Piccard (family)
Piccard, the name of twin brothers who explored the earth's atmosphere and ocean depths. They were born in Basel, Switzerland, and both received their doctorates from the Swiss Institute of Technology.
Auguste Piccard(1884-1962) was a professor of engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of Brussels, Belgium, 1922-54. In 1931 he and an assistant made the first manned balloon ascent to reach the stratosphere; they rose to 51,775 feet (15,781 m) in a balloon of Piccard's design. In the late 1940's Piccard invented the bathyscaphe, a deep-sea diving ship. He reached a depth of 10,330 feet (3,149 m) in the bathyscaphe Trieste in 1953.
In 1960 his son Jacques (1922-) and a United States naval lieutenant, Don Walsh, took the Trieste to a record-breaking depth of 35,802 feet (10,912 m), in the Mariana Trench of the Pacific Ocean.
Jean Felix Piccard(1884-1963) settled permanently in the United States in 1926. He made many balloon ascents, reaching 57,549 feet (17,541 m) in 1934. Piccard was professor of aeronautical engineering at the University of Minnesota, 1937-52. He was a pioneer in developing lightweight plastic balloons.