Plastic Balloons
In 1935 and 1936, to reduce weight and thus enabling a balloon to reach higher altitudes, plastic balloon construction began independently by Max Cosyns in Belgium, Erich Regener in Germany, and Thomas H. Johnson and Jean Piccard, then at the Franklin Institute Bartol Research Foundation in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Johnson suggested cellophane to Jean Piccard.
Piccard with his wife co-invented the plastic balloon and he designed and in 1936 flew a cellophane balloon built by his students. The balloon was unmanned, 25 feet wide, and made of tapered 33-foot gores and one-inch 3M Scotch transparent tape. Jean Barnhill, Harold Larson and Lloyd Schumacher cut the gores that fit together like an "orange peel." Harold Hatlestad built the radio equipment and Robert Silliman built the telemeter that sent temperature and pressure data back. Robert Hatch and Silliman maintained radio contact from a station on the roof of the university armory until the radio's battery froze from insufficient insulation. The balloon floated at 50,000 feet, and in ten hours traveled over 600 miles to near Huntsville, Arkansas.
Read more about this topic: Jean Piccard
Famous quotes containing the words plastic and/or balloons:
“The site of the true bottomless financial pit is the toy store. It’s amazing how much a few pieces of plastic and paper will sell for if the purchasers are parents or grandparent, especially when the manufacturers claim their product improves a child’s intellectual or physical development.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“Canaries in the morning, orchestras
In the afternoon, balloons at night. That is
A difference, at least from nightingales,
Jehovah and the great sea-worm.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)