EXPLOEATIONS OF THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE.i 



By Henri de Graffigny. 



As meteorologists have become convinced of the many advantages 

 that balloons present for the study of aerial phenomena and the explo- 

 ration of the atmosphere, there has been formed an international scien- 

 tific commission for aerostation, having for its president M. Bouquet 

 de la Grye, and the study of the higher regions by means of uumounted 

 recording balloons, commenced in France by M. Gustave Hermite and 

 in Germany by M. Assmann, has been pursued with a success which 

 leads us to hope for the most surprising results, when, by means of an 

 uninterrupted series of experiments, we shall be able to deduce a com- 

 plete theory from ascertained facts. 



It appears to us that the time has come to summarize the recent 

 work of physicists of different countries relating to this most interest- 

 ing question, so as to bring out, from the indications furnished by the 

 registering apparatus, the facts that result from these novel observa- 

 tions. These have an incontestable interest, for the benefits that 

 science confers by the forecasting of the weather are of a general 

 character and benefit the entire human race, which derives the elements 

 of life from the aerial ocean. We will, then, recount the various experi- 

 ments made up to the present time, both in France and abroad, taking 

 them up in order of date, and afterwards discussing the results obtained 

 by these new means of investigation. 



I. — RECORDINa BALLOONS. 



Until recent years meteot-ological observations at great heights were 

 made from mounted balloons by physicists who carried with them 

 apparatus whose indications they themselves recorded from time to 

 time. Among celebrated ascensions of this kind we note the following, 

 calling attention to the fact that greater and greater altitudes have 

 been successively attained. 



Meters. 



Eobertson and Lhoest in 1803 7^ 400 



Gay-Lussac in 1804 : 7 0I6 



Barral and Bisio in 1850 7^ t)39 



Welsli and Green in 1861 6 910 



Glaisher and Coxwell in 1862 8^ 840 



Sirel and Croce Spinelli In 1874 7 300 



Sivel, Croc6, and Tissandier in 1875 8, 600 



Jovis and Mallet in 1884 7 100 



Berson at Berlin in 1892 9 ooO 



1 Translated from the Revue Scieutifique, fourth series, Vol. VII, pages 488-497, 



301 



