Swiss-Belgian physicist Auguste Piccard (1884–1962) studied the upper stratosphere and the depths of the sea. In 1932 he made a balloon ascent to a height of 16940 meters, and in 1953 he descended by bathyscaphe to a depth of 3150 meters. His son Jacques (1922– ) attained a submarine depth of 10910 m. (M 47170) _ _.