Before dawn on May 27, 1931, Auguste Piccard allowed himself and a companion to be sealed into an airtight gondola for an ascent into the stratosphere from Augsburg, Germany. The balloon to which he and his companion were entrusting their lives was of a completely new design and was considered "a monstrosity" by balloon authorities. It had been refused a certificate of airworthiness by the German government.
The press scoffed at Piccard's flimsy balloon, which violated most of the standard practices of balloon construction. One newspaper even announced Piccard's death.
There were crises far up in the sky on that memorable day. A leak in the cabin threatened to allow all the balloonists' precious oxygen to escape. A fouled gas valve nearly made it impossible for them to return to earth.
But in spite of gloomy predictions and actual danger, the two aeronauts managed to soar ten miles above the surface of the earth, shattering all previous altitude records. The world was amazed at this achievement.
On October 26, 1948, a heavy steel door closed behind Auguste Piccard, sealing him into a revolutionary deep-sea craft. This craft was not linked to the surface by steel cables as previous deep-sea crafts had been.This was a free-moving boat which could rise and sink at the pilot's command. Once again the skeptics predicted Piccard would not return, and once again he proved them wrong.
An improved bathyscaphe designed by Auguste Piccard ultimately carried his son, Jacques, and an American Navy officer, Lieutenant Don Walsh, seven miles down to the deepest point of the Pacific Ocean. In the eternal night of this abyss, where no man had ever before ventured, the two explorers found life-a shrimp and a back-boned fish.
In their ascents into the stratosphere and descents into the deepest abyss. Auguste and Jacques Piccard had complete faith in the laws of nature and in their own scientific calculations. And, being natives of Switzerland, a nation which never goes to war, they performed their experiments in the interest of peaceful scientific research.
In this book, Mrs. Malkus describes not only the suspenseful moments in the stratosphere and at the bottom of the sea, but also the planning and experimentation that made those achievements possible. She tells of the courage, resourcefulness, and patience of this remarkable father-son team.
—from the book
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