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Remarkable Family
Swiss twins Auguste and Jean Piccard shared a spirit of adventure. In 1931 Auguste made a balloon ascent of 9.9 miles (16km). Jean, a professor of engineering, designed a balloon in which he made a 10.8 miles (17.5km) ascent 3 years later. Turning his attention to the depths, in 1948 Auguste explored the ocean off West Africa in a bathyscaphe (a kind of submarine) of his own design. Auguste's son Jacques then broke all records with the crew of the U.S. bathyscaphe Trieste, which dived 8.6 miles (11km) beneath the surface of the Pacific.
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Horrible but True
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