Ten Miles High, Two Miles Deep

This is an odd and interesting book, basically a scientific summary of the helium balloon and bathyscaphe pioneering carried out by two twin brothers from Switzerland. It seems it is aimed at younger readers, to interest them in science / scientific research.

It follows first Auguste as he develops a new sealed gondola and then a new shape and for a helium balloon, and with an assistant travels twice to the stratosphere, over 10 miles above sea level.

The narrative explains the planning, the design, prototyping and experimenting with the design, then takes us on the journey, explaining the scientific experiments carried out - primarily data gathering for research on cosmic rays and cosmic radiation. Some Wikipedia info on cosmic rays here, which I wasn't game to summarise: Cosmic Rays

Things of course are not all straight forward, and the pioneering first flight (1931) was marked by problem after problem, leading the people below to believe they were on a body recovery mission when the balloon returned to earth some 2 days after schedule, due to various malfunctions. They landed on a glacier in the Alps in Austria, and after spending a cold night on the mountains, the headed down towards a village. They spotted the recovery party heading up looking glum and waved out, receiving little response. A few hours later the recovery party,having visited the crash site figured out the men were still alive and hurried to catch them up!

Learning from all the problems, Auguste re-plans, rebuilds and makes his second very successful flight, in 1932 reaching 54,120 feet (16,500m). To put this in context, aeroplanes were not developed with pressurised cabins until 1938, so this was a huge achievement.

Next the book moved to Jean Felix Piccard, the twin brother, and his wife Jeanette, both living in the USA. Jean Felix retained a similar interest in high altitude science. They did their own pioneering, culminating in a flight reaching slightly higher than Auguste (57,579 feet (17,500m)). The American military quickly adopted the balloon technology and advanced it rapidly after this.

The third section of the book swaps back to Auguste who, looking for a new interest, determines that plumbing the depths of the ocean has many parallels with ballooning. Prior to Auguste's bathyscaphe invention, a similar contraption, known as the bathysphere, were in use, but were heavily restricted, and very dangerous because they relied on being tethered to a ship by cable. This meant any movement of either the ship or the submarine was a risk. After Auguste and son Jacques made their first trials, the float became damaged, and a rebuild was necessary. Funding was problematic, but the French navy were interested, and became involved. Piccard shared all of his expertise, but as a civilian he held little authority, and felt somewhat sidelined in the process. The Italian navy also expressed interest in a joint project with Switzerland, so the Piccard's bowed out of the French process just as the bathyscaphe was completed, leaving the sea trials and use to the navy. Realistically they would not have had much involvement as the navy would have their own men inside the bathyscaphe.

In Italy they built a new bathyscaphe, developing it more and more, and setting various depth records (later bettered by the French navy), including one to 10,392 feet (3000m) in 1953. When asked by a reporter why they didn't go deeper, Piccard replied “Because at that depth, we were at the bottom.” which seemed pretty self evident!

So what is the difference between a submarine and a bathyscaphe? Hard to define, but the internet says “the difference between submarine and bathyscaphe is that submarine is a boat that can go underwater while bathyscaphe is a self-propelled deep-sea diving submersible for exploring the ocean depths, consisting of a crew cabin suspended below a float filled with a buoyant liquid such as petrol. “

A quick 4 star read.