GREAT BALLOON TRIP.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 14, 27 October 1934, Page 6

GREAT BALLOON TRIP.

NINE MILES ABOVE EARTH. EXPLORER TELLS OF ORDEAL. Professor Max Cosyns, the Belgian stratosphere explorer, «and his assistant, Mr Van der Elst, landed in the tiny village of Petroyic,. Yugoslavia, at 9.30 p.m. on August 18. While the world feared, through lack of news, that they had perished in their balloon, the two men slept peacefully in peasant beds in a schoolwmas'ter's cottage. They were unable to announce their safety to the world, as the telephone service to the village is cut off at night. The balloon is calculated to have risen nine miles above the earth. "While in the air," Professor Cosyns said, "the sound of our recorder registering the cosmic rays was like the sound of heavy rain falling on a roof. We were awfully cold and suffered greatly from getting wet. • Drops of moisture fell on us from the like a small rainstorm. We were Boakedi to the skin all the time. "We had enough exygen and when we landed we still had a quarter of the quantity we started out with. This in itselfi was a-source of great danger, for had we crashed when we were landing, the containers would have exploded with the same effect as a 16in shell. "We had food with us, but only ate one sandwich each. We were not at all afraid, because we were much too interested in watching our instruments and making records of atmospheric conditions and other things "We were never below 40,000 ft. while crossing Austria, where it was ' reported that we were crossing at a height of only 12,000 ft," said the professor.