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In the year 1910 a great sensation was made in the principal town of one of the Austrian provinces by two young men who had constructed a dirigible balloon. Local patriotism gave enthusiastic expression to its pride in the first Austrian balloon of the dirigible type; there was also, however, a note of scepticism in the newspapers. The balloon had no valve and therefore could not be made to descend in case of an accident; in the heat of strong sunshine it might fly to an enormous height and possibly burst. It was later brought to Vienna and one Saturday made a successful ascent, the Emperor being a spectator; the present writer then read an account of this with rising interest and looked at its photograph in an illustrated paper, at the same time, however, feeling some disappointment that so much recognition should be accorded to a type of air-craft by no means high in technical efficiency. On the following Sunday I thought more than once of going to see the second ascent, but allowed various things to prevent me. At about the time when the balloon was to go up I was sitting at table, when suddenly, looking at the clock, I called out, 'It is half-past three—one of the brothers is falling out of the balloon which is being carried away!' I had a vision of this happening as I spoke.
Three hours later I heard in the street that this had actually happened, and that the balloon with one of its pilots had been carried high into the air, landing later on without further mishap not far from Vienna. I had a feeling of satisfaction and of amazement at my capacity for foreseeing future events; the only disturbing element was the fact that the balloon had collided against the hangar, so that the aviator had not fallen but had been flung out, which I had never thought of.