Auguste (Antoine) Piccard - The Piccard Family, Trivia

Physicist, born in Basel, N Switzerland, the twin brother of Jean Piccard. He studied at Zürich, and became professor of applied physics at Brussels (1922), and held posts at Lausanne, Chicago, and Minnesota universities. In 1932 he ascended in a balloon 16 940 m/55 563 ft into the stratosphere, and in 1948 explored the ocean depths off West Africa in a bathyscaphe of his own design. His son Jacques (Ernest Jean) Piccard (1922– ) was a member of the team which established a world record by diving 10 900 m/35 800 ft in the US bathyscaphe Trieste into the Marianas Trench of the Pacific Ocean (1960).

Piccard and his twin brother Jean-Felix were born in Basel, Switzerland. Showing an intense interest in science as a child, he attended the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, and became a professor of physics in Brussels at the Free University of Brussels in 1922, the same year his son Jacques Piccard was born.

In 1930, an interest in ballooning, and a curiosity about the upper atmosphere led him to design a spherical, pressurized aluminum gondola which would allow ascent to great altitude without requiring a pressure suit. Supported by the Belgian Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) Piccard constructed his gondola. During this flight, Piccard was able to gather substantial data on the upper atmosphere, as well as measure cosmic rays. On August 18, 1932, launched from Zürich, Switzerland, Piccard and Max Cosyns made a second record-breaking ascent to 16,200 m (53,152 ft).

In the mid-1930s, Piccard's interests shifted when he realized that a modification of some of his atmospheric balloon concepts would allow descent into the deep ocean.

With the experience of FNRS-2 Piccard and his son Jacques built the improved Bathyscaphe Trieste. Jacques Piccard made many dives, mainly off Italy, from 1954 on, before selling her to the U.S. Navy in 1957 for $250,000. On her 65th dive, the younger Piccard and Lt. Don Walsh of the U.S. Navy reached a depth 35,800 ft in the Mariana Trench, a few hundred miles from Guam, setting a new record.

Auguste Piccard died 1962 in Lausanne, Switzerland. His grandson Bertrand Piccard also became a balloonist, taking part in the first world circumnavigation.

The Piccard Family

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) (aeronaut and balloonist) Don Piccard (balloonist)

Trivia

Auguste Piccard is supposed to have been the inspiration for Professor Cuthbert Calculus (French: Professeur Tryphon Tournesol, German: Professor Bienlein) in The Adventures of Tintin.