Editing Jean Piccard

{{about|the chemist, professor and balloonist|the 17th century [[France|French]] [[astronomer]]|Jean Picard}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Jean Piccard
| image              = Jean_Piccard-BYU-1938.jpg
| alt                = shoulder high portrait outdoors <!-- Fair use of Image:Jean_Piccard-BYU-1938.jpg - for rationale see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Jean_Piccard-BYU-1938.jpg -->
| image_size         = 200px
| caption            = Jean Piccard visiting Brigham Young University in 1938
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1884|1|28}}
| birth_place        = [[Basel]], Switzerland
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1963|1|28|1884|1|28}}
| death_place        = [[Minneapolis]], United States
| nationality        = [[Switzerland|Swiss]] and from 1931 American
| spouse             = [[Jeannette Piccard|Jeannette Ridlon]]
| children           = [[Don Piccard]] (son)
| relatives          = {{ublist|[[Auguste Piccard]] (brother)|[[Jacques Piccard]] (nephew)}}
| occupation         = chemist, engineer, professor and balloonist
| known_for          = 
| module             = {{Infobox scientist |child=yes
  | field             = [[Inorganic chemistry]]
  | work_institution  = [[University of Munich]], <br>[[University of Lausanne]], <br>[[University of Chicago]], <br>[[University of Minnesota]]
  | alma_mater        =  [[ETH Zürich]]
  | thesis_title      = Ueber Konstitution und Farbe der Chinonimine
  | thesis_url        = https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/handle/20.500.11850/134634
  | thesis_year       = 1909
  | doctoral_advisor  = [[Richard Willstätter]]
  | known_for         = 
  | awards            = 
  | footnotes         = 
 }}
}}

'''Jean Felix Piccard''' (January 28, 1884 in [[Basel]], Switzerland &ndash; January 28, 1963 in [[Minneapolis, Minnesota]]), also known as '''Jean Piccard''', was a [[Switzerland|Swiss]]-born [[Americans|American]] chemist, engineer, professor and high-altitude [[balloon (aircraft)|balloonist]]. He invented clustered [[high-altitude balloon]]s, and with his wife [[Jeannette Piccard|Jeannette]], the plastic balloon. Piccard's inventions and co-inventions are used in balloon flight, aircraft and [[spacecraft]].

==Family==
Piccard and [[Jeannette Piccard|Jeannette Ridlon]] met at the [[University of Chicago]] where he taught and she received her master's degree. They married and had three sons, John, Paul and [[Don Piccard|Donald]], and also had foster children.<ref name=UCBerkeley>{{cite web| author= University of California et al. [and informal sources on Jean Piccard talk page]| title= Living With A Star: 3: Balloon/Rocket Mission: Scientific Ballooning| year= 2003| url= http://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/LWS_GEMS/3/scien.htm| accessdate= 2007-01-27| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100626103845/http://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/LWS_GEMS/3/scien.htm| archive-date= 2010-06-26| url-status= dead}}</ref><ref name=EP>{{cite web| author= Piccard, Elizabeth via National Public Radio| title= Talk of the Nation: Science on Stage| website= [[NPR]]| date=  January 23, 2004| url= https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1614132| accessdate= 2007-01-29}}</ref>

==Stratosphere flight==
[[File:Jean-Piccard-from video.png|thumb|left|alt=Waist high portrait of male in his forties, quite poor quality, taken before sunrise, wearing a light colored suit. Man in uniform to his right, onlooker at right.|Piccard signing autographs at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair]]
Piccard was the co-pilot for his wife Jeannette on the third and final voyage of the ''Century of Progress''. The largest balloon in the world was conceived for him to fly at the [[Century of Progress|World's Fair]] in 1933 but was flown there by US Navy pilots who were licensed.<ref name=Navy>{{cite web| author= Unknown author| title= To Leave the Earth| publisher= US Department of the Navy - Navy Historical Center| date= n.d.| url= http://www.history.navy.mil/download/space-04.PDF| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20010629190957/http://www.history.navy.mil/download/space-04.PDF| url-status= dead| archive-date= June 29, 2001| accessdate= 2007-01-26}}</ref> After this flight he created the liquid oxygen converter when the liquid failed to vaporize on descent after the cabin doors were open.<ref name=CFC>{{cite web| author= US Centennial of Flight Commission| title= Jean Piccard| year= 2003| url= http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/Jean_Piccard/DI65.htm| accessdate= 2007-01-27| url-status= dead| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20060923165719/http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/Jean_Piccard/DI65.htm| archivedate= 2006-09-23}}</ref> Piccard developed a frost-free window, that was used on this flight and later by the Navy and Air Force in the [[B-24 Liberator]] or [[B-26 Marauder]]. He used [[blasting cap]]s and [[trinitrotoluene|TNT]] for releasing the balloon at launch and for remote release of external ballast from inside the sealed cabin. This was the first use of [[pyrotechnics]] for remote-controlled actuating devices in [[aircraft]], an unpopular, revolutionary idea at the time. Later his student [[Robert R. Gilruth]], who became the director of the [[Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center|NASA Manned Spacecraft Center]], approved and used them in [[spacecraft]].<ref name=DLP>{{cite web| author= Piccard, Don| title= Balloon Information Resources: The Beginning| year= 2005| url= http://www.mesasphere.com/Balloon%20Information%20Resources.htm| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130927020109/http://www.mesasphere.com/Balloon%20Information%20Resources.htm| url-status= usurped| archive-date= September 27, 2013| accessdate= 2007-01-28}}</ref><ref name=Kraft>{{cite web| author= Kraft, Christopher Jr.| title= Robert R. Gilruth in ''Biographical Memoirs'' V.84 92-111| publisher= National Academy of Sciences| year= 2004| url= http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10992&page=92| accessdate= 2007-01-30}}</ref>

The [http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2860037/700599 July 21st, 1952 issue of The Canberra Times] newspaper printed an incorrect front-page article in which Piccard claimed it would be possible for humans to fly to Mars with balloons as early as 1954, if anyone was willing to invest $250,000. Piccard had claimed he would study the light from Mars through a spectroscope to try to find evidence of oxygen and water at a high altitude to ensure his measurements were as precise as possible.

==Plastic balloons==
[[File:Gruppenbild der Montagemannschaft - CH-BAR - 3238344.tif|thumb|Jean Piccard (left) with his brother [[Auguste Piccard|Auguste]] (right) during [[World War I]]<ref>[https://www.swiss-archives.ch/detail.aspx?ID=3238344 Gruppenbild der Montagemannschaft, 1914.01.01-1918.12.31], Archives fédérales suisses</ref>]]

In 1935 and 1936, to reduce weight and thus enabling a balloon to reach higher altitudes, [[plastic]] balloon construction began independently by [[Max Cosyns]] in Belgium, [[Erich Regener]] in Germany, and Thomas H. Johnson and Jean Piccard, then at the [[Franklin Institute]]'s [[Bartol Research Institute|Bartol Research Foundation]] in [[Swarthmore, Pennsylvania]]. Johnson suggested [[cellophane]] to Jean Piccard.<ref name=Winker>{{cite web| author= Winker, J. A., via sample page| title= Scientific ballooning, past and present| publisher= American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics| year= 1986| url= http://www.aiaa.org/content.cfm?pageid=406&gTable=mtgpaper&gID=92979| accessdate= 2007-01-28| url-status= dead| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20070927230153/http://www.aiaa.org/content.cfm?pageid=406&gTable=mtgpaper&gID=92979| archivedate= 2007-09-27}}</ref>

