Science: Balloon Bombs

They were on a fishing trip in the woods of Oregon’s Lake County: the Rev. Archie Mitchell, his wife, and five children. Joan Patzke, 11, spotted a strange white object. Another child tugged at the thing. Suddenly there was a tremendous explosion. Only the minister survived.

Thus, announced the War Department last week, death came early last month to the first victims of Japanese bombing on the U.S. mainland. And Chief Lyle F. Watts of the U.S. Forest Service made public some facts and estimates about the ingenious workings of the Jap bomb-bearing balloons (TIME, June 4).

The balloons are kept in the stratosphere by a device which jettisons a sandbag whenever they begin to drop. Blown along by the prevailing easterly wind at some 125 m.p.h., the balloons reach the U.S. in an estimated 80 to 120 hours. When the last sandbag has dropped, Japs calculate, the balloon should have reached its goal. Another automatic gadget then starts it dropping, one by one; its load of incendiary bombs. When the last egg has been laid, a third automatic device (providing it works) permits the Jap balloon, in true Nipponese style, to blow itself up.