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Auguste Piccard photo by Johannes Meiner-

Top 10 Outstanding Facts about Auguste Piccard

Auguste Antoine Picaard was a Swiss physicist, explorer, and inventor who is known for his record-breaking hydrogen balloon flights with which he studied the Earth鈥檚 upper atmosphere.

However, Picaard was also known for his invention of the first bathyscaphe, FNRS-2 with which he made a number of unnamed dives in 1948 to explore the ocean鈥檚 depths.

Interestingly Piccard鈥檚 twin brother Jean Felix Piccard is also a notable figure in the annals of science and exploration as are a number of their relatives including Jacques Piccard, Jeannette Piccard, Bertrand Piccard, and Don Piccard.

Here are the top 10 outstanding facts about Auguste Piccard.

1. Auguste Piccard showed an Intense interest in Science as a Child

Auguste Piccard photo by Unknown-

He showed an intense interest in science as a child and he attended the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and became a professor of physics in Brussels at the Free University of Brussels in 1942.

However, the same year his son Jacques Piccard was born. Moreover, Auguste was a member of the Solvay Congress of 1922, 1924, 1927, 1930, and 1933.

2. Auguste Piccard has a Twin Brother

Auguste Piccard photo by Unknown-

Piccard has a twin brother called Jean Felix Piccard who is a chemist, engineer, professor, and high-altitude balloonist.

Jean invented clustered high-altitude balloons and with his wife Jeannette the plastic balloon.

Jean鈥檚 inventions and co-inventions are used in balloon flight, aircraft, and spacecraft. However, the two brothers were born in Basel Switzerland on 28^th January 1884.

3. He constructed a Pressurized Aluminum Gondola that would Ascent to a great Altitude without requiring a Pressure Suit

Auguste Piccard photo by Unknown-

In 1930 an interest in ballooning and a curiosity about the upper atmosphere led him to design a spherical pressurized aluminum gondola that would ascent to a great altitude without requiring a pressure suit.

Supported by the Belgian Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique Piccard constructed his gondola.

The important motivation for his research in the upper atmosphere was measurements of cosmic radiation which were supposed to give experimental evidence for the theories of Albert Einstein whom Piccard knew from the Solvay Conferences and who was a fellow alumnus of ETH.  

4. Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer became the First Human Beings to Enter the Stratosphere

Auguste Piccard photo by Unknown-

On May 1931 Piccard and Paul Kipfer took off from Augsburg Germany in a hydrogen balloon and reached a record altitude of 15,781m.

However, during this flight, they became the first human beings to enter the stratosphere and were able to gather substantial data on the upper atmosphere as well as measure cosmic rays.

Piccard and Kipfer are widely considered the first people to visually observe the curvature of the earth.

5. He Designed and Constructed the Bathyscaphe

In the mid-1930s Piccard鈥檚 interests shifted when he realized that a modification of his high-altitude balloon cockpit would allow descent into the deep ocean.

However, by 1937 he had designed the bathyscaphe a small steel gondola built to withstand great external pressure.

Construction began but was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II.

Moreover, resuming work in 1945 he completed the bubble-shaped cockpit that maintained normal air pressure for a person inside the capsule even as the water pressure outside increased to over 46 MPa.

Above the heavy steel capsule, a large flotation tank was attached and filled with a low-density liquid for buoyancy.

And the tank was filled with gasoline not as fuel but as flotation. This craft was named FNRS-2 and made a number of unmanned dives in 1948 before being given to the French Navy in 1950.

6. Auguste Piccard was the Inspiration for Professor Cuthbert’s Calculus in The Adventures of Tintin

Piccard was the inspiration for Professor Cuthbert’s Calculus in The Adventures of Tintin by Belgian cartoonist Herge.

Piccard held a teaching appointment in Brussels where Herge spotted his unmistakable figure in the street.

However, this connection was confirmed by Herge in an interview with Numa Sadoul.

鈥�Calculus is a reduced scale Piccard as the real Chap was very tall. He had an interminable neck that sprouted from a collar that was much too large鈥�. I made Calculus a Mini-Piccard otherwise I would have had to enlarge the frames of the cartoon strip.鈥�

7. An article in Popular Science describes the journey of Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer

An article in Popular Science in August 1931 describes their journey: 鈥�The story of their adventure surpasses fiction. During the ascent, the aluminum ball began to leak.

They plugged it desperately with Vaseline and cotton waste stopping the leak. In the first half hour, the balloon shot upward nine miles.

Through portholes, the observers saw the earth through a copper-colored bluish haze. It seemed like a flat disk with an upturned edge.

At the ten-mile level, the sky appeared a deep dark blue. With observations complete, the observers tried to descend but couldn鈥檛.

While their oxygen tanks emptied they floated aimlessly over Germany, Austria, and Italy.

Cool evening air contracted the balloon鈥檚 gas and brought them down on a glacier near Ober-Gurgl Austria with one hour鈥檚 supply of oxygen to spare.鈥�

8. Will Gregory鈥檚 Opera Piccard in Space premiered at the Queen Elizabeth Hall

Will Gregory鈥檚 opera Piccard in Space premiered at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on March 2011.

The libretto by Hattie Naylor focuses on Auguste Piccard鈥檚 first balloon ascent with his assistant Paul Kipfer and on the theories of Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton who both appear as characters in the drama.

9. Auguste Piccard wrote a Book about his Balloon Ascents

Piccard wrote a book about his balloon ascents called Entre Terre et Ciel in 1946 which was translated into English and published as Between Earth and Sky in 1950.

However, it is quite enjoyable to read even if Piccard cannot resist instructing the reader about the physics of the troposphere and the stratosphere he even spends the last part of the book discussing the possibilities of deep space flight at a time when only viable true rocket was the V-2.

10. He Died at the Age of 78

August Piccard died on 24^th March the year 1662 out of a heart attack which occurs when blood flow decreases or stops in the coronary artery of the heart causing damage to the heart muscle.

However, he died at his home in Lausanne Switzerland and he was 78 years old.