. In 1838 he developed a balloon that if ruptured or deflated when aloft would collapse to form a parachute (the bottom half would fold upwards into the top half to form the classic parachute shape) which would allow the occupants of the basket to descend without injury or loss of life. Although the idea was not original, Wise was the first to build a working version and the first to demonstrate its use. On a flight from
Easton, Pennsylvania, on August 11, 1838, in bad weather, the design was put to an impromptu test when Wise's balloon was punctured at . In less than ten seconds all the gas had escaped. The balloon descended rapidly with an oscillating motion, and, on reaching the earth, rebounded, throwing Wise from the car. Wise survived without injury. He later advertised that on October 1, 1838, he would ascend and in the air would convert his balloon into a parachute, which feat he successfully accomplished. After the death of
Robert Cocking in the first modern parachuting accident, questions were raised over which of the two competing parachute designs was superior: the cone-shaped parachute proposed by
Sir George Cayley and used by Cocking, or the umbrella-shaped design used by
André-Jacques Garnerin in his successful jump of 1797. Wise conducted numerous experiments comparing the two designs and found that Cayley's design always made a more stable descent. Cocking's failure was put down to poor calculations and substandard construction. (The oscillation problem inherent in the Garnerin parachute was later solved by the introduction of a vent in the top of the canopy). Another of Wise's innovations was the rip panel for controlled deflation on landing. Prior to Wise's use of the rip panel, balloons would drag along the ground when landing and had to be secured by anchors and lines. Balloonists wishing to deflate their balloons would climb out of their baskets onto the netting surrounding the balloon, and having scaled to the top of the balloon would open the valve to allow the gas to escape. The weight of the balloonist would cause the balloon to collapse inwards and there had been a number of accidents where the balloonists had been killed after becoming entangled in the rigging. Wise also recognised that the heat from the sun played a valuable role in warming the gas in the balloon, and built a black balloon to utilize the effects. He was the first to observe the
jet stream, noting there was a "great river of air which always blows from west to east". On August 17, 1859, he made the first flight of local
airmail in the U.S. from
Lafayette, Indiana, to
Crawfordsville, Indiana, in a balloon named
Jupiter, carrying 123 letters and 23 circulars of which one
cover was discovered in 1957. His trip of ended when he was forced to land by lack of buoyancy.
Transatlantic aspirations As one who recognized the possibilities of balloon flight by use of the high wind yet to be named the
Jet Stream, Wise had made plans for a transatlantic flight in a large aerostat he had built and named
Atlantic. Unfortunately his test flights for just such a trip were less than successful. Where he had enjoined company with another yet younger prominent balloonist, a Mr.
John LaMountain, an 1857 pre-flight of theirs had ended up caught by a windstorm over Lake Ontario forcing a crash landing in
Henderson, New York, which damaged the balloon and ended their partnership. La Mountain took over ownership of the
Atlantic but any further talk of a transatlantic flight was never heard.
American Civil War Wise was one of several top American balloonists who made a bid for Chief Aeronaut of a yet-to-be-established balloon corps for the Union Army during the opening months of the
American Civil War (see
Union Army Balloon Corps). Against major competition which included
Thaddeus S. C. Lowe and John La Mountain, he lacked either the endorsements of the science community, like those of Prof. Lowe, or the insidious propaganda ploys, like those of La Mountain. However, he did attract enough attention from topographical engineers to be recommended for building a balloon for the purposes of demonstrating aerial surveillance for
map making and undercut the bids of the others by $200. By July 19, 1861, General
Irvin McDowell's army was prepared to face the
First Battle of Bull Run. McDowell had called for a balloon to be sent to the front, but the Engineers awaited the belated arrival of John Wise. Thaddeus Lowe was at the ready and had been called up to inflate his balloon in Wise's stead. At the last minute Wise appeared with papers in hand demanding that Lowe step aside and allow him to inflate his balloon, which was rightfully commissioned into action. Major
Albert J. Myer and 20 men from the 26th Pennsylvania Volunteers secured the inflated balloon to a wagon and proceeded toward the battlefield at Centerville, Virginia. In his haste to move forward, Myer entangled the balloon in the trees, which disabled the craft and permanently removed Wise from involvement in the Civil War. In January 1918, during World War I, the Army established Camp John Wise Aerostation at
San Antonio, in what is now
Olmos Park, Texas, as a war balloon training center. == Disappearance ==