Piccard and Jones, by their circum-global trip, have conquered the last Everest of aviation. But it is interesting to recall that many of the minor peaks in this activity were challenged in the pursuit of meteorology.
During the last century it was not uncommon for weather-folk to use hot-air balloons in their eagerness to find out more about the thermal and barometric structure of the upper atmosphere. Since recording instruments were not yet available, they mounted conventional equipment in a balloon and went aloft themselves to see what they might find.
The first serious attempts of this kind were made in 1853 by one James Welsh, then superintendent of Kew Observatory in London, who ascended to more than 20,000-ft and produced a wealth of valuable data.
Ten years later in the 1860s, James Glaisher of Greenwich Observatory repeated the experiment, and reached an even greater altitude. Glaisher's enthusiasm for this kind of scientific work was somewhat dampened by his losing consciousness for lack of oxygen at a height estimated at 37,000 ft: only quick action by his almost equally debilitated companion to curb the still-rising balloon saved the reckless pair from death. But others were less lucky.
Walter Powell was a British MP and a keen amateur meteorologist. At 2 p.m. on December 13th, 1881, he took off from Bath with two assistants in the hot-air balloon, Saladin. Their objective was to observe temperature and humidity at various atmospheric levels and to "measure the amount of snow in the air for the Meteorological Office."
Everything went well at first, and the balloon was carried briskly southwards at 4,000-ft. By 5 o'clock, however, it was drawing dangerously near to the cliffs of the south Devon coast in a strong northerly wind. As the crew attempted a landing just 50 yards from the cliff edge, the basket bumped against the ground: Powell's two assistants were thrown clear, but the unfortunate MP was left alone in the craft, now rising rapidly because of the reduced weight, and heading south across the English Channel.
Neither Walter Powell nor the ill-fated Saladin was seen again.
This tragedy had a sobering effect on the then meteorological community. It highlighted the dangers in such research, and effectively brought to an end the use of manned balloons for the experimental investigation of the atmosphere.
Development work thereafter concentrated on self-recording instruments which could be sent safely aloft alone attached to kites or to unmanned balloons.