Dirigible Balloons at St. Louis

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Aeroplanes have occupied the attention of the motion cameras almost to the exclusion of dirigible balloons, but these enter the field in this release and a series of views really remarkable will be shown. A Vitagraph operator attended the recent meet of the Aero Club of St. Louis, when the balloon races were started, and there caught Ivy Baldwin, Roy Knabenshue, Robinson and Leo Stevens in their dirigibles. Photographs were made of the men and machines, the starts, the flights and the landings. The latter are the first pictures recorded by any motion picture of an aviation descent. The balloons are seen high in the air. Gradually they come down to earth and are received by a corps of United States Infantrymen stationed at the Jefferson barracks near St. Louis. The Army authorities detailed these men in pursuance of the Army policy of making the men familiar with the handling of balloons in war times. It is a marked departure in aviation that the pilots are now able to land their balloons at an agreed upon spot, and these pictures should attract widespread attention because of that fact. An additional feature of interest is the first motion photograph of two dirigibles in flight at the same time sufficiently close together to be caught by the camera in one field. The photography is unusually good and the Vitagraph makes a most important contribution to the picture history of aviation.