page_title: Berlin scientific balloon flights
section_title: Additional flights
hierarchical_section_title: Berlin scientific balloon flights / Events / Additional flights
caption_attribution_description: English: Balloon Excelsior with German meteorologist Arthur Berson (1859-1942) and British Balloonist Stanley Spencer (aeronaut) (1868-1906) in Crystal Palace, London) on September 15th, 1898 before ascending to 8320 M height [1]. Deutsch: Der Ballon Excelsior mit dem deutschen Meteorologen Arthur Berson (1859-1942) und dem britischen Ballonfahrer Stanley Spencer (1868-1906) in Crystal Palace, London) am 15. September 1898 vor dem Aufstieg auf 8320 m.
context_page_description: The Berlin scientific balloon flights were a series of 65 manned and 29 unmanned balloon flights carried out between 1888 and 1899 by the German Society for the Promotion of Aeronautics to investigate the atmosphere above the planetary boundary layer. The flights were organized by Richard Aßmann, Professor at the Meteorological Institute of Berlin, who also developed the most important of the measurement instruments employed by them. The execution lay primarily in the hands of the military airship pilot Hans Groß and the meteorologist Arthur Berson. In 1894, Berson flew with the balloon Phönix to a height of 9155 meters, the highest that any human had flown until then.
context_section_description: At the end of 1894, the financial resources were completely spent. Kaiser Wilhelm II, who had attended several balloon ascents, again put up a sum of money for additional flights and for the publication of the results. The money was mostly used for occasional measurement balloon flights. In addition, meteorological observers were also allowed to participate in many military flights. The frequency of flights increased, as the Society for the Promotion of Aviation purchased its own balloons for sporting flights, that were also used for meteorology. 
  The International Commission for Scientific Ballooning was founded in Paris in September 1896, at the conference of directors of meteorological institutes. Hugo Hergesell, the director of the Meteorological State Establishment of Alsace-Lorraine was elected as its president. The Berlin meteorologists regularly participated in simultaneous flights organized by the Commission, beginning with the first on 14 November 1896, with both manned and unmanned balloons.
  After the first preliminary results of the main flights were published, which contained a criticism of Glaisher's measurement method, there was dissent from some specialists in the field. The eminent Swedish meteorologist Nils Ekholm reproached the authors for making "hasty generalizations". He held the considerable differences in measured temperature profiles between the London and Berlin flights to be real, and sought additional comparative measurements on flights over England and Germany, with both Glaisher's and Aßmann's instruments. The flights took place on 15 September 1898. The ascent at Crystal Palace was organized and financed by Patrick Alexander. Berson flew in the Excelsior with Stanley Spencer. At the same time, Süring flew in a balloon of the Society from the sport park at Friedenau in Berlin. Both flights were planned as high-altitude flights, and reached respectively 8,320 and 6,191 m. While the ground temperature differed by 7 degrees between Berlin and London, this difference had almost disappeared at the altitude of 5,000 to 6,000 m. The lowest temperature measured by Excelsior was −34 °C, compared to the temperature of −20.6 °C once measured by Glaisher at 8,000 m. The results confirmed the previous conclusions of Aßmann and Berson.
caption: Ascent of the Excelsior in 1898 at Crystal Palace
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