long time he was not able to think seriously about the possibility of 

 realizing his youthful dream. 



I have already explained how the cosmic rays had given me the 

 desire to rise to lo miles. But a man cannot bear the low pressures 

 which prevail at such an altitude, even if he breathes pure oxygen. 

 *No matter/ said I to myself, 'my submarine cabin, intended to resist 

 external pressures of several hundred atmospheres, will give me the 

 solution. It will suffice to build a much lighter cabin and to suspend 

 it from a giant balloon capable of carrying it in the rarefied atmosphere 

 of the altitude concerned.' 



The evolution of my thought is clear. Far from having come to the 

 idea of a submarine device by transforming the idea of the strato- 

 spheric balloon, as everyone thinks, it was, on the contrary, my 

 original conception of a bathyscaphe which gave me the method of 

 exploring the high altitudes. In short, it was a submarine which led me 

 to the stratosphere. 



Soon after, I retransformed in my mind the stratospheric balloon 

 into a submarine balloon and I went and once more knocked at the door 

 of the Belgian Fonds National. I asked for the credits necessary to bring 

 the bathyscaphe into being. My request was accepted and I was first 

 allocated the funds necessary for equipping a laboratory specialized 

 in the study of high pressures. The question of the strength and water- 

 tightness of the future device was so important that I was obliged, in 

 fact, to make numerous preliminary trials with different models. I had, 

 in particular, to subject a scale model of the cabin, in special tanks, 

 to pressures reaching as much as 1 600 atmospheres : the weight of a 

 column of water of 10 miles. 



As my bathyscaphe, intended for the exploration of the sea, had to 

 have portholes, their construction had to be studied with care. I also 

 had to find safe methods of passing numerous electric and cable wires 

 through the walls without allowing water to enter. The question of 

 dropping ballast also had to be studied. 



In all these labours I was seconded by my valued assistant, Jean 

 Guillissen. The most important trials had been made, the construction 

 of the bathyscaphe itself had begun, when the Second World War 

 broke out. In it I lost my young friend, a victim of his patriotism. 



At the end of 1945 I once more went to the Fonds National ?ind asked 

 for the credits necessary to take up the work again. The Fonds National 

 gave me the credits, but with the stipulation that Max Cosyns, whom 



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