Editing Auguste Piccard (section)

==Biography==
Piccard and his twin brother [[Jean Piccard|Jean Felix Piccard]] were born in [[Basel]], Switzerland, on 28&nbsp;January 1884.<ref name=obit/>

Showing an intense interest in science as a child, he attended the [[ETH Zurich|Swiss Federal Institute of Technology]] (ETH) in Zürich and became a professor of [[physics]] in [[Brussels]] at the [[Université Libre de Bruxelles|Free University of Brussels]] in 1922, the same year his son [[Jacques Piccard]] was born. He was a member of the [[Solvay Conference|Solvay Congress]] of 1922, 1924, 1927, 1930 and 1933.

[[Image:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-11505, Vorbereitung für Stratosphären-Flug.jpg|thumb|left|Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer, wearing improvised crash helmets, September 1930]]

In 1930, an interest in [[hot air ballooning|ballooning]] and a curiosity about the upper atmosphere led him to design a spherical, pressurized aluminum gondola that would allow ascent to a great altitude without requiring a pressure suit. Supported by the Belgian [[NFWO|''Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique'']] (FNRS), Piccard constructed his gondola.

An 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.

{{Quote_box|
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|quote="A huge yellow balloon soared skyward, a few weeks ago, from Augsberg, Germany. Instead of a basket, it trailed an air-thin black-and-silver aluminum ball. Within [the contraption] Prof. Auguste Piccard, physicist, and Charles Kipfer aimed to explore the air 50,000 feet up. Seventeen hours later, after being given up for dead, they returned safely from an estimated height of more than 52,000 feet, almost ten miles, shattering every aircraft altitude record."
|source=''[[Popular Science]]'', August, 1931<ref name="Popular science August 1931 page 23">{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BCgDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA23 |magazine=[[Popular Science]] |date=August 1931 |publisher=Bonnier Corporation |title=Ten Miles High in an Air-Tight Ball |pages=23 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>
|}}

On 27 May 1931, Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer took off from [[Augsburg]], Germany, in a hydrogen balloon,<ref>{{Cite news|date=May 27, 1931|title=Piccard Balloon Off To Rise 50,000 Feet: Swiss Scientist and Aide, Sealed in Gondola, Hope to Visit Stratosphere|page=1|work=[[The New York Times]]|id={{ProQuest|99083688}}}}</ref> and reached a record altitude of {{convert|15,781|m|ft mi||abbr=on}} (FAI Record File Number 10634). During this flight, they became the first human beings to enter the [[stratosphere]],<ref name="BPexplorer">{{cite web|url=https://bertrandpiccard.com/family-tradition-auguste-piccard|title=Explorer of the stratosphere, he paved the way for modern aviation access|access-date=12 February 2019|archive-date=11 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111150037/https://bertrandpiccard.com/family-tradition-auguste-piccard|url-status=dead}}</ref> and were able to gather substantial data on the [[upper atmosphere]], as well as measure [[cosmic ray]]s.<ref name="Popular science August 1931 page 23"/><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lynch |first=David K. |date=1 December 2008 |title=Visually discerning the curvature of the Earth |url=https://thulescientific.com/Lynch%20Curvature%202008.pdf |journal=[[Applied Optics]] |language=en |volume=47 |issue=34 |pages=H39-43 |bibcode=2008ApOpt..47H..39L |doi=10.1364/AO.47.000H39 |issn=0003-6935 |pmid=19037349 |quote="The first direct visual detection of the curvature of the horizon has been widely attributed to Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer on 27 May 1931."}}</ref>

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 {{convert|46|MPa|psi|abbr=on|lk=on}}. 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.<ref name=brand>{{cite journal |last=Brand |first=V. |title=Submersibles - Manned and Unmanned. |journal=South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society Journal |volume=7 |issue=3 |year=1977 |issn=0813-1988 |oclc=16986801 |url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/6154 |access-date=10 July 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080801135138/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/6154 |archive-date=1 August 2008 |url-status=usurped }}</ref>  There, it was redesigned, and in 1954, it took a man safely down {{convert|4,176|m|ft|0|abbr=on}}. [[File:FRNS III (HDR) 01.jpg|thumb|The FNRS III at the Tour Royale in [[Toulon]], France]]

Piccard and his son, Jacques, built a second bathyscaphe and together they dove to a record-breaking depth of {{convert|3,150|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} in 1953.<ref name="BPexplorer" />

Auguste Piccard died on 24 March 1962 of a [[heart attack]] at his home in [[Lausanne]], Switzerland; he was 78 years old.<ref name=obit>{{cite news |title=Auguste Piccard, Explorer, Is Dead. Auguste Piccard Is Dead at 78. Stratosphere and Sea Explorer |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1962/03/26/archives/auguste-piccard-explorer-is-dead-auguste-piccard-is-dead-at-78.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=26 March 1962 }}</ref>