GREAT ASCENT SEQUEL

Taranaki Daily News, 23 April 1932, Page 5

GREAT ASCENT SEQUEL

GONDOLA IN THE TYROL.

PEOPLE PREVENT SALVAGE.

London, April 13.

An act of sabotage has frustrated the attempt of the directors of the Brussels University Museum to retrieve from the Gurgl Glacier, in the Tyrol, the spherical aluminium gondola in which Professor Piccard ascended to a record height last May, says the Vienna correspondent of the Times.

Dr. Kipfer, who was superintending the removal, was obliged to anchor the gondola to the mountainside one night, for fear of avalanches. On his return next morning he found that the ropes had been cut and that the huge gondola had vanished. It was eventually discerned jammed in a 600 ft gorge. It is feared that it cannot be recovered. The inhabitants of Gurgl resented the removal of the gondola, hoping that it would become a tourist attraction.

On May 26, 1931, Professor Piccard and an assistant ascended in a balloon at Augsburg, Germany before sunrise,’ intending to be down again by 1 p.m. The professor proposed to go up 10 miles to study cosmic radiation and electrons and attached to the balloon was a ballshaped gondola, containing the two men and their instruments, the ball being sealed up in order to protect the occupants at extreme altitudes. The balloon disappeared into the sky at midday, at an estimated height of 36,000 ft, and then commenced a fantastic adventure which thrilled all Europe. Motorists and police on cycles pursued the balloon into Italy, where an aeroplane went up in a vain -endeavour to make contact. As the bewildering chase continued fears were expressed for the safety of the men, but they were found next day, having spent a shivering night on a rocky ledge, after their balloon had landed on a glacier, near Obergurgae, in the Tyrol. ‘They had reached a height of 53,000 ft, their descent being interrupted by a faulty valve spring. The gondola was left at the spot for subsequent salvage. z