Piccard with his wife co-invented the plastic balloon<ref name=Rechs-JRP>{{cite web| author= Robert Rechs| title= Who's Who of Ballooning - P| date= November 21, 1983| url= http://www.ballooninghistory.com/whoswho/who'swho-p.html| accessdate= 2007-01-27}}</ref> and he designed and on 24 June 1936<ref>[https://www.aem.umn.edu/info/history/piccard.shtml University of Minnesota Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics: Professor Jean F. Piccard's Contribution to Balloon Flight]</ref> flew a cellophane balloon built by his students. The balloon was unmanned, {{convert|25|ft|m|abbr=off|sp=us}} wide, and made of tapered 33-foot (10-meter) [[Gore (segment)|gores]] and one-inch (2.54-cm) [[3M]] [[Scotch Tape|Scotch]] transparent tape. Jean Barnhill, Harold Larson and Lloyd Schumacher cut the gores that fit together like an "orange peel." Harold Hatlestad built the radio equipment and Robert Silliman built the [[telemeter (rangefinder)|telemeter]]<ref name=Gilruth>{{cite web| author= Gilruth, Dr. Robert| title= NASM Oral History Project, Gilruth #2| publisher= Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum| date= May 14, 1986| url= http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/dsh/TRANSCPT/GILRUTH2.HTM| accessdate= 2007-01-27| url-status= dead| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20070217115856/http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/dsh/TRANSCPT/GILRUTH2.HTM| archivedate= February 17, 2007}}</ref> that sent temperature and pressure data back. Robert Hatch and Silliman maintained radio contact from a station on the roof of the university armory until the radio's battery froze from insufficient insulation.<ref name=Winker /><ref name=AEM-Notable>{{cite web| author= Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics (AEM) Department| publisher= University of Minnesota| title= Some Notable Early Faculty Members| date= July 23, 2004| url= http://www.aem.umn.edu/info/history/03_NotableFaculty.shtml| accessdate= 2007-01-27}}</ref> The balloon floated at 50,000 feet, and in ten hours traveled over 600 miles to near [[Huntsville, Arkansas]].<ref name=Winker /><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Akerman |first1=John D. |last2=Piccard |first2=Jean F. |date=1937 |journal=Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences |publisher=The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) |volume=4 |issue=8 |pages=332–337 |access-date=March 14, 2015 |url=http://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/8.423?journalCode=jans |title=Upper Air Study by Means of Balloons and the Radio Meteorograph |doi=10.2514/8.423}}</ref>

==Cluster balloons==
Developed with John Akerman of the University of Minnesota and piloted by Jean Piccard in 1937 in [[Rochester, Minnesota]], the first multi-celled balloon was called ''The Pleiades'' and was made of 98 [[latex (rubber)|latex rubber]] balloons. In a letter to Robert Gray of the Dewey and Almy Chemical Co. later published in ''Time'' magazine, Piccard describes how he broke balloons with a hunting knife and revolver to control his descent. A TNT charge released the cluster as he expected but sent burning [[excelsior (wood wool)|excelsior]] down that destroyed the first ''Pleiades''. He suggested to Gray that [[mineral wool|rock wool]] in place of excelsior would prevent similar accidents in the future.<ref name=Egg-Shell>{{cite magazine| author= Piccard, Jean via Robert Gray| title= Egg Shell Landing| magazine= Time| date=  August 16, 1937| url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,770771,00.html?promoid=googlep| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121022125122/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,770771,00.html?promoid=googlep| url-status= dead| archive-date= October 22, 2012| accessdate= 2007-01-27}}</ref>

Balloon research stopped for the most part during [[World War II]].<ref name=Goebel>{{cite web| author= Goebel, Greg| title= A Short History Of Balloons & Ballooning: 3.0 The Stratosphere Expeditions| date= July 1, 2006| url= http://www.vectorsite.net/avbloon_3.html| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060719011615/http://www.vectorsite.net/avbloon_3.html| url-status= usurped| archive-date= July 19, 2006| accessdate= 2007-02-01}}</ref>

In February 1946 with [[Otto C. Winzen]], Jean Piccard proposed manned flight to the US Navy using clustered balloons made of thin plastic. In June the Office of Naval Research approved ''Project Helios'' and that year [[General Mills]] and the University of Minnesota contracted to build a cluster of 100 [[polyethylene]] balloons for atmospheric research.<ref name=Navy-FAQ>{{cite web| author= US Department of the Navy - Navy Historical Center| title= Navy in Space Chronology, 1945 - 1981| date= July 24, 2003| url= http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq124-1.htm| archive-url= https://archive.today/20121212210948/http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq124-1.htm| url-status= dead| archive-date= December 12, 2012| accessdate= 2007-01-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blog.generalmills.com/2011/08/the-daddy-of-the-balloon-industry/ |last=Goodsell |first=Suzy |title=The "daddy" of the balloon industry |date=August 4, 2011 |website=General Mills blog website |accessdate=2015-03-15}}</ref> ''Helios'' was designed to reach 100,000 feet for ten hours with a payload of instruments.<ref name=Navy-Space>{{cite web| author= Unknown author| title= Manned| publisher= US Department of the Navy - Navy Historical Center| date= n.d.| url= http://www.history.navy.mil/download/space-11.PDF| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20010629190432/http://www.history.navy.mil/download/space-11.PDF| url-status= dead| archive-date= June 29, 2001| accessdate= 2007-01-26}}</ref>

