Samuel Archer King

Samuel Archer King (9 April 1828, in Tinicum Township, Pennsylvania – 3 November 1914, in Philadelphia) was a ballooning pioneer in the United States.

When a boy, he was fond of climbing to the greatest heights possible, to satisfy his passion for viewing extended landscapes. Soon after attaining his majority, he constructed a balloon. His first ascension was made on 25 September 1851 from Philadelphia. In consequence of a scant supply of gas, it proved only a partial success, and he received rough treatment in the tree tops and in being dragged up the Schuylkill River and over the dam. A second attempt produced a successful voyage across Philadelphia, far into New Jersey.

He then made numerous expeditions from various places in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In 1855 he made several ascensions from Wilmington, Delaware, and on 16 June 1856, ascended from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, but in descending was dashed to the earth and rendered insensible. During 1856-57 he made ascensions from Providence, Rhode Island, and other places in New England, and, on 15 August, he went up from New Haven, Connecticut, in his balloon “Queen of the Air,” which subsequently became famous from his ascensions made from Boston.

At an ascension on 1 September 1858, he experimented with the use of a drag rope as a guide. In starting, he allowed 75 pounds of rope to trail along the ground. As the balloon gradually became heated by the sun, its buoyant power was increased without discharging ballast, and by the time five miles had been traversed the rope was lifted from the ground, and it continued to be lifted until a height of two miles had been reached. After a passage of nearly thirty miles, the drag rope was detached, and he continued a similar distance farther.

In June 1859, he made an ascension from Charlestown, Massachusetts, landing in Belmont, and on 4 July following he made an ascension from Boston. On another occasion he ascended from Boston Common with a party, and alighted in Melrose, where a long rope was procured, and he treated some of the passengers to a bird's-eye view of the village by moonlight. While the balloon, with five young women, was in the air, it escaped, but after a few miles the descent was safely made.

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