A container with a balloon drifts from Maryland to Anaheim

Los Angeles, California, TIMES, December 4, 1939, p.

ANAHEIM, December 4. - Pennies from heaven for the rest of your life will have a real meaning for 14-year-old Leroy Henderson. Today, the guy will receive $ 20 from Baltimore, Maryland.

Perhaps no one was more surprised than young Henderson yesterday when he looked up to the sky and saw a red parachute descending into a neighbor's backyard. He has conducted an investigation with results that promise to be very satisfactory.

Attached to the silk parachute were fragments of a rubber ball and an aluminum-tinted box about 5 inches thick, 8 inches wide and 10 inches long. There were strange words on the box that showed that the device was an automatic weather radio broadcast that was transmitted from Baltimore, Maryland, on November 8.

The remnants of the balloon told their story. After the device went so high that the atmospheric pressure was no longer enough to support the bag, it burst.

This automatically released the thin parachute from the round cardboard case, allowing the box to drop gracefully to the ground. It was open on both sides to allow the broadcasting equipment to function, and a small flap opened a view to another part of the interior.

The box is printed with instructions for her return to Baltimore. Any postmaster has the right to accept mailboxes for free.

If the mechanism turns out to be intact, and the search engine follows the printed instructions, it is promised $ 20, and there seems to be an answer to Leroy's prayer to Santa Claus.

Tomorrow he will send the box to the US Weather Bureau in Maryland. After that, he will wait in his house, expecting that his loyalty will be rewarded.