Auguste Piccard
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Auguste Piccard
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Auguste Piccard, 1961 (credit: Horst Tappe/EB Inc.)
Auguste Piccard, 1961 (credit: Horst Tappe/EB Inc.)
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Auguste Piccard
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Auguste Piccard
The Swiss scientist Auguste Piccard (1884-1962) is famed for his explorations of the stratosphere and the ocean depths.
Born into an academic family in Basel on Jan. 28, 1884, Auguste Piccard was educated there and at the Zurich Polytechnic. From 1907 he taught in Zurich, was early interested in aviation, and studied the behavior of balloons. In 1922 he went to Brussels University as professor of physics, where he remained until 1954 (except during the war years, which he spent in Switzerland). He wished to investigate the physics of the stratosphere, a region which was beyond the range of sensitive automatic instruments until the advent of electronics and continuous radio monitoring from the ground. Supported by the Belgian Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique, in 1930 Piccard designed a hydrogen balloon supporting an airtight cabin to carry an observer into the stratosphere. With this balloon (named FNRS) in 1931-1932 he reached record heights of over 50, 000 feet. Thus was a new era of scientific exploration opened. Lack of funds prevented his participation in further flights.
In 1937 Piccard turned to deep-sea exploration and developed the bathyscaphe, the underwater analog of his stratosphere balloon. Aided again by the Belgian foundation, work began but was interrupted by war. Thus the first bathyscaphe, FNRS 2, was not completed until 1948. It consisted of a strong spherical cast-steel capsule with Plexiglas windows supported by a lightly constructed float filled with petroleum. As in an air balloon, vertical movement was controlled by the release of ballast or supporting fluid. In the bathyscaphe iron-shot ballast was retained by energized electromagnets and released by interrupting the current. Dives off Dakar in 1948 proved the utility of the system.
In 1950 the vessel was transferred to the French navy and a new bathyscaphe, FNRS 3, was constructed. Initially under the direction of Piccard, it utilized the pressure capsule and much essential equipment from the FNRS 2. But difficulties with the French and contacts made in Italy by Piccard's son, Jacques, led to their building a third bathyscaphe, the Trieste, with Swiss and Italian funds in 1952-1953. Essentially similar to the FNRS vessels, the new bathyscaphe had many improvements, including a forged-steel capsule. A successful dive of more than 10, 000 feet was completed off Capri in 1953. Shortage of funds hampered research until 1957, when support was received from the U.S. Navy. After evaluation the Trieste was purchased and shipped to San Diego. In 1960, with a strengthened observation capsule and increased buoyancy, the bathyscaphe dived 35, 800 feet to the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench off Guam, the world's deepest known hole.
From 1954 Piccard led an active retirement in Lausanne, where he died on March 24, 1962. Most of the Trieste's work after 1953 was directed by Jacques Piccard.
Further Reading
Auguste Piccard, In Balloon and Bathyscaphe (1956), and Jacques Piccard and Robert S. Dietz, Seven Miles Down (1962), provide informative, if popularized, accounts of the Piccards' work. G. Houot and P. Willm, Two Thousand Fathoms Down (1955), gives an illuminating but chauvinistic account of the FNRS 3.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
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Auguste Piccard
Piccard, Auguste (ōgüst' pēkär'), 1884-1962, Swiss physicist, b. Basel. He became a professor at the Univ. of Brussels in 1922. He and his twin brother Jean Felix (d. 1963) are known for their balloon ascents into the stratosphere; in Aug., 1932, Auguste ascended to 55,500 ft (16,916 m). He was a collaborator with Albert Einstein in developing instruments for measuring radioactivity. From 1946 he focused on the ocean depths, making several notable dives with his son, Jacques Piccard, 1922-2008, off the African and Italian coasts in a bathyscaphe of his own design. In 1960 Jacques Piccard, with U.S. Navy Lieutenant Donald Walsh, descended to 35,800 ft (10,912 m) in the Marianas Trench. Jacques's son Jacques Piccard, 1958-, is also a balloonist; in Mar., 1999, he and Briton Brian Jones became the first to circle the earth nonstop, in the Breitling Orbiter 3. They wrote Around the World in 20 Days (1999). With Jones he wrote Around the World in 20 Days (1999) about the flight.
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Auguste Piccard
| Auguste Piccard | |
|---|---|
 Auguste Piccard in 1932 |
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| Born | 28 January 1884 Basel, Switzerland |
| Died | 24 March 1962 (aged 78) Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Nationality | Swiss |
| Fields | physics, inventor, explorer |
| Institutions | Free University of Brussels (now Université Libre de Bruxelles and Vrije Universiteit Brussel) |
| Alma mater | ETH Zurich |
Auguste Antoine Piccard (28 January 1884 – 24 March 1962) was a Swiss physicist, inventor and explorer.
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Contents
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Biography
Piccard and his twin brother Jean Felix were born in Basel, Switzerland. Showing an intense interest in science as a child, 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 1922, the same year his son Jacques Piccard was born. He was a member of the Solvay Congress of 1922, 1924, 1927, 1930 and 1933.
In 1930, an interest in ballooning, and a curiosity about the upper atmosphere led him to design a spherical, pressurized aluminum gondola that would allow ascent to great altitude without requiring a pressure suit. Supported by the Belgian Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) Piccard constructed his gondola.
Image courtesy of: Collection Musée du Léman, Nyon - Suisse
On 27 May 1931, Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer took off from Augsburg, Germany, and reached a record altitude of 15,785 m (51,788 ft). During this flight, Piccard was able to gather substantial data on the upper atmosphere, as well as measure cosmic rays. On 18 August 1932, launched from Dübendorf, Switzerland, Piccard and Max Cosyns made a second record-breaking ascent to 16,200 m (53,150 ft). He ultimately made a total of twenty-seven balloon flights, setting a final record of 23,000 m (75,459 ft).[citation needed]
In the mid-1930s, Piccard's interests shifted when he realized that a modification of his high altitude balloon cockpit would allow descent into the deep ocean. 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. 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 (6,700 psi). Above the heavy steel capsule, a large flotation tank was attached and filled with a low density liquid for buoyancy. Liquids are relatively incompressible and can provide buoyancy that does not change as the pressure increases. And so, the huge tank was filled with gasoline, not as a fuel, but as flotation. To make the now floating craft sink, tons of iron were attached to the float with a release mechanism to allow resurfacing. This craft was named FNRS-2 and made a number of unmanned dives in 1948 before being given to the French Navy in 1950.[1] There, it was redesigned, and in 1954, it took a man safely down 4,176 m (13,701 ft).
Piccard family
- Jules Piccard (professor of chemistry)
- Auguste Piccard (physicist, aeronaut, balloonist, hydronaut)
- Jacques Piccard (hydronaut)
- Bertrand Piccard (aeronaut, balloonist)
- Jacques Piccard (hydronaut)
- Jean Felix Piccard (organic chemist, aeronaut, and balloonist)
- Jeannette Piccard (wife of Jean Felix) (aeronaut and balloonist)
- Don Piccard (balloonist)
- Jeannette Piccard (wife of Jean Felix) (aeronaut and balloonist)
- Auguste Piccard (physicist, aeronaut, balloonist, hydronaut)
References in popular media
- Auguste Piccard was the inspiration for Professor Cuthbert Calculus in The Adventures of Tintin by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. Piccard held a teaching appointment in Brussels where Hergé spotted his unmistakable figure in the street.
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- This connection was confirmed by Hergé in an interview with Numa Sadoul.
- "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... I made Calculus a mini-Piccard, otherwise I would have had to enlarge the frames of the cartoon strip."[2]
- Gene Roddenberry named Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek after one or both of the twin brothers Auguste and Jean Felix Piccard, and derived Jean-Luc Picard from their names.[3]
- Will Gregory's opera, Piccard in Space, premiered at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on 31 March 2011. The libretto, by Hattie Naylor, focuses on Auguste Piccard's first balloon assent with his assistant Paul Kipfer, and on the theories of Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton, who both appear as characters in the drama. The reviews were generally hostile.[4]
See also
References
- ^ Brand, V (1977). "Submersibles - Manned and Unmanned.". South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society Journal 7 (3). ISSN 0813-1988. OCLC 16986801. http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/6154. Retrieved 2008-07-10.
- ^ Horeau , Yves The Adventures of Tintin at Sea 1999, English translation 2004 for the National Maritime Museum, Published by John Maurray , ISBN 0-7195-6119-1 . Chapter on Outside characters drawn into the Adventures.
- ^ University of California, Berkeley et al. [and informal sources on Jean Piccard talk page] (2003). "Living With A Star: 3: Balloon/Rocket Mission: Scientific Ballooning". The Regents of the University of California. http://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/LWS_GEMS/3/scien.htm. and Piccard, Elizabeth (January 23, 2004). "Talk of the Nation: Science on Stage". National Public Radio. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1614132. Retrieved 2007-01-29.
- ^ See the daily press for 1 April 2011, including The Financial Times; The Independent; and The Telegraph.
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