London, July 2.
A balloon, in which an seronaut named Vaniman proposed to cross the Atlantic, exploded when he was at height of about half " mile at} Atlantic City. Mr. Vaniman and) his crew of seven were killed. Some 3,000 persons witnessed the explosion and caw the mass of flames which hid everything; then the falling wreckage was seen.
fe Melvin Vaniman was a resident of Atlantic City, and the bal-Joon was named the Akron. Last month he met with an accident which nearly proved to be very serious. In a test flight at Atlantic city the dirigible fell 500 ft. into the water, but later it was righted and Vaniman made " trip carrying "six passengers.—Ed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.