of Wallenstadt, the Grisons, then the Lago di Garda, in the direction 

 of Desenzano, where we arrived at 5 p.m. 



Every landing in a free balloon has its surprises. It is one of the 

 charms of the sport. At the moment when the guide-rope was about to 

 touch the earth, I collected my best Italian to hail a crowd which 

 gathered : 



' Prego, tenere la cordaf (Please take the rope.) 



And the answer, in German-Swiss : 



'7(9, H err Professor^ mir habets dà scho.' (Yes, Professor, we have it.) 



It was my compatriot Zweifel, the engineer from Glaris. With his 

 help, we made a perfect landing. 



The geodetic surveyors of the Swiss topographic service, using the 

 theodolite, calculated the greatest height attained to be 55.800 feet 

 with a ' probable ' margin of error of about ten feet. Calculated on the 

 barograph, according to the rules established by the Fédération 

 aéronautique internationale pour V homologation du record mondial 

 (International Aeronautical Federation for the Verification of World 

 Records), it was no more than 53,400 ft: the difference — 2400 ft. — is 

 explained by the fact that the regulation takes account only of mean 

 pressures at given heights, while the real pressures vary from day to 

 day on account of meteorological conditions. We thus beat our pre- 

 ceding record, that of the 27th May 1931: Colonel Messner was 

 satisfied: it stayed with Switzerland. As for me, I was satisfied too: 

 this time we were able to bring our scientific programme to a satis- 

 factory conclusion. 



This ascent of the i8th August 1932 broke the ice: the airtight 

 cabin acquired full civic rights in ballooning and aviation. 



Work was begun on several stratospheric balloons: three in the 

 United States, two in Russia, one in Poland, all larger than mine. 

 Not for a second did I regret that the Century of Progress carried off 

 the world record for the United States. No more than I regret that 

 the French Navy, breaking my record of 3150 metres, dived to 

 13,287 ft. (4050 metres), off Dakar, with the FNRS j, a bathyscaphe 

 in the construction of which I took part. 



What happened to the FNRS after that? Two years later, to the 

 very day, on i8th August 1934, having on board M. Cosyns, pilot, 

 and M. van der Elst as assistant, it rose once more into the stratosphere, 

 to establish the connection between the Ardennes and the mountains 

 of Jugo-Slavia. For other ascents money was lacking. When, because 



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