hot air balloon in happy valley

Behind the balloon, the old Grand Stand is visible which was demolished around 1900. The photo was taken before that date, likely between 1880 and 1900.

A photo which much higher resolution can be seen here.

The photo is likely related to the Baldwin Brothers' balloon ascent & parachute descent spectacle on 3 January 1891.

On the left side, a bit hidden behind trees, likely is the Circular pond inside the Happy Valley Racecourse [c.1885-1891]. This fits with the date of the balloon event.

Well spotted. Good to have the date range confirmed.

Reviewed the main photo and preparations of the Baldwin balloon performance. 

In the Baldwin spectacle, a bamboo scaffolding 70 feet high was erected in front of the Grandstand from which Baldwin would jump off into netting below. The high resolution photo does not show a high tower in front of the Grandstand. Furthermore, the balloon was inflated closer to the paddock and not in front of the Grandstand as seen in the main photo.

Having read the articles pertaining to the Baldwin exhibition in the daily papers, mention was made of an aeronaut that had preceded the Baldwin brothers in performing a similar feat. After a long search, the aeronaut's name that cropped up was "Percival Spencer".

Spencer made a similar exhibition of a balloon ascent followed by a parachute descent on 20 September 1890. Prior to the aerial display, the two Grandstands had been fenced-in, together with a large slice of the Racecourse and Inner Oval. Seats had been placed round the spot on which the balloon was to be inflated. 

In conclusion, I am of the view the photo shows Spencer's hot air balloon and the seating and viewing arrangements for his aerial display.

Source

1. Hong Kong Daily Press 5 January 1891 (Baldwin event)
2. Hong Kong Telegraph 19 September 1890 (Spencer event)
3. China Mail 20 September 1890 (Spencer event)
4. Hong Kong Daily Press 22 September 1890 (Spencer event)

Excellent research result, congratulations. It is always amazing to find details in these old photos when looking carefully. More than 130 years old, but with an incredible high resolution.

Hi Daniel. According to moddsey's research, the date of the photo likely is 1890. Propose you add the date (possibly with "approximate"). This would help to have a continuing timeline of the places added to this photo.

Percival Spencer was an English world class Balloonist travelling as far as Japan demonstrating his balloons.

Considering the date of his Happy Valley exploits he could be regarded as being                                           the first to successfully “go aloft” in the territory and should be better known for that.

There is plenty of material on him and his company on-line. 

He certainly was not an unknown travelling showman unlike the American Baldwin brothers and Senor Leo Hernandez (alias Mexican Pete) who had to  jump from his flaming balloon.

Thanks IDJ. If not for the main photo, I had always thought that Baldwin was the first to "go aloft" in Hong Kong. It was nice to find material on Spencer to pre-date Baldwin and include him in Hong Kong's aviation history.

Once again Gwulo corrects aspects of Hong Kong’s history in a brief but succinct manner that enables any reader to follow through with pathways to seek further comprehensive information if so desired.

Pages and pages of similarly looking material whether in English/ Chinese/ Swahili or whatever are a “turn off” I suspect to many readers visually scanning Gwulo ‘new content’ web pages.

I recall years ago Gwulo page’s ad infinitum of images of Hong Kong’s property’s fittings and contents which appeared for an unknown reason to be a property marketing device. These all disappeared from Gwulo overnight without trace.

Similarly, photographs from a book of Hong Kong black & white photographs of fairly recent vintage were propagated page by page under the photographer’s name each with details of the book’s title and publisher. If of interest to anyone, they could have invested in the book rather than wait for the posting of 200 pages of images. This would seem to encourage anyone to scan any book or publication page by page to get some sort of recognition on the site.

A report on Spencer Percival’s performance appeared in the Daily Press which revealed that the gas company provided the balloon’s lifting medium, so it was not a hot-air balloon which some performing balloonists preferred. Gas in quantity to fill a balloon would have had to be paid for from gate receipts.

After a considerable delay filling the balloon, he drifted off-site in his parachute and landed on top of a tall Fir tree in the Catholic cemetery. No doubt all very exciting for the period. 

