Evening star., 1947-09-07
Prof. Piccard Insists
Dive Is Just Matter
Of Proper Precautions
BY MorceI Chouroaui

BY Marcel ChouroquI
North American Newspaper Alliance
BRUSSELS, Sept. Sits only a
matter of taking proper precau-
tions," Prof. Auguste Picard says
when one speaks, to him Of, his
record breaking flights In strato-
sphere balloon, or of his forthcom-
ing dive In an underwater balloon" !"
The matter of courage apparently
doesn't enter into it, doesn't con-
cern this man who is going into
the unknown depths Of the sea. to
brave gigantic pressures at more
than four times the greatest depth
man has ever yet penetrated.
IT'S only matter OF pre-
pairing in advance for the 'unfore-
seem" he said. And he doesn't like
taking risks.
"A man mustn't risk too much"
he told friends while he was ready
ing for his second stratosphere
fight. II have my wife and chill
dren. I underestimate the danger
during my first flight. Now I see
that it was much more perilous than
I had thought
Breaking Records at s3.
And yet when Prof. Picard, at
latitude 0, longitude 0. dives more
than two and a half miles beneath
the surface OF the sea, he will be 63.
It's q fine age at which to be
breaking records.
He started flying balloons back
In 1912. He raced balloons. He won
one race by bringing his craft down
without harm right in the middle OF
a thunderstorm. During World War
I. Picard was attached to the Swiss
general staff as q balloon expert.
But in 1921, the Universite Libre
Liberal University Of Brussels Of
fered him q professorship. He was
more than pleased because just
about the same time. the Belgian
National Fund for Scientific Re-
search had appropriated 10000
francs ($32,0 900 in 1920 to help Prof.
Picard build a special balloon In
which to explore the stratosphere.
Evidently, the professor isn't al
ways in academic clouds. But he
can be as absent-minded as any
professor has right to be.
Greeted Dignitaries in Shorts.
Indeed, this was the case soon
after he made his first stratosphere
fight. Local authorities turned up
one day at his landing 1eld,
dressed in full robes OF ONCE, at
their most self important, to pre-
sent him with scroll OF honor.
They found the great gas bag de-
fiated and lying on the ground and
from one edge they noted long,
lean pair of legs, bare except Tor the
shortest OF swimming trunks. Prof
Picard was patching the balloon
When, eventually, he woke up to
the pompous presences, Prof.. PC
card calmly greeted them, listened
to their speeches and accepted the
scroll-still clad in bathing shorts.
He can also turn the grand ges-
ture with perfect ease. For instance
Prof. Picard came down from MS
second stratosphere flight in the
Pc valley-not in glacier atop a
mountain as he had the first time.
The Italian writer and poet, Ca
hrielle dAnnunzio, lived not lar
sway and invited the professor 10
visit his sumptuous villa.
D'Annunzio prepared mag
nificent reception and even sent
ssanlane the 3 miles to Prof..
Piccard's hotel to fetch him. But
typical of the poet-d'AnnunMo was
,nwhere to be seen at the reccp-
tion. And it was only on the NOR
row that the two men met. 1hen
n was that dAnnunzio handed Prof..
picard a pen-the one with wnlcn
he'd lust written the last words OF
his most recent masterpiece. A rev
davs later, a tiny parcel was de-
liyered at the poets home. 1t con-
tanned a pencil, broken IN Two
which Prof. Picard had used TO
take notes during his stratosphere
night.
Legend Persists.
One legend persisted for many
wars after his first stratosphere
balloon voyage in the early SOS: IL
was that on the cabin was INSCRIBED
a dedication to Hitler's glory. Inc
story gained widest currency IN
Belgium soon after the German oc-
cupation. Picard was then IN
switzerland, and colleague OF
mine there questioned him about II:
Is Hitler's name really engraved
On the gondola?"
"Of course 1t is," replied Prof:
Picard, laughing. But beware OF
jumping to conclusions!
when we reached land after
our first flight into the strato-
sphere, we found that we'd come
down on 4 glacier high IN the
mountains. And when we. got down.
I decided to abandon the balloon.
reckoned that it would cost as
much to save the balloon and the
cabin as to build q new one. AND
40 it remained for q year, hanging
to that lonely mountainside.
Tourists Take Souvenirs.
meanwhile, however, many,
many tourists nad ClunOeu up W
look at it. They carried OF every
thing that could be lifted or broken
off and they even tried to hacksaw
pieces of. And, OF course, they
also carved their names and initials
on the aluminium OF the gondola.
Was Hitler q tourist in 1881?
Or was it q joke on some ones
part? I don't know. But I DO know
it's there. I saw the name when
students of the University of Inns
bruck brought it down for histori-
cal-scientific reasons year later.
And, incidentally, the job OF getting
it down did cost exactly as much as
we later spent to build a new one"
tCopyright, 1947, by North American
Newspaper Alliance. Inco
D. G. Youth on Rescue Ship
Donald w. Reb, fireman second
class, son Of Mr.. and Mrs. Earl Teb,
1923 Forty-ninth street NE, Is serv-
ing aboard the destroyer Hawkins,