Jean Piccard helped Winzen design the [[Skyhook balloon|Skyhook]] polyethylene balloons that replaced ''Project Helios'' in 1947. Skyhook balloons were used unmanned for atmospheric research by the Navy and for manned flights by the [[United States Air Force|US Air Force]].<ref name=Navy-FAQ /><ref name=BalloonLife>{{cite web|author=Stekel, Peter |publisher=Balloon Life Magazine |title=Don Piccard - 50 Years of Ballooning Memories |date=August 1997 |url=http://www.balloonlife.com/9707/piccard.htm |accessdate=2007-01-26 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070216155254/http://www.balloonlife.com/9707/piccard.htm |archivedate=2007-02-16 }}</ref> Later Jean Piccard developed electronics for emptying ballast bags.<ref name=CFC/>

Piccard died on January 28, 1963 (his 79th birthday) in Minneapolis.

==Piccard family==
* [[Jules Piccard]] (professor of chemistry)
** [[Auguste Piccard]] (physicist, aeronaut, balloonist, hydronaut)
*** [[Jacques Piccard]] (hydronaut)
**** [[Bertrand Piccard]] (aeronaut, balloonist)
** Jean Felix Piccard (organic chemist, aeronaut, and balloonist)
** [[Jeannette Piccard]] (wife of Jean Felix) (aeronaut and balloonist)
*** [[Don Piccard]] (balloonist)

== Legacy ==
In 1991, Piccard was inducted into the [[International Air & Space Hall of Fame]] at the [[San Diego Air & Space Museum]].<ref>Sprekelmeyer, Linda, editor. ''These We Honor: The International Aerospace Hall of Fame''. Donning Co. Publishers, 2006. {{ISBN|978-1-57864-397-4}}.</ref> [[Gene Roddenberry]] named the ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek]]'' character [[Jean-Luc Picard]] after either Jean or his twin [[Auguste Piccard|Auguste]], and it is implied that the character is a descendant of one of the brothers. The Swiss explorer and environmentalist [[Bertrand Piccard]] claims that it was after his great-uncle Jean Piccard.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Star Trek's Jean-Luc Picard & Solar Impulse's Bertrand Piccard &ndash; The Connection |website = [[YouTube]]| date=4 February 2015 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckUirmdW66g | access-date=2021-11-30}}</ref>

==Notes and references==
{{reflist|40em}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070216155254/http://www.balloonlife.com/9707/piccard.htm Don Piccard - 50 Years of Ballooning Memories]
*{{cite web
| author=University of Minnesota Archives
| title=Jean Felix Piccard Papers
| year=2002
| url=http://special.lib.umn.edu/findaid/xml/uarc00475.xml
| accessdate=2007-01-24
}}
*{{cite video|publisher=Universal City Studios: Universal Newsreels via Internet Archive|title=Stratosphere Balloon Falls|date=August 7, 1933|url=https://archive.org/details/1933-08-07_Stratosphere_Balloon_Falls|accessdate=January 16, 2010}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Piccard, Jean}}
[[Category:1884 births]]
[[Category:1963 deaths]]
[[Category:American aviators]]
[[Category:20th-century American chemists]]
[[Category:American balloonists]]
[[Category:Scientists from Chicago]]
[[Category:Scientists from Minneapolis]]
[[Category:Swiss emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:University of Chicago faculty]]
[[Category:Scientists from Basel-Stadt]]
[[Category:University of Lausanne alumni]]
[[Category:Swiss twins]]