Auguste Piccard 1933 Original Press Photo
Stratosphere Balloon Tintin Calculus
First Human in the Stratosphere DESCRIPTIONOriginal period International News Photo wire print of Professor Auguste Piccard, the Swiss physicist who made the first human flight into the stratosphere. It is a close-up taken on his arrival in New York aboard the French Line liner S.S. Champlain on Thursday, January 12, 1933. He wears a soft felt hat, round wire-rimmed glasses and a heavy bouclé overcoat, with a leather-cased camera slung across his chest, and an onlooker in a bowler hat stands behind him at right. The original typed International News Photo caption is still attached to the back, headlined "Will He Achieve New Heights in Stratosphere Probe?" It reports that Piccard was to make a lecture tour of the United States and would use the proceeds to fund further expeditions into the upper atmosphere. The slip is slugged "Closeup Piccard," carries the "Watch Your Credit ... International News Photo" line and is date-stamped 1-12-33. Images were scanned at 600dpi.Piccard was a physics professor at the Free University of Brussels who designed the first sealed, pressurized balloon gondola, built with funding from the Belgian national science fund (FNRS) to carry cosmic ray instruments above most of the atmosphere. On May 27, 1931, he and Paul Kipfer lifted off from Augsburg, Germany, and reached 51,775 feet, higher than any human had been. The cabin leaked on the way up, and the two came down on a glacier in the Austrian Tyrol near Obergurgl after a flight of roughly 17 hours. On August 18, 1932, Piccard and Max Cosyns launched at 5:04 a.m. from Dübendorf airfield near Zurich, reached 53,153 feet for a new official world altitude record, and landed near Lake Garda in northern Italy that afternoon. Those two flights were his only trips into the stratosphere. They made him one of the most famous scientists in the world, and he was nominated for the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics.This print was made at the height of that fame. Piccard came to America in January 1933 to meet leading scientists, visit laboratories and promote the idea of an American stratosphere flight, and the lecture tour in the caption was meant to raise money for his next expedition. An American stratosphere race followed. A U.S. Navy crew flew the Century of Progress balloon to 61,237 feet in November 1933, and in October 1934 his twin brother Jean and Jean's wife Jeannette flew the same balloon from Dearborn, Michigan, to 57,579 feet, making Jeannette the first woman to pilot a flight into the stratosphere. Auguste himself never made another balloon flight into the stratosphere. He turned to the deep sea, and the bathyscaphe he designed led to the Trieste, which carried his son Jacques and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh to the bottom of the Challenger Deep on January 23, 1960, about seven miles down. Piccard is also widely credited as the inspiration for Professor Calculus in Hergé's Tintin books, which gives this portrait appeal beyond aviation and science collectors.Every effort is made for fact checking and provenance, including background research through news and historical archives. If any listing is incorrect in any way and you are unsatisfied with the item, please connect with me and I will make it right. Orders placed before Noon CDT ship same day via USPS Ground Advantage with tracking, so you know exactly when it will arrive. Shipping is free and already built into the price, so the BIN price is exactly what you pay, no surprise shipping costs at checkout. Returns accepted on all items exceeding $25. Rigid, professional packaging on all shipments, sealed and protected in acid free protectors.CONDITIONOriginal period wire photograph with a sepia tone and good image contrast. Light handling wear and faint surface scratches and abrasion marks show across the image, most noticeable near the hat, glasses and lower left coat sleeve, with a few tiny dust and amber specks in the background. Edges show light wear and the corners are intact. The typed International News Photo caption slip on the back is complete and legible, secured with aged tape at the corners and edges. The tape has toned, and the slip has a few small rough edges and one typing correction. No tears or holes in the image area. The dark patches on the left sleeve are part of the original exposure. Scanned at 600dpi; please see photos for exact condition.
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