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London heard of him when he bobbed up there and announced that, with the backing of one famed British and two famed U. S. scientists, he would beat the stratosphere record then held by Auguste Piccard. He entered a tank in which a partial vacuum had been produced equal to the air pressure at 50,000 ft., stepped out declaiming, "History has been made." His father in Massachusetts got a cable: "Success, 50,000 feet, going 60,000 Monday, everything fine, staying weekend with Dr. [J. B. S.] Haldane."
A Manhattan publicity man named Fice Mork and a Boston dentist named Joseph Selib, feeling that Mark Ridge was doing himself more harm than good, took him in hand. Says Dr. Selib: "Lindbergh was thought to be a nut before he flew to Paris. This boy is air-minded, conscientious and daring. He comes from a good family. His education is average. He is willing to try for an altitude record if it will mean scientific progress."