First english female arial traveler - 35 miles into the atmosphere - ca. 1785

[boston bean]

Wow Ms. Sage....

[ProdigalJunkMail]

1. i think she traveled downrange 35 miles

cause if she went 35 miles UP (roughly 185,000 feet) should would have been the first SPACE traveler...ok, maybe not SPACE but she would have certainly needed a pressurized vessel

sP

[onehandle]

3. These were my first shocked thoughts...

How the Hell did she get 35 miles up? And, wow what a horrible death.

[Canuckistanian]

5. Hence the word "traversing"

Not "ascending".

[boston bean]

6. Thanks for the education on that.

I really didn't know the difference. But I thought it was a hell of a way up, that's for sure! LOL

[dipsydoodle]

8. Exactly

Harrrow's other claim to fame is where the the first ever road fatality occured here in the UK hundred odd years ago when a car came pissing down Grove Hill and tried unsuccessfully to do a sharp left at bottom. Coincidently I was going there this morning but changed my mind.

[William Seger]

9. "... after traversing upwards of Thirty Miles in the Atmosphere."

I agree -- I think "upwards" here means "nearly" or "about" 30 miles.

[Little Star]

15. Still, 30 miles is a heck of a long way.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Wow. Unfortunately, if she really had ascended 35 miles

into the air she'd have been dead as a mackerel from hypoxia and/or hypothermia long before getting there. Commercial airliners fly at about 36,000 feet, or roughly 6 miles up. 35 miles is approximately the top of the stratosphere - even if you didn't die first you wouldn't make it in a hot air balloon. Methinks the writer of Mrs. Sage's little bio might have exaggerated a wee bit.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

4. it was a snafu in getting if from the plaque to here

the plaque says she 'traversed upwards of 35 miles in the atmopshere'...which would be just fine...

sP

[boston bean]

10. ah ok,

me dummy. I should have put traversed. But still I thought she went 35 miles up. LOL

I wonder how far you can go up in a hot air baloon without croaking..

[ProdigalJunkMail]

12. very easy mistake...

you can't go up too far before you need to start supplemental oxygen...but i am too much of a chicken to go up in a hot air balloon so i will likely never learn...

sP

[Motown_Johnny]

7. 35 miles through the atmosphere maybe, not up into it.

Mt Everest Height: 29,028 feet, or 5 and a half miles above sea level


You need breathing equipment up that high. I don't think it is possible to get anywhere near 30 miles high without very special equipment.

[Brother Buzz]

11. Larry Walters' historic lawn chair balloon flight was only twelve miles!

A TWA pilot first spotted Larry and radioed the tower that he was passing a guy in a lawn chair at 16,000!

[longship]

13. Um. Aerial?

Sorry for the pedantry.

[dimbear]

14. For several years the altitude record was held by an aeronaut who landed dead.

It took hard experience to teach about oxygen and pressure suits.