NO. 2 METHOD OF REACHING EXTREME ALTITUDES 3 



Regarding the possibility of recovering apparatus upon its return, 

 calculations (pp. 51 and 53) show that the times of ascent and descent 

 will be short, and that a small parachute should be sufficient to 

 ensure safe landing. 



Calculations indicate, further (pp. 54 to 57), that with a rocket of 

 high efficiency, consisting chiefly of propellant material, it should be 

 possible to send small masses even to such great distances as to escape 

 the earth's attraction. 



In conclusion, it is believed that not only has a new and valuable 

 method of reaching high altitudes been shown to be operative in 

 theory, but that the experiments herein described settle all the points 

 upon which there could be reasonable doubt. 



The following discussion is divided into three parts : 

 Part I. Theory. 

 Part II. Experiments. 



Part III. Calculations, based upon the theory and the experi- 

 mental results. 



IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT 



The greatest altitude at which soundings of the atmosphere have 

 been made by balloons, namely, about 20 miles, is but a small fraction 

 of the height to which the atmosphere is supposed to extend. In 

 fact, the most interesting, and in some ways the most important, part 

 of the atmosphere lies in this unexplored region ; a means of explor- 

 ing which has, up to the present, not seriously been suggested. 



A few of the more important matters to be investigated in this 

 region are the following: the density, chemical constitution, and 

 temperature of the atmosphere, as well as the height to which it 

 extends. Other problems are the nature of the aurora, and (with 

 apparatus held by gyroscopes in a fixed direction in space) the nature 

 of the a, /3, and y radioactive rays from matter in the sun as well as 

 the ultra-violet spectrum of this body. 



Speculations have been made as to the nature of the upper atmos- 

 phere — those by Wegener ^ being, perhaps, the most plausible. By 

 estimating the temperature and percentage composition of the gases 

 present in the atmosphere, Wegener calculates the partial pressures 

 of the constituent gases, and concludes that there are four rather 

 distinct regions or spheres of the atmosphere in which certain gases 

 predominate : the troposphere, in which are the clouds ; the strato- 

 sphere, predominatingly nitrogen ; the hydrogen sphere ; and the 



^A. Wegener. Phys. Zeitschr. 12, pp. 170-178; 214-222. loii. 



