AN OCEAN DESCENT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 28, 13 November 1939, Page 3

AN OCEAN DESCENT.

PLANS OF DR. PICCARD. Descent in a steel “balloon” from five to seven miles to the bottom of the sea is planned next spring by Di. Auguste Piccard. University of Brussels physicist, who ten years ago was the first human being to ascend into the stratosphere fourteen miles above the surface of the earth, says a Brussels message to the “New York Times. Professor Piccard already has constructed in his laboratory here models of the metal shell in which he expects to reach depths hitherto undreamed of and to open the way for exploration of a realm whose deep valleys of total darkness may be the abode of strange, primitive monsters, or the place of vast gold deposits. The “Columbus of Space”—-as the tall Belgian professor rvith his hinged spectacles was termed a few yeai s ago - is confident that both he and the companion he selects to accompany him will return to the surface alive and unharmed.

The sea balloon is based on essentially the same principles as the spheroid shell in which he made his supposedly fantastic flight into the stratoapherebut with everything in reverse. He has constructed two models. One, a hollow ball made of electron —a combination of magnesium and aluminium —has been given rigid tests under high pressures such as one would expect to encountci* at sea depths ox five miles. The other, made of steel, stands pressures such as would be encountered at depths of seven miles. Heavy pieces of iron ballast would be attached to the outside of the “balloon’’ by magnetic attraction, the force of which could be controlled from the interior. The speed of the actual descent below certain critical depths could be controlled by water chambers, shut off from the main compartments, which could be filled and emptied at will by valves on the inside. ' Electrical storage batteries, which would supply light and power as well as provide a feeble current for maintaining the magnetic attraction to hold the ballast, also would be attached to the outside of the shell and constitute the last bit of ballast to be dropped off in case of an extreme emergency. Such an emergency, Professor Piccard said, might result from gettiug caught in a tangle of seaweed near the surface after a successful ascent.

Inside the -ball, Professor Piccard plans to carry much the same type of equipment as he used in his stratosphere flight. There will be equipment for purifying the air and tanks carrying a reserve of oxygen. The balloon will be equipped with portholes Avitli thick glass windows, through which, with the aid oi powerful searchlights, it will be possible to see and photograph the “scenery’' through which he passes. The windows, of course, constitute the weakest part oi the shell. Provision is made, however, by which they may be covered (immediately with watertight steel shutters of the same thickness as the steel walls of the rest of the shell the instant the first crack is caused by the increasing pressure.

For auxiliary equipment, the balloon will carry motion picture cameras, instruments for recording the depth and speed of ascent or descent, and radio equipment by means of which, as soon as the ball reaches the surface, it will bo possible for an accompanying ship with radio direction finder equipment to locate it and come at once to the rescue of its occupants. This equipment will bo sufficiently powerful to send signals for 400 miles, indicating the maximum distance which Professor Piccard believes the balloon might be carried by the ocean currents at great depths. The shell is being constructed to withstand pressures of from 5001 b to 6001 b per square centimetre of surface.