Interesting to know that he used a gas balloon instead of a hot air ballon. 

The gas used was drawn from a nearby gas main. This gas was town gas (to be precise: coal gas), not natural gas that we use today. The main difference between these gases is the high toxicity of town gas which contained about 9% carbon monoxide. Aside from the need to avoid sparks and flames near the balloon to prevent an explosion, Spencer also had to watch out for gas leaks. Possibly to prevent inhaling the town gas with the poisonous carbon monoxide, he wore a handkerchief tied around his mouth. That wouldn’t have blocked the gases and was pointless – so he was lucky that there were no leaks.

In these old days, it seems nobody was aware of the potential danger involved in handling large quantities of toxic and explosive gases in the immediate vicinity of the spectators. I guess they were sure to handle it - inconceivable today.

Thanks for tracking down the story behind this photo (and also for spotting the circular pond - great to see another view of it). 

I've set the photo's date to 1890.

Here is the pond (cropped from the original photo):

Found this newspaper article in the internet. Interesting story about Chinese epigones in Hong Kong.

Source: The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser Tue. 25 Aug. 1891 Page 8 

Professor Baldwin's Ballooning Experiences.

T. S. Baldwin, the aeronaut, who has just come back from various Oriental countries, succeeded in thoroughly astonishing the Mongolian race by his exhibitions. Mr. Baldwin has travelled extensively in Asia. He has looked down from mid-air on the temple of Delhi, the wharves of Calcutta, and the jungles of Sumatra, and other Oriental regions rarely treated to the excitement of balloon ascending. It was not until a few months ago that the daring San Francisco aeronaut resolved to explore China as far as it was possible to do so, and with his brother and wife, he began to gather in the small change of the Mongolian sightseers. the

The aeronaut's experiences were generally of the most pleasant kind, for the pig-tailed patrons responded enthusiastically and the novel amusement set all China agog. The attendance at some of the exhibitions in the large seaport cities was enormous. The aeronaut found some difficulty in obtaining suitable places for absorbing the cash of the native populace, for fenced grounds are not to be had, and in most places the enclosure was made by a rope and the assistance of the native police. The Mongolian deadhead has a more wholesome dread of the official guardian of the peace than his American confrere, and few persons ventured inside the roped circle without paying the admission fee

This was ten cents for the outer circle, twenty cents for the intermediate and 2 dols(?) for the inner ring The aeronaut found the swell Chinese perfectly willing to pay this stiff tax. The only trouble was that every pig-tailed swell brought a retinue of servants with him, and when a big mandarin strutted in to see the show the army of retainers, from his teapot bearer to his grand high chamberlain, took up most of the dress circle.

Baldwin gave his first exhibition at Hongkong, and the native shouts and yells that greeted his accent were only excelled by the roar of amazement that met his brother when he came flying back to earth with a parachute. In all the towns the balloon proved the greatest attraction ever brought to the celestial land by the bearded white devils from foreign parts.

Having soon disabused their minds of any lurking belief that the white balloonists were possessed of supernatural powers, the Chinese set themselves to work to imitate them.

Several adventurous Mongolians broke various portions of their anatomy, from their necks to their legs, by trying to descend from lofty temples and tall trees with parachutes constructed out of native umbrellas. Toy balloons, constructed with great skill and attention to detail by natives, became part of the stock of the bazaars.

At Foo Chow a genius constructed a mammoth hot-air balloon with flaming dragon head and great paper wings, and made an ascension which will long be remembered by his townsmen.

Baldwin gave all his exhibitions with hot air inflated balloons, that style of inflation being cheap, quickest and otherwise most acceptable to a skilled aeronaut for such work as was there needed. The simple method of expanding the balloon pleased the native imitators, and the Foo Chow genius copied everything to a nicety, except the very important point how to cut loose at the proper moment without accident. The result was that the balloon which was of enormous size, shot up with such terrific and unexpected velocity that it carried with it a score or so of the Mongolians who were steadying it with the guy ropes while the aeronaut was getting ready to cut loose.
 

The Baldwin brothers ranged far and wide with their aeronautical feats, including to the Philippines.

I have recently come across a newsprint report of a female balloonist give demonstrations in Shanghai about the same time Percival was in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, the MMIS on-screen newsprint text is not intelligible enough at the moment to decipher names and stories.

The subject of Balloonists and related Aeronauts in the Far East is not one that has been looked into in any depth as far as I am aware.

As an aside, Hong Kong has a long ballooning history stretching to at least the 1980s.                     Cathy Pacific Airways had a hot air balloon club operating such balloons in the New Territories. There are photographs of them inflating hot air balloons at the cricket ground in Central district and at various schools & recreation clubs’ grounds. Whether the members ever delved into the early history of ballooning in Hong Kong, I have no idea.

https://www.chingchic.com/cathay-pacific-airways---hot-air-balloon.html

The text below was unintelligible when viewed on the HK libraries on-line MMIS old newsprint on-screen viewer or by printing it off to transcribe separately. Yet, given a dose of AI, courtesy of my son who is an academic in the subject, it has very quickly become perfectly readable.

Hong Kong China Mail - October 1890

BALLOON AND PARACHUTE EXHIBITION AT SHANGHAI.

The North China Daily News of 29th ult. gives the following account of a balloon and parachute performance by Miss Van Tassell: —

It is not often that the promise of a programme of an open-air entertainment is more fully and satisfactorily carried out, than that of the exhibition, so novel to Shanghai, given at the great Chinese Garden near The Point on Saturday afternoon. It was announced that the inflation of the monster hot-air balloon would begin at four, and long before that the delightful road to the Point, shaded all the way now by well-grown trees, was crowded by pedestrians and carriages of all kinds from Jin-Ricksha’s to barouches and pairs; while an interminable succession of steam launches, prominent among them being the Gutzlaff with a select party of sightseers, churned up the muddy Whangpoo, and made life, as they passed along at full speed, a burden to the rough-tossed native boatmen. 

It is an inevitable grief to those who get their precarious livelihood by going up and down in balloons and parachutes, that the most thrilling part of their performance can be most easily seen gratis; but fully as this fact was taken advantage of on Saturday, there was still a large gathering in the gardens. On a piece of lawn near the river a semicircular bamboo fence, some 40 feet high and 150 feet in length, had been erected to keep off the wind, and inside this the balloon was suspended, over the mouth of a specially dug furnace, from which the necessary hot air was supplied. Round this space, on the grass, were arranged the seats for the spectators, and they were well filled, while a still larger crowd stood behind them. There was some doubt, for some time, whether the wind was not too strong to allow the ascension to take place, but it grew lighter, as is its customary here as the afternoon wore on, and it was very little after the advertised time that the fire was lighted and the balloon began to assume the necessary rotundness. 

Mr Van Tassell, assisted by Mr Woods and Mr Evans, the lion-tamer, looked after all the arrangements, which were most complete, every precaution being taken for the safety of the intrepid young lady who was soon to be launched over Hongkew, and who provided for the possibility that she might fall into the river, by taking a lifebuoy into the air with her. The parachute, which is furnished with a ring that keeps it always a little open and makes it practically impossible that it can fall without opening, was suspended from the bottom, not the side, of the balloon. When all was ready, Miss Van Tassell took hold of the trapeze bar suspended from the parachute, the balloon was let go, and the young lady kissing her hand to the spectators as she went, was swung rapidly across the lawn and upwards, fortunately striking in her sudden flight nothing more solid than a much-startled coolie, who was staring open-mouthed at the rising monster. As she floated slowly westward in the glory of the setting sun, Miss Van Tassell calmly went through three or four exciting evolutions on her trapeze, and when the balloon was about 1,700 feet above the earth, as it seemed, the parachute detached itself and came slowly earthwards, the lady falling lightly to the ground, near the Point Road, and being taken in a carriage to the gardens, where she was enthusiastically welcomed. It was a delightful exhibition, and the gracefulness of it took away the expected sense of its danger; for danger there must be, even with the most careful preparations.

Note this group did not visit Hong Kong.