BalloonDescends

Waikato Times, Volume 109, Issue 18341, 29 May 1931, Page 7

Balloon Descends

A SCIENTIFIC ENTERPRISE. FEARS FOR THE ADVENTURERS. LAST SEEN OVER ITALY. United Press Assn. —Elec. Tel. Copyright. LONDON, May 28. Fears are entertained for Professor A, PJccard, a Belgian scientist, and his assistant, Dr. JCipfer, who ascended in a balloon from Augsburg, Bavaria, early yesterday morning with the object of reaching an altitude of 10 miles in order to penetrate and examine the upper atmosphere. The last news of the balloon received about midnight was that it was over Italy. Experts fear that the professor and his intrepid assistant are dead in the balloon, which they believe is drifting with the wind until the natural escape of gas causes its descent-. According to a statement made by officials at the Riedinger balloon factory the supply of oxygen would not last more than 17 hours, after which the occupants would lose the use of their limbs and enter a state of ooma with rapid poisoning from carbonic •aoid gas exuded from their bodies. It is assumed by scientists that if the occupants of the balloon were conscious they would have attempted to descend long ago. It is estimated that the balloon reached an altitude of nine miles, or 47,520 ft. —the highest ever attained.

The fact that the balloonists did not answer the rocket signals from Innsbruck and had made no attempt to use thoir parachutes caused the belief that they were suffocated soon after the ascent. The general assumption was that the balloon was wrecked on a remote glacier in the Alps. It is not certain whether the two men sent out distress signals when' over Venn. Aeroplanes could not get close enough to establish contact. The failure of the balloonists to signal to the hotel on the top of Zupspitzo, situated at a height of 9000 ft., strengthened the theory that they were either dead or unconscious, because at that height they could have opened the manhole to breathe natural air if their oxygen had given out. The twin brother of Professor Piccard, Dr. Jean Piccard, said he did not fear disaster. “My brother knows how to handle the balloon," he said. “ He is as safe as a man sitting in hi 3 home. No doubt he is delaying his descent till he is clear of the mountains." :i

A Lufthansa passenger aeroplane which reached Munich this morning zigzagged over the Tyrolean Alps,those on board looking for the balloon, but they saw no trace of it. Earlier messages describing the start of the venture stated that the two men entered the balloon before sunrise and a little later it was a mere speck in the distant sky.

The professor and his companion were confident that they would establish an altitude record, but they had no idea when or where they would descend. Shortly after they set out it was estimated that they had reached a height of 38,000 ft.