BALLOON ASCENT.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20630, 20 August 1932, Page 15

BALLOON ASCENT.

A RECORD ALTITUDE. PROFESSOR PICCARD'S SUCCESS. (UNITED I'KESS ASSOCIATION -BY KLECTKIC TELEGRAPH—COPrniGUT.) ZURICH, August 18. Professor August© Piccard, who acbievod his ambition in May, 1931, by rising to the amazing height of 51,458 feet —or nearly ten miles —iu a bulloon, to-day asceuded again, reached itio height of 10,500 metres (10 441 yards 7 inches) and descended safely. Professor Piccard alighted near l>esenzano, Lake Uarda (Italy). He had previously wirelessed that ne was 10,500 metros up, breaking his previous record. He then said that ho intendod alighting soon to avoid coming down in tho Adriatic Sea. After a flight of 10 hours, in which ho ascended to a height of 55,777 ieet, nearly twice tho height of Mt. Everest, eclipsing his own altitudo record by half a mile 1 , Professor Piccard and Herr Cosyns desccuded on the shore ot Lake Garda. Professor Piccard states that the scientific results wero magnificent, but would tako some time to work out. He added: "We feared for a while we would be frozen to death." The Professor was luckier than last year, when he was compelled to land on the Gurgl Glacier. This time the wind carried him over Venice. He made an easy landing, but tho balloon was slightly damaged. Professor Piccard and Herr Cosyns stepped from tho gondola unharmed Tho change from the bitter cold atmosphere, far helow zero, to the sweltering heat of tho Itahnn plains, however, was so that the men almost fainted as they touched tho ground. Professor Piccard declined to he interviewed. as he was fired and had not yet had time to test his instruments. [On May 27th, 1931, Professor Piccard, of tho University of Brussels, accompanied by Horr Kipfer, ascended to a height of 10 miloß from Augsuurg, Bavaria, and alighted alter 18 hours on the Gross Gurgl Glacier in tho Austrian Tyrol. Professor Piccard found that at a height of 48,000 feet the conductivity of tho air was only halt as strong as at the height of 27,000 feet previously reached by balloonist®. A second observation was that tho cosmic rays could not proceed from tho ordinary type of radio-activity. He was of the opinion that they seemed to hare their origin not in massivo bodies, but in attenuated bodies which possessed not more than 100 grammes a square centimetre of density at their surface. He claimed that his ascent had proved that the aeroplane of the future would seek to fly in the higher altitudes, because the atmosphere there enabled a speed to be attained three times greater than that which was possible in tho lower strata. The aeroplane industry could build confidently with this object in view, because thesa upper altitudes prevented no difficulty from the nhvsiological point of view, provided that aeroplanes were fitted with airtight cabins.!

ARCTIC ASCENT PLANNED.

(Received August 20th, 1.20 a.m.) ROME, August 10. Professor Piccard states that his next ascent will bo from Hudson Bay, near the magnetic polo in order to study the influence of cosmic rays. The maximum height reached yesterday was 10.404 miles. Even at the highest lie could see the earth perfectly plainly, also both the Adriatic and tho Mediterranean. The lowest temperature was thrco degrees Fahrenheit, compared with forty below zero on tho previous ascent.