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Newshawks from all over Europe converged upon Gurgl by rail, motor, cycle and airplane. Before long the mild-mannered Professor Piccard was impelled to say, in reply to a question about his "suffering": ". . . the worst experience is being called out of bed at 2 o'clock in the morning."
Significance. Professor Piccard's prime purpose was to determine whether cosmic rays were, as believed, ten times more powerful in the stratosphere than upon reaching the earth through the atmosphere. Dr. Arthur Holly Compton, winner of the 1927 Nobel Prize for physics, said in Chicago: ''Such measurements have been made before with sounding balloons, but the conditions under which Professor Piccard made his observations would be much more satisfactory." He expected the results to prove "very valuable" to science.
Not so kind were the German men of science to the obscure Swiss who had become a world figure overnight. He had not conferred with such eminent students of the stratosphere as Regener, Hergesell, Hansen. His instruments were inadequate; Regener's devices would have permitted accurate measurements. Science already knew as much about the cosmic ray as Piccard could learn at firsthand. All told, his most important contribution was the proof that men can live in an airtight container. Those findings might be useful to the men who are building a stratosphere airplane in the Junkers plant at Dessau.
The Stratosphere is a rarefied layer, presumably 20 mi. deep, encountered about eight miles above the earth's surface. The temperature is curiously stationary: about —75° F. About 40 mi. beyond the stratosphere is the mysterious Heaviside Layer of ionized gases, from which radio waves "bounce" like light rays from a mirror.
Data about the stratosphere has long been gathered by instruments borne in rockets and unmanned balloons (small balloons have gone to 100,000 ft.) but the sum total of knowledge is not great. It is known that no clouds or rain occur in the belt. There is a notion that the prevailing wind is easterly, counter to the earth's movement; but Professor Piccard last week snorted: "That's a lot of bosh." Also it was supposed that the stratosphere visitor in daytime would see stars shine in a purple sky. Piccard's sky was deep, dark blue but starless.
NACA Show
"To supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight with a view to their practical solution," Congress in 1915 created the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, a group of experts now numbering 15, appointed by the President to serve without pay. In theory, the committee is the semi-official laboratory of all U. S. aviation—Governmental and commercial. Since aviation's boom year of 1927, this Committee's annual appropriations have increased from $513,000 to $1,053,790. Best known products of its laboratory at Langley Field, Va. are NACA wing sections and the NACA engine cowling which first won fame on Capt. Frank Monroe Hawks's transcontinental speed flights.
Every year leading airplane builders and designers assemble at Langley Field where Chairman Joseph Sweetman Ames points with pride to NACA's developments of the past twelvemonth. Last week a party of some 200 made the visit. They saw: