AN EXCITING VENTURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 4029, 2 June 1931, Page 28

AN EXCITING VENTURE.

PROFESSOR PICARD’S ASCENT LONDON, May 27. An Augsberg message says that the sun had not risen when Professor Picard, a Belgian scientist, accompanied by his assistant, M. Krappe, ascended in a balloon, which was soon a speck in the sky, journeying 10 miles up to penetrate and examine the stratum of the sphere. He was confident that he would establish a height record, but had no idea when or where he would descend. A later mesage stated that it was estimated that Professor Picard was - then 38,000 feet up. Professor Picard, in the middle of last September, made an attempt to ascend in a balloon in order to measure cosmic radiation _nd the ironisation of the air. The attempt was a fiasco, as there was not enough gas in the balloon to enable it to rise. BALLOON F’buND IN ALPS. LONDON, May 28. A Berne message Says that the Swift Aviation Bureau has been informed by telephone that Professor Picard’s balloon was found on a glacier in the Oetz Alps. FEARS OF DISASTER DEEPENED. BERLIN, May 28. The fact that there was no sign of the balloon after daybreak has deepened the fear that the occupants have perished. There has been no word since the balloon was seen last night at Innsbruck, and it is feared that the cold contracted th*> gas and forced the balloon down in the Alps. The fact that rocket signals from Innsbruck were not answered and that the occupants also made no attempt to use their parachutes has caused the belief that they were suffocated soon after the ascent. The general assumption is that the balloon has been wrecked on a remote glacier in the Alps, and observers are uncertain whether distress signals were made when the balloon was over Venn. Planes ware unable to get close enough to establish contact. The balloon’s failure to signal an hotel at the top of Zugspitze at a height of 9000 feet strengthens the theory that the men are either dead or unconscious, because they could at that height have opened the manhole in order to breathe the natural air if their supply of oxygen had given out. A twin brother, Dr Jean Picard, has no fears of a disaster. He said: “ My brother knows how to handle the balloon. He is as safe as a man sitting at home. There is no doubt that he is delaying his descent fill he is clear of the mountains.” A Lufthansa passenger aeroplane reached Munich and zig-zagged over Hie Tyrolean Alps looking for the balloon, but found no trace of it. BALLOON LAST SEEN OVER ITALY. LONDON, May 28. The last news of the balloon was that it was over Italy about midnight. Experts fear that Professor Pickard and his intrepid assistant, whose correct name is Dr Kipper, not Krappe, are dead in the balloon and are drifting with the wind until the natural escape of gas causes the balloon’s descent. ’ According to a statement by the Riedinger Balloon Factory, the supply of oxygen will not last more than 17

hours, after which the occupants will 1 , lose the use of their limbs and enter a state of coma with rapid poisoning from, the carbonic acid gas exuded from their bodies. It is assumed by scientists, that if the occupants were conscious', they would long ago have attempted a, descent.

It is estimated that the balloon reached!, an altitude of nine miles, the greatest height ever attained.

DESCENT FROM ALPS. MUNICH, May 28. Professor Picard’s balloon was observed lying near the Pilch shelter, but at an altitude of 8000 feet, in the Oetzthal Alps. No signals were observed. A rescue party left Gurgl on a tlirea hours’ journey- to the balloon, which may be marooned on the great Gurl Glacier. Airmen flew near the airship and saw no traces of life. An unconfirmed report stated that Professor Picard and his assistant were unconscious, but a later message said that the balloonists were alive and well, and that they state that they ascended over 10 miles. SEEN ON MOUNTAIN LEDGE. LONDON, May 28. The Vienna correspondent of The Times states: “The villagers at Obergurgae. relate that they saw a balloon early in the morning on a mountain ledge. A rescue party was organised and started for the balloon. Presently they saw Professor Picard and Dr Kipfer huddled in a rocky cleft shivering with cold. Their clothes were torn to shreds. Picard related that he stood throughout the night on the same spot in fear of losing his footing. NEVER THE SLIGHTEST DANGER. BERLIN, May 28. Professor Picard says: “We were never in the slightest danger and did. not use our reserve supply of oxygen. It was a marvellous flight, although long and difficult. We secured important data sufficient to give scientists throughout the world weeks of work and months of calculations.” HONOURED BY THEIR KING. BRUSSELS, May 28; King Albert has conferred the Order of Leopold on Professor Picard and Dr Kipfer. “THE COLUMBUS OF SPACE.” LONDON, May 28. An Innsbruck message states that Professor Picard descended to earth to to find himself famous, although he was once .regarded as a crank. He is now hailed as the Columbus of the unexplored regions of space. The village of Gurgl overwhelmed the visitors. Its solitary hotel was packed out and Professor Picard was deluged with telegrams, and offers of large sums for articles and books are pouring in. Professor Picard’s real object was the examination of conditions in the stratosphere as a possible region of air communications. He believed that aeroplanes would possibly attain undreamtof speeds owing to the small air resistance there as well as the absence of storms and airpockets. Another purpose was to investigate the nature and origin of the mysterious rays known as death rays, whose activity is interfered with by radiation from the earth. Therefore they could be examined only from a great height. In an interview Professor Picard said: “We seemed in an endless infinity of blue. It was like floating in the sea with blue water and blue shores all round. We felt an indiscribable happiness. We took three hours to reach th© stratosphere and 14 to descend.” The temperature of the atmosphere falls in general to a height of six miles. Above this level the temperature remains practically constant, no further decrease taking place. The name stratosphere hag been given to this upper region. FROZEN BREATH TO DRINK. LONDON, May 29. The Vienna correspondent of The Times states: “Professor Picard declared that he reached a height of 53,000 feet within three and a-half hours. They shot up at the rate of 45 feet per second. The temperature outside at the highest altitude was 55deg to GOdeg centigrade below zero. The water supply proving insufficient he scratched the frozen breath from the inside walls of the aluminium cubicle and drank it again and again. Some of their scientific apparatus failed to function at the highest altitude, but happily he was able to establish, inter alia, that the conductibility of gasses induced by cosmic rays increased with altitude. The inoon was much brighter than when observed from the earth. The lunar mountains stood out in magnificent relief. The men suffered greatly from cold, but breathed without difficulty owing to good oxygen apparatus, though it was revealed when they landed that they had only an hour’s oxygen left. He never doubted the success of the experiment, which he intends to repeat.”