresting.com notes that the local paper, The Peshtigo Eagle, said of the blaze:

The frenzy of despair seized on all hearts, strong men bowed like reeds before the fiery blast, women and children, like frightened spectres flitting through the awful gloom, were swept like Autumn leaves. Crowds rushed for the bridge, but the bridge, like all else, was receiving its baptism of fire. Hundreds crowded into the river, cattle plunged in with them, and being huddled together in rise general confusion of the moment, many who, had taken to the water to avoid the flames were drowned. A great many were on the blazing bridge when it fell. The debris from the burning town was hurled over and on the heads of those who were in the water, killing many and maiming others so that they gave up in despair and sank to a watery grave.

After 90 minutes, the burning hell’s winds changed direction, the fire blew back on itself and it burned out. The next day, it began to rain.

More than 1,200 people died that day, the entire down (save for one building) was destroyed, and more than 1.25 millions of acres of forest and prairie were charred to nothing.

Despite it all, the town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin still exists.

Thanks for reading.

Next time…