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myNotes
Swiss-born Auguste Piccard (1884–1962) 6 Below the canopy hung a lightweight
studied engineering in Zurich before aluminum sphere. This specially designed
becoming a professor of physics in Brussels, cabin, with eight tiny portholes and two
Belgium. There he grew interested in new hatches, was just large enough for a two-
theories about the cosmic rays that were man crew and their instruments. Once the
believed to be active in the stratosphere. To balloon had risen to 5,000 feet, the hatches
learn more, he decided to go and observe were sealed and the cabin became airtight,
them directly. so the pressure inside remained constant no
4 In those days, the stratosphere was matter how high the balloon went. (The
beyond the reach of any airplane, so the same principle applies to the pressurized
only way to travel there was by balloon. In cabins that are standard on all modern
1862, scientists James Glaisher and Henry high-flying passenger aircraft.) In order for
Coxwell had risen more than six miles in a Piccard and his assistant to breathe safely,
balloon. In 1912, Victor Hess, the scientist the cabin was equipped with around ten
who discovered the existence of cosmic rays, hours’ supply of pure oxygen and a system
had reached over three miles. But all three for recycling stale air.
had nearly died in the process. So how 7 On May 26, 1931, the FNRS (the
could Piccard ascend to seven and a half balloon was named after its sponsor) lifted
miles, as he hoped, and still return safely off from Augsburg, Germany. Up and up
to Earth? and up it went, climbing into the
5 Backed by Belgium’s FNRS (National stratosphere. Amazingly, some seventeen
Fund for Scientific Research), Auguste hours later, it floated safely down again and
constructed a remarkable balloon. Its landed in the Swiss Alps. On this first
enormous canopy was made from very light flight, Piccard and his assistant, Paul Kipfer,
cotton, sealed with a thin coat of rubber. had reached a world-record 51,775 feet.
To make it rise, the canopy was inflated However, an air leak and the tangling of the
with lighter-than-air hydrogen. To descend, hydrogen-release valve had made it too
the crew pulled a cord to release hydrogen dangerous to gather any scientific data.
from the top of the canopy, making the
principle A scientific principle is a rule that
whole balloon heavier.
explains how something in the natural world works.
cosmic Something that is cosmic is beyond Earth
and its atmosphere.
ascend To ascend is to go up